| Rudolph Eugene Fellner | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1913 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 2011 |
| Nativity | Austria |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 38040476 |
| Rank | Sergeant |
| Rank at Ritchie | Staff Sergeant |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 7 (15 April – 12 June 1943) |
| Section | 14 |
| Unit / division | 2nd Armored Division |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
Rudolph Eugene Fellner (1913–2011) was a Vienna-born U.S. Army sergeant and Ritchie Boy who trained at Camp Ritchie with Class 7 as a German—and later Italian—interrogator. Citizenship delays kept him from early overseas intelligence slots; he later landed in Normandy with the 2nd Armored Division and did forward military-government work in France and Germany. He also served at P.O. Box 1142.
Biography
Rudolph Eugene Fellner was born in Vienna in 1913. He grew up in a modest lower-middle-class home, went to university, and had nearly finished a doctorate when the Anschluss in March 1938 ended that path overnight. He had been working as a musician and conductor until Jews were barred from public life. Stormtroopers once forced him to scrub floors and nearly packed him for Dachau; an SS officer who recognized him as a former schoolmate got him off. He left Austria alone, spent about eighteen months in Italy on rolling thirty-day permits waiting for a U.S. Visa, and reached New York on 23 September 1939 on what he believed was the last ship out of Italy.
He volunteered for the Army in March 1941, before Pearl Harbor—sure, he said, that few Americans had a better reason to enlist. At Fort Sill, Oklahoma, his piano playing even earned a humorous mention in Stars and Stripes.
Selected for Camp Ritchie, he trained with Class 7 as a German-language interrogator—order of battle, aircraft recognition, interrogation methods, military organization—and graduated for that work. Several intelligence postings, including a chance to go with General Headquarters toward North Africa, fell through because he was not yet a citizen, leaving him loosely assigned. While he waited he served as a stockade sergeant at Fort Meade and taught himself to type, a skill he later called one of the Army’s most useful gifts to him.
He returned to Ritchie to retrain as an Italian-language interrogator, hoping to reach Italy, where his parents were held in a detention camp. He led a company of men with Italian surnames—many of whom barely spoke the language—drilled them, sang marching songs with them, and prepared for deployment. Again citizenship blocked him from going overseas. He gave the men a farewell talk and asked anyone who reached the Italian camp to greet his mother; one soldier later did.
Naturalized on 20 July 1943 after repeated Army intelligence checks, he was swept up in a 1944 mass reassignment—“cattle alert”—into the 2nd Armored Division (“Hell on Wheels”). With no combat time he was demoted from staff sergeant to sergeant to fit the division’s ranks. He landed in France on D-Day plus six with the first artillery battalion ashore.
From there he moved into forward military government: entering newly liberated towns, standing up temporary civil authority, finding non-Nazi officials from pre-1933 administrations, and keeping occupation troops from looting. His languages made him the man his superior leaned on when the officer spoke neither French nor German. In one town a civilian walked up and formally surrendered the place to Fellner before American infantry had even arrived. He believed he was among the first Americans into Berlin after the Soviets were already there, and he remembered Russian drivers and allies as unpredictable.
After the fighting he got compassionate leave to marry in England, stayed in Europe for lack of transport home, and studied French language and civilization at the University of Dijon. He was discharged on Christmas Day 1945. An NPS oral history also places him at P.O. Box 1142—he spoke of serving there with pride and of passing through a segregated Washington bus station on the way—but the excerpt does not spell out his duties at the post.
After the war he built a career in music, including directing opera programs at Carnegie Mellon University. He died in 2011.
Research notes
- Camp Ritchie Class 7 (German interrogator); returned for Italian interrogator training; Fort Hunt / P.O. Box 1142 (NPS oral history — duties not detailed in excerpt).
- Postwar: director of opera programs, Carnegie Mellon University.
Gallery
No portrait on file yet.
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 98 |
| Nara ASN | 38040476 |
| Nara Name | FELLNER RUDOLPH E |
| Nara State | 85 |
| Nara County | 113 |
| Nara POE | 8536 |
| Nara DOE | 130341 |
| 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 | 0 |
| Term of enlistment | Unknown |
| Defer. Date | 0 |
| Nara Source | 0 |
| Nara Nativity | N3 |
| Nara Year of Birth | 13 |
| Nara Race | J |
| Nara Race Description | White not yet a citizen |
| Nara Education | 9 |
| Nara Civilian Occupation | 24 |
| Nara Marital Status | 6 |
| Nara Height (inches) | 65 |
| Nara Weight (lbs) | 130 |
| Class_ASN | 38040476 |
| Class_Name | FELLNER, Rudolph |
| match_method | asn_exact_name_exact |
| row_source | both |
Timeline
- 1913 — Born in Vienna, Austria.
- March 1938 — Anschluss ends university career; near-arrest by stormtroopers.
- 23 September 1939 — Arrived New York from Italy.
- March 1941 — Volunteered for the U.S. Army; Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
- Class 7 — Camp Ritchie German interrogator training; citizenship blocked some overseas intel assignments; stockade sergeant at Fort Meade.
- Returned to Camp Ritchie — Italian interrogator retraining; again barred from Italy deployment for lack of citizenship.
- 20 July 1943 — Naturalized as a U.S. citizen.
- 1944 — Assigned to 2nd Armored Division (demoted from staff sergeant to sergeant); landed Normandy D+6.
- 1944–1945 — Forward military government in France and Germany; among early Americans in Berlin.
- Also — Service at P.O. Box 1142 (duties not detailed in NPS excerpt).
- Christmas Day 1945 — Discharged; had studied at University of Dijon; married in England on compassionate leave.
- Postwar — Opera / music career, including Carnegie Mellon.
- 2011 — Died.
Sources
- NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Rudolph Fellner interview transcript (Camp Ritchie Class 7 German/Italian interrogator; 2nd Armored / military government; P.O. Box 1142; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
- 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)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Rudolph Eugene Fellner for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Fellner, Rudolph Eugene for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: RUDOLPH E. FELLNER.doc)