Hitler's Hat" goes on display at New York State Military Museum on April 24

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Richard Marowitz, the Soldier who found Hitler's hat models the headwear in a 1945 photo taken for the 42nd Infantry Division year book.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NEW YORK (04/22/2025) (readMedia)-- Hitler's Top Hat is being added to the items on display at the New York State Military Museum in Saratoga Springs on April 24.

Members of the press are invited to get an early viewing of the new exhibit, and speak with Larry Marowitz, the Albany resident who donated the hat.

His father, Richard Marowitz, a member of the 42nd Infantry Division, "liberated" the hat from the Nazi dictator's Munich on apartment on April 30, 1945, the day after his reconnaisance unit entered the infamous Dachau Concentration Camp.

WHAT: Unveiling of the display of "Hitler's Hat," the top hat once worn by the Adolf Hitler on formal occasions prior to the Second World War. The top hat was secured during the capture of Munich, Germany in 1945 by then Pvt. Richard Marowitz who kept it.

WHO: Courtney Burns, Director of Military History for the NY State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, Larry Marowitz, son of WWII veteran Richard Marowitz, and Richard Goldenberg, who will be presenting a program on the liberation of the Dachau Concentration Camp on April 26.

WHEN: Thursday, April 24 at 2 p.m.

WHERE: New York State Military History Museum, 61 Lake Avenue, Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Media Opportunity:

News media may speak with Courtney Burns and Larry Marowitz about the significance of the latest artifact addition to the museum collection as the Saturday program commemorates the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau by the Army's 42nd Infantry Division. Goldenberg can also discuss his Saturday program on the liberation of Dachau.

BACKGROUND:

Richard Marowitz, a Brooklyn native, was a young scout assigned to the 42nd Infantry Division's reconnaissance section, was present at the liberation of the Dachau Concenttration Camp on April 29, 1945. the next day his unit was dispatched to Hitler's apartment in Munich. In a closet he discovered a top hat with Hitlers name inside. He stomped on it.

Marowitz, who eventually lived in Albany, New York ,kept the hat and used it for educational presentations across the Capital Region. His military reunions and use of the unique war trophy is featured in the 2003 Jeff Krulik documentary film "Hitler's Hat."

He died in 2014 at age 88.

The Marowitz family is providing the hat to the Military History Museum to add to its collection of New York historical artifacts.

It will be available for viewing as part of the 80th anniversary of the Dachau liberation.

Richard Goldenberg, a retired 42nd Infantry Division officer and veteran of the Iraq War, will presents the combat history of the 42nd Infantry Division across Europe in the winter and spring of 1945, culminating with the Division's famous liberation of prisoners from the notorious Dachau Concentration Camp on April 29, 1945.

Goldenberg, a Schuylerville resident, will be joined by Evelyn Loeb, a Delmar resident, whose father Walter Loeb, was arrested following Kristallnacht and detained at Dachau in November 1938. He was released in the late winter of 1939, obtained passage to the United States in 1940 and would go on to serve in the U.S. armed forces in the Pacific theater. He passed away in 2009. Loeb will discuss her father's experience before the program turns to liberation in 1945.

The program on Saturday, April 26 will be held at 2 p.m. The presentation is sponsored by the Friends of the New York State Military Museum and the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.

The New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center is located at 61 Lake Avenue in Saratoga Springs. The museum is maintained by the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs with the mission of telling the story of New Yorkers in our nation's conflicts.