Dachau Trial materials on display at Reese Library

Augusta University Libraries is currently hosting a World War II history exhibit that highlights the CSRA’s unique connection to the war.

Housed on the third floor of Reese Library, the exhibit features materials that belonged to Col. John A. May from the Dachau Concentration Camp Trials. An attorney from Aiken, South Carolina, May was tasked with serving on the defense team during the trials following the war.

“One can only imagine how he and the other attorneys must have felt receiving orders to defend Nazi individuals of the Dachau Camp,” said John A. Mayo, May’s grandson. “Indeed, they did so with courage, and my grandfather was awarded a U.S. Army Bronze Star for his participation.”

Beyond his military career, May practiced law and served multiple terms in the South Carolina State House of Representatives.

The exhibit showcases trial documents, event photographs and contextual information about the Dachau Trials. In addition to the trials, May contributed to the prosecution in the Borkum Island Trials, where 10 German soldiers and five civilians were prosecuted for war crimes against seven executed American airmen.

“In his writings of the trials, he frequently makes comments that he and the other lawyers had a great sense of duty and knew they were ‘making history,’” Mayo said.

The May family loaned the collection to AU Libraries’ Special Collections, in conjunction with the Libraries’ ongoing Holocaust Lecture Series. The series, in partnership with Georgia Humanities and the Augusta Jewish Museum, consists of four lectures featuring different elements of the Holocaust and the role it had on the Augusta Jewish community.

The final of the lectures will occur at 4 p.m. on Wednesday, March 19, at Reese Library and will discuss the experiences of women who had to endure the atrocities. The lecture will feature AU faculty members E. Nicole Meyer, PhD, a professor in the Department of English and World Languages in the Katherine Reese Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences, and Jodi Fissel, PhD, a lecturer in Pamplin College’s Department of History, Anthropology, and Philosophy.

“The Dachau materials exhibit helps to forge a local connection to a well-known historical event,” said Aspasia Luster, student success librarian and organizer of the AU Libraries Holocaust Lecture Series. “These materials are a powerful reminder of what humans are capable of doing to each other and how various legal systems around the world worked together to bring Nazi perpetrators to justice.”

While people may be familiar with the larger Nuremburg Trials, which was conducted by an International Military Tribunal, the Dachau Trials were handled by Americans, since Dachau was in American-occupied West Germany. Mayo said May was commissioned to General George S. Patton’s JAG Corps.

“These materials allow us to connect an important event in history to our area,” said Courtney Berge, special collections librarian for the AU Libraries. “These are a resource to us and we are excited to share them with the community throughout the semester.”

The display will remain at Reese Library through the spring semester. Afterward, Mayo said, the collection will be donated to the University of South Carolina Law School.

For more information on the AU Libraries’ Holocaust Series, visit the AU Libraries website.