Preliminary Inventory to the Walter L. Leschander collection

Finding aid prepared by The Hoover Institution Library and Archives staff
Hoover Institution Library and Archives
© 2000
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Stanford University
Stanford, CA 94305-6003
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Title: Walter L. Leschander collection
Date (inclusive): 1938-1965
Collection Number: 66023
Contributing Institution: Hoover Institution Library and Archives
Language of Material: English
Physical Description: 9 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 1 oversize folder (4.17 Linear Feet)
Abstract: Writings, diary, correspondence, photographs, maps, clippings, and pamphlets, relating to espionage, military intelligence, prisoners of war, and escape techniques, primarily during World War II.
source: Leschander, Walter L.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Library & Archives

Access

Box 10 may not be used without permission of the Archivist. The remainder of the collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.

Use

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Acquisition Information

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Library & Archives in 1975.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Walter L. Leschander Collection, [Box no., Folder no. or title], Hoover Institution Library & Archives.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

World War, 1939-1945 -- Prisoners and prisons
World War, 1939-1945 -- Netherlands
World War, 1939-1945 -- Germany
Netherlands -- History -- German occupation, 1940-1945
World War, 1939-1945 -- Great Britain
Espionage
World War, 1939-1945 -- Secret service
Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945
Blum, Léon, 1872-1950
Leschander, Walter L.
Best, S. Payne (Sigismund Payne)

 

Venlo Incident

box 1

1. Dutch Government inquiry into the Venlo incident. Translations made by Captain Best, his comments added in red. Index

box 10

1a. Mate to globe which held 1st atom bomb and kick-off switch for boosters on planes from Doolittle's raid on Tokyo

Access

Box 10 may not be used without permission of the Archivist.
box 1

2. Original manuscript of Captain Payne Best: The Venlo Incident

box 2

3. Annotated and inscribed copy of book The Venlo Incident

box 2

4. Payne Best's prison diary 1938-1942

box 2

5. Walter L. Leschander's research notes on Venlo incident and Captain Best's answers to his questions

box 3

6. Scrapbook "General van Oorschot." Correspondence between Best and Oorschot on events preceding the Venlo incident, the assignment of a Dutch officer to Best and Stevens, Oorschot's testimony before the Dutch Commission of Inquiry, letters of Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands to Best 1948

box 3

7. Scrapbook "Lt. Col. R. H. Stevens." Postwar correspondence between Best and Stevens. Also included are originals of prison letters sent by Stevens to Best, on tiny sheets of paper or cardboard, copies transcribed on typewriter

box 3

8. Scrapbook "Venlo Holland." Newspaper clippings, photographs, correspondence dealing with the Venlo incident, including pictures of Best

box 3

9. Postwar newspaper clipping on Captain Best and review of the book The Venlo Incident

 

Colditz Castle prison

box 4

10. Scrapbook "Colditz Castle," containing photographs (identified,) some correspondence, some follow-ups on survivors of Colditz including a man living in Watts, Los Angeles, whose store was burned in the August 1964 riots

box 4

11. File of correspondence and manuscripts: Leschander-Dr. Reinhold Eggers, author of story on Colditz prison

box 4

12. Colditz file; escape story of Lt. J. E. R. Wood as told to Leschander

 

Payne Best

box 5

13. Tape transcriptions. Best's memoirs, occasionally going back to World War I

box 5

14. Clippings and duplicates of tape transcriptions

box 5

15. Four rolls of tape - Miscellaneous material (including Best's authorization to use material)

box 6

16. Leschander-Clayton Hutton escape devices (gadgets)

 

17. Leschander-Halder correspondence 1962-1965

 

18. Manuscripts by Walter Leschander: "A Chicken Saved Verdun; "Hitler's Fake Bomb Plot; "What Price Treason"; untitled manuscript detailing Leschander's researches

 

19. Miscellaneous correspondence 1959-1966

 

Miscellany

box 7

20. Lecture given in by Captain Payne Best "The Other Man" manuscript January 1951

box 7

21. Legal proceedings, against concentration camp guard Edgar Stiller. Best, who knew him, tried to interest survivors of the last days of the camp, including Franz Halder, to give testimony in favor of Stiller 1951

box 7

22. Story "I Was Hanged by the Nazis" by Ronald Seth (various manuscript versions)

box 7

23. Essay by Erich Gimpel, a World War II German spy caught in the United States

box 7

24. Pess clippings on Gordon Lonsdale case 1961

box 7

25. Liberation in the South Tyrolese Dolomites

box 7

26. Payne Best - Léon Blum correspondence 1945-1947

box 7

27. Scrapbook, "Germany East-West Frontier, (contains mounted photographs, identified) 1963

box 7

28. Accession books for Leschander book collection, nos. 1 and 2

 

Additional material

drawer F09

Maps (large scale) of Germany issued by the British War Office and U.S. Army Map Service, and revisions 1944

box 8, folder 2

Royal Air Force Escaping Society 1957, undated

General Physical Description note: (2 pamphlets)
box 8, folder 3

1st King's Dragoon Guards: A Brief Pictorial Record of the Regiment 1685-1958 1959

box 8, folder 4

Photographic reproductions of the Zeppelin L49 that was forced to land . . . by French aviators 1917 October 20

General Physical Description note: (1 envelope)
box 8, folder 5

Military Historial Society Bulletin 1961, 1965

box 8, envelope 6-29

Photographs (official U.S. Army photos) of marines in China, Tarawa, Pearl Harbor, Atomic bomb, Japanese surrender, German atrocities

box 9

Letters and comments to and from Captain Sigismund Payne Best of a confidential nature pertaining to the people and events surrounding the Venlo Incident