we went into World War II, I may have been doing some work for the Interstate Commerce Committee. I was for a number of years, in that category which was referred to as dollar-a-year men, but, when we went into the war, I had a talk with Senator Wheeler and suggested that probably I ought to be available on some wartime work, and Chairman Wheeler thought that was right." Thus, Lowenthal did not serve with Truman on the so-called "Truman Committee" (1941-1944) (formally, the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, 1941-1948, from 1948 the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations or "PSI," and current the "United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations"). "I attended one or two hearings out of interest, but I was completing work for the Interstate Commerce Committee at that time and then I was involved in some work in the war effort which was pretty absorbing -- it was day and night work," he later recalled. From 1944 to 1946, Lowenthal left official government service. In 1944, Lowenthal attended the 1944 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In 1944, Truman wrote to his daughter that Lowenthal, William M. Boyle, and Leslie Biffle "were on my trail... Yes, they are plotting against your dad" along with many others "trying to make him VP against his will." Truman told Lowenthal that FDR had included him on his shortlist of candidates for vice president. Lowenthal went with Truman to meet with Philip Murray, head of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) union federation, for support. "I think that someone in his organization had been urging another name on Phil Murray, but I believe in time he swung behind Mr. Truman." In Fall 1946, Lowenthal had lunch with Bob Patterson, newly promoted from Assistant Secretary of War to Secretary of War, whom he had known "for many years": Patterson told Lowenthal he was sending him to Berlin for a "war job, or a wartime-produced task... I think that was the last official position I held in government." The job was restitution of property stolen by Nazis. Lowenthal spent six weeks in Germany to collect evidence so he could draw up a report, reporting to the U.S. High Commissioner of Germany, General Lucius D. Clay. Upon his return to the States, Lowenthal "had a good deal of work" on Nazi-related cases of "heirless" property. In that period, the U.S.