The collection is composed exclusively of papers relating to Jones' military career--his training for and service as military governor of Aachen in Occupied Germany after World War II.
The papers from the CIVIL AFFAIRS TRAINING SCHOOL (CATS) at the University of Wisconsin in 1943 provide a good look at the operation of this program. Included are clippings from Wisconsin newspapers regarding CATS, military maps of Germany, and several examples of the exercises given to officers. Lecture notes are also in this section, dealing with such topics as “The Kriminalpolizie,” “Public Health - Special Institutions,” and “Types of Freight Cars of the Reichsbahn.”
BRITISH AND AMERICAN GOVERNMENT PUBLICATIONS REGARDING ALLIED OCCUPATION is composed of pamphlets and handbooks. The pamphlets were designed to keep the occupying forces in touch with the policies of their fellow officers and “to reflect the overall policies developed in US Troop Command and theater-wide responsibilities” (Bulletin #1). Army Talks is representative of the pamphlets.
The Handbooks for Military Government and Interim Directives and Instruction in Germany were published by the American Expeditionary Force (Chief of Staff). They outline general policy for organization and administration of the occupying government, especially during the initial phases of the military occupation. They focus on the primary objectives of the military government i.e., enforcement of the terms of surrender, restoration of law, elimination of Nazism, care of displaced Allied Nationals, protection of Allied property, control of certain properties and observation of German foreign exchange assets, and apprehension of war criminals. Special sections are devoted to the Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives (MFA&A) branch of the United States Army and the problems expected to be encountered in the return of works of art to their true owners.
Germany: Basic Handbook, Part I was published by the British Command. It contains both narrative and maps on Germany's geography, history, climate, racial and linguistic divisions, population characteristics, and factors in German foreign policy. (See the subject file in Memorial Library under “Germany - 1945” for listings of other Handbooks of Occupation.)
Clippings from THE OCCUPATION OF AACHEN, GERMANY, include excerpts from German and American newspapers relating to Jones' career. Of special interest is a Xeroxed copy of the receipt for the return of treasures to the Charlemagne Cathedral at Aachen whence they had been borrowed by the Nazis.
POSTERS contained in the oversize folder are originals. Most of these were printed both in English and German by the military government and posted for the knowledge of German civilians. They accurately reflect the day-to-day problems of the military government, and their concerns in dealing with the German population. The Martin A. Treptow poster, bearing his poem “For Liberty,” often quoted by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and members of Congress, reflects the spirit the American administration wished to foster in the American people for the duration of the war. Treptow was a Wisconsin soldier who died in France in July, 1918.
