Friedman, Rudolph E. (39076100)

Rudolph E. Friedman
Personal details
Born	1914 Germany, Of Jewish Faith
Died	1999
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	39076100
Rank	Corporal
Camp Ritchie	Class 16 (6 February – 5 April 1944)
Section	7C
Enlisted	Sacramento, California
Specialty	Interrogation of prisoners of war
Team	IPW 164

Teammates

Team — IPW 164

These are other soldiers listed on the same team roster. People moved between teams; overlapping service dates are not always documented.

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.

Rudolph E. Friedman (1914–1999), known as Rudy, was a German-born Jewish Camp Ritchie graduate of the 16th class (April 1944) who served as a master sergeant on IPW Team 164 in France and Germany. Family posts on the Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page preserve his diploma, IPW photographs, and unit mementos shared by his son Ronald.

Biography

Wiki profile records list Rudolph E. Friedman (ASN 39076100) as born in 1914 in Germany, of Jewish faith, with Camp Ritchie Class 16 (section 7C, corporal), IPW Team 164, overseas service, and enlistment at Sacramento, California. Civilian records list four years of college and an occupation as a manufacturing foreman. He died in 1999.

According to his son Ronald Friedman, writing to the Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, Rudolph graduated from Camp Ritchie in April 1944 with the 16th class. By June he was a master sergeant serving on IPW Team 164 with Harold Bergstrom, Andrew Akos, Jack Hillesum, and Fred W. Hellman (also referred to as Captain Frederick Hellman), in France and later into Germany.

Family photographs shared on the page show Friedman with IPW Team 164: one taken April 12, 1945 at Geislingen, southwest of Stuttgart, with an Interrogators of Prisoners of War (IPW) sign behind him; others from June 1945 at Lindenfels, south of Frankfurt; and additional undated images with teammates, two of whom Ronald believed to be Bergstrom and Akos. The family also kept a unit memento—a cross-section of an 88 mm howitzer prepared by Friedman and his teammates to commemorate the advance into Germany.

Ronald later noted the Latin motto on the MITC completion certificate, Fas est ab hoste doceri ("It is right to be taught even by an enemy"), as a fitting description of how Ritchie Boys worked. After Ronald's messages were posted, a relative of teammate Fred Hellman also contacted the page, linking the IPW 164 story across families.

Research notes

• Also Class 1 IPW Ge

Gallery

• 
• 
  The second photo on the right was taken on June 26, 1945 at Lindenfels, south of Frankfurt, Germany Courtesy of his son, Ronald Friedman.
• 
  The second photo on the right was taken on June 26, 1945 at Lindenfels, south of Frankfurt, Germany Courtesy of his son, Ronald Friedman.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	85
Nara ASN	39076100
Nara Name	FRIEDMAN RUDOLPH E
Nara State	91
Nara County	89
Nara POE	9170
Nara DOE	10241
Nara Grade Alpha	PVT
Nara Grade Code	8
Nara Branch Alpha	BI
Nara Branch Code	0
Branch	Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA
Nara Term or Enlistment	3
Term of enlistment	Enlistment for Hawaiian Department
Defer. Date	0
Nara Source	0
Nara Nativity	N1
Nara Year of Birth	14
Nara Race	J
Nara Race Description	White not yet a citizen
Nara Education	8
Nara Civilian Occupation	591
Nara Marital Status	6
Nara Height (inches)	73
Nara Weight (lbs)	158
Class_ASN	39076100
Class_Name	FRIEDMAN, Rudolph E.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Sources

• Camp Ritchie class roster (classes 1–31), merged research file
• 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 2018-01-10 (4 posts)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2018-01-15 (1 post)