Miroslav Hrijoriev clippings and ephemera about the Nuremberg Trials

Looped metal whip that may have been used at Auschwitz given to a Ukrainian journalist covering the Nuremberg Trials

Object

Hand crafted metal whip given to Miroslav Hrijoriev Gregory, a Ukrainian journalist, in Nuremberg, Germany, in early 1947 while he was covering the proceedings of the Nuremberg Trials. The whip was supposedly used by an Auschwitz concentration camp guard, nicknamed Chocolata, and presented as evidence during trial proceedings. Miroslav was a Ukrainian journalist and illustrator, as well as a socialist who opposed the Soviet-style communist government of Ukraine during the early 1930s. Miroslav fled to Prague, Czechoslovakia, in the mid-1930s. He was married to a doctor, Eugenia, and in 1940, their son, Miroslav, was born. Using several pseudonyms, Miroslav published anti-Nazi papers during the war. In 1941, the Gestapo arrested Miroslav for his father’s anti-Nazi activities, but he escaped with the assistance of a Czech organization. In 1945, the entire family was taken to a slave labor camp in Blauson (?), Germany, where they were liberated in the spring by US soldiers. Miroslav and his family were transferred to Augsberg displaced persons camp, where Eugenia worked as a camp doctor. The camp was close to Nuremberg, which allowed Miroslav to cover the trial proceedings until summer 1947, when his family received US visas.