Earl F. Ziemke


Earl Frederick Ziemke was an American military historian whose work was mainly on World War II and especially the Soviet-German clash in Eastern Europe.

Biography

Earl Ziemke was born on December 16, 1922, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and served in the Marines during World War II. After learning Japanese at Camp Elliot, California, Ziemke served in the Pacific. He fought in the Battle of Peleliu and then won the Purple Heart for wounds received in the assault on Okinawa.
At the end of the war, Corporal Ziemke served at Tientsin, China. After his discharge, he used the G.I. Bill to pursue higher education, and in 1951 he received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.
From 1951 until 1955, he worked at the Bureau of Applied Social Research at Columbia University, while for the period 1955-1967, he was an official historian for the United States Army’s Office of the Chief of Military History in Washington, D.C.
In 1967, he went to the University of Georgia as a full professor and in 1977, he rose to the rank of research professor. He retired in 1993 as Research Professor Emeritus.
He occasionally served as an expert witness for the US Justice Department on war crimes trials relating to the Holocaust. He was member in various historical societies, such as The World War II Studies Association.
In 1973, Secretary of the Army Howard “Bo” Callaway presented Ziemke with the Outstanding Civilian Service Award.
Ziemke died on October 15, 2007 and is interred at the Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his wife Ida Mae Saltenberger Ziemke, his daughter Caroline F. Ziemke who worked for the Institute for Defense Analyses both of Annandale, Virginia, and a sister, June Villa of Milwaukee.
A memorial service was also held at the Great Episcopal Church of Saint Gregory in Athens, Georgia on December 15.

Select bibliography