Weiss, Peter (42134220): Difference between revisions

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|nativity=Austria

|religion=Jewish

~~|enlistment_place=CP UPTON YAPHANK NEW YORK~~

|overseas=Y

~~|state=NEW YORK~~

|overseas=N

~~|certificate=11171~~

~~|education=1 year of college~~

~~|marital=Single without dependents~~

|confidence=high

|class_number=28

|class_display=28

|birth_place=Austria

|birth_place=Vienna, Austria

|rank_final=~~Pfc~~

|rank_final=Private First Class

|enlistment_place=CP UPTON YAPHANK NEW YORK

}}

'''Peter Weiss''' (born 1925) was a ~~United States~~ Army Private First Class who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]]~~, Maryland, in~~ [[Class 28]]. ~~Peter enlisted~~ at ~~Cp Upton Yaphank~~, ~~New York~~.

'''Peter Weiss''' (born 1925) was a Vienna-born U.S. Army Private First Class and Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] with [[:Category:Class 28|Class 28]]. After Ritchie he monitored high-value prisoners at [[P.O. Box 1142]], helped process German scientists at Fort Strong, and later worked on denazification screening and for the Office of Military Government in Germany.

</div>

== Biography ==

Peter ~~attended~~ John’s College, ~~Annapolis MD~~. He ~~worked~~ in ~~office as clerk~~-~~typist~~.

Peter Weiss was born in Vienna in 1925. In 1939 he fled with his parents to France, then to the United States in 1941 on an affidavit from relatives already in America. The escape was close: Portugal nearly sent them back to occupied France, and they got through only by forging a visa extension. In New York his parents put him in Straubenmuller Textile High School, figuring intellectuals were hit first under the Nazis. He did so well that he became the first graduate of that school admitted to Harvard, but he took a scholarship instead to St. John’s College in Annapolis.

Drafted in 1944 during his sophomore year, he trained in field artillery at Fort Bragg and took U.S. Citizenship in Fayetteville, North Carolina. When the Battle of the Bulge raised the demand for infantry, he was retrained at Paris, Texas. At Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio a colonel learned he spoke German, had him recite a line of Goethe, and said that was good enough—he was going to [[Camp Ritchie]].

There Weiss joined [[:Category:Class 28|Class 28]] for a short, intensive course in interrogation, photo interpretation, order of battle, and intelligence analysis. Fellow trainees included other multilingual refugees such as [[Mayer, Arno Joseph (42139253)|Arno Mayer]]. He graduated with a Camp Ritchie diploma.

From Ritchie the group went to the Pentagon and then, secretly, to [[P.O. Box 1142]] at Fort Hunt (roster notes place him there by June 1945). Weiss spent much of his time in the monitoring section, listening from booths to microphones hidden in the ceilings of underground cells where high-value German prisoners were often paired to get them talking. When something useful came up, monitors started the tape recorders. Shifts ran about two hours, including evenings and nights, around the clock. He also censored prisoners’ letters home—sometimes swapping “juicy bits” with other censors, which he later regretted.

Two episodes stuck with him. In one, a man who had served at the German embassy in Madrid was billeted with another prisoner who boasted of an affair with a German woman there; the first man realized it was his wife, and the two nearly killed each other before guards pulled them apart. In another, a Japanese military attaché from Berlin who liked bourbon and spoke English was wined and dined so the Americans could loosen him up—only the officers got drunk instead and began talking too freely, and Weiss’s team had to break up the dinner. He also spoke face to face with scientists, literary figures, embassy people, and senior officers about Nazi ideology, wartime guilt, and how Germany had become what it became, and he and his colleagues argued over how to tell hard Nazis from opportunistic Party members and non-political technicians.

~~In August 1945,~~ he to ~~Served as part of~~ Fort Strong ~~contingent serving as hosts~~ to ~~12/~~1945 German ~~Paperclip scientists~~ and ~~engineers (von Braun, etc)~~.

After Fort Hunt he went to Fort Strong in Boston Harbor for intake interviews of German scientists—basic histories and where each man should go next. The island also held a mental hospital; patients wandered about and were sometimes hard to tell from the scientists. He was there on 6 August 1945 when word of Hiroshima arrived. He spent several weeks at Fort Devens screening German POWs for Nazi affiliation—voluntary Party members or not, clear or restrict—and wrestled with whether he was being lied to and with the weight of those judgments.

~~Peter~~ Weiss ~~returned to Europe after~~ the ~~war~~, as a ~~civilian, working for Congress~~ in the Office of Military Government~~. He became a naturalized citizen~~.

Weiss left the Army in 1946, then spent a year in Germany with the Office of Military Government on postwar administration.

== Research notes ==

* FH~~, 6/~~9~~/45~~

* [[Camp Ritchie]] Class 28; Fort Hunt / [[P.O. Box 1142]] (roster FH 9 June 1945; NPS oral history — monitoring and mail censorship).

* Fort Strong Paperclip scientist intake; Fort Devens denazification screening.

== Gallery ==

''~~After you are autoconfirmed, [[Special:Upload|upload a photo]] and add <code><nowiki>[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|caption]]</nowiki></code> here, or set <code>|photo=Example.jpg</code> in the infobox~~.''

''No portrait on file yet.''

== Technical record ==

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* Born ~~8 December 1925~~ in Austria.

* 1925 — Born in Vienna, Austria.

* ~~November 1944~~ — ~~Assigned~~ to ~~4th Army HQ, Fort Sam Houston, as a steno (Pfc)~~.

* 1939 — Fled with parents to France.

* ~~September 1944~~ — ~~Assigned to 125th Infantry as Rifleman~~.

* 1941 — Reached the United States (narrow escape via Portugal); Straubenmuller Textile High School; later St. John’s College, Annapolis.

* ~~10 May 1945~~ — ~~Graduated Class 28~~ (~~German Linguist IPW~~).

* 1944 — Drafted (sophomore year); field artillery at Fort Bragg; naturalized in Fayetteville, North Carolina; infantry retraining at Paris, Texas; selected for Camp Ritchie at Fort Sam Houston.

* ~~August~~ 1945 — ~~To Served as part of~~ Fort Strong ~~contingent serving as hosts to 12/1945 German~~ Paperclip ~~scientists and engineers~~ (~~von Braun~~, ~~etc~~).

* Late 1945 — Fort Strong, Boston Harbor: Paperclip scientist intake (including period of Hiroshima news, 6 August 1945).

* ~~March 1945~~ — ~~Assigned as student at Camp Ritchie. Languages~~: ~~French,~~ German.

* c. 1945–1946 — Fort Devens: denazification screening of German POWs.

* ~~Became naturalized citizen~~.

* 9 June 1945 — Fort Hunt / P.O. Box 1142 (roster FH note): cell monitoring and mail censorship.

* ~~Peter Weiss returned to Europe after~~ the ~~war, as~~ a ~~civilian, working for Congress in~~ the Office of Military Government.

* 1946 — Left the Army; about a year with the Office of Military Government in Germany.

* Class 28 — Camp Ritchie (interrogation, photo interpretation, order of battle).

</div>

</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>

== Sources ==

* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Weiss_Peter.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Peter Weiss interview transcript]] (Camp Ritchie Class 28; P.O. Box 1142 monitoring / Fort Strong / Fort Devens; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)

* 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

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 |nativity=Austria
 |religion=Jewish
-|enlistment_place=CP UPTON YAPHANK NEW YORK
+|overseas=Y
-|state=NEW YORK
-|overseas=N
-|certificate=11171
-|education=1 year of college
-|marital=Single without dependents
 |confidence=high
 |class_number=28
 |class_display=28
-|birth_place=Austria
+|birth_place=Vienna, Austria
-|rank_final=Pfc
+|rank_final=Private First Class
+|enlistment_place=CP UPTON YAPHANK NEW YORK
 }}
 <div class="soldier-lead">
-'''Peter Weiss''' (born 1925) was a United States Army Private First Class who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]], Maryland, in [[Class 28]]. Peter enlisted at Cp Upton Yaphank, New York.
+'''Peter Weiss''' (born 1925) was a Vienna-born U.S. Army Private First Class and Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] with [[:Category:Class 28|Class 28]]. After Ritchie he monitored high-value prisoners at [[P.O. Box 1142]], helped process German scientists at Fort Strong, and later worked on denazification screening and for the Office of Military Government in Germany.
 </div>
 == Biography ==
-Peter attended John’s College, Annapolis MD. He worked in office as clerk-typist.
+Peter Weiss was born in Vienna in 1925. In 1939 he fled with his parents to France, then to the United States in 1941 on an affidavit from relatives already in America. The escape was close: Portugal nearly sent them back to occupied France, and they got through only by forging a visa extension. In New York his parents put him in Straubenmuller Textile High School, figuring intellectuals were hit first under the Nazis. He did so well that he became the first graduate of that school admitted to Harvard, but he took a scholarship instead to St. John’s College in Annapolis.
+Drafted in 1944 during his sophomore year, he trained in field artillery at Fort Bragg and took U.S. Citizenship in Fayetteville, North Carolina. When the Battle of the Bulge raised the demand for infantry, he was retrained at Paris, Texas. At Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio a colonel learned he spoke German, had him recite a line of Goethe, and said that was good enough—he was going to [[Camp Ritchie]].
+There Weiss joined [[:Category:Class 28|Class 28]] for a short, intensive course in interrogation, photo interpretation, order of battle, and intelligence analysis. Fellow trainees included other multilingual refugees such as [[Mayer, Arno Joseph (42139253)|Arno Mayer]]. He graduated with a Camp Ritchie diploma.
+From Ritchie the group went to the Pentagon and then, secretly, to [[P.O. Box 1142]] at Fort Hunt (roster notes place him there by June 1945). Weiss spent much of his time in the monitoring section, listening from booths to microphones hidden in the ceilings of underground cells where high-value German prisoners were often paired to get them talking. When something useful came up, monitors started the tape recorders. Shifts ran about two hours, including evenings and nights, around the clock. He also censored prisoners’ letters home—sometimes swapping “juicy bits” with other censors, which he later regretted.
+Two episodes stuck with him. In one, a man who had served at the German embassy in Madrid was billeted with another prisoner who boasted of an affair with a German woman there; the first man realized it was his wife, and the two nearly killed each other before guards pulled them apart. In another, a Japanese military attaché from Berlin who liked bourbon and spoke English was wined and dined so the Americans could loosen him up—only the officers got drunk instead and began talking too freely, and Weiss’s team had to break up the dinner. He also spoke face to face with scientists, literary figures, embassy people, and senior officers about Nazi ideology, wartime guilt, and how Germany had become what it became, and he and his colleagues argued over how to tell hard Nazis from opportunistic Party members and non-political technicians.
-In August 1945, he to Served as part of Fort Strong contingent serving as hosts to 12/1945 German Paperclip scientists and engineers (von Braun, etc).
+After Fort Hunt he went to Fort Strong in Boston Harbor for intake interviews of German scientists—basic histories and where each man should go next. The island also held a mental hospital; patients wandered about and were sometimes hard to tell from the scientists. He was there on 6 August 1945 when word of Hiroshima arrived. He spent several weeks at Fort Devens screening German POWs for Nazi affiliation—voluntary Party members or not, clear or restrict—and wrestled with whether he was being lied to and with the weight of those judgments.
-Peter Weiss returned to Europe after the war, as a civilian, working for Congress in the Office of Military Government. He became a naturalized citizen.
+Weiss left the Army in 1946, then spent a year in Germany with the Office of Military Government on postwar administration.
 == Research notes ==
-* FH, 6/9/45
+* [[Camp Ritchie]] Class 28; Fort Hunt / [[P.O. Box 1142]] (roster FH 9 June 1945; NPS oral history — monitoring and mail censorship).
+* Fort Strong Paperclip scientist intake; Fort Devens denazification screening.
 == Gallery ==
-''After you are autoconfirmed, [[Special:Upload|upload a photo]] and add <code><nowiki>[[File:Example.jpg|thumb|caption]]</nowiki></code> here, or set <code>|photo=Example.jpg</code> in the infobox.''
+''No portrait on file yet.''
 == Technical record ==
@@ Line 104: / Line 109: @@
 <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed soldier-timeline">
 <div class="soldier-timeline-body">
-* Born 8 December 1925 in Austria.
+* 1925 — Born in Vienna, Austria.
-* November 1944 — Assigned to 4th Army HQ, Fort Sam Houston, as a steno (Pfc).
+* 1939 — Fled with parents to France.
-* September 1944 — Assigned to 125th Infantry as Rifleman.
+* 1941 — Reached the United States (narrow escape via Portugal); Straubenmuller Textile High School; later St. John’s College, Annapolis.
-* 10 May 1945 — Graduated Class 28 (German Linguist IPW).
+* 1944 — Drafted (sophomore year); field artillery at Fort Bragg; naturalized in Fayetteville, North Carolina; infantry retraining at Paris, Texas; selected for Camp Ritchie at Fort Sam Houston.
-* August 1945 — To Served as part of Fort Strong contingent serving as hosts to 12/1945 German Paperclip scientists and engineers (von Braun, etc).
+* Late 1945 — Fort Strong, Boston Harbor: Paperclip scientist intake (including period of Hiroshima news, 6 August 1945).
-* March 1945 — Assigned as student at Camp Ritchie. Languages: French, German.
+* c. 1945–1946 — Fort Devens: denazification screening of German POWs.
-* Became naturalized citizen.
+* 9 June 1945 — Fort Hunt / P.O. Box 1142 (roster FH note): cell monitoring and mail censorship.
-* Peter Weiss returned to Europe after the war, as a civilian, working for Congress in the Office of Military Government.
+* 1946 — Left the Army; about a year with the Office of Military Government in Germany.
+* Class 28 — Camp Ritchie (interrogation, photo interpretation, order of battle).
 </div>
 </div><div style="clear: both;"></div>
 == Sources ==
+* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Weiss_Peter.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Peter Weiss interview transcript]] (Camp Ritchie Class 28; P.O. Box 1142 monitoring / Fort Strong / Fort Devens; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
 * 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