Martin Dannenberg

Martin Ernest Dannenberg (November 5, 1915 – August 18, 2010) was an American insurance executive who served as chairman of the

Biography

Dannenberg was born on November 5, 1915, in

A resident of Guilford, Baltimore, he was active in community organizations and served as president of Har Sinai Congregation. Dannenberg died at age 94 on August 18, 2010, of complications from a fall. He was survived by his second wife, as well as a daughter, two sons, a stepdaughter, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.^[3]

Nuremberg Laws document

Dannenberg attempted to enlist in the United States Army after World War II broke out, hoping to do counterintelligence duty, but was told he would be contacted after he was drafted. In April 1945, he visited the Dachau concentration camp, where he recounted that he had seen bodies stacked liked cordwood. He was approached in a beer hall by Hans Ruch, an employee of the finance ministry who was on the run from the Gestapo after telling his bosses that he believed that Germany had lost the war. Ruch told him that "I know the whereabouts of a document I think you Americans would like to have" and Dannenberg followed the lead to a bank vault in the Bavarian town of Eichstätt. On April 28, together with interpreter Frank Perls, Dannenberg found a manila folder sealed with red wax embossed with swastikas. Inside was an original four-page copy of the Nuremberg Laws signed by Adolf Hitler in September 1935, which stripped German Jews of their citizenship and prohibited Jews from marrying "Aryans".^[3] He said that he and Perls immediately realized the significance of what they had found and were moved by the fact that it had been uncovered by two Jewish soldiers.^[2]

Dannenberg had thought of retaining the document as a keepsake, and passed it on to Third Army headquarters where it came into the possession of General George S. Patton. Ignoring orders from General