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Chevalier (Haakon Maurice) Diary
MS-0403
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Contributing Institution:
Special Collections & University Archives
Title: Haakon Maurice Chevalier Diary
Creator:
Chevalier, Haakon Maurice
Identifier/Call Number: MS-0403
Physical Description:
0.20 Linear Feet
Date (inclusive): 1945-1946
Language of Material:
English
, French
.
Haakon Chevalier's diary is comprised of two hand-written notebooks kept during his time working as a French-English translator
at the Nuremberg war crimes trials in 1945 and 1946, and a partial transcript of the notebooks' English-language portions.
The diaries begin on the first day of the trial, November 20, 1945, and end on March 17, 1946. His account includes vivid
descriptions of trial participants (including facial expressions while testifying, unusual physical features, and personality
traits), and personal interpretations of testimony. He mentions challenges to the court's competence, pleas entered by the
defendants, Nazi treatment of Jewish peoples in occupied territories, the Anschluss, and myriad other topics, including individual
cases against Goering, Ribbentrop, Streicher, and others. Descriptions of day and weekend trips Chevalier took to Paris and
Prague during the course of the trial are also included, as well as doodles, notes he wrote to himself, addresses, and scores
from card games.
Two notebooks and accompanying transcriptions in portfolio.
The collection is open for research.
The copyright interests in these materials have not been transferred to San Diego State University. Copyright resides with
the creators of materials contained in the collection or their heirs. The nature of historical archival and manuscript collections
is such that copyright status may be difficult or even impossible to determine. Requests for permission to publish must be
submitted to the Head of Special Collections, San Diego State University, Library and Information Access. When granted, permission
is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical item and is not intended to include or imply permission
of the copyright holder(s), which must also be obtained in order to publish. Materials from our collections are made available
for use in research, teaching, and private study. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including
but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials.
Willis Thompson
Hitler Memorabilia Collection
Identification of item, folder title, box number, Haakon Maurice Chevalier Diary, Special Collections and University Archives,
San Diego State University Library.
Haakon Maurice Chevalier was a translator and professor of French at the University of California-Berkeley. After working
as a translator for the French government at the first meeting of the United Nations in 1945, he was asked by the War Department
to serve as interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials. He was later responsible (with Leon Dostert) for the introduction of simultaneous
interpretation at the United Nations. Chevalier was friends with the atomic physicist Robert Oppenheimer; these relations
led to his appearance before the House Subcommittee on Un-American Activities. He later authored a memoir of these events,
entitled
Oppenheimer: The Story of a Friendship.
9999-140 (1982)
Subjects and Indexing Terms
World War, 1939-1945--War Criminals
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946--Personal narratives
Personal Papers