Recently I was searching for a source on a chapter that I was working over. In the process I came across a 1920 volume related to the most powerful aristocratic families of Rome. In particular I was interested in process that the aristocracy used to incorporate wealthy families outside of Rome into the aristocracy. Such families were added to the Roman aristocracy and the male paterfamilias were called "new men." Cicero's family was an example of this process.
The volume that I found was highly rated as an exceptional piece of research and this volume is often listed as a source in scholarly academic historical works on the history of Rome. I decided to investigate the author. I learned that he was a German scholar who was a member of the German academy. He held a professorship at the time that National/Socialists came to power in Germany. At the time all professors of the age of 60 +were forced into retirement. Professor Munzer was dismissed and then arrested as a Jew, a few years earlier he was listed as a Lutheran, but now was forced to take on a Jewish middle name. He was then order to a concentration camp.
Professor Munzer had adopted a girl some time before these events and while in a concentration camp, this girl convinced authorities to allow him the privilege of sending and receiving correspondence. Munzer was a prolific writer and attempted to continue his work. The adopted daughter worked for his release and was about to achieve it when Munzer contacted a virus in the camp and died an untimely death. I was deeply moved by this story and the shame of it.
The volume that I found was highly rated as an exceptional piece of research and this volume is often listed as a source in scholarly academic historical works on the history of Rome. I decided to investigate the author. I learned that he was a German scholar who was a member of the German academy. He held a professorship at the time that National/Socialists came to power in Germany. At the time all professors of the age of 60 +were forced into retirement. Professor Munzer was dismissed and then arrested as a Jew, a few years earlier he was listed as a Lutheran, but now was forced to take on a Jewish middle name. He was then order to a concentration camp.
Professor Munzer had adopted a girl some time before these events and while in a concentration camp, this girl convinced authorities to allow him the privilege of sending and receiving correspondence. Munzer was a prolific writer and attempted to continue his work. The adopted daughter worked for his release and was about to achieve it when Munzer contacted a virus in the camp and died an untimely death. I was deeply moved by this story and the shame of it.