Bernard Bernstein

Bernard Bernstein (30 November 1908 – 6 February 1990) was an American economist and public official.

Bernard Bernstein was born on November 30, 1908, in New York City. He had at least one brother and one sister.He received Bachelor's and Law degrees from Columbia University.

After graduating from Columbia circa 1932, Bernstein practiced law privately.

From 1933 until 1948, Bernstein served as an attorney for the U.S. Treasury Department.

Additionally, he held multiple offices concurrently.From 1942 through 1943, he was a Financial Adviser, North African Economic Control Board.From 1944 through 1945, he was Director, Finance Division and Director of the Division of Investigation of Cartels and External Assets, U.S. Group Control Commission for Germany.From 1942 through 1945, he acted as Financial Adviser to Gen. Eisenhower for Civil Affairs and Military Government, European Theater of Operations and MTO.

Bernstein's investigations

As a U.S. Army colonel, Bernstein served as a financial adviser to General Eisenhower in World War II, and after the war was on the Control Commission for Germany; he was removed when the Morgenthau Plan, with which he was associated, was not adopted.

In 1945 he was in charge of producing a paper that documented the culpability of I.G. Farben for its part in the Holocaust and German militarism.He so testified before the U.S. Congress.

Investigations into Bernstein

In 1955, a congressional committee investigated Bernstein for his role in alleging American corporations of espionage with I.G. Farben and then mentioned subsequent statements he made that seemed supportive of Communism (apparently because the communist Daily Worker newspaper reported his statements):

The congressional committee also documented his interactions from 1941 to 1946 with Harry Dexter White, the main subject of that set of hearings.

After returning to civilian life, he served as a legal counsel to the American Jewish Conference.

Berstein married Bernice Lotwin; they had three children.

Bernard Bernstein died age 81 on February 6, 1990, at New York Hospital died of cardiac arrest.

His accumulated papers date from 1933 to 1955 in bulk. They include documents from 1863 to 1993.The collection — 10.8 linear feet in 27 boxes amounting to 22,500 pages — is deposited in the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library. In the main, they document Bernstein's army officer work investigating "the economic resources of the Third Reich (its looted gold and other assets, as well as the activities of German cartels), and in formulating financial policies for Germany and other areas of Europe under Allied occupation."