Ritchie Boy Interviews

Ritchie Boy Interviews/Testimonies is a watchlist of video and audio interviews and oral histories with Ritchie Boys. Play a recording on this page, or pick a soldier below to jump to their talk. Each entry includes a short biographical blurb before the player. Use the letter buttons to narrow the list; cards stay collapsed until you open one. More will be added as they are discovered. Please contact us if you think an interview should be added.

Feature-length films are on Documentaries/Movies (trailers here stay on that page; this list is interviews).

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Soldiers with more than one video are grouped. Fairbrook and Lerner share one joint interview and each also has solo recordings.

Interviews

Nathan M. Berman

Nathan M. Berman (1915–2014) was born in Boston and raised in Mattapan. After Camp Lee and a French language test he trained at Camp Ritchie for possible work with the Maquis, then a fractured skull on night maneuvers sent him to Fort Sam Houston, where he classified inductees on a McBee card system. He was discharged at Camp Devens in February 1946 and later lived in Natick, Massachusetts.

Recorded 6 May 1988 at the Morse Institute Library for the Natick Veterans Oral History Project.

Appears: Nathan M. Berman

Watch on YouTube

• Open on Natick Veterans
• Open on YouTube
• Download audio (MP3)
• Oral history by Morse Institute Library / Natick Veterans Oral History Project / Nathan M. Berman (6 May 1988)

Eric Heinz Bondy

Eric Heinz Bondy (born Heinz Eric Bondy, 2 June 1924–2014) was born in Bad Gandersheim, Germany. His family fled to Switzerland and then to the United States in 1938, founding the Windsor Mountain School. After mountain-troop training in Colorado he was sent to Camp Ritchie (Class 15), served with IPW Team 50 and the 79th Infantry Division in Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge, and was present at Dachau after liberation. After the war he taught and administered schools for decades, including as headmaster of Windsor Mountain.

Recorded 30 August 2012 in Gaithersburg, Maryland, by Ina Navazelskis for the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (RG-50.030.0669 / irn47822). The roughly hour-long oral history (audio, two parts) covers his family, escape from Nazi Germany, Camp Ritchie training, interrogation work with the 79th Division, Dachau, and postwar life. An English transcript is available from USHMM.

Appears: Eric Heinz Bondy

Listen at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

• Open USHMM catalog record
• English transcript (PDF)
• Download Part 1 (MP3)
• Download Part 2 (MP3)
• Oral history by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum / Eric Heinz Bondy (30 August 2012; interviewer Ina Navazelskis)

Victor Brombert

Victor Brombert was born in Berlin in 1923 to Russian-Jewish parents who had fled the Revolution. The family left again for France in 1933, then reached New York in 1941 on a banana freighter. Drafted in 1943 as a non-citizen, he trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 11 and landed at Omaha Beach with MII 423 and the 2nd Armored Division, later serving with MII 438-G in the Hürtgen Forest and the Bulge. This interview covers the crossing, Ritchie as his "first university," tactical interrogation, and why he long kept the war out of his Princeton classroom.

Appears: Victor Brombert

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by American Veterans Center / Victor Brombert

Hans Curt Bubel

Hans Curt Bubel (known as Curt) was born on 3 October 1925 in Mannheim, Germany, and immigrated in 1928 to Murray, Utah. Drafted in 1944, he trained as a medic, then as an interrogator at Camp Ritchie with Class 26. He reached Europe on the Île de France with MII 490-G and the 13th Airborne Division, collected documents in Bavaria for the Nuremberg trials, and sat three days as an observer there. After a University of Utah doctorate in virology he taught for more than thirty years at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He died in 2018.

This 20 August 2014 Veterans History Project interview at the Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library covers his Utah youth, the FBI hold, Camp Ritchie, Nuremberg document work, and his scientific career.

Appears: Hans Curt Bubel

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library — Veterans History Project record
• Video by Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library / Veterans History Project

Henry Butler

Henry Butler was born Hans Buxbaum on 9 August 1921 in Würzburg, Germany. His family moved to Frankfurt in 1937; at sixteen he reached New York on a relative's affidavit. Drafted in 1943, he trained as an interrogator at Camp Ritchie with Class 16 and served with IPW Team 80 of Third Army in France and Germany. After the war he settled in Seattle, where he recorded this interview with the Holocaust Center for Humanity. He died on 29 November 2023.

Appears: Henry Butler

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Holocaust Center for Humanity (Seattle) — Henry Butler
• Video by Holocaust Center for Humanity / Henry Butler

Stanley Carnarius

The Untold Stories of a Clandestine WWII Intelligence Unit: The Ritchie Boys. Stanley Carnarius was born in Peoria, Illinois, on 6 July 1924. Fluent in German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, he trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 18 and Class 19 in photo interpretation, field mapping, and order of battle. This interview covers a trick German exam at Ritchie, interrogations with the 87th Infantry Division, a blackout convoy into the Ardennes, and his choice to stay with OB Team 38 rather than train for Japan.

Appears: Stanley Carnarius

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by American Veterans Center / Stanley Carnarius

John Dolibois

John Ernest Dolibois was born Jean Ernst Dolibois in Luxembourg on 4 December 1918 and reached Akron, Ohio, at thirteen. After Miami University the Army first sent him to tanks and cooks-and-bakers school, then to Camp Ritchie with Class 18, where he became an interrogation instructor. In 1945 he returned to Luxembourg as one of five officers at Mondorf-les-Bains (Ashcan), questioning Hermann Göring and other high-ranking prisoners for Nuremberg. This 22 November 2006 interview for the Public Library of Cincinnati covers that path.

Appears: John Dolibois

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by Public Library of Cincinnati / John Dolibois

Paul Fairbrook and Maximilian Lerner

Historian Beverley Eddy, author of Ritchie Boy Secrets, frames Camp Ritchie, then Paul Fairbrook and Maximilian Lerner tell their own service. Fairbrook, born Paul Schoenbach in Berlin, trained with Class 7 and built German order-of-battle files at Fort Hunt. Lerner, born in Vienna, trained with Class 11, served with the OSS, and spent months after VE-Day hunting Nazi officials.

Appears: Paul Fairbrook, Maximilian Lerner

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by Veterans Breakfast Club / Paul Fairbrook, Maximilian Lerner & Dr. Beverley Eddy

Paul Fairbrook (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Paul Fairbrook was born Paul Schoenbach in Berlin in 1923. The family left for Palestine in 1933 and reached New York in 1937 with a stamp collection after a twenty-four-hour expulsion at the German border. Drafted in January 1943, he trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 7, became a citizen at Hagerstown, and produced German order-of-battle files at Fort Hunt (P.O. Box 1142). After VE-Day he helped organize captured records in the German Military Document Section at Ritchie. This 22 July 2011 Zekelman Holocaust Center oral history covers that path and his later food-service career.

Appears: Paul Fairbrook

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 419)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Paul Fairbrook (OHV 419, July 22, 2011)

Fred Fields

Fred Fields (8 May 1924–2023) was born Siegfried Dingfelder in Uehlfeld, Germany. After Kristallnacht his father was held at Dachau; the family reached England in 1939 and Brooklyn in 1940, where Fields worked as a baker. Drafted in 1943, he trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 10, took the name Fred Fields when he was naturalized, and interrogated with IPW Team 69 from Metz into Germany.

This American Veterans Center / Veterans Chronicles interview, recorded shortly before his death in 2023, covers Uehlfeld, the flight through England, Camp Ritchie, and IPW work. (See also The Stories/The Enemy I Knew/Fred Fields.)

Appears: Fred Fields

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by American Veterans Center / Fred Fields

Harold Franken / Hellmut Frankenberg

Hellmut J. Frankenberg (later Harold Franken; 25 September 1921–2011) fled Nazi Germany with his family, trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 16, and served as a technical sergeant on intelligence work in England and on the Continent. After the war he joined the family firm Frank Novelty Company and lived in Ardsley, New York.

In 2009 he and his wife Harriet were interviewed by daughter and son-in-law Debbie and Scott Springgate (this is the third of three videos from that sitting). The talk covers London document work, the closed German embassies, and why he had said little for decades. Harriet died later that year; he died in 2011. Read more in the Altamont Enterprise.

Appears: Harold Franken / Hellmut Frankenberg

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Family interview / Harold Franken (Hellmut Frankenberg)

Karl Goldsmith / Karl Goldschmidt

Karl Goldsmith (1921–2002), born Karl Goldschmidt and listed in Army records as Karl G. Smith, left Eschwege after Kristallnacht and reached the United States in 1939 on the Queen Mary. Drafted in 1942, he served as an MP on the Alcan Highway, trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 20, and interrogated with IPW Team 143 from France into Germany. After VE-Day he ran denazification in Eschwege. He finished Cornell in 1947, later owned florists and Karl K. Goldsmith, Inc. of Somerville, and died in February 2002.

Interview conducted for the documentary About Face: Jewish Refugee Soldiers in the Allied Forces. Filmed in Bedminster, New Jersey, February 2001. (See also The Stories/The Enemy I Knew/Karl Goldsmith.)

Appears: Karl Goldsmith / Karl Goldschmidt

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by Steve Karras / Karl Goldsmith

Alfred Goodwin

Alfred Goodwin was born Alfred Gutmann on 4 August 1914 in Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany, and immigrated to the United States in 1936, settling in Portland, Oregon, with the family firm Bissinger & Company. Drafted in 1942, he trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 4 / IPW Team 33), served as a POW interrogator in Europe—including Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge—with the 409th Infantry, and received the Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster. He was discharged as a master sergeant in 1945, later married Lottie Hirsch, and returned to the hide and wool business in Oregon and Utah. He died on 28 May 1993.

This 1986 oral history for the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education covers his family and life in Karlsruhe, immigration at age 21, Camp Ritchie training, and wartime service. Audio hosted on SoundCloud by OJMCHE.

Appears: Alfred Goodwin

Listen on the OJMCHE oral history page

• Open on OJMCHE
• Open OJMCHE on SoundCloud
• Audio by Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education / Alfred Goodwin

Werner Gumpertz

Werner Herbert Gumpertz (26 December 1917–1 December 2017) was born in Berlin, reached New York in 1940, and trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 25. Drafted in 1943 after Fort Belvoir engineer training, he interrogated for Seventh Army in Germany, then ran publications for military government in Karlsruhe. After a year with the Corps of Engineers in Frankfurt he used the GI Bill at MIT and later co-founded Simpson Gumpertz and Heger.

This Newton Talks oral history was recorded by Melanie Egan at the Newton Free Library on 7 July 2016. It covers Ritchie document and map exercises, the Channel crossing, Seventh Army interrogation, and a brief encounter with Hermann Goering. Original catalog record: Newton Free Library / Minuteman. Transcript: Internet Archive. The video is also on YouTube.

Appears: Werner Gumpertz

Watch on YouTube

• Original catalog record (Newton Free Library / Minuteman)
• Also on YouTube
• Transcript on Internet Archive
• Video by Newton Free Library / Newton Talks / Werner Gumpertz

Gideon Kantor

Gideon Kantor (born Guido Kantor, 30 March 1925), rostered as Gideonloc Kantor, left Vienna after the Anschluss, reached New York in April 1941 by way of France, Spain, Portugal, and Cuba, and trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 13. He landed at Utah Beach with the 4th Armored Division’s 3804th Quartermaster Truck Company, used his French to rejoin the unit when it was cut off near Avranches, earned five battle stars and the French Legion of Honor, and later worked as a research physicist at the FDA.

This Ritchie History Museum conversation covers his Vienna childhood, the flight through France, Spain, Portugal, and Cuba, Camp Ritchie classmates and a drowning on a night exercise, Cattle Alert shipment without an interrogation assignment, the Avranches episode, the camps, and his FDA career.

Appears: Gideon Kantor

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Interview by Ritchie History Museum / Gideon Kantor

Gunter Kosse (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Gunter Kosse was born in Berlin on 14 August 1922. After Kristallnacht his father fled to Cuba; Gunter and his mother followed in 1939, then the family reached New York in 1940. Drafted in 1943, he trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 9), went through Cattle Alert ranger-style training, and served with IPW Team 4 of the 8th Infantry Division. Near war’s end he interpreted at Nuremberg discovery interrogations of Kaltenbrunner, Sauckel, and Frick, then spent decades with the Defense Department in Germany.

This July 2011 Zekelman Holocaust Center oral history (Hans Weinman; Fred Saffron, videographer) covers his Berlin youth and Cuba–New York escape, Ritchie and Cattle Alert training, IPW work, Nuremberg discovery interrogations, and postwar intelligence career.

Appears: Gunter Kosse

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 416)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Gunter Kosse (OHV 416, July 22, 2011)

Maximilian Lerner (American Veterans Center)

Maximilian Lerner was born on 4 September 1924 in Vienna. After the Anschluss his family escaped on Czech passports to Paris, then through Nice and Portugal to New York in April 1941. He enlisted on his eighteenth birthday, trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 11, and served with OSS, SHAEF, and CIC. He entered Paris with Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division, interrogated Wehrmacht and SS officers at the Palais Rothschild, and arrived at Dachau two days after its liberation.

This American Veterans Center interview covers his gymnasium expulsion, the flight from France, the failed OSS parachute selection, SHAEF in London under the V-1s, the liberation of Paris, CIC work, and Dachau.

Appears: Maximilian Lerner

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by American Veterans Center / Maximilian Lerner

Maximilian Lerner (David S. Frey)

An Afternoon With Ritchie Boy, Maximilian Lerner. Maximilian Lerner was born in Vienna, Austria. His life from there followed a complex sequence of escape and resistance through World War II. He joined the U.S. Army in 1943 and — thanks to his fluency in three languages — was assigned to military intelligence. His destiny took him back to Europe where he served in the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the CIA, through the liberation of the continent and the end of the war. His government career terminated with his assignment as a Special Agent in the Counter Intelligence Corps. In addition to his autobiography, Flight and Return: A Memoir of World War II, Lerner has published two novels based on his experiences. On October 19, 2021, this interview with Maximilian Lerner was conducted on location in New York City by Dr. David S. Frey.

Appears: Maximilian Lerner

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by Glenn Godart & Peter Brannigan / Maximilian Lerner

Maximilian Lerner (Museum of Jewish Heritage)

Maximilian Lerner was born in Vienna in 1924. After the Anschluss his family fled on Czech passports to Paris, then through Nice and Lisbon to New York in April 1941. He enlisted on his eighteenth birthday, trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 11, entered Paris with Leclerc's 2nd Armored Division, and did CIC and denazification work in Wiesbaden, including two days with Julius Streicher.

This Museum of Jewish Heritage Stories Survive talk, recorded online on 8 May 2020 for the 75th anniversary of VE-Day, covers the flight from France, Ritchie training, the failed OSS jump, V-1s over London, Paris, the Bulge, Dachau, and the Wiesbaden arrests.

Appears: Maximilian Lerner

Watch on YouTube

• Museum of Jewish Heritage — Stories Survive (8 May 2020)
• Open on YouTube
• Video by Museum of Jewish Heritage / Maximilian Lerner

Gerald Lieberman (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Gerald “Jerry” Lieberman (born Gerhard, 2 December 1924) left Munich after Kristallnacht, when his father Leo was held at Dachau. The family reached the United States via a short visa and six months in the Dominican Republic. He trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 10, interrogated with the 3rd Infantry Division from Anzio into southern France, earned a Purple Heart, and later served with the 10th Mountain Division.

This 24 July 2011 oral history at the Holocaust Memorial Center (OHV 415; interviewer Hans Weinman) covers Kristallnacht, Ritchie training, Anzio, the Po River, southern France, Gmunden, and B&G Lieberman Co. in Charlotte.

Appears: Gerald Lieberman

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 415)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Gerald Lieberman (OHV 415, July 24, 2011)

Robert Eliot Matteson

Robert Eliot Matteson (Robert Eliot Matteson, 1914–1994), a Carleton College graduate associated with Camp Ritchie on the roster, headed a Counter Intelligence Corps unit under the 80th Infantry Division in Patton’s Third Army. In Austria he entered Ebensee after the SS fled, tracked Ernst Kaltenbrunner to a mountain hideout near Altaussee, and in late 1945 handled personnel security at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice (including brief confrontations with major defendants). After the war he directed research for Harold Stassen, met Stalin in Moscow in 1947, later visited Albert Speer, and worked on U.S.–Cuba cultural contacts.

This June 1982 video testimony was recorded at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls (audience talk plus studio Q&A) and is held by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (RG-50.043.0005 / irn512456). An English transcript is available from USHMM.

Appears: Robert Eliot Matteson

Watch at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

• Open USHMM catalog record
• English transcript (PDF)
• Download video (MP4)
• Oral history by University of Wisconsin–River Falls / United States Holocaust Memorial Museum / Robert Eliot Matteson (June 1982)

Werner E. Michel (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Werner E. Michel (2 September 1924 – 7 November 2020) left Landau for St. Louis in 1936 at age twelve; his father later perished at Auschwitz. After Fort Knox and Fort Benning OCS he trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 29 and commanded IPW Team 270 with the 9th Infantry Division, including Neu-Ulm general-officer debriefings, Malmedy identity work at Dachau, and undercover CIC work at Oberstdorf. He later rose to colonel and Defense Intelligence Inspector General.

This 25 July 2011 oral history at the Holocaust Memorial Center (OHV 414; interviewer Hans R. Weinmann) covers his emigration, Ritchie training, occupation interrogations, and long Army and DoD career. The recording ends before the later civilian intelligence posts.

Appears: Werner E. Michel

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 414)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Werner E. Michel (OHV 414, July 25, 2011)

Albert Miller

Albert W. “Al” Miller (20 November 1922 – 24 August 2023) was born in Berlin, sent alone to Switzerland at fourteen, and reached the United States after England. Drafted at Cincinnati in 1943, he went from medic and jeep driver to Camp Ritchie (Class 29) and returned to Germany to interrogate prisoners and suspected war criminals. After the war he practiced optometry in Hamilton, Ohio, and became a widely known Holocaust educator in Cincinnati.

This Ritchie History Museum conversation, recorded when Miller was ninety-nine, covers the nazification of his Berlin school, the family’s scattered escape, the immigration officer’s charge to “make something of yourself,” and how a stalled jeep helped send him to Ritchie.

Appears: Albert Miller

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Interview by Ritchie History Museum / Dr. Albert Miller

Warren Musch

Warren R. Musch (born 25 October 1921) grew up on a farm near Virginia, Illinois, and joined the Marine Corps Reserve from Illinois College. After Parris Island, Quantico, and Camp Ritchie (Class 14) he served as combat intelligence officer with 3rd Battalion, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division. He landed on Iwo Jima on 19 February 1945, saw both Suribachi flag raisings, and later helped plan the invasion of Japan before occupation duty at Sasebo.

This 2020 EF Explore America interview, recorded when he was ninety-nine, covers the thirteenth-wave landing, battalion intelligence work, the 25–26 March night attack, and his return to farming and teaching in Illinois.

Appears: Warren Musch

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by EF Explore America / Warren Musch

Warren Musch (Connecting With the Past)

Warren R. Musch enlisted from Illinois College in the spring of 1942, trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 14, and joined 3rd Battalion, 28th Marines at Camp Pendleton. He married Heraldine at the Santa Margarita Ranch House Chapel on 23 June 1944, landed on Iwo Jima in the thirteenth wave, and led a seventeen-man intelligence section through the thirty-six-day fight.

This 2020 EF Explore America Connecting With the Past conversation, recorded when he was ninety-nine, is a student Q&A on boot camp, the dry-foot landing, the Suribachi flags, public speaking after 2000, and why he later said the Corps turned a carefree college student into a grown man.

Appears: Warren Musch

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by EF Explore America / Warren Musch (Connecting With the Past)

Henry Norton (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Henry Norton (16 January 1922–2012), born Heinrich Julius Nussenbaum in Bautzen, came alone to Rochester, New York, in 1937. An artillery officer before Camp Ritchie, he interrogated with the 88th Infantry Division's 350th Infantry in Italy, later served in Fifth and Seventh Army G-2, and helped contact German rocket scientists near war's end. He received the Bronze Star and afterward practiced law in Miami.

This 25 July 2011 Zekelman Holocaust Center oral history (OHV 417) covers the Breslau orphanage years, front-line interrogations, the Heidelberg document section, his family's fate, and the Miami law practice.

Appears: Henry Norton

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 417)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Henry Norton (OHV 417, July 25, 2011)

Robert A. Potash

Robert A. Potash was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1921. He studied history at Harvard, trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 19), and served overseas as a technician fourth grade. After the war he became a historian of Argentine politics and military affairs; his memoir Looking Back at My First Eighty Years appeared in 2008. He died in 2016.

Interviewed by Allie Brudney on 13 January 2012 at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, this oral history covers family life, Jewish identity and Yiddish education, Harvard years, and related themes (English-language recording with video highlight clips on the Center site).

Appears: Robert A. Potash

Listen on Internet Archive

• Open on Yiddish Book Center
• Open on Internet Archive
• Download MP3 (Internet Archive)
• Oral history by Yiddish Book Center / Robert A. Potash (13 January 2012; interviewer Allie Brudney)

Frederick John Rosenthal

Frederick John Rosenthal (born Fritz; 4 September 1923 – 24 April 2024) grew up Jewish in Cologne, reached New York with his family before the war, and was drafted in 1943 despite childhood polio. After Camp Croft and ASTP at Minnesota, his German and Dutch led to Camp Ritchie Class 15, where he trained in map work and photo interpretation and was alerted overseas before finishing the course. In Antwerp he tracked V-1 and V-2 impacts, read the Flemish press, and questioned suspected collaborators. After the war he used the G.I. Bill at Columbia and became an administrative librarian at the Library of Congress.

This Ritchie History Museum conversation covers Kristallnacht, the Class 15 correction, Zero Mostel at a Ritchie Passover, the Antwerp rockets, and his later library career.

Appears: Frederick John Rosenthal

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Interview by Ritchie History Museum / John Rosenthal

Richard Schifter

Richard Schifter (31 July 1923 – 4 October 2020) left Vienna alone in December 1938 after the Anschluss; his parents, on the Polish quota, were later murdered. Drafted in 1943, he went from Camp Fannin and Stanford ASTP to Camp Ritchie (Class 17) and interrogated with IPW Team 94 and IPW Team 83, including a Peenemünde engineer whose sketch went to Air Force intelligence. After the war he practiced law and served as Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights.

This American Veterans Center Veterans Chronicles interview covers 11 March 1938, the Nieuw Amsterdam, Broadway and the V-1s, the first POW who named the 4th Parachute Division, Aachen civilians, and his later human-rights diplomacy.

Appears: Richard Schifter

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by American Veterans Center / Richard Schifter

Walter Schwarz (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Walter Schwarz (1921–2018) was born in Timișoara, Romania, reached the United States in March 1940 on the Conte di Savoia, and trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 20. A technical sergeant with IPW Team 152 of Third Army, he interrogated through the Saar and the Battle of the Bulge, then found a surviving relative in Plzeň. After the war he studied textiles at Lowell and worked in Canada and Wisconsin.

This 24 July 2011 Zekelman Holocaust Center oral history (OHV 413) covers Brno in March 1939, Camp Pickett and Ritchie, Bulge interrogations, and the Kral family after Theresienstadt.

Appears: Walter Schwarz

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 413)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Walter Schwarz (OHV 413, July 24, 2011)

Alfred Shehab

Alfred Shehab (18 September 1919 – 12 December 2020) was born in Cape May, New Jersey, trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 6, and served as a cavalry officer of the 38th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron, 102nd Cavalry Group. His platoon held the Monschau sector when the Battle of the Bulge opened, later met Soviet forces at Torgau on the Elbe, and occupied Czechoslovakia. After retiring as a lieutenant colonel he worked at NASA Goddard and led Battle of the Bulge veterans' groups.

This American Veterans Center interview covers Citizen Military Training Corps summers, the Free French episode, Monschau, Hammer and the river crossing, the Torgau banquet, and occupation duty near Pilsen.

Appears: Alfred Shehab

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Video by American Veterans Center / Lt. Col. Alfred Shehab

Guy Stern (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Guy Stern (14 January 1922 – 7 December 2023), born Günther Stern in Hildesheim, reached St. Louis in 1937; his parents and siblings were later murdered in the Warsaw Ghetto. A Class 8 Ritchie Boy and master sergeant with IPW Team 41 of First Army, he interrogated from Omaha Beach through the Bulge, ran the Commissar Krukov ruse with Fred Howard, earned the Bronze Star for mass interrogation, and became a German-literature scholar and director of the International Institute of the Righteous at the Zekelman Holocaust Center.

This 16 November 2011 Zekelman oral history (OHV 402, two parts) covers his Hildesheim youth, the One Thousand Children rescue, Camp Ritchie, First Army interrogations, learning his family's fate, and his academic career.

Appears: Guy Stern

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 402)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Guy Stern (OHV 402, November 16, 2011)

Ernest Wachtel (Zekelman Holocaust Center)

Ernest Wachtel (6 May 1924 – 2016), born Ernst Wachtel in Vienna, reached New York alone in July 1938; his parents followed to a Stelton, New Jersey, chicken farm beside Camp Kilmer. After University of Kentucky topography training he went to Camp Ritchie (Class 12 and Class 15, neither course finished) and sorted prisoners with IPW Team 62 of Third Army from Omaha Beach into Germany, including aid to Dachau survivors.

This 24 July 2011 Zekelman oral history (OHV 418) covers the Anschluss, the French transit, Kilmer, Camp Ritchie, POW cages, and Dachau.

Appears: Ernest Wachtel

Watch on YouTube

• Open on YouTube
• Open in Zekelman Holocaust Center collections (OHV 418)
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Oral history by The Zekelman Holocaust Center / Ernest Wachtel (OHV 418, July 24, 2011)

Hugo David Weisgall

Hugo David Weisgall (13 October 1912 – 11 March 1997) was born in Ivančice, Moravia, to a family of cantors, reached Baltimore in 1920, and enlisted for Camp Ritchie Class 2. A technical sergeant, he survived a U-boat crossing, conducted the BBC Symphony at Royal Albert Hall in 1943, served in London and as cultural attaché in Prague, and later chaired the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Cantors Institute.

This 31 May 1995 Milken Archive oral history covers his Ivančice childhood, Chizuk Amuno, wartime intelligence and music in London, Prague, and his operatic career. Video hosted on Aviary by the Lowell Milken Center.

Appears: Hugo David Weisgall

Watch on Aviary

• Open on Milken Archive
• Open on Milken Archive Aviary
• Oral history by Milken Archive of Jewish Music / Hugo Weisgall (31 May 1995)

See also

• Documentaries/Movies
• Ritchie Boy Programs
• The Stories
• Notable Ritchie Boys
• Symposium Presentation
• Contribute