Bubel, Hans Curt (39926772)

Hans Curt Bubel
Personal details
Birth name	Curt Bubel
Born	3 October 1925 Mannheim, Germany
Died	16 November 2018 Cincinnati, Ohio
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Catholic
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	39926772
Rank	Private First Class
Camp Ritchie	Class 26 (3 January – 3 March 1945)
Section	5A
Team	MII 490-G

Interview Watch Hans Curt Bubel on Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library Veterans History Project.

Teammates

MII 490-G

Bubel, Hans Curt (39926772)

Miller, Max (32877439)

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.

Hans Curt Bubel (known as Curt; 3 October 1925–16 November 2018) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army interrogator associated with Camp Ritchie. He trained with Class 26, reached Europe as the war ended with MII 490-G and the 13th Airborne Division, collected documents for the Nuremberg trials, and later taught microbiology and virology at the University of Cincinnati.

Biography

Hans Curt Bubel, known as Curt, was born on 3 October 1925 in Mannheim, Germany, to Curt and Maria Bubel. His father worked as an accountant in the foreign-exchange department at BASF. Street fighting, inflation, and the rise of the Nazis decided the family to leave; Bubel later said one of his father's friends was killed in the riots, and his father resolved to get out. In 1928, when Curt was three, they moved to Murray, Utah, sponsored by an aunt who had converted to Mormonism years earlier. Bubel grew up speaking German and English and attended Murray High School. He was in the tenth or eleventh grade, sixteen, when Pearl Harbor was attacked; he later recalled a movie being stopped with an announcement that foreign nationals should go home. His parents became United States citizens within five years of arriving.

He wanted to join the Navy at seventeen, but his mother would not sign the papers. Drafted at eighteen in Utah in March 1944, he trained as a medic for seventeen weeks at Camp Barkeley, Texas, and also received infantry training. The Army then held him from overseas shipment for nearly ten months while it investigated neighbors' accusations of Nazi sympathy, which grew from a 1933 family trip back to Germany to settle a small inheritance. He later said someone claimed the family were "sub rosa Nazis," which was not true. The FBI cleared him, and he was sent to Camp Ritchie. Bubel trained as an interrogator of prisoners of war, and in photo and military intelligence, with Class 26 (3 January – 3 March 1945).

He sailed to Europe on the Île de France, landed in Scotland, passed through England, then France, and was assigned to the 13th Airborne Division with MII 490-G and the 326th Glider Infantry. He practiced on wooden gliders that he later said were crash landings more than landings. The war in Europe was ending, so he did little front-line interrogation. When he did question German prisoners, the work was unit, rank, division, commanders, and morale; he later said fear of being handed to the Russians brought a great deal of information. After non-fraternization rules eased, he also spoke with civilians.

German fluency sent him into the War Crimes Trial Document Section. With another German-born soldier he traveled through Bavaria collecting military, political, and scientific records for the Nuremberg trials, including a complete Associated Press photographic archive hidden in a monastery. He looked into rumors that Martin Bormann had survived and found no evidence. As a reward for the document work, he sat three days as an observer at Nuremberg and saw Göring, Ribbentrop, Hess, Keitel, and Baldur von Schirach. He was discharged on 1 June 1946.

Bubel used the GI Bill at the University of Utah, earning a bachelor's degree in microbiology, a master's in experimental biology, and a doctorate in virology as a polio fellow. He married Marilyn, known as Sammie, after completing the doctorate. They had two children, Heidi and Peter. He then joined the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, teaching microbiology and virology and directing research for more than thirty years. He was a member of Sigma Xi and Alpha Omega Alpha and received the Golden Apple for teaching. He died in Cincinnati, Ohio, on 16 November 2018.

Research notes

• Il de France
• Trained at Augers
• Utah Polio researcher moved to Cincinatti to work with Sabin
• Prof. emeritus U
• 490-G 326th GIR

Gallery

• 

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	93
Nara ASN	39926772
Nara Name	BUBEL HANS C
Nara State	96
Nara County	35
Nara POE	9629
Nara DOE	110344
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	25
Nara Race	1
Nara Race Description	White citizen
Nara Education	4
Nara Civilian Occupation	992
Nara Marital Status	6
Nara Height (inches)	0
Nara Weight (lbs)	0
Class_ASN	39926772
Class_Name	BUBEL Hans
match_method	pass2_asn_last
row_source	both

Timeline

• 3 October 1925 — Born in Mannheim, Germany, to Curt and Maria Bubel.
• 1928 — Immigrated at age three to Murray, Utah, sponsored by an aunt.
• 1933 — Family trip back to Germany; later cited during a wartime loyalty investigation.
• Late 1940s–1950s — University of Utah: bachelor's in microbiology, master's in experimental biology, doctorate in virology (polio fellow).
• 7 December 1941 — Pearl Harbor; Bubel was sixteen and a student at Murray High School.
• 1944 — Medic and infantry training at Camp Barkeley, Texas; then held nearly ten months pending an FBI investigation of Nazi-sympathy accusations.
• 11 March 1944 — Drafted into the Army in Utah (NARA).
• 1945 — Sailed on the Île de France; Scotland, England, then France; MII 490-G / 13th Airborne Division / 326th Glider Infantry.
• 1945 — War Crimes Trial Document Section in Bavaria; Associated Press photographic archive; observed three days of the Nuremberg trials.
• 3 January – 3 March 1945 — Camp Ritchie Class 26 (IPW / photo and military intelligence).
• 8 May 1945 — Reached Europe as the war in Europe ended.
• 1 June 1946 — Discharged from the Army.
• 16 November 2018 — Died in Cincinnati, Ohio.
• After the doctorate — Married Marilyn (Sammie); later taught at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.

Sources

• Veterans History Project interview (watchlist card)
• Cincinnati Enquirer obituary for Hans Curt Bubel (19 December 2018)
• Cincinnati Enquirer, 19 December 2018 — Hans Curt Bubel obituary (RB Archive ProQuest PDF)
• 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 2022-11-28 (1 post)
• YouTube interview — Hans Curt Bubel (Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library Veterans History Project)
• Cincinnati & Hamilton County Public Library — Veterans History Project record
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Hans C. Bubel for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Bubel, Hans C. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: HANS C. BUBEL.doc)