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Gans, Werner Joachim (31457356): Difference between revisions

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|surname=Gans
|surname=Gans
|first=Werner
|first=Werner
|middle=J.
|middle=Joachim
|birth_year=1923
|birth_year=1923
|death_year=2012
|death_year=2012
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|birth_place=Mannheim, Germany
|birth_place=Mannheim, Germany
|enlistment_place=FT DEVENS MASSACHUSETTS
|enlistment_place=FT DEVENS MASSACHUSETTS
|death_date=18 December 2012
|death_place=Needham, Massachusetts
}}
}}


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'''Werner J. Gans''' (1923&ndash;2012) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] as a German-language interrogator and document translator, then stayed on to instruct recruits. He later translated captured papers in Washington and spent most of the war interrogating German prisoners on an island facility in Boston Harbor.
'''Werner Joachim Gans''' (1923&ndash;18 December 2012) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] in interrogation, document work, and psychological warfare, then stayed on to instruct recruits. He later translated captured papers in Washington and spent most of the war interrogating German prisoners on Long Island in Boston Harbor. After the war he rebuilt the family chemical business in Greater Boston and played cello with the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Civic Symphony.
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== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Werner J. Gans was born in Mannheim, Germany, and left with his family just before Kristallnacht. He reached the United States on a student visa by way of Cuba, arriving in Boston in February 1939 on a music-conservatory scholarship. His parents could not join him for more than two years because of visa trouble. When the war began in September 1939 the Massachusetts draft board classed him as an enemy alien even though he wanted to fight the Nazis; it took nearly two years before he was cleared to serve.
Werner Joachim Gans was born in 1923 in Mannheim, Germany, into a comfortable household. His father, Moritz, ran S. Ganss Oil and Fat Manufacture, distributing sanitary products across Germany and into southern France until Nazi boycotts forced a Christian-named middleman firm that the regime later exposed. Werner began violin at six and cello at ten. Antisemitism made schooling in Mannheim impossible, and at thirteen he was sent alone to Milan to study music—he knew no Italian and lived with a host family. In the summer of 1937 he came home to find his parents, Moritz and Bella, briefly incarcerated by the Gestapo; they were freed on condition they sell the business and leave. After Moritz paid a fine to recover a passport the Nazis had confiscated over a trivial traffic offense, the family secured a transit visa to Cuba and left in October 1938, a month before Kristallnacht. An aunt was lost that night. Werner’s sister Ruth, married in Italy, later fled to Switzerland with her young son after her husband’s death and rejoined the family in Boston in 1947.


Inducted at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, he went briefly to Camp Grant, Illinois, for basic and medical-corps training. After about a month the Army noticed he was a native German speaker and sent him to [[Camp Ritchie]]. There he trained in interrogation, German-language document work, translation, and intelligence analysis—methods aimed at getting information without physical coercion. After the course he stayed several months as an instructor for new arrivals.
In Cuba, Moritz supported them selling insecticide with a single Spanish sales pitch, while Werner played cello with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana. A pianist there recommended him for a scholarship to Boston’s Malkin Conservatory of Music (whose staff included Harry Ellis Dickson and Arthur Fiedler). He reached Boston in February 1939 at fifteen on a student visa—“I had no idea where Boston was,” he later said—placed first by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society with a family in Sharon, where he finished high school, then with a Newton family. His parents followed in the fall of 1940 and lived for a time in Brighton before settling in Newton. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Malkin, but a hoped-for debut with the Boston Pops was cut short when he was drafted; so many conservatory students were called up that the school’s director closed the shop and joined the New York Philharmonic.


From Ritchie he was posted to Washington, D.C., for three or four months in late 1943 and early 1944. He lived in a hotel and worked largely on his own, translating captured German naval and army documents—technical terms, places, operational detail—and delivering the work to an intelligence office whose exact name he later could not recall. He remembered “APO 1142” and his name appears on [[P.O. Box 1142]] rosters, but he was unsure whether he ever worked physically at Fort Hunt or only under that administrative umbrella.
When the United States entered the war he was classed as an enemy alien—“as if I wanted Hitler to win,” he joked—and only after about eighteen months was he reclassified A-1. Inducted at Fort Devens for clerical basic training, he went on to Camp Grant, Illinois, where he became a U.S. Citizen. Once the Army recognized his German, it sent him to [[Camp Ritchie]] for interrogation, document translation, and psychological warfare. He trained to go behind enemy lines and repeatedly received orders to ship out, but he stayed Stateside: several months instructing new arrivals at Ritchie, then three or four months in Washington translating captured German naval and army documents while living in a hotel. He remembered “APO 1142” and appears on [[P.O. Box 1142]] rosters, though he was unsure he ever worked physically at Fort Hunt.


Most of the rest of the war he spent on Long Island in Boston Harbor, living on the island and interrogating German prisoners brought in by small boats as the Allies advanced in France—enlisted men and officers, mostly military, with some scientists mixed in, dozens to hundreds at a time rather than thousands. Interrogators worked in small teams, comparing stories for contradictions. Pressure was psychological: the threat of Soviet captivity, warnings that a prisoner’s city might be bombed next, and, at times, Gans’s own identity as a German Jew pushed out of Germany. He stressed that no one was beaten. His family in Boston did not know how close he was; he could not leave the post.
Most of the rest of the war he spent on Long Island in Boston Harbor, living on the island and interrogating German prisoners brought by boat—ordinary soldiers and diehard Nazis among them, some captured in France—while the Allies prepared to invade Germany. The work was intense but not physical; the interrogators wore Army officer uniforms and medallions so prisoners thought they held real authority, and they sometimes displayed a Stalin poster to play on fear of Soviet captivity. “Our job was to find out everything we could about the Nazi installations,” he told the ''Boston Globe'', “where they had been and where the troops were headed.” After Germany’s surrender he lacked the points for discharge and toured with a Victory Bond musical unit around Boston, using those travels to help line up customers for the family firm. He was discharged on 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens.


After Germany’s surrender he lacked the points for discharge and was put in a Victory Bond musical unit, touring small towns around Boston with an Army band. He was discharged on 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens. In later life he was associated with New England musical work, including the New England Philharmonic. He died in 2012.
In 1947 he met Florence Kalis, a Boston native, at the International Institute; on their first date she guessed that his middle initial “J” stood for Joachim—“I said, ‘I have to marry her,’” he recalled—and they married in 1948. With the family funds still thin after the German losses, he set music aside as a full-time career and, with his father, built Gansolin Chemical, selling cleaning and sanitation products (later including contracts with institutions such as the YMCA and hotel and restaurant chains). Florence ran the office. He retired when the business was sold about 1986. Music stayed semi-professional: the Newton Symphony Orchestra and twenty-two years as a cellist with the Boston Civic Symphony, where he also served on the board and played under Max Hobart with violinists such as Joseph Silverstein. In later years he worked at the New England Mobile Book Fair (where his son Steven was house attorney), tutored Roxbury schoolchildren through Generations Incorporated, and returned to Germany twice—in 1987 with his son and in 2000 on a Mannheim mayor’s invitation. He lived in Newton for more than sixty years and died of kidney disease on 18 December 2012 at Wingate at Needham, at 89. Besides Florence he was survived by Steven, daughter Carla Caliga of Boston, sister Ruth Zweig of Newton, and two grandchildren.


== Research notes ==
== Research notes ==
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* c. 1923 — Born in Mannheim, Germany.
* 1923 — Born in Mannheim, Germany (middle name Joachim); violin at 6, cello at 10.
* Just before Kristallnacht — Fled Germany; via Cuba to Boston (February 1939) on a music-conservatory scholarship; parents delayed by visas.
* Summer 1937 — Returned from Italy; parents briefly held by Gestapo; freed to sell business and leave.
* September 1939 onward — Classed as enemy alien by Massachusetts draft board; cleared to serve after nearly two years.
* 1938–1939 — Havana Philharmonic; scholarship to Malkin Conservatory, Boston.
* Induction — Fort Devens, Massachusetts; brief medical-corps training at Camp Grant, Illinois.
* October 1938 — Family left Germany for Cuba (transit visa); aunt lost on Kristallnacht the following month; sister Ruth later wartime refuge in Switzerland.
* Camp Ritchie — MIS interrogator / translator training; then several months as instructor.
* February 1939 — Arrived Boston (HIAS / Sharon High School); parents immigrated fall 1940 (Brighton, then Newton).
* Late 1943 – early 1944 — Washington, D.C.: independent translation of captured German naval and army documents (~3–4 months); remembered APO 1142 / possible administrative link to P.O. Box 1142 (uncertain whether stationed at Fort Hunt).
* Early 1940s — Bachelor’s in music, Malkin Conservatory; enemy-alien classification, then A-1 after ~18 months.
* Remainder of war — Long Island, Boston Harbor: interrogating German POWs and translating documents.
* Late 1943 – early 1944 — Washington document translation; APO 1142 / P.O. Box 1142 roster link (physical Fort Hunt uncertain).
* After VE Day — Victory Bond musical unit around Boston.
* 1947–1948 — Met Florence Kalis at International Institute; married 1948; sister Ruth and her son brought to Boston 1947.
* 14 May 1946 — Discharged at Fort Devens.
* 1987 / 2000 — Return visits to Germany (family roots; Mannheim mayor’s invitation).
* 2012 — Died.
* 18 December 2012 — Died of kidney disease at Wingate at Needham, age 89; longtime Newton resident.
* Age 13 — Sent alone to Milan to study music.
* Induction — Fort Devens (clerical basic); Camp Grant, Illinois (U.S. citizenship); Camp Ritchie MIS training and instructor duty.
* Remainder of war — Long Island, Boston Harbor: interrogating German POWs (officer uniforms / Stalin-poster pressure; non-physical).
* After VE Day — Victory Bond musical unit (also helped Gansolin sales); discharged 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens.
* Postwar – c. 1986 — Gansolin Chemical with father (Florence in office); Newton Symphony; Boston Civic Symphony cello (~22 years) and board.
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== Sources ==
== Sources ==
* Boston Globe — Michele Richinick, “Werner Gans, businessman; cellist fled from Holocaust,” 3 January 2013 (ProQuest clipping)
* Jewish Advocate — Hinda Mandell, “Local ‘Ritchie Boy’ reaches into the past,” 8 September 2006 (ProQuest clipping)
* Boston Globe — Susan Chaityn Lebovits, “Jewish refugee’s weapon: words,” 3 September 2006 (ProQuest clipping)
* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Gans_Gumpertz_Schwab.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — joint interview with Werner Gans, Werner Gumpertz, and Henry Schwab]] (formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Gans_Gumpertz_Schwab.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — joint interview with Werner Gans, Werner Gumpertz, and Henry Schwab]] (formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Gans_Werner.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Werner Gans interview transcript]] (Camp Ritchie training and instructor; Washington document translation; Boston Harbor interrogation; APO 1142 memory; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Gans_Werner.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Werner Gans interview transcript]] (Camp Ritchie training and instructor; Washington document translation; Boston Harbor interrogation; APO 1142 memory; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
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