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Home Town Alameda, California
Last Address Washington, DC
Date of Passing Oct 07, 1969
Wall/Plot Coordinates Burial location unknown.
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Lester Kruger Born was an expert on medieval manuscripts. Born in Alameda, California on January 23, 1903, he earned two degrees in Classical Philology from the University of California before studying Classics at Princeton University. He combined his interest in the history of political theory with that of ancient archives, conducting in-depth research on medieval manuscripts, most notably his 1936 translation of Erasmusâ??s 1516 book, The Education of a Christian Prince. Following the completion of a doctoral degree from the University of Chicago in 1929, Born worked as an assistant professor at multiple American universities, including Ohio State University in Columbus (1929-30), Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland (1930-34), and The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. (1934-1936). He traveled widely throughout Europe, viewing historic monuments in England, France, Germany, Poland, Austria, and Italy while becoming fluent in French and German.
Born was a prolific researcher and writer, publishing articles in Political Science Quarterly, Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Journal of Modern History, The American Archivist, and American Journal of Philology. His impressive knowledge of archives and public history attracted the attention of the Historical Records Survey, a Works Progress Administration (WPA) program devoted to indexing state, county, and local archives across the United States. Born worked as an assistant archivist of the Historic Records Survey until 1941, when he joined the Office of Price Administration.
During World War II, Born served as the archivist with V Corps of U.S. First Army in Belgium. In October 1944, Monuments Man Fred W. Shipman, Adviser to the War Department on Archives, recommended Born for service with the MFAA. The following May, he served as Archivist Specialist Officer to the MFAA Branch of the U.S. Group Control Council (USGCC) in Germany, working alongside Monuments Man Sargent B. Child, Adviser on Archives and Libraries. Most notably, Born helped coordinate archival operations at the Ministerial Collecting Center in Fuerstenhagen, near Kassel. Together, Born and Child supervised the accessioning of over 1,420 tons of records and forty tons of film and equipment related to the German ministries. Born remained at the center until February 1946, when the entire contents were transferred to Berlin. During a visit to the center in December 1945, Monuments Man Col. Seymour J. Pomrenze, Director of the Offenbach Archival Depot, praised Bornâ??s achievements. He remarked that he was â??greatly impressed with the manner in which this place operates and the important position Born as archivist occupies on the operational and technical staff. Born himself is a person of unusual ability, a scholar, and one of the finest officers I have met in the last 40,000 miles of my travels. He is all work and lets nothing deter him from his objective.â??
Born remained a leading participant in the effort to sort, classify, and restitute looted archival collections until 1950. His experiences in Europe were followed by an appointment to the Library of Congress, where he helped coordinate the microfilming of historical documents. That same year, he published two accounts of his work as a Monuments Man: â??The Archives and Libraries of Postwar Germanyâ?? (American Historical Review, October 1950) and â??The Ministerial Collecting Center near Kassel, Germanyâ?? (The American Archivist, July 1950). Born served as a cultural affairs officer at the American Embassy in Manila, the Philippines, from 1956 to 1959 before returning to the Library of Congress. He was a member of the American Philological Association, the Mediaeval Academy of America, and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. Born was very active with the Society of American Archivists, including terms of service on the Committee on Archival Bibliography and the Committee on International Relations.
Lester Born died in Washington, D.C. on October 7, 1969.
Description The European-Mediterranean-Middle East Theater was a major theater of operations during the Second World War (between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946). The vast size of Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The fighting in this theatre lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
The British referred to this theatre as the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre (so called due to the location of the fighting and the name of the headquarters that controlled the initial fighting: Middle East Command) while the Americans called the theatre of operations the Mediterranean Theatre of War. The German official history of the fighting is dubbed 'The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1942'. Regardless of the size of the theatre, the various campaigns were not seen as neatly separated areas of operations but part of one vast theatre of war.
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains, German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians switching sides and deposing Mussolini. A prolonged battle for Italy took place, and as the strategic situation changed in southeast Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
The theatre of war, the longest during the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of the Italian Empire and altered the strategic position of Germany resulting in numerous German divisions being deployed to Africa and Italy and total losses (including those captured upon final surrender) being over half a million. Italian losses, in the theatre, amount to around to 177,000 men with a further several hundred thousand captured during the process of the various campaigns. British losses amount to over 300,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, and total American losses in the region amounted to 130,000.