Edwin K. Steers oral history
Collection
Identifier: OH024
Scope and Contents
This collection comprises two copies of a transcript of the January 5th interview and two audio tape reels from oral history interviews with Edwin K. Steer in Indianapolis, Indiana on January 5 and 12 1977; February 10, 1977; and March 9, 1977, regarding his childhood; family history; 1918 influenze epidemic; Indianapolis, including the Irvington neighborhood; education and law school; recreational activities; women's suffrage, politics, railroads, the Shriners, church, Prohibition; law history; D.C. Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan; World War II, the prosecution of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, and the Holocaust; the Korean War and military legal cases; Hoosier politics; involvement with organizations like the Shriners; and his law career, specific legal cases, and his time as state attorney general. He was interviewed by F. Gerald Handfield as part of the Indiana State Library Oral History Project.
Dates
- 1977 January-March
Creator
- Steers, Edwin K., 1915-1992 (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Legal title, copyright, and literary rights reside with Rare Books and Manuscripts, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN. All requests to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted to Rare Books and Manuscripts.
Biographical Note
Edwin Kemp Steers was born on January 19, 1915, to Leila Edith (Kemp) (1886-1953) and Edwin McMasters Stanton Steers (1881-1977) in Indianapolis, Indiana. He had a sister, Pearl Yetive (1911-2008). He attended Arsenal Tech High School. Steers graduated from Indiana University with an A.B. in 1935 and an LL.B. in 1937 from the law school there. He was admitted to the bar and joined the firm of Steers, Klee, Jay and Sullivan in 1937. Steers married Dorothy J. Hamilton on June 15, 1939, in Marion County, Indiana, and they had two daughters, Susan Jane and Sandra Lynn.
During World War II, Steers enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as an officer aboard a PT-510 boat and participated in the Normandy Invasion under the command of Commander John D. Buckley. After V.E. Day, he was assigned to the joint Army-Navy State Department War Crimes Office where he helped prepare indictments against Nazi war criminals. Steers then became a special prosecutor in the Office of the U.S. Chief of Counsel where he served as the American prosecutor in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp trial. He was a deputy Marion County prosecutor from 1940 to 1949 and served as Indiana state attorney general from 1952 to 1964, returning to private practice at the firm of Steers, Klee, Sullivan and LeMay. Steers died November 30, 1992 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.
Sources:
Ancestry.com. "Edwin Kemp Steers." Web: Marion County, Indiana, Marriage Index, 1925-2012. Accessed June 13, 2016. http://search.ancestrylibrary.com.
Findagrave.com. "Edwin Kemp Steers." Find a Grave Memorial. Accessed June 13, 2016. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46019683/edwin-kemp-steers.
"Steers, Edwin K." Indiana Division clipping file. Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN.
"Steers, Edwin Kemp." Who’s Who in the Midwest, 1965-1966. Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1966.
During World War II, Steers enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as an officer aboard a PT-510 boat and participated in the Normandy Invasion under the command of Commander John D. Buckley. After V.E. Day, he was assigned to the joint Army-Navy State Department War Crimes Office where he helped prepare indictments against Nazi war criminals. Steers then became a special prosecutor in the Office of the U.S. Chief of Counsel where he served as the American prosecutor in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp trial. He was a deputy Marion County prosecutor from 1940 to 1949 and served as Indiana state attorney general from 1952 to 1964, returning to private practice at the firm of Steers, Klee, Sullivan and LeMay. Steers died November 30, 1992 and was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis.
Sources:
Ancestry.com. "Edwin Kemp Steers." Web: Marion County, Indiana, Marriage Index, 1925-2012. Accessed June 13, 2016. http://search.ancestrylibrary.com.
Findagrave.com. "Edwin Kemp Steers." Find a Grave Memorial. Accessed June 13, 2016. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/46019683/edwin-kemp-steers.
"Steers, Edwin K." Indiana Division clipping file. Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN.
"Steers, Edwin Kemp." Who’s Who in the Midwest, 1965-1966. Chicago: Marquis Who’s Who, 1966.
Extent
0.01 Cubic Feet (1 transcript , 1 and 1/2 reel-to-reel audiotapes)
Language of Materials
English
Arrangement
This collection is arranged by format.
Custodial History
This collection was received by Rare Books and Manuscripts as part of the Indiana State Library Oral History Project, 1977-1979.
Accruals
No further additions are expected.
Existence and Location of Copies
Digitized materials from the collection are available online in the ISL Digital Collections (http://digitalcollections.library.in.gov): https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p16066coll40/id/1624/rec/10
Processing Information
Collection processing completed 2006/05/18 by Christina Baich. Finding aid created 2006/05/18 by Christina Baich. Collection reprocessing completed 2025/12/22 by Brittany Kropf. EAD finding aid created 2026/01/07 by Brittany Kropf.
- Childhood and youth
- Democratic Party (Ind.)
- Dönitz, Karl, 1891-1980
- Education
- Education -- Indiana
- Family history
- Göring, Hermann, 1893-1946
- Hoffmann, Heinrich, 1885-1957
- Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
- Indianapolis (Ind.)
- Influenza Pandemic, 1918-1919
- Irvington (Indianapolis, Ind.)
- Korean War, 1950-1953
- Lawyers
- Lawyers -- Indiana
- Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946
- Oral history
- Oral history -- Indiana
- Oral history interviews
- Prohibition
- Railroads
- Railroads -- Indiana
- Reel-to-reel audiotapes
- Republican Party (Ind.)
- Schirach, Baldur von, 1907-1974
- Schroeder, Christa, 1908-1984
- Shriners International
- Steers family
- Suffragists
- Suffragists -- Indiana
- Temperance
- Temperance -- Indiana
- Transcriptions
- United States. Naval Reserve
- United States. Navy
- Women -- Suffrage
- World War, 1939-1945
Creator
- Steers, Edwin K., 1915-1992 (Person)
- Indiana State Library (Organization)
- Title
- Edwin K. Steers oral history
- Status
- Completed
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository Details
Part of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Repository
Contact:
140 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 U.S.A.
317-232-3671
140 North Senate Avenue
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 U.S.A.
317-232-3671
