Gans, Werner Joachim (31457356): Difference between revisions

Line 12:

|birth_place=Mannheim, Germany

|enlistment_place=FT DEVENS MASSACHUSETTS

|death_date=18 December 2012

|death_place=Needham, Massachusetts

|alias=Werner Joachim Gans

}}

'''Werner J. Gans''' (1923–2012) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] as a German-language interrogator and document translator, then stayed on to instruct recruits. He later translated captured papers in Washington and spent most of the war interrogating German prisoners on an island facility in Boston Harbor.

'''Werner Joachim Gans''' (1923–18 December 2012) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] as a German-language interrogator and document translator, then stayed on to instruct recruits. He later translated captured papers in Washington and spent most of the war interrogating German prisoners on an island facility in Boston Harbor. After the war he worked in business in Greater Boston and played cello with the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Civic Symphony.

</div>

== Biography ==

Werner J. Gans was born in Mannheim, Germany, and ~~left with his family just before Kristallnacht~~. He ~~reached~~ the ~~United States on~~ a ~~student~~ visa ~~by way of Cuba~~, ~~arriving~~ in Boston in February 1939 on a music-conservatory scholarship~~. His~~ parents ~~could not join~~ him ~~for~~ more than two years because of visa trouble. When the war began in September 1939 the Massachusetts draft board classed him as an enemy alien even though he wanted to fight the Nazis; it took nearly two years before he was cleared to serve.

Werner Joachim Gans was born in 1923 in Mannheim, Germany, into a comfortable household; his father, Moritz, ran S. Ganss Oil and Fat Manufacture. Werner started violin at six and cello at ten. Antisemitism made schooling harder at home, and at thirteen he was sent alone to Milan to study music. He returned when the family secured a transit visa to Cuba—his father, after paying a fine to recover a confiscated passport, sold insecticide there with one Spanish sales pitch—and they left Germany in October 1938, just before Kristallnacht. An aunt was later lost. Werner reached Boston in February 1939 at fifteen on a music-conservatory scholarship; his parents joined him more than two years later.

Inducted at Fort Devens~~, Massachusetts~~, he went briefly to Camp Grant, Illinois, for ~~basic and~~ medical-corps training~~. After about a month~~ the Army ~~noticed he was a native German speaker and~~ sent him to [[Camp Ritchie]]. There he trained in interrogation, ~~German-language~~ document ~~work,~~ translation, and intelligence ~~analysis—methods aimed at getting information without physical coercion. After the course he~~ stayed several months ~~as an instructor for~~ new arrivals.

When the war began he was classed as an enemy alien by the Massachusetts draft board—“as if I wanted Hitler to win,” he later joked—and it took about eighteen months before he was cleared to serve. A hoped-for debut as a cellist with the Boston Pops was cut short when he was drafted. Inducted at Fort Devens, he went briefly to Camp Grant, Illinois, for medical-corps training before the Army sent him to [[Camp Ritchie]] as a native German speaker. There he trained in interrogation, document translation, and intelligence analysis, then stayed several months instructing new arrivals.

From Ritchie he ~~was posted to~~ Washington, D.C., ~~for three or four months in late 1943 and early 1944. He lived~~ in a hotel and ~~worked~~ largely ~~on his own,~~ translating captured German naval and army ~~documents—technical terms, places, operational detail—and delivering the work to an intelligence office whose exact name he later could not recall~~. He remembered “APO 1142” and ~~his name~~ appears on [[P.O. Box 1142]] rosters, but he was unsure whether he ever worked physically at Fort Hunt ~~or only under that administrative umbrella~~.

From Ritchie he spent three or four months in Washington, D.C., living in a hotel and working largely alone translating captured German naval and army documents. He remembered “APO 1142” and appears on [[P.O. Box 1142]] rosters, but he was unsure whether he ever worked physically at Fort Hunt. Most of the rest of the war he spent on Long Island in Boston Harbor, living on the island and interrogating German prisoners brought by boat—enlisted men and officers, with some scientists mixed in—using psychological pressure rather than force: the threat of Soviet captivity, fear for families in bombed cities, and at times his own identity as a German Jew. “Our job was to find out everything we could about the Nazi installations,” he told the ''Boston Globe'', “where they had been and where the troops were headed.”

Most of the rest of the war he spent on Long Island in Boston Harbor, living on the island and interrogating German prisoners brought in by small boats as the Allies advanced in France—enlisted men and officers, mostly military, with some scientists mixed in, dozens to hundreds at a time rather than thousands. Interrogators worked in small teams, comparing stories for contradictions. Pressure was psychological: the threat of Soviet captivity, warnings that a prisoner’s city might be bombed next, and, at times, Gans’s own identity as a German Jew pushed out of Germany. He stressed that no one was beaten. His family in Boston did not know how close he was; he could not leave the post.

After Germany’s surrender he lacked the points for discharge and toured with a Victory Bond musical unit around Boston. He was discharged on 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens. In 1947 he met Florence Kalis at the International Institute in Boston; she guessed that his middle initial “J” stood for Joachim, and they married in 1948. He set music aside as a full-time career, worked in business (including at the New England Mobile Book Fair), and kept playing—Newton Symphony Orchestra and twenty-two years as a cellist with the Boston Civic Symphony, where he also served on the board. He lived in Newton for more than sixty years and died of kidney disease on 18 December 2012 at Wingate at Needham, at 89.

After Germany’s surrender he lacked the points for discharge and ~~was put in~~ a Victory Bond musical unit~~, touring small towns~~ around Boston ~~with an Army band~~. He was discharged on 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens. In ~~later life~~ he ~~was associated with New England musical work~~, including the New England ~~Philharmonic~~. He died in 2012.

== Research notes ==

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* c. 1923 — Born in Mannheim, Germany.

* 1923 — Born in Mannheim, Germany (middle name Joachim).

* ~~Just before Kristallnacht~~ — ~~Fled Germany~~; via Cuba to Boston (February 1939) on a ~~music-~~conservatory scholarship~~; parents delayed by visas~~.

* Age 13 — Sent alone to Milan to study cello; family fled via Cuba (October 1938); arrived Boston February 1939 on a conservatory scholarship.

* ~~September 1939 onward~~ — Classed as enemy alien ~~by Massachusetts draft board~~; ~~cleared to serve after nearly two years~~.

* 1939–c. 1941 — Classed as enemy alien; parents joined later.

* Induction — Fort Devens~~, Massachusetts~~; brief medical~~-corps~~ training ~~at Camp Grant, Illinois.~~

* Induction — Fort Devens; brief Camp Grant medical training; Camp Ritchie MIS training and instructor duty.

* Camp Ritchie — MIS ~~interrogator / translator~~ training~~; then several months as~~ instructor.

* Late 1943 – early 1944 — Washington document translation; APO 1142 / possible administrative link to P.O. Box 1142.

* Late 1943 – early 1944 — Washington~~, D.C.: independent~~ translation ~~of captured German naval and army documents (~3–4 months)~~; ~~remembered~~ APO 1142 / possible administrative link to P.O. Box 1142 ~~(uncertain whether stationed at Fort Hunt)~~.

* Remainder of war — Long Island, Boston Harbor: interrogating German POWs.

* Remainder of war — Long Island, Boston Harbor: interrogating German POWs ~~and translating documents~~.

* After VE Day — Victory Bond musical unit; discharged 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens.

* After VE Day — Victory Bond musical unit ~~around Boston.~~

* 1948 — Married Florence Kalis; later business career; Newton / Boston Civic Symphony cello.

* 14 May 1946 ~~— Discharged~~ at Fort Devens.

* 18 December 2012 — Died at Wingate at Needham (kidney disease), age 89; longtime Newton resident.

* 2012 — Died.

</div>

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

== Sources ==

* [[:File:ProQuest_Gans_Obituary_Boston_Globe_2013-01-03.pdf|Boston Globe — “Werner Gans, businessman; cellist fled from Holocaust” (Michele Richinick), 3 January 2013]] (ProQuest)

* [[:File:ProQuest_Gans_Local_Ritchie_Boy_Jewish_Advocate_2006-09-08.pdf|Jewish Advocate — “Local ‘Ritchie Boy’ reaches into the past” (Hinda Mandell), 8 September 2006]] (ProQuest)

* [[:File:ProQuest_Gans_Jewish_Refugees_Weapon_Words_Boston_Globe_2006-09-03.pdf|Boston Globe — “Jewish refugee’s weapon: words” (Susan Chaityn Lebovits), 3 September 2006]] (ProQuest)

* [[: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)

* [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Gans_Werner.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Werner Gans interview transcript]] (Camp Ritchie training and instructor; Washington document translation; Boston Harbor interrogation; APO 1142 memory; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 |birth_place=Mannheim, Germany
 |enlistment_place=FT DEVENS MASSACHUSETTS
+|death_date=18 December 2012
+|death_place=Needham, Massachusetts
+|alias=Werner Joachim Gans
 }}
 <div class="soldier-lead">
-'''Werner J. Gans''' (1923&ndash;2012) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] as a German-language interrogator and document translator, then stayed on to instruct recruits. He later translated captured papers in Washington and spent most of the war interrogating German prisoners on an island facility in Boston Harbor.
+'''Werner Joachim Gans''' (1923&ndash;18 December 2012) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army Ritchie Boy who trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] as a German-language interrogator and document translator, then stayed on to instruct recruits. He later translated captured papers in Washington and spent most of the war interrogating German prisoners on an island facility in Boston Harbor. After the war he worked in business in Greater Boston and played cello with the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Civic Symphony.
 </div>
 == Biography ==
-Werner J. Gans was born in Mannheim, Germany, and left with his family just before Kristallnacht. He reached the United States on a student visa by way of Cuba, arriving in Boston in February 1939 on a music-conservatory scholarship. His parents could not join him for more than two years because of visa trouble. When the war began in September 1939 the Massachusetts draft board classed him as an enemy alien even though he wanted to fight the Nazis; it took nearly two years before he was cleared to serve.
+Werner Joachim Gans was born in 1923 in Mannheim, Germany, into a comfortable household; his father, Moritz, ran S. Ganss Oil and Fat Manufacture. Werner started violin at six and cello at ten. Antisemitism made schooling harder at home, and at thirteen he was sent alone to Milan to study music. He returned when the family secured a transit visa to Cuba—his father, after paying a fine to recover a confiscated passport, sold insecticide there with one Spanish sales pitch—and they left Germany in October 1938, just before Kristallnacht. An aunt was later lost. Werner reached Boston in February 1939 at fifteen on a music-conservatory scholarship; his parents joined him more than two years later.
-Inducted at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, he went briefly to Camp Grant, Illinois, for basic and medical-corps training. After about a month the Army noticed he was a native German speaker and sent him to [[Camp Ritchie]]. There he trained in interrogation, German-language document work, translation, and intelligence analysis—methods aimed at getting information without physical coercion. After the course he stayed several months as an instructor for new arrivals.
+When the war began he was classed as an enemy alien by the Massachusetts draft board—“as if I wanted Hitler to win,” he later joked—and it took about eighteen months before he was cleared to serve. A hoped-for debut as a cellist with the Boston Pops was cut short when he was drafted. Inducted at Fort Devens, he went briefly to Camp Grant, Illinois, for medical-corps training before the Army sent him to [[Camp Ritchie]] as a native German speaker. There he trained in interrogation, document translation, and intelligence analysis, then stayed several months instructing new arrivals.
-From Ritchie he was posted to Washington, D.C., for three or four months in late 1943 and early 1944. He lived in a hotel and worked largely on his own, translating captured German naval and army documents—technical terms, places, operational detail—and delivering the work to an intelligence office whose exact name he later could not recall. He remembered “APO 1142” and his name appears on [[P.O. Box 1142]] rosters, but he was unsure whether he ever worked physically at Fort Hunt or only under that administrative umbrella.
+From Ritchie he spent three or four months in Washington, D.C., living in a hotel and working largely alone translating captured German naval and army documents. He remembered “APO 1142” and appears on [[P.O. Box 1142]] rosters, but he was unsure whether he ever worked physically at Fort Hunt. Most of the rest of the war he spent on Long Island in Boston Harbor, living on the island and interrogating German prisoners brought by boat—enlisted men and officers, with some scientists mixed in—using psychological pressure rather than force: the threat of Soviet captivity, fear for families in bombed cities, and at times his own identity as a German Jew. “Our job was to find out everything we could about the Nazi installations,” he told the ''Boston Globe'', “where they had been and where the troops were headed.”
-Most of the rest of the war he spent on Long Island in Boston Harbor, living on the island and interrogating German prisoners brought in by small boats as the Allies advanced in France—enlisted men and officers, mostly military, with some scientists mixed in, dozens to hundreds at a time rather than thousands. Interrogators worked in small teams, comparing stories for contradictions. Pressure was psychological: the threat of Soviet captivity, warnings that a prisoner’s city might be bombed next, and, at times, Gans’s own identity as a German Jew pushed out of Germany. He stressed that no one was beaten. His family in Boston did not know how close he was; he could not leave the post.
+After Germany’s surrender he lacked the points for discharge and toured with a Victory Bond musical unit around Boston. He was discharged on 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens. In 1947 he met Florence Kalis at the International Institute in Boston; she guessed that his middle initial “J” stood for Joachim, and they married in 1948. He set music aside as a full-time career, worked in business (including at the New England Mobile Book Fair), and kept playing—Newton Symphony Orchestra and twenty-two years as a cellist with the Boston Civic Symphony, where he also served on the board. He lived in Newton for more than sixty years and died of kidney disease on 18 December 2012 at Wingate at Needham, at 89.
-After Germany’s surrender he lacked the points for discharge and was put in a Victory Bond musical unit, touring small towns around Boston with an Army band. He was discharged on 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens. In later life he was associated with New England musical work, including the New England Philharmonic. He died in 2012.
 == Research notes ==
@@ Line 99: / Line 100: @@
 <div class="mw-collapsible mw-collapsed soldier-timeline">
 <div class="soldier-timeline-body">
-* c. 1923 — Born in Mannheim, Germany.
+* 1923 — Born in Mannheim, Germany (middle name Joachim).
-* Just before Kristallnacht — Fled Germany; via Cuba to Boston (February 1939) on a music-conservatory scholarship; parents delayed by visas.
+* Age 13 — Sent alone to Milan to study cello; family fled via Cuba (October 1938); arrived Boston February 1939 on a conservatory scholarship.
-* September 1939 onward — Classed as enemy alien by Massachusetts draft board; cleared to serve after nearly two years.
+* 1939–c. 1941 — Classed as enemy alien; parents joined later.
-* Induction — Fort Devens, Massachusetts; brief medical-corps training at Camp Grant, Illinois.
+* Induction — Fort Devens; brief Camp Grant medical training; Camp Ritchie MIS training and instructor duty.
-* Camp Ritchie — MIS interrogator / translator training; then several months as instructor.
+* Late 1943 – early 1944 — Washington document translation; APO 1142 / possible administrative link to P.O. Box 1142.
-* Late 1943 – early 1944 — Washington, D.C.: independent translation of captured German naval and army documents (~3–4 months); remembered APO 1142 / possible administrative link to P.O. Box 1142 (uncertain whether stationed at Fort Hunt).
+* Remainder of war — Long Island, Boston Harbor: interrogating German POWs.
-* Remainder of war — Long Island, Boston Harbor: interrogating German POWs and translating documents.
+* After VE Day — Victory Bond musical unit; discharged 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens.
-* After VE Day — Victory Bond musical unit around Boston.
+* 1948 — Married Florence Kalis; later business career; Newton / Boston Civic Symphony cello.
-* 14 May 1946 — Discharged at Fort Devens.
+* 18 December 2012 — Died at Wingate at Needham (kidney disease), age 89; longtime Newton resident.
-* 2012 — Died.
 </div>
 </div><div style="clear: both;"></div>
 == Sources ==
+* [[:File:ProQuest_Gans_Obituary_Boston_Globe_2013-01-03.pdf|Boston Globe — “Werner Gans, businessman; cellist fled from Holocaust” (Michele Richinick), 3 January 2013]] (ProQuest)
+* [[:File:ProQuest_Gans_Local_Ritchie_Boy_Jewish_Advocate_2006-09-08.pdf|Jewish Advocate — “Local ‘Ritchie Boy’ reaches into the past” (Hinda Mandell), 8 September 2006]] (ProQuest)
+* [[:File:ProQuest_Gans_Jewish_Refugees_Weapon_Words_Boston_Globe_2006-09-03.pdf|Boston Globe — “Jewish refugee’s weapon: words” (Susan Chaityn Lebovits), 3 September 2006]] (ProQuest)
 * [[: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)
 * [[:File:FOHU_POBox1142_Gans_Werner.pdf|NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Werner Gans interview transcript]] (Camp Ritchie training and instructor; Washington document translation; Boston Harbor interrogation; APO 1142 memory; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)