Gregor Ziemer

Who was Gregor Ziemer?

Gregor Athalwin Ziemer was an American educator, writer, and correspondent who lived in Germany from 1928 to 1939, during which time he served as the headmaster of the "American School in Berlin." After fleeing Germany, Ziemer returned to his wife Edna's hometown of Lake City, Minnesota. Ziemer wrote a couple of notable books about Nazi society: Education for Death, which inspired the eponymous Disney short, and, more directly, Edward Dmytryk's movie Hitler's Children, as well as, along with his daughter Patricia, Two Thousand and Ten Days of Hitler.

For a time from November 1941, Ziemer was a commentator on European affairs with radio station WLW out of Cincinnati. He later returned to Europe as a correspondent, embedded this time with General George Patton's 3d Army.

At the Nuremberg Trials, a affidavit by Ziemer, dealing with Nazi society in general and the education of youth in particular, was presented by the prosecutors. According to Reichsjugendführer Baldur von Schirach, this writing contained untruth and had "more importance as propaganda than it tends to be objective" and was "clearly inflammatory".