Angress, Werner T. (33043440)

Werner T. Angress
Personal details
Birth name	Tom
Born	27 June 1920 Berlin, Germany
Died	2010
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Awards	Purple Heart
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	33043440
Rank	Colonel
Rank at Ritchie	Sergeant
Camp Ritchie	Class 11 (25 August – 23 October 1943)
Section	5A
Enlisted	Richmond, Virginia
Team	IPW 45

On film Werner T. Angress appears in The Ritchie Boys (Christian Bauer, 2004).

Awards and honors

Purple Heart

Teammates

Team — IPW 45

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Werner T. Angress (1920–2010) was a Ritchie Boy (born Tom; from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 11 and served with IPW Team 45.

Biography

Werner Angress was born in Berlin in 1920. In 1937 his family fled to the Netherlands, and about two years later he emigrated to the United States with a group of friends. He joined the U.S. Army in 1941. After infantry service he was sent to Camp Ritchie in 1943—where trainees joked that MITC stood for “Military Institute of Total Confusion”—then to England with an airborne assignment.

On D-Day night he parachuted into France with the 82nd Airborne Division despite never having jumped before; after a misdrop he evaded capture for nine days before he and other lost GIs were betrayed and taken prisoner. He concealed his identity and was liberated about two weeks later. He later parachuted into Holland in Operation Market Garden, fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and helped liberate Camp Wöbbelin, a subcamp of Neuengamme.

On Mother’s Day in 1945 he was reunited in Amsterdam with his mother and two younger brothers, who had survived in hiding; his father, arrested in 1941, had been killed in Auschwitz. In fall 1945 he returned to the United States, studied at university, and later became a professor of history at Berkeley and then at Stony Brook. He later published the memoir Invisible Ink.

Research notes

• Gross Breeson
• Ritchie Boy
• 508th PIR BS
• Historian, SUNY Professor
• Author, "Between Fear and Hope"

Gallery

• 
  Cover of Witness to the Storm by Werner T. Angress
• 
• 
• 
  Earlier profile photograph (retained after press-photo update)

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	90
Nara ASN	33043440
Nara Name	ANGRESS WERNER T
Nara State	33
Nara County	133
Nara POE	3386
Nara DOE	70541
Nara Grade Alpha	PVT
Nara Grade Code	8
Nara Branch Alpha	BI
Nara Branch Code	0
Branch	Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA
Nara Term or Enlistment	0
Term of enlistment	Unknown
Defer. Date	0
Nara Source	0
Nara Nativity	N1
Nara Year of Birth	20
Nara Race	J
Nara Race Description	White not yet a citizen
Nara Education	4
Nara Civilian Occupation	316
Nara Marital Status	6
Nara Height (inches)	65
Nara Weight (lbs)	126
Class_ASN	33043440
Class_Name	ANGRESS, Werner T.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• Born 27 June 1920 in Berlin son of Henry and Henny Angress (Jewish).
• 1937 — Family fled to the Netherlands.
• c. 1939 — Emigrated to the United States.
• 1941 — Joined the U.S. Army; father arrested (later killed in Auschwitz).
• 15 December 1943 — Promoted to S/Sgt.
• 23 October 1943 — Graduated Class 11 (German Document Examiner).
• 25 August 1943 — Entered Class 11.
• 11 December 1944 — Promoted to T/Sgt per Special Order F-88.
• 11 November 1944 — Moved to Camp Sissones (nr Reims).
• 13 December 1944 — Assigned to IPW Team 47 from IPW Team 40.
• 13 December 1944.
• 16 December 1944 — Unit moved to the Ardennes.
• 27 June 1944 — Liberated by US 9th Infantry Division. Rejoined the 508th PIR.
• 28 June 1944 — Started to interrogate POWs while with 1st Battalion, 508th PIR.
• 9 September 1944 — Assigned to IPW Team 40 (thru 13 December 1944).
• Fall 1945 — Returned to the United States.
• March 1945 — IPW Team 47 assigned to 82nd Airborne (1st Army).
• Mother’s Day 1945 — Reunited with mother and brothers in Amsterdam.
• Assigned to IPW Team 45 attached to 82nd Airborne Division consisting of.
• Awards: Purple Heart; Bronze Star; Combat Infantryman Badge.
• Division).

Sources

• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2020-02-09 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2021-05-22 (1 post)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2021-06-29 (3 posts)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Werner T. Angress for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Angress, Werner T. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: WERNER T. ANGRESS (2021).doc)
• The Ritchie Boys: Werner Angress
• The Ritchie Boys film site — Life in Camp Ritchie (Werner Angress MITC quote)
• The Stories/Life in Camp Ritchie (Bauer film excerpts)
• The Ritchie Boys film site — press photos (© TANGRAM; high-res https://ritchieboys.com/DL/photos-highq/boys/angress.jpg)