Exhibition in Germany reflects on end of WWII through U-M family story
June 18, 2025
ANN ARBOR—The history of University of Michigan political scientist Michael Traugott’s family will be featured in a new exhibition in Berlin, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
Opening June 19, “On the Roof of Himmler’s Guest House: The U.S. Army at Wannsee in 1945” centers on letters and photos from Traugott’s father, Fritz Traugott, to his mother, Lucia.
A Jewish German who returned to Germany as a U.S. soldier in 1945, Fritz Traugott corresponded with his wife from the Wannsee villa in Berlin almost every day, often on stationery from the “Führer’s adjutant’s office,” which he found in the Reich Chancellery.
On debut, the exhibition offers a rare and compelling narrative, inviting visitors to explore a pivotal moment in history through the personal lens of a soldier who was both a victim of Nazi persecution and a participant in its defeat. It also features an audio walk-through of the garden, offering an insightful look into the experiences of American soldiers in post-war Germany from Fritz Traugott’s perspective.
“In my mind, it’s not really a story about my father,” said Michael Traugott, research professor emeritus at the Center for Political Studies at U-M’s Institute for Social Research, as well as professor emeritus of communication studies and political science.
“I think he is kind of a vessel in this story for thinking about the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, and about what happened then, and how it relates to what’s going on now, and other events in between.”
Fritz Traugott, born in Hamburg in 1919, was forced to leave Germany in 1938 and fled to the United States. In a twist, he returned to Germany in July 1945 as a soldier with the U.S. Army’s “Mobile Field Interrogation Unit #2.” His unit was housed in the Wannsee villa, which had been an SS guesthouse, from July until September 1945.
Lucia Traugott’s children—Michael, Mark and Kathryn—discovered all the material in the show after her passing in 2018. The siblings will attend the exhibition’s opening, making it a meaningful event for their family.
“We would like to thank the Traugotts for their trust and openness,” said curator Judith Alberth, a research assistant at the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site. “Fritz Traugott rarely spoke to them about his childhood and youth in Germany or about his time in the U.S. Army. Sifting through the valuable sources and sorting them together can reconstruct a piece of family history. Further research, which we carried out in American and German archives, can add to the puzzle—but it will always remain fragmented.”
The special exhibition will be in the garden of the House of the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site. It opens June 19, 2025, and will run until June 30, 2026.
Contact: Fernanda Pires, [email protected]