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Sakheim, George A. (32861841): Difference between revisions

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|photo=6041601682528369.jpg
|photo=6041601682528369.jpg
|death_date=5 December 2019
|death_date=5 December 2019
|birth_place=Hamburg
|birth_place=Hamburg, Germany
|rank_final=1st Lt
|rank_final=First Lieutenant
|birth_date=12 June 1923
|death_place=Lansdale, Pennsylvania
|alias=Ruben Gabriel Sakheim
|division=104th Infantry Division
}}
}}


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'''[[Sakheim, George A. (32861841)|George A. Sakheim]]''' (1923 – 5 December 2019) was a Ritchie Boy (from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 16 and served with IPW Team 13.
'''[[Sakheim, George A. (32861841)|George A. Sakheim]]''' (12 June 1923 – 5 December 2019), born Ruben Gabriel Sakheim, was a Hamburg-born Ritchie Boy (Class 16) who interrogated in northwest Europe and interpreted at the Nuremberg trials.
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== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Prosecutor for the trials, saying these trials exist so that something like this will never happen again.” Born in Hamburg, Germany, Dr.
Ruben Gabriel Sakheim was born on 12 June 1923 in Hamburg, Germany. After his father’s death the family moved to Berlin, then fled to Palestine in 1933; he reached New York in 1938, took the name George A. Sakheim, and enrolled at Columbia before the Army drafted him in March 1943.


In 1943, Sakheim attended Student at Columbia University (Pre-Med). He graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School and had just enrolled at Columbia University when he was drafted into the Army in March 1943. After an internship at Bellevue Hospital in New York, he earned a Ph.D in clinical psychology at Florida State University in 1954.
Naturalized in November 1943, he trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 16) and served with IPW Team 13 / the 104th Infantry Division, landing in Normandy about a week after D-Day and interrogating prisoners as the division moved east. In April 1945 he was among U.S. troops at the Dora-Mittelbau camp at Nordhausen. After VE-Day he volunteered as a German–English interpreter at Nuremberg, working interrogations and courtroom translation for about seven months, including sessions involving Hermann Göring and Rudolf Höss.


“I had a conflict, because I really was anxious to get back to college, but then something in me, even at 22, realized that this was going to be historic, it was going to be exciting and unique,” he told the Jewish Exponent in a 2015 article marking the 70th anniversary of the trials.
He later earned psychology degrees at Columbia and a Ph.D. at Florida State University, practiced as a clinical psychologist, and wrote on firesetting children. He died on 5 December 2019 near Gwynedd / Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
 
Sakheim was sent for military intelligence training.
 
In November 1943, Sakheim became a naturalized citizen. Jackson addresses the Nuremberg court on November 20, 1945 ( photo credit : Wikimedia Commons ) By GEORGE A. He wrote the 1994 book Firesetting Children.
 
Follow us on Google Related Articles Antisemitic theories blaming Jews for 9/11 resurface Jewish group challenges Indiana abortion ban Bayeux Tapestry London exhibition faces backlash Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow absent from antisemitism debate. George worked as a career was as Clinical Psychologist. He served as member of IPW Team 13.
 
(32861841)|George Sakheim]] was a Ritchie Boy. He kept a journal and never stopped testifying about the experience. 5, of pneumonia at Abington Lansdale Hospital.
 
Sakheim had just served two years in the Army in Europe and was stationed in Paris, expecting to go home, when he saw a flier asking for German-speaking interpreters to work at the approaching Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. Sakheim volunteered and was immediately flown to Nuremberg. For the next seven months, he had the extraordinary chance to see and hear Nazi leaders, including Field Marshal Hermann Goering and Rudolph Hoess, commandant of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp.
 
Sakheim did much of his work from an adjoining room, but when in the courtroom, he recorded his impressions in a journal. One was to hold the perpetrators accountable for atrocities committed against the Jews. “The second,” he was quoted as saying in the Exponent, “had to do with [[Jackson, Robert C.
 
(01324021)|Robert Jackson]], the chief U.S. Because he could speak German, Dr. His division helped with the storming of Normandy on D-Day Plus 7, and he was present at the liberation of concentrations camps at Aachen and Cologne.
 
He recalled seeing Allied generals shaking their heads and pressing handkerchiefs to their noses to mask the smell of unburied bodies. Sakheim worked as a psychologist for many years in Maine and then New York. Later, he created a tool to quantify risk factors for juvenile arsonists.
 
Sakheim was active in the civil rights and anti-war movements.
 
He passed away December 5, 2019. Sakheim, 96, of Gwynedd, a translator at the Nuremberg Trials who came face to face with some of Nazi Germany’s most notorious war criminals, died Thursday, Dec.


== Research notes ==
== Research notes ==
* ASTP Nuremberg
* ASTP Nuremberg
* [http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/The-Nuremberg-Diary-434645 jpost.com — The Nuremberg Diary 434645]
 
== Gallery ==
<div class="soldier-gallery">
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
Sakheim_George_A_32861841_ShowImage.jpg|George A. Sakheim (RB Archive ShowImage)
</gallery>
</div>


== Technical record ==
== Technical record ==
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* Born 12 June 1923 in Germany (Jewish).
* 12 June 1923 — Born Ruben Gabriel Sakheim in Hamburg.
* November 1943 — Became naturalized citizen.
* 1933 — Family fled Berlin for Palestine; to New York 1938 as George A. Sakheim.
* 5 April 1944 — Graduated as S/Sgt with Class 16 (German) – Linguist No. 1.
* March 1943 — Drafted; Columbia interrupted.
* 7 September 1944 — Division landed at Cherbourg.
* November 1943 — Naturalized U.S. citizen.
* 1945 — 1946 Served as Interrogator at Nuremberg Trials (see: ‘Sakheim article…’).
* 5 April 1944 — Graduated Camp Ritchie Class 16; IPW Team 13 / 104th Infantry Division.
* Assigned to HQ Company, 413th Regiment of 104th Infantry Division.
* June 1944 onward — Normandy (D+7); northwest Europe interrogations; Dora-Mittelbau, April 1945.
* 1945–1946 — Interpreter / translator, Nuremberg trials (~seven months).
* Postwar — Columbia degrees; Ph.D., Florida State (1954); clinical psychology career.
* 5 December 2019 — Died, Lansdale / Gwynedd, Pennsylvania area.
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== Sources ==
== Sources ==
* [http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/The-Nuremberg-Diary-434645 The Nuremberg Diary: A front row seat to evil | The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)]
* [[:File:Sakheim_George_A_32861841_ShowImage.jpg|George A. Sakheim portrait / photo]]
* [https://www.jewishexponent.com/ Jewish Exponent — 2015 Nuremberg anniversary interview (as cited in secondary coverage)]
* [https://www.inquirer.com/obituaries/george-sakheim-translator-nuremberg-trials-world-war-psychologist-died-20191217.html Philadelphia Inquirer — George Sakheim obituary]
* [https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/27/world/europe/george-sakheim-dead.html New York Times — George Sakheim, Interpreter at Nuremberg Trials, Dies at 96 (27 December 2019)]
* [http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/The-Nuremberg-Diary-434645 Jerusalem Post — The Nuremberg Diary]
* Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
* 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
* Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records

Latest revision as of 18:44, 16 September 2026

George A. Sakheim
George A. Sakheim
Personal details
Birth nameRuben Gabriel Sakheim
Born12 June 1923
Hamburg, Germany
Died5 December 2019
Lansdale, Pennsylvania
NativityGermany
ReligionJewish
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch United States Army
ASN32861841
RankFirst Lieutenant
Rank at RitchiePrivate First Class
Camp RitchieClass 16 (6 February – 5 April 1944)
Section5D
EnlistedNew York City, New York
Unit / division104th Infantry Division
TeamIPW 13
Teammates
Team — IPW 13
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.


George A. Sakheim (12 June 1923 – 5 December 2019), born Ruben Gabriel Sakheim, was a Hamburg-born Ritchie Boy (Class 16) who interrogated in northwest Europe and interpreted at the Nuremberg trials.

Biography[edit | edit source]

Ruben Gabriel Sakheim was born on 12 June 1923 in Hamburg, Germany. After his father’s death the family moved to Berlin, then fled to Palestine in 1933; he reached New York in 1938, took the name George A. Sakheim, and enrolled at Columbia before the Army drafted him in March 1943.

Naturalized in November 1943, he trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 16) and served with IPW Team 13 / the 104th Infantry Division, landing in Normandy about a week after D-Day and interrogating prisoners as the division moved east. In April 1945 he was among U.S. troops at the Dora-Mittelbau camp at Nordhausen. After VE-Day he volunteered as a German–English interpreter at Nuremberg, working interrogations and courtroom translation for about seven months, including sessions involving Hermann Göring and Rudolf Höss.

He later earned psychology degrees at Columbia and a Ph.D. at Florida State University, practiced as a clinical psychologist, and wrote on firesetting children. He died on 5 December 2019 near Gwynedd / Lansdale, Pennsylvania.

Research notes[edit | edit source]

  • ASTP Nuremberg

Gallery[edit | edit source]

  • George A. Sakheim (RB Archive ShowImage)
    George A. Sakheim (RB Archive ShowImage)

Technical record[edit | edit source]

Field Imported value
Approx Age at Death 96
Nara ASN 32861841
Nara Name SAKHEIM GEORGE A
Nara State 23
Nara County 61
Nara POE 2364
Nara DOE 120343
Nara Grade Alpha PVT
Nara Grade Code 8
Nara Branch Alpha NO
Nara Branch Code 2
Branch No branch assignment
Nara Term or Enlistment 5
Term of enlistment Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law
Defer. Date 0
Nara Source 0
Nara Nativity N1
Nara Year of Birth 23
Nara Race 1
Nara Race Description White citizen
Nara Education 5
Nara Civilian Occupation 992
Nara Marital Status 6
Nara Height (inches) 88
Nara Weight (lbs) 120
Class_ASN 32861841
Class_Name SAKHEIM, George A.
match_method asn_exact_name_exact
row_source both

Timeline[edit | edit source]

  • 12 June 1923 — Born Ruben Gabriel Sakheim in Hamburg.
  • 1933 — Family fled Berlin for Palestine; to New York 1938 as George A. Sakheim.
  • March 1943 — Drafted; Columbia interrupted.
  • November 1943 — Naturalized U.S. citizen.
  • 5 April 1944 — Graduated Camp Ritchie Class 16; IPW Team 13 / 104th Infantry Division.
  • June 1944 onward — Normandy (D+7); northwest Europe interrogations; Dora-Mittelbau, April 1945.
  • 1945–1946 — Interpreter / translator, Nuremberg trials (~seven months).
  • Postwar — Columbia degrees; Ph.D., Florida State (1954); clinical psychology career.
  • 5 December 2019 — Died, Lansdale / Gwynedd, Pennsylvania area.

Sources[edit | edit source]

Retrieved from "https://ritchieboys.org/index.php?title=Sakheim,_George_A._(32861841)&oldid=124039"