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George L. Frenkel
| George L. Frenkel | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 13 February 1919 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 2014 |
| Nativity | Germany |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 0552533 |
| Rank | Staff Sergeant |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 11 (25 August – 23 October 1943) |
| Section | 5A |
| Team | IPW 324 |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
George L. Frenkel (13 February 1919–2014) was a Berlin-born U.S. Army interrogator. He trained at Camp Bullis and Camp Ritchie (Class 11), served at P.O. Box 1142, taught at Ritchie, and later worked at the Berlin District Interrogation Center.
Biography
George L. Frenkel was born in Berlin on 13 February 1919, near the end of the First World War. When he was about six weeks old the family moved to Zurich, where his father took a senior post with a department-store firm. They returned to Germany a few years later, drawn by Weimar Berlin. His father worked in high-level retail management. The household was assimilated, middle-class, and well educated. Inflation and the rise of antisemitism convinced his father that Germany was turning dangerous.
The family was close to Carl Laemmle, the Universal Pictures founder and an old school friend of Frenkel’s grandmother. Laemmle had already sponsored many refugees and hesitated to sign another affidavit; American relatives finally agreed to sponsor George. He left Germany in 1937, before Kristallnacht. During the pogrom relatives were arrested and later released—helped, in one uncle’s case, by World War I service. Most of the family got out. One aunt died on the way to Theresienstadt.
Frenkel reached the United States with little money, stayed at the YMHA, and worked odd commercial jobs—delivery boy, stock and order clerk—while going to night school. Nine years of English study in Germany left him fluent. A younger brother, born in Switzerland, came over faster on the Swiss quota.
He was drafted in May 1941 and sent to Camp Upton, New York. On the first day he hurt his ankle running to chow and spent about a month in the hospital. Next came cavalry training at Fort Riley, Kansas, then Fort Bliss, Texas, with a horse outfit that soon switched to mechanized vehicles. He heard about Pearl Harbor at Bliss and knew the United States would enter the war.
When the Army asked for German linguists he volunteered, but was turned down because he was not yet a citizen. He was naturalized in Alexandria, Virginia, in 1943. On a second call he entered intelligence training at Camp Bullis, near San Antonio, under Colonel Charles R. Warndof—an officer he later called one of the finest men he met in the service. The course covered interrogation methods, Geneva Convention rules, and basic intelligence work.
Frenkel served as an interrogation officer at P.O. Box 1142, the secret Fort Hunt post. He insisted on humane treatment and stuck to Geneva standards. Interrogation, as he described it, was a battle of wits, not coercion. Late in the war many prisoners talked freely once it was clear Germany had lost. He would not mistreat anyone in his charge. Roster records also place him in Class 11 at Camp Ritchie; by October 1943 he was back there teaching, after Fort Hunt—consistent with the Bullis, Fort Hunt, and Ritchie instructor path noted in Camp Ritchie Background.
After 1142 he went to the Berlin District Interrogation Center. There he saw ethnic Germans driven out of Eastern Europe—women barefoot, pushing carts—and said those scenes only hardened his refusal to harm a detainee. After the war he finished degrees in English literature and Germanic languages, earned a master’s, and later wrote scenarios for Voice of America. He died in 2014.
Research notes
- Fort Hunt / P.O. Box 1142 — interrogation officer; later Berlin District Interrogation Center (NPS oral history).
- Also Class ASN 32120696 on roster match (page ASN 0552533).
- Not Georg Frenkel the musician (Vienna, 18 July 1922 – 18 November 2011).
- Brother Peter also a Ritchie graduate (Class 6), per research notes.
Gallery
No portrait on file yet.
Technical record
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 95 |
| Class_ASN | 32120696 |
| Class_Name | FRENKEL, George L. |
| match_method | pass2_unique_name |
| row_source | both |
Timeline
- 13 February 1919 — Born in Berlin; early childhood in Zurich, then Weimar Germany.
- 1937 — Emigrated to the United States before Kristallnacht; YMHA; commercial jobs and night school.
- May 1941 — Drafted at Camp Upton, New York (ankle injury); cavalry training at Fort Riley, Kansas.
- 1941–1942 — Fort Bliss, Texas; learned of Pearl Harbor there.
- 11 August 1942 — Arrived at Fort Hunt / P.O. Box 1142 (roster note).
- 1943 — Naturalized in Alexandria, Virginia; IPW training at Camp Bullis under Col. Charles R. Warndof.
- 25 August 1943 — Entered Camp Ritchie Class 11 (German).
- October 1943 — Teaching at Camp Ritchie.
- Late war / occupation — Berlin District Interrogation Center.
- Postwar — Degrees in English literature and Germanic languages; master’s; Voice of America writing.
- 2014 — Died.
Sources
- NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — George Frenkel interview transcript (Brandon Bies, Sam Swersky, Doug Heimlich; 5 December 2006 & 18 January 2007) (P.O. Box 1142 interrogator / Berlin District Interrogation Center; 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 George L. Frenkel for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Frenkel, George L. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: GEORGE FRENKEL.doc)