Paul Rabinek

Paul Rabinek
Personal details
Born	25 January 1914 Austria
Died	1964
Nativity	Austria
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	32768527
Rank	Staff Sergeant
Rank at Ritchie	Private
Camp Ritchie	Class 8 (17 May – 16 July 1943)
Section	5B
Team	IPW 41

Teammates

Team — IPW 41

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.

Paul Rabinek (25 January 1914–1964) was an Austrian-born Jewish Ritchie Boy who trained at Camp Ritchie in Class 8 and served as a staff sergeant on IPW Team 41 with Guy Stern and Kurt F. Y. Jasen.

Biography

Paul Rabinek was born on 25 January 1914 in Austria. He trained at Camp Ritchie in Class 8 (IPW German; graduated 16 July 1943) and served as a staff sergeant on IPW Team 41. Teammates included Guy Stern and Kurt F. Y. Jasen (team leadership also included Melvin Rust, Edgar W. Kahn, and William F. Bockhaus in Facebook/family accounts). Stern later recalled that he and Rabinek shared a jeep and were together for much of their Camp Ritchie training and through the war in Europe; Rabinek appears in Stern’s “Calvados” anecdote. On 20 July 1943, he was naturalized as a United States citizen in District Court in Washington, D.C., in a ceremony for Camp Ritchie soldiers reported the next day in The Washington Post.

Rabinek conducted interrogations at a First Army prisoner-of-war cage and wrote frequent reports covering the Battle of the Bulge period from late December 1944 into April 1945. Family tradition also recalls that he and Stern crashed their commanding officer Kurt Jasen’s wedding, where Rabinek met his future wife (then a bridesmaid).

After the war he worked in the family textile mill and as a floor layer. He died of a heart attack in 1964.

Research notes

• IPW Team 41 with Guy Stern and Kurt F. Y. Jasen; daughter Susan Rabinek Birnberg correspondence to Bruce Henderson / Sons and Soldiers (2017) confirms Stern jeep partnership (contact details not published).

Gallery

• 
  Washington Post, 21 July 1943 — naturalized 20 July 1943 (Camp Ritchie cohort ceremony, District Court, Washington, D.C.)

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	50
Class_ASN	32768527
Class_Name	RABINEK, Paul
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 17 May 1943 — Entered Class 8 (IPW Ge).
• 16 July 1943 — Graduated with Class 8. Classified as Typist Linguist.
• 20 July 1943 — Naturalized as a U.S. citizen in District Court, Washington, D.C. (Camp Ritchie soldiers’ ceremony; reported in The Washington Post, 21 July 1943)
• 15 December 1943 — Promoted to Sergeant T/3.
• Born 25 January 1914 in Austria.
• 106th Infantry Division attached to the Fifteenth Army.
• Served on IPW Team 41 with Guy Stern (shared jeep) and Kurt F. Y. Jasen.
• First Army POW cage interrogations / Battle of the Bulge period reports (late December 1944–April 1945).

Sources

• Same clipping (PDF)
• The Stories/Camp Ritchie naturalization (July 1943)
• “85 Soldiers Naturalized In Court Here,” The Washington Post, 21 July 1943, p. B6 (ceremony 20 July 1943; almost all from Camp Ritchie)
• Bruce Henderson, Sons and Soldiers (Guy Stern “Calvados” anecdote involving Paul Rabinek)
• Dan Gross research archive (miscellaneous timeline-adjacent documents; not uploaded): PAUL RABINEK (notes from daughter Susan).doc (family correspondence; private contact details omitted)
• 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)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2017-09-14 (1 post)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Paul Rabinek for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Rabinek, Paul for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: PAUL RABINEK.doc)