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Henry Schwab
| Henry Schwab | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1922 Germany |
| Died | 2015 |
| Nativity | Germany |
| Religion | Jewish |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  United States Army |
| ASN | 32681038 |
| Rank | Staff Sergeant |
| Rank at Ritchie | Private |
| Camp Ritchie | Class 12 (27 September – 25 November 1943) |
| Section | 5D |
| Enlisted | New York City, New York |
| Specialty | IPW (interrogation of prisoners of war) |
| Unit / division | IPW Team 57; XX Corps; Third Army |
| Team | IPW 57 |
{{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.
Henry Schwab (1922–2015) was a German-born Jewish refugee and Camp Ritchie interrogator. After training in Class 12, he served with IPW Team 57 under XX Corps of the Third Army in Europe.
Biography[edit | edit source]
Henry Schwab was born in Germany in 1922 and came to the United States as a Jewish refugee. Before Camp Ritchie he trained with an infantry division at Camp Blanding, Florida, and became a U.S. citizen on 25 June 1943 in Ocala, Florida. Reassigned to the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, he entered Class 12 as a private in Company E-108, Second Training Battalion, and trained as an interrogator of prisoners of war.
In the winter of 1944 his unit took part in California–Arizona desert maneuvers out of Camp Young, where the makeup of future IPW teams was set. Promoted to staff sergeant in March 1944, he sailed from New York City for Glasgow on 10 April 1944 aboard the troopship SS Queen Mary. In England he was stationed at Broadway in the Midlands with XX Corps Headquarters of the Third Army under Lt. Gen. Walton H. Walker, posting war-room maps, working aerial-photo intelligence, and translating German documents, then moved to the coastal town of Marlboro before the Normandy invasion.
With IPW Team 57 attached to XX Corps under Gen. George S. Patton Jr., Schwab followed the campaign through Normandy, Brittany, Chartres, Metz, Trier, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Weimar, and Ried in Austria, submitting daily Corps-level interrogation reports. On 14 April 1945, two days after Buchenwald’s liberation, he visited the camp searching for relatives later known to have been murdered in the Holocaust. Near the end of the European fighting he also returned to Uehlfeld, Germany, with his cousin Fred Fields of the 69th IPW Team. After the armistice in May 1945 the team billeted at Tutzing in southern Germany to help identify suspected war criminals among surrendered German troops and hospital patients.
Schwab left Marseilles on the USS Admiral Capps on 3 October 1945, arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, on 10 October, and was discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey, on 28 January 1946. In later life he lived in West Hyannisport, Massachusetts, and wrote on Holocaust postal history; in 2005 he published a firsthand Camp Ritchie account in The Israel Philatelist.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
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Technical record[edit | edit source]
| Field | Imported value |
|---|---|
| Approx Age at Death | 93 |
| Nara ASN | 32681038 |
| Nara Name | SCHWAB HENRY |
| Nara State | 23 |
| Nara County | 61 |
| Nara POE | 2364 |
| Nara DOE | 111242 |
| 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 | 5 |
| Term of enlistment | Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law |
| Defer. Date | 0 |
| Nara Source | 0 |
| Nara Nativity | N1 |
| Nara Year of Birth | 22 |
| Nara Race | J |
| Nara Race Description | White not yet a citizen |
| Nara Education | 5 |
| Nara Civilian Occupation | 1 |
| Nara Marital Status | 1 |
| Nara Height (inches) | 66 |
| Nara Weight (lbs) | 142 |
| Class_ASN | 32681038 |
| Class_Name | SCHWAB, Henry |
| match_method | asn_exact_name_exact |
| row_source | both |
Timeline[edit | edit source]
- 1922 — Born in Germany (Jewish).
- 25 June 1943 — Became a U.S. citizen in Ocala, Florida, after infantry training at Camp Blanding.
- Entered Camp Ritchie Class 12 (Company E-108, Second Training Battalion); trained as an IPW interrogator.
- Winter 1944 — Desert maneuvers out of Camp Young, California; IPW team assignments formed.
- March 1944 — Promoted to staff sergeant.
- 10 April 1944 — Sailed from New York City to Glasgow, Scotland, aboard SS Queen Mary.
- Spring 1944 — Stationed at Broadway, England, with XX Corps Headquarters (Third Army); later staged at Marlboro before D-Day.
- 1944–1945 — Served with IPW Team 57, XX Corps, through France, Germany, and Austria.
- 14 April 1945 — Visited newly liberated Buchenwald.
- May 1945 — With IPW Team 57 at Tutzing, Germany, screening for suspected war criminals.
- 3 October 1945 — Shipped from Marseilles on USS Admiral Capps; arrived Norfolk, Virginia, 10 October 1945.
- 28 January 1946 — Discharged at Fort Dix, New Jersey.
- 2005 — Published "The Hidden Story Behind WWII Camp Ritchie Mail" in The Israel Philatelist.
Sources[edit | edit source]
- 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 Henry Schwab for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 1 source documents reviewed)
- Dan Gross, Timeline of Schwab, Henry for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 1 source files: HENRY SCHWAB.docx)
- The Stories/The Enemy I Knew/Fred Fields (cousin Uehlfeld episode)
- Article in The Israel Philatelist by Henry Schwab, W. Hyannisport, MA — © The Israel Philatelist - April, 2005