Kaufmann, Walter Arnold (31470014)

Walter Arnold Kaufmann
Personal details
Born	1 July 1921 Freiburg Im Breisgau, Germany
Died	4 September 1980 Princeton, New Jersey
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	31470014
Rank	Private
Camp Ritchie	Class 25 (30 November 1944 – 29 January 1945)
Section	5C
Enlisted	Ft Devens, Massachusetts
Team	MII 529-G

Teammates

MII 529-G

Gebel, Kurt M. (31242168)

Kaufmann, Walter Arnold (31470014)

Salz, Peter (01060957)

Schulz, Theodore A. (37122826)

Springer, George P. (31429978)

These are the other soldiers currently on each team roster. Men were attached, transferred, and sent on throughout the war, so appearing together here does not mean they served in the same place at the same time.

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.

Walter Arnold Kaufmann (1 July 1921 – 4 September 1980) was a German-born American philosopher, translator, and poet who trained at Camp Ritchie in Class 25, served as a military intelligence interrogator in Germany, and taught at Princeton University for more than thirty years.

Biography

Walter Arnold Kaufmann was born on 1 July 1921 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Raised a Lutheran, he converted to Judaism at age 11 and later learned that all his grandparents had been Jewish, which placed him in real danger in Nazi Germany. He emigrated to the United States in 1939, graduated from Williams College in 1941, and received an MA in philosophy from Harvard University in 1942 before his studies were interrupted by the war.

Kaufmann enlisted at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, giving his civilian occupation as general office clerk, and passed through the Army Specialized Training Program. He trained at Camp Ritchie in Class 25, section 5C, became a U.S. citizen in 1944, and served overseas with MII Team 529-G, conducting interrogations in Germany for the Military Intelligence Service.

After the war Kaufmann received his PhD from Harvard in 1947 with a dissertation, "Nietzsche's Theory of Values," and that year joined the philosophy department at Princeton University, where he remained for the rest of his career; his students included the Nietzsche scholars Frithjof Bergmann, Richard Schacht, Ivan Soll, and Alexander Nehamas. A prolific author, he wrote on authenticity and death, moral philosophy and existentialism, theism and atheism, Christianity and Judaism, and philosophy and literature. He is best known as a scholar and translator of Friedrich Nietzsche, beginning with Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist (1950); his other books include Critique of Religion and Philosophy (1958), The Faith of a Heretic (1961), Hegel: A Reinterpretation (1965), Tragedy and Philosophy (1968), and Without Guilt and Justice (1973), and he edited the anthology Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre and translated Goethe's Faust and Martin Buber's I and Thou. He was married to Hazel. Kaufmann died in Princeton, New Jersey, on 4 September 1980, aged 59.

Research notes

• ASTP

Gallery

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Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	59
Nara ASN	31470014
Nara Name	KAUFMANN WALTER A
Nara State	13
Nara County	3
Nara POE	1328
Nara DOE	120644
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	21
Nara Race	J
Nara Race Description	White not yet a citizen
Nara Education	4
Nara Civilian Occupation	105
Nara Marital Status	2
Nara Height (inches)	0
Nara Weight (lbs)	666
Class_ASN	31470014
Class_Name	KAUFMANN, Walter A.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 1 July 1921 — Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany.
• 1939 — Emigrated to the United States; entered Williams College.
• 1941 — Graduated from Williams College.
• 1942 — MA in philosophy, Harvard University.
• 1944 — Became a U.S. citizen.
• 1947 — PhD, Harvard; joined the Princeton philosophy department.
• 1950 — Published Nietzsche: Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist.
• 4 September 1980 — Died in Princeton, New Jersey.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Walter Kaufmann (philosopher)
• 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)