Archive related to World War II veteran United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Morris Kopansky (1912-1978), primarily concerning his post-war work with the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, New Mexico, as the Chief of Police, Los Alamos Police Department, and as Chief, Administrative Branch, Pantex Ordnance Plant, Amarillo, Texas. Archive includes nine (9) awards and certificates, including three (3) Presidential commissions, one (1) appointing Kopansky a Reserve Commissioned Officer, grade of Lieutenant Colonel, dated October 1, 1953; two (2) WWII U.S. Air Force silk survival maps, including one (1) depicting France and one (1) depicting Holland, Belgium, Germany, and France; seventy (70) black and white and color photographs from various moments of Kopansky's career, including six (6) of Kopansky in his U.S. Army uniform, eight (8) depicting atomic bomb explosion, and three (3) photographs signed by U.S. Navy officers, one (1) photograph depicting U.S. Navy Captain Jack H. Remy(?) shaking hands with President John F. Kennedy is framed, others are loose or housed in a black three ring binder; fifty-four (54) typed letters and carbon copies of letters to and from Kopansky during various points of his career, dated December 5, 1952 to May 21, 1971; six (6) assorted identification cards, including Kopansky's AEC Los Alamos Field Office identification card and a Flame Permit authorizing Kopansky to use a flame producing device; fifteen (15) handbooks, organizations charts, and other paper ephemera items related to Kopansky's various positions, one (1) is framed; six (6) various softcover magazine and publications and one (1) copy of the Santa Fe New Mexican, Vol. 96. No. 213, dated Monday, August 6, 1945, with the headline reading "Los Alamos Seceret Disclosed by Truman/ATOMIC BOMBS DROPPED ON JAPAN"; one (1) First National Bank of Santa Fe, Los Alamos Branch, drawstring fabric deposit bag; and one (1) name tag reading "KOPANSKY". Biography: Ralph Morris Kopansky was born on May 23, 1912, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was the second of three children born to Sam and Ida Goseman Kopansky. His parents and older sister, Esther (later Fisher), were born in Russia and immigrated to the United States. Ralph graduated from high school and went on to receive degrees from the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota College of Law. While attending law school, Ralph worked as a part-time general investigator for Carlton Investigative Agency and served in the US Army Reserve. In July 1940, Ralph married Alice Whitver (1914-1981). After receiving training, Ralph became an Immigration Patrol Inspector in Ogdensburg, New York. On September 22, 1941, Ralph enlisted for active duty in the Army. On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, and a few days later America entered World War II. In 1943, Ralph was selected for training at Army intelligence school in Chicago, Illinois. As a Captain, he was assigned to the U.S. Army Headquarters XIII Corps, 9th Army, where he served as an Assistant Intelligence Officer. In 1944, Ralph's Corps was deployed to England for additional training and his and Alice’s first son was born. The Corps fought in France, and by mid-January 1945, had crossed the Siegfried Line and advanced into Germany. On April 4, Ralph’s Corps was with the 4th Armored and the 89th Infantry Divisions, Third Army, when they liberated Ohrdruf concentration camp, a subcamp of Buchenwald and the first concentration camp liberated by US troops. The majority of the inhabitants were dead and many of the remains were badly charred. On orders from higher-up, the guards had "exhumed and burned 1,606 murdered victims in six days in an attempt to destroy the evidence' before evacuating the camp in advance of the arrival of US Army forces. Many other prisoners, too weak or sick to be evacuated, were shot by members of the SS before the US Army arrived. Ralph, part of an inspection tour of the camp, was photographed viewing 'the charred remains of burned prisoners shortly after capture of the area.'"On May 7, Germany surrendered. Ralph received a Bronze Star and numerous letters of commendation for meritorious service. In January 1946, he was released from active duty as a Major, the Military Intelligence Chief of the XIII Corps, and returned to the Army Reserve. In January 1947, the couple’s second son was born. Later that year, Ralph began a successful career with the US Atomic Energy Commission. First serving as the Chief of Police in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and in the late 1950s, becoming a Branch Manager in Clarksville, Tennessee. Ralph was an active member of several police associations, the American Legion, Lions Club, the PTA, and served as a board member for several additional groups. In 1962, he retired from the Army Reserve as a Lieutenant Colonel. In 1973, he retired and settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ralph, 66, died on July 1, 1978, in Albuquerque, New Mexico." (source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, https://portal.ehri-project.eu/units/us-005578-irn545911-irn561684).

PROVENANCE: By descent in the family of Lt. Col. Ralph Kopansky.

CONDITION: All items, especially paper ephemera with creases, tears, areas of loss, general wear, to be expected from age. Maps with light toning, staining, fraying. Photographs and letters include duplicates.