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Heym, Stefan (32860259): Difference between revisions

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|birth_date=10 April 1913
|birth_date=10 April 1913
|death_date=16 December 2001
|death_date=16 December 2001
|birth_place=Chemnitz, Kingdom of Saxony
|birth_place=Chemnitz, Germany
|death_place=Ein Bokek, Tamar Regional Council
|death_place=Ein Bokek, Israel
|known_for=Writer
|known_for=Writer
}}
}}


<div class="soldier-lead">
<div class="soldier-lead">
'''[[Heym, Stefan (32860259)|Stefan Heym]]''' (1913–2001) was a Ritchie Boy (born Flieg; Helmut; from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 9.
'''Stefan Heym''' (1913–2001) was a Ritchie Boy (born Flieg; Helmut; from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in [[:Category:Class 9|class 9]].
</div>
</div>


== Biography ==
== Biography ==
He was honoured with honorary doctorates from the University of Bern (1990) and University of Cambridge (1991), and honorary citizenship of Chemnitz, his birthplace (2001). Flieg, born to a Jewish merchant family in Chemnitz, was an antifascist from an early age.
Stefan Heym was born Helmut Flieg on 10 April 1913 in Chemnitz, Germany, into a Jewish merchant family, and was an antifascist from an early age. In 1931, at the instigation of local Nazis, he was expelled from the Gymnasium in his hometown over an anti-military poem. He finished school in Berlin and began a degree in media studies there. After the Reichstag fire of 1933 he fled to Czechoslovakia, where he took the name Stefan Heym and wrote for German-language Prague newspapers such as the ''Prager Tagblatt'' and ''Bohemia'' under several pseudonyms, including Melchior Douglas and Gregor Holm.


He completed school in Berlin, and began a degree in media studies there. Roster notes also show enlisted at New York City New York; education listed as 2 years of college; civilian occupation listed as Authors editors and reporters.
In 1935 a grant from a Jewish student association took Heym to the University of Chicago, where he completed his degree in 1936 with a dissertation on Heinrich Heine. From 1937 to 1939 he was editor-in-chief of the New York German-language weekly ''Deutsches Volksecho'', which was close to the Communist Party USA, and after it closed in November 1939 he worked as a freelance author in English; his first novel, ''Hostages'' (1942), was a bestseller.


He lived in the United States and trained at Camp Ritchie in 1943, making him one of the Ritchie Boys of World War II.
Heym, by then a U.S. citizen, enlisted in New York City; the roster lists two years of college and his civilian occupation as author, editor, and reporter. He was assigned to Camp Ritchie in May 1943 with German and French, entered [[:Category:Class 9|Class 9]] (IPW Ge) on 21 June 1943, and graduated on 18 August 1943 as an assistant interrogator, linguist, and typist. According to historian Beverley Driver Eddy, after Camp Ritchie he went to [[Camp Sharpe]] near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for more training in psychological warfare. He then joined the psychological-warfare unit led by the émigré [[Habe-Bekessy, Hans (32719455)|Hans Habe]], writing texts aimed at Wehrmacht soldiers for leaflets, radio, and loudspeakers; he was promoted to technician third grade on 15 February 1944 and to technical sergeant on 3 March 1944. The experience inspired his novel ''The Crusaders'' and the collection ''Reden an den Feind'' (Speeches to the Enemy). He married Gertrude Gelbin, an American, in 1944. After the war he led the ''Ruhrzeitung'' in Essen and then worked as an editor at ''Die Neue Zeitung'' in Munich, but his refusal to soften his criticism of Nazism and the German elites who had collaborated with it, or to cast doubt on Soviet intentions in his editorials, led to his transfer back to the United States toward the end of 1945.


Helmut Flieg (10 April 1913 – 16 December 2001) was a German writer, known by his pseudonym Stefan Heym . After the 1933 Reichstag fire, he fled to Czechoslovakia, where he took the name Stefan Heym. Between 1937 and 1939 he was based in New York as Editor-in-Chief of the German-language weekly Deutsches Volksecho, which was close to the Communist Party of the USA.
Heym worked as a freelance author again until 1951, when, fearing investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era, he left the United States with his wife. In 1952 he returned all his American military commendations in protest against the Korean War and moved to Prague, and the following year to the German Democratic Republic, which restored his German citizenship. At first privileged as a returning antifascist, he lived in a state-provided villa in Berlin-Grünau, worked at the ''Berliner Zeitung'' from 1953 to 1956, and published his English-language works through Seven Seas Publishers, founded for him, with German translations in large print runs; he received the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1953 and the National Prize of the GDR, second class, in 1959.


After the newspaper ceased publication in November 1939, Heym worked as a freelance author in English, and achieved a bestseller with his first novel, Hostages (1942). McCarthy reached a crescendo, Heym left the United States with his American wife, Gertrude Gelbin, whom he had married in 1944. Toward the end of 1945 and in 1951, fearing investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee as the hunt for Communists led by Senator Joseph R.
Conflicts with the East German authorities grew from 1956, when his book on the 17 June 1953 uprising, ''Five Days in June'', was rejected, and intensified after Erich Honecker attacked him in 1965. In 1969 he was convicted of violating exchange-control rules after publishing his novel ''Lassalle'' in West Germany. He signed the 1976 petition protesting the expulsion of Wolf Biermann, after which he could publish only in the West and began writing in German; in 1979 he was convicted again and expelled from the GDR Writers' Association, though he was still able to travel, including a two-month visit to the United States in 1978. He supported German reunification as early as 1982 and backed the East German civil rights movement, speaking at the East Berlin demonstrations in autumn 1989.


In 1952 he gave all his American military commendations back in protest against the Korean War and moved first to Prague, then in the following year to the German Democratic Republic, after the GDR government had restored his former German citizenship. He was awarded the 1953 Heinrich Mann Prize, the 1959 National Prize of East Germany (2nd class), and the 1993 Jerusalem Prize. Between 1953 and 1956, he worked at the Berliner Zeitung, thereafter primarily as a freelance author.
After reunification Heym criticized the treatment of East Germans and argued for a socialist alternative. Elected to the Bundestag in 1994 as an independent on the Party of Democratic Socialism's open list for Berlin-Mitte/Prenzlauer Berg, he gave the opening speech of the new parliament as its oldest member in November 1994 but resigned in October 1995 in protest against a planned rise in members' allowances. In 1997 he signed the "Erfurt Declaration." He remained a committed socialist despite his long criticism of the GDR. His honors included honorary doctorates from the University of Bern (1990) and the University of Cambridge (1991), the Jerusalem Prize (1993) for literature "for the freedom of the individual in society," the peace medal of the IPPNW, and honorary citizenship of Chemnitz (2001). Heym died suddenly of heart failure on 16 December 2001, aged 88, at Ein Bokek, Israel, while attending a Heinrich Heine conference, and was buried in Berlin's Weißensee Cemetery.
 
Previously he had won the Heinrich-Mann-Prize (1953), and the National Prize of the GDR, 2nd class (1959). Conflicts with the GDR authorities became apparent from 1956 on, as despite the destalinisation of the leadership, the publication of Heym's book on the 17 June 1953, uprising, Five Days in June, was rejected. In 1969, Heym was convicted of breaching the exchange control regulations after publishing his novel Lassalle in West Germany.
 
In 1976, Heym was among those GDR authors who signed the petition protesting against the exile of Wolf Biermann. In 1978, and his books continued to appear, albeit in lower print runs, in the GDR. He was also awarded the Jerusalem Prize (1993) for literature 'for the freedom of the individual in society', and the peace medal of the IPPNW.
 
As President by right of age of the Bundestag he held the opening speech of the new Parliament in November 1994, but resigned in October 1995 in protest against a planned constitutional amendment raising MP expense allowances. He wrote about the Berlin Document Center. He published works in English and German at home and abroad, and despite longstanding criticism of the GDR remained a committed socialist.
 
During this time he signed his articles under several pseudonyms, including Melchior Douglas, Gregor Holm and Stefan Heym. He was a member of the Ritchie Boys, a unit for psychological warfare under the command of émigré Hans Habe. These experiences formed the background for a later novel, The Crusaders, and were the basis for Reden an den Feind (Speeches to the Enemy), a collection of those texts.
 
Because of his refusal to soften his critical stance toward Nazism and the German elites that had collaborated with it and his refusal to begin to discreetly weave doubts about Soviet intentions into his editorials, Heym was transferred back to the U.S. In the following years he worked as a freelance author once again. He lived with his wife in a state-provided villa in Berlin-Grünau.
 
Heym's works, which he continued to write in English, were published by a publishing house founded for him (Seven Seas Publishers). In German, translations were printed in large numbers. He was nonetheless able to leave the GDR on foreign trips, such as his two-month visit to the U.S.
 
From this point on Heym could only publish his works in the West, and he began composing works in German.
 
He died in 2001, aged 88, and was buried in the Weißensee Cemetery. After the war Heym led the Ruhrzeitung in Essen, and then became editor in Munich of Die Neue Zeitung, one of the most important newspapers of the American occupying forces. Heym died suddenly of heart failure in Ein Bokek in Israel whilst attending a Heinrich Heine Conference.


== Research notes ==
== Research notes ==
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<div class="soldier-gallery">
<div class="soldier-gallery">
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
<gallery mode="packed" heights="140px">
4448187125203174.jpg|All the men identified in the pix are "Ritchie Boys." Seated - [[Habe-Bekessy, Hans (32719455)|Hans Habe]]. Standing L-R - Unknown, [[Wynder, Ernest L (32926486)|Ernest Wynder]], [[Kellen, Konrad (39701828)|Konrad Kellen]], unknown, [[Heym, Stefan (32860259)|Stefan Heym]], [[Atlas, Louis (32258804)|Louis Atlas]], [[Weidenreich, Peter H. (32791342)|Peter Weidenreich]] (last name later changed to Wyden), unknown, [[Eaton, Joseph W. (32498461)|Joseph Eaton]]
4448187125203174.jpg|All the men identified in the pix are "Ritchie Boys." Seated - [[Habe-Bekessy, Hans (32719455)|Hans Habe]]. Standing L-R - Unknown, [[Wynder, Ernest Ludwig (32926486)|Ernest Wynder]], [[Kellen, Konrad (39701828)|Konrad Kellen]], unknown, [[Heym, Stefan (32860259)|Stefan Heym]], [[Atlas, Louis (32258804)|Louis Atlas]], [[Weidenreich, Peter H. (32791342)|Peter Weidenreich]] (last name later changed to Wyden), unknown, [[Eaton, Joseph W. (32498461)|Joseph Eaton]]
</gallery>
</gallery>
</div>
</div>
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<div class="soldier-timeline-body">
<div class="soldier-timeline-body">
* Born 10 April 1913 in Germany (as Helmut Flieg) (Jewish).
* Born 10 April 1913 in Germany (as Helmut Flieg) (Jewish).
* 1933 — Fled to Czechoslovakia and took the name Stefan Heym.
* 1936 — Completed his degree at the University of Chicago.
* 1942 — Published his first novel, ''Hostages''.
* May 1943 — Assigned to Camp Ritchie. Languages German, French.
* 21 June 1943 — Entered Class 9 (IPW Ge).
* 21 June 1943 — Entered Class 9 (IPW Ge).
* 18 August 1943 — Graduated with Class 9 (Asst Interrogator; linguist, typist).
* 18 August 1943 — Graduated with Class 9 (Asst Interrogator; linguist, typist).
* 1944 — Married Gertrude Gelbin.
* 15 February 1944 — Promoted to T/3.
* 15 February 1944 — Promoted to T/3.
* 3 March 1944 — Promoted to T/Sgt.
* 3 March 1944 — Promoted to T/Sgt.
* May 1943 — Assigned to Camp Ritchie. Languages German, French.
* 1952 — Returned his American military commendations and left for Prague; moved to the GDR in 1953.
 
* 1994 — Elected to the Bundestag.
* 16 December 2001 — Died at Ein Bokek, Israel.
</div>
</div>
</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>
</div><div style="clear: both;"></div>
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== Sources ==
== Sources ==
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Heym Wikipedia: Stefan Heym]
* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefan_Heym Wikipedia: Stefan Heym]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZejaSaIInpE Beverley Driver Eddy, video interview on Camp Sharpe (YouTube)] (Camp Sharpe training after Camp Ritchie)
* 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 02:03, 26 September 2026

Stefan Heym
Stefan Heym
Personal details
Birth nameHelmut Flieg
Born10 April 1913
Chemnitz, Germany
Died16 December 2001
Ein Bokek, Israel
NativityGermany
ReligionJewish
Known forWriter
Military service
Allegiance United States
Branch United States Army
ASN32860259
RankTechnical Sergeant
Rank at RitchiePrivate
Camp RitchieClass 9 (21 June – 18 August 1943)
Section5D
EnlistedNew York City, New York
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.


Stefan Heym (1913–2001) was a Ritchie Boy (born Flieg; Helmut; from Germany; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 9.

Biography[edit | edit source]

Stefan Heym was born Helmut Flieg on 10 April 1913 in Chemnitz, Germany, into a Jewish merchant family, and was an antifascist from an early age. In 1931, at the instigation of local Nazis, he was expelled from the Gymnasium in his hometown over an anti-military poem. He finished school in Berlin and began a degree in media studies there. After the Reichstag fire of 1933 he fled to Czechoslovakia, where he took the name Stefan Heym and wrote for German-language Prague newspapers such as the Prager Tagblatt and Bohemia under several pseudonyms, including Melchior Douglas and Gregor Holm.

In 1935 a grant from a Jewish student association took Heym to the University of Chicago, where he completed his degree in 1936 with a dissertation on Heinrich Heine. From 1937 to 1939 he was editor-in-chief of the New York German-language weekly Deutsches Volksecho, which was close to the Communist Party USA, and after it closed in November 1939 he worked as a freelance author in English; his first novel, Hostages (1942), was a bestseller.

Heym, by then a U.S. citizen, enlisted in New York City; the roster lists two years of college and his civilian occupation as author, editor, and reporter. He was assigned to Camp Ritchie in May 1943 with German and French, entered Class 9 (IPW Ge) on 21 June 1943, and graduated on 18 August 1943 as an assistant interrogator, linguist, and typist. According to historian Beverley Driver Eddy, after Camp Ritchie he went to Camp Sharpe near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for more training in psychological warfare. He then joined the psychological-warfare unit led by the émigré Hans Habe, writing texts aimed at Wehrmacht soldiers for leaflets, radio, and loudspeakers; he was promoted to technician third grade on 15 February 1944 and to technical sergeant on 3 March 1944. The experience inspired his novel The Crusaders and the collection Reden an den Feind (Speeches to the Enemy). He married Gertrude Gelbin, an American, in 1944. After the war he led the Ruhrzeitung in Essen and then worked as an editor at Die Neue Zeitung in Munich, but his refusal to soften his criticism of Nazism and the German elites who had collaborated with it, or to cast doubt on Soviet intentions in his editorials, led to his transfer back to the United States toward the end of 1945.

Heym worked as a freelance author again until 1951, when, fearing investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy era, he left the United States with his wife. In 1952 he returned all his American military commendations in protest against the Korean War and moved to Prague, and the following year to the German Democratic Republic, which restored his German citizenship. At first privileged as a returning antifascist, he lived in a state-provided villa in Berlin-Grünau, worked at the Berliner Zeitung from 1953 to 1956, and published his English-language works through Seven Seas Publishers, founded for him, with German translations in large print runs; he received the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1953 and the National Prize of the GDR, second class, in 1959.

Conflicts with the East German authorities grew from 1956, when his book on the 17 June 1953 uprising, Five Days in June, was rejected, and intensified after Erich Honecker attacked him in 1965. In 1969 he was convicted of violating exchange-control rules after publishing his novel Lassalle in West Germany. He signed the 1976 petition protesting the expulsion of Wolf Biermann, after which he could publish only in the West and began writing in German; in 1979 he was convicted again and expelled from the GDR Writers' Association, though he was still able to travel, including a two-month visit to the United States in 1978. He supported German reunification as early as 1982 and backed the East German civil rights movement, speaking at the East Berlin demonstrations in autumn 1989.

After reunification Heym criticized the treatment of East Germans and argued for a socialist alternative. Elected to the Bundestag in 1994 as an independent on the Party of Democratic Socialism's open list for Berlin-Mitte/Prenzlauer Berg, he gave the opening speech of the new parliament as its oldest member in November 1994 but resigned in October 1995 in protest against a planned rise in members' allowances. In 1997 he signed the "Erfurt Declaration." He remained a committed socialist despite his long criticism of the GDR. His honors included honorary doctorates from the University of Bern (1990) and the University of Cambridge (1991), the Jerusalem Prize (1993) for literature "for the freedom of the individual in society," the peace medal of the IPPNW, and honorary citizenship of Chemnitz (2001). Heym died suddenly of heart failure on 16 December 2001, aged 88, at Ein Bokek, Israel, while attending a Heinrich Heine conference, and was buried in Berlin's Weißensee Cemetery.

Research notes[edit | edit source]

  • Author
  • to 2nd MRBC, 12/31/43
  • PI 23
  • The Wandering Jew

Gallery[edit | edit source]

Technical record[edit | edit source]

Field Imported value
MRBC2 2
Approx Age at Death 88
Nara ASN 32860259
Nara Name HEYM STEFAN
Nara State 23
Nara County 61
Nara POE 2364
Nara DOE 110343
Nara Grade Alpha PVT8
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 13
Nara Race J
Nara Race Description White not yet a citizen
Nara Education 6
Nara Civilian Occupation 6
Nara Marital Status 6
Nara Height (inches) 20
Nara Weight (lbs) 138
Class_ASN 32860259
Class_Name HEYM, Stefan
match_method asn_exact_name_exact
row_source both

Timeline[edit | edit source]

  • Born 10 April 1913 in Germany (as Helmut Flieg) (Jewish).
  • 1933 — Fled to Czechoslovakia and took the name Stefan Heym.
  • 1936 — Completed his degree at the University of Chicago.
  • 1942 — Published his first novel, Hostages.
  • May 1943 — Assigned to Camp Ritchie. Languages German, French.
  • 21 June 1943 — Entered Class 9 (IPW Ge).
  • 18 August 1943 — Graduated with Class 9 (Asst Interrogator; linguist, typist).
  • 1944 — Married Gertrude Gelbin.
  • 15 February 1944 — Promoted to T/3.
  • 3 March 1944 — Promoted to T/Sgt.
  • 1952 — Returned his American military commendations and left for Prague; moved to the GDR in 1953.
  • 1994 — Elected to the Bundestag.
  • 16 December 2001 — Died at Ein Bokek, Israel.

Sources[edit | edit source]

  • Wikipedia: Stefan Heym
  • Beverley Driver Eddy, video interview on Camp Sharpe (YouTube) (Camp Sharpe training after Camp Ritchie)
  • 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 2021-08-11 (1 post)
  • Dan Gross, Timeline of Stefan Heym for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
  • Dan Gross, Timeline of Heym, Stefan for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: STEFAN HEYM.doc)
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