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Schwab, Henry (32681038): Difference between revisions

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Link Camp Ritchie class and team mentions in lead/biography
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|religion=Jewish
|religion=Jewish
|enlistment_place=New York City, New York
|enlistment_place=New York City, New York
|state=New York
|ipw_ge=57
|ipw_ge=57
|overseas=Y
|overseas=Y
|certificate=4359
|education=1 year of college
|occupation=Accountants and auditors
|marital=Single with dependents
|confidence=high
|confidence=high
|class_number=12
|class_number=12
|class_display=12
|class_display=12
|birth_place=Germany
|birth_place=Bavaria, Germany
|rank_final=Staff Sergeant
|rank_final=Staff Sergeant
|division=IPW Team 57; XX Corps; Third Army
|division=Third Army
|specialty=IPW (interrogation of prisoners of war)
}}
}}


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'''Henry Schwab''' (1922&ndash;2015) was a German-born Jewish refugee and Camp Ritchie interrogator. After training in [[Class 12]], he served with [[Team IPW 57|IPW Team 57]] under XX Corps of the Third Army in Europe.
'''Henry Schwab''' (1922&ndash;2015) was a Bavaria-born Jewish refugee and Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] with [[:Category:Class 12|Class 12]] and served as a full-time interrogator (and team scribe) with [[Team IPW 57|IPW Team 57]] under XX Corps of the Third Army from Normandy into Austria.
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== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Henry Schwab was born in Germany in 1922 and came to the United States as a Jewish refugee. Before Camp Ritchie he trained with an infantry division at Camp Blanding, Florida, and became a U.S. citizen on 25 June 1943 in Ocala, Florida. Reassigned to the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, he entered [[Class 12]] as a private in Company E-108, Second Training Battalion, and trained as an interrogator of prisoners of war.
Henry Schwab was born in Bavaria in 1922, in one of the more bitterly antisemitic parts of Germany. His father—a World War I German soldier—was arrested in 1933. At fourteen Schwab left Germany alone, lived with relatives on Long Island, and finished high school there. Many relatives were later killed in the Holocaust. He tried to volunteer but was classed as an enemy alien; he asked for immediate induction and entered service in December 1942, first at Fort Jay, then—unexpectedly—at [[Camp Ritchie]].


In the winter of 1944 his unit took part in California–Arizona desert maneuvers out of Camp Young, where the makeup of future IPW teams was set. Promoted to staff sergeant in March 1944, he sailed from New York City for Glasgow on 10 April 1944 aboard the troopship SS ''Queen Mary''. In England he was stationed at Broadway in the Midlands with XX Corps Headquarters of the Third Army under Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, posting war-room maps, working aerial-photo intelligence, and translating German documents, then moved to the coastal town of Marlboro before the Normandy invasion.
Before the intelligence course he had trained with an infantry division at Camp Blanding, Florida, and became a U.S. Citizen on 25 June 1943 in Ocala, Florida. At Ritchie he entered [[:Category:Class 12|Class 12]] as a private in Company E-108, Second Training Battalion, and trained as an interrogator of prisoners of war. In the winter of 1944 his unit took part in about six weeks of California–Arizona desert maneuvers out of Camp Young, practicing POW handling and enemy operations while future IPW teams took shape.


With [[Team IPW 57|IPW Team 57]] attached to XX Corps under Gen. George S. Patton Jr., Schwab followed the campaign through Normandy, Brittany, Chartres, Metz, Trier, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Weimar, and Ried in Austria, submitting daily Corps-level interrogation reports. On 14 April 1945, two days after Buchenwald’s liberation, he visited the camp searching for relatives later known to have been murdered in the Holocaust. Near the end of the European fighting he also returned to Uehlfeld, Germany, with his cousin [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] of the 69th IPW Team. After the armistice in May 1945 the team billeted at Tutzing in southern Germany to help identify suspected war criminals among surrendered German troops and hospital patients.
Promoted to staff sergeant in March 1944, he sailed from New York for Glasgow on 10 April 1944 aboard the ''Queen Mary''. In England he was stationed at Broadway, near Stratford-upon-Avon, with XX Corps Headquarters of the Third Army under Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker—posting situation maps, working aerial photos, translating German documents—and attended a British document school in London. The unit moved to the coastal town of Marlboro before the Normandy invasion.


Schwab left Marseilles on the USS ''Admiral Capps'' on 3 October 1945, arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, on 10 October, and was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on 28 January 1946. In later life he lived in West Hyannisport, Massachusetts, and wrote on Holocaust postal history; in 2005 he published a firsthand Camp Ritchie account in ''The Israel Philatelist''.
Schwab landed in Normandy about a month after D-Day. His first assignment, a POW compound in Brittany, he later called the most dangerous stretch of his war. With [[Team IPW 57|IPW Team 57]] attached to XX Corps under Gen. George S. Patton Jr., he moved through France, Luxembourg, Germany, and Austria—Normandy, Brittany, Chartres, Metz, Trier, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Weimar, and Ried—writing the team’s daily Corps-level interrogation reports as full-time interrogator and scribe, including during the Battle of the Bulge. He remembered Patton barking at naked soldiers in a shower to clean up and get back to killing the enemy. On 14 April 1945, two days after Buchenwald’s liberation, he visited the camp searching for relatives later known to have been murdered. Near the end of the fighting he also returned to Uehlfeld, Germany, with his cousin [[Fields, Fred D. (32878282)|Fred Fields]] of the 69th IPW Team. After the armistice in May 1945 the team billeted at Tutzing in southern Germany to help identify suspected war criminals among surrendered troops and hospital patients.
 
Schwab left Marseilles on the USS ''Admiral Capps'' on 3 October 1945, arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, on 10 October, and was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on 28 January 1946. He kept the letters he had written home throughout the war. In later life he lived in West Hyannisport, Massachusetts, and wrote on Holocaust postal history; in 2005 he published a firsthand Camp Ritchie account in ''The Israel Philatelist''. He died in 2015.
 
== Research notes ==
* Joint NPS Fort Hunt oral history with [[Gans, Werner J. (31457356)|Werner Gans]] and [[Gumpertz, Werner Herbert (42033526)|Werner Herbert Gumpertz]].


== Gallery ==
== Gallery ==
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* 1922 — Born in Germany (Jewish).
* 1922 — Born in Bavaria, Germany; father arrested 1933; left alone at 14 for relatives on Long Island.
* 25 June 1943 — Became a U.S. citizen in Ocala, Florida, after infantry training at Camp Blanding.
* December 1942 — Entered service after enemy-alien delays (Fort Jay, then Camp Ritchie).
* Entered Camp Ritchie [[Class 12]] (Company E-108, Second Training Battalion); trained as an IPW interrogator.
* 25 June 1943 — Naturalized in Ocala, Florida (after Camp Blanding infantry training).
* Winter 1944 — Desert maneuvers out of Camp Young, California; IPW team assignments formed.
* Class 12 — Camp Ritchie IPW training; winter 1944 California–Arizona desert maneuvers (Camp Young).
* March 1944 — Promoted to staff sergeant.
* March 1944 — Promoted staff sergeant.
* 10 April 1944 — Sailed from New York City to Glasgow, Scotland, aboard SS ''Queen Mary''.
* 10 April 1944 — Sailed on ''Queen Mary'' to Scotland; Broadway (XX Corps / Third Army); British document school in London.
* Spring 1944 — Stationed at Broadway, England, with XX Corps Headquarters (Third Army); later staged at Marlboro before D-Day.
* ~July 1944 onward — Normandy (about a month after D-Day); Brittany POW compound; IPW Team 57 through France, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria; Battle of the Bulge; team scribe.
* 1944–1945 — Served with IPW Team 57, XX Corps, through France, Germany, and Austria.
* 14 April 1945 — Visited Buchenwald two days after liberation.
* 14 April 1945 — Visited newly liberated Buchenwald.
* May 1945 onward — Tutzing: identifying suspected war criminals in hospitals / among POWs.
* May 1945 — With IPW Team 57 at Tutzing, Germany, screening for suspected war criminals.
* 28 January 1946 — Discharged at Fort Dix.
* 3 October 1945 — Shipped from Marseilles on USS ''Admiral Capps''; arrived Norfolk, Virginia, 10 October 1945.
* 2015 — Died.
* 28 January 1946 — Discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
* 2005 — Published "The Hidden Story Behind WWII Camp Ritchie Mail" in ''The Israel Philatelist''.
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== Sources ==
== Sources ==
* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Gans_Gumpertz_Schwab.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — joint interview with Werner Gans, Werner Gumpertz, and Henry Schwab]] (formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
* 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
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