This record group contains official publications issued by the Allied military authorities. These documents vary by content and form. Included are guidelines and instructions for military and civil administration and reference materials in relation to the former Nazi authorities. It also is comprised of documents on the German administrative structure during the war; postwar documents issued by the Allied and the new German administrations; maps of Germany and the neighboring regions; and documents related to the Allied-administered and -authorized wartime and postwar publications.

Materials in this record group include official documents, books, booklets, maps, photographs, and newspapers. Some of the materials are digitized.

The arrangement scheme for the record group was imposed during processing in the absence of an original order. Materials are arranged by subject/creator, then by identifier, as assigned by the processor.

Record group is comprised of four collections: 1. US Military Command wartime and postwar documents; 2. Collection on displaced persons camps and Jewish affairs; 3. Collection on the surrender of Germany and civil affairs; 4. Collection on the US Military Government in the US Zone of Occupation.

US Military Government in Germany (MG) operated as military and civil government, overseeing the German municipal authorities.

It dealt with political, military and economic situation and developments in the US zone of occupation.

Among its numberous tasks were denazification, procecution of National Socialists crimes, assuaring economic stability, organizing and subsidizing displaced persons camps and running exchange of prisoners of war and displaced persons.

The other tasks and agendas included organization medical and hygiene facilities, vetting German prisoners of war whether they belonged to NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) and to the military and police organization deemed of criminal character, such as SS, SD, Gestapo and SA.

RG-40, Kurt Wittler Papers

This Record Group comprises narratives, publications, photographs, and preparatory materials from the office of Kurt Wittler, editor of the German-language newspaper Bayrischer Tag (Bavarian Day) published by the  American Military Administration for the German civil population in Bavaria. Kurt Wittler’s correspondence and  documentation from the earlier days also shed light on American intelligence activities in relation to the German Army in 1944 and 1945.