Wisconsin Interchange Records, 1980

Contents List

Container Title
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   0:20
Biographical Information
Scope and Content Note: Birthplace, date, occupations of upper middle class parents, newspaper ownership.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   1:15
Family Background
Scope and Content Note: Family origin in Germany circa 1300, relationships between father's and mother's families, Lachmann family and the Franco-Prussian War, ancestors'-occupations, rise of the House of Mosse, Mosses and the Polish Revolt, origins of the Rudolf Mosse Verlag, Mosses and the Second Reich.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   3:35
Jews and High Social Status in the Second German Reich
Scope and Content Note: Degree of assimilation in various family members, social acceptance in upper-class German society.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   4:05
Childhood Place of Residence and Schools,
Scope and Content Note: Salemschule, anti-semitism in and out of school, Jewish identity at school.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   5:15
Jewish Observance in the Mosse Home
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of general lack of observance in the home, father's Reform Jewish activities, including interfaith service performed by Berlin Philharmonic, involvement with “German National Jews,” militant anti-Zionism.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   8:15
Relationship to Parents' Values and Business
Scope and Content Note: Short discussion of German values, a tour of Mossehaus, parents' expectations of GLM, father's relative non-involvement with the business, father's cultural connections in the musical and architectural worlds, the Mosse children and music, GLM and the cello.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   12:20
Siblings and Sibling Relationships
Scope and Content Note: Names, locations, and occupations of siblings. GLM's father and the Great War.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   13:30
Jews and the Mosse Family Social Circle,
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   14:05
Memories of the Nazi Seizure of Power,
Scope and Content Note: Description of immediate flight, Goering's offer of Aryanization to the family, swastikas in villages surrounding Salemschule on the Lake of Constance, escape during the final minutes of free emigration, insulation from approaching terror.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   16:35
Escape to Paris,
Scope and Content Note: Paris, “the city of my dreams,” family business interests in Paris and Zurich, boarding school stint near Zurich. Bootham School in England and parents' divorce in France.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   18:00
Bootham School in England,
Scope and Content Note: Description of the Quaker boarding school in Yorkshire, mastery of English language, relationships with Englishmen at school, relationships with German Jewish refugees, French Jews, nasty remarks about Frenchmen, kind remarks about Englishmen and English Jews, life as an emigre in England, liberal dropping of names.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   23:10
Awareness of the Fate of Jews in Nazi Germany While in England,
Scope and Content Note: Description of the general state of ignorance regarding the status of Jews in Nazi Germany, anti-fascist activities, solidarity (or lack of same) with European Jewry, consciousness of the Spanish Civil War.
Tape/Side   1/1
Time   24:20
Student Life and Political Activity at Cambridge,
Scope and Content Note: Pacifism and the Spanish Civil War, debate at the Cambridge Union in 1938, Chamberlain and Churchill, the “Peace Pledge,” the “voice of British youth” for the Spanish loyalists, the overshadowing of the Jewish problem by anti-fascism.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   0:20
More on Mosse's Days at Cambridge,
Scope and Content Note: Information on the Socialist Club at Cambridge, interruption of courses at Cambridge due to outbreak of World War II, visit to sister in Schenectady, N.Y. at war's outbreak.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   1:25
First Days in the United States,
Scope and Content Note: America during the dog days, arrival on the Statendam, ease of immigration for the rich, circumstances of admission to Haverford College through the offices of the Philadelphia Quakers, “A Bootham Boy in distress.”
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   3:50
Ties with Germany and Family Ties
Scope and Content Note: Relatives in Argentina, immigration of parents in 1944.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   4:50
Studies at Haverford College, Interest in History,
Scope and Content Note: Contact with leading scholars as an English major, lack of modern historical scholarship at American undergraduate institutions in the 1940's.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   5:40
Historical Study, Wasps, and Jews in the
Scope and Content Note: Jews and the ethnic numerus clausus, the advantages of an illustrious German family at Harvard Graduate School, experiences with Princeton and Columbia.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   6:40
Contacts with Other German Jewish Refugees during World War II
Scope and Content Note: Limitation of contacts, contacts through U.S. Army.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   6:55
Army Special Unit,
Scope and Content Note: Teaching of historical courses for the occupation of France and Czechoslovakia, the Draft and U.S. citizenship, problems arising from Prussian state passport in the U.S. Army, rank attained.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   9:10
Contacts with Family Members Outside of the U.S.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   9:50
Knowledge about the Holocaust during the War
Scope and Content Note: Discussion of holocaust rumors, Zionism vs. Support of Britain debate during the war among university people, reading Mein Kampf, and the holocaust.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   11:10
Return to Harvard Graduate School,
Scope and Content Note: Dates of Harvard residency, major, prelims, job application.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   12:10
First Teaching Jobs and “Cowboy Adventure” in Iowa,
Scope and Content Note: Impressions on arrival in Iowa City, the disappearing job, firing and re-hiring at the University of Iowa, one-year job at the University of Michigan.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   14:05
Attitude toward Involvement in Jewish Affairs in the Immediate Postwar Years
Scope and Content Note: First trip to Israel in 1951 (from research at Vatican Museum), lack of interest in modern Jewish studies at Univ. of Iowa, GLM's lack of deep involvement with Jewish affairs at Iowa, Zionism.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   15:45
Teaching Routine at University Of Iowa,
Scope and Content Note: Large lectures, early modern historical studies, speaking experiences throughout Iowa, radio interview program in Des Moines, McCarthyism and university professors, denunciation of GLM to HUAC by another professor.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   19:00
Involvement in the Henry Wallace Campaign,
Scope and Content Note: “Cowboy” Bill Taylor and Iowa, sentiments favorable toward amicable settlement of Berlin dispute, etc., crises in 1948.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   20:05
Becoming a Cold Warrior,
Scope and Content Note: Slansky anti-semitic trials in Eastern Europe.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   20:25
Arrival at the University of Wisconsin, Madison,
Scope and Content Note: Reasons for leaving Iowa job, praise for Univ, of Iowa, attractions of the Wisconsin History Department, courses taught.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   22:10
Interest in Jewish History and Jewish Studies in the and
Scope and Content Note: Drifting into Jewish involvement, Rabbi Ticktin and Hillel at U.W., involvement with Hillel through friendship with Rabbi Ticktin, identification with Jewish community, Rabbi Swarsensky.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   24:10
Origins of Interest in Intellectual Roots of National Socialism
Scope and Content Note: Asserts that he only gained interest in this when he taught new courses at U.W. Graduate student influence.
Tape/Side   1/2
Time   25:40
End of Interview