Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections LibraryEllen Welch
The collection is open for research use.
MSS 16782, Nürnberg Memories album, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.
This collection was purchased from Type punch Matrix by the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library on 18 January, 2023
This collection contains a photo album of an unidentified African American U.S. Army soldier in Nürnberg during the post-WWII Allied occupation of West Germany. The album includes photographs of fellow squadron members stationed at Merrell Barracks.
The album's compiler was a car enthusiast, and several pictures depict a German soap box derby. Subjects of the photographs also include shots of the town and environs, animals at a zoo, soldiers in uniform, tanks, jeeps, a baseball game, and track and field races.
Racial segregation of Army units was officially enforced until Truman's 1948 executive order and unofficially for some time afterward. The European Command, a single-service United States Army Command, began phased integration in 1952.