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This series contains newspaper and magazine articles, most of which are photocopied, about the Ford case. This series also contains a folder related to Ford's death and funeral. Also represented are a small collection of photographs of Ford at various ages and photographs of his attorneys. There is a short note from Connie Ford, Alvin's mother, to Attorney Wollan concerning a video of the Ford funeral, which is also contained in this collection. The most important resource in this series is the news clippings, which are very helpful in following the progression of the Ford case. The news clippings cover most major events in the Ford case. In addition to collecting news clippings, Laurin Wollan had an assistant visit Gainesville, Florida, where Ford was apprehended, and the assistant photocopied all articles from area papers that reported on the Ford story from 1974 to 1975.

The correspondence files span a period of over 70 years, with the bulk of the correspondence dating from the years 1933-1976. The correspondence has been arranged alphabetically within several categories: family, professional and general, students, politicians and public officials (U.S. and Germany), administrative and faculty members of the New School for Social Research, and organizational correspondence. The professional and general correspondence includes substantial amounts between Brecht and Julie Braun-Vogelstein, Jürgen Fehling, Carl Joachim (Achim) Friedrich, Kurt von Fritz, Ernest Hamburger, Ernest Hocking, Fritz Morstein-Marx and Gustav and Lydia Radbruch, as well as with former students Morris Forkosch and Alfred J. Jung. The collection also contains correspondence with the American statesman John Foster Dulles, as well as lengthy exchanges with German statesmen Otto Braun, Heinrich Brüning, Ferdinand Friedensburg and Theodor Heuss. The series also contains Brecht's correspondence with other members of the New School for Social Research, most notably with former New School Deans Alvin Johnson, Hans Simons and Hans Staudinger.

This series contains documents generated in connection with Oppler's writing and editorial work for the Encyclopedia of Japan (Kodansha, 1980), among them Oppler's entries on the 1961 Sunakawa Case and the Japan-U.S. Security Treaties, an entry that he helped to content-edit, and an entry written by Kurt Steiner concerning Oppler's work in Japan. Also included are newsletters published by the staff of the Encyclopedia of Japan; the Spring 1979 issue contains a poem that Oppler wrote in praise of the project.