Paul J. Weitzenkorn

Paul J. Weitzenkorn
Personal details
Born	1922 Mayen, Germany
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	32764804
Rank	Private First Class
Camp Ritchie	Class 9 (21 June – 18 August 1943)
Section	5E

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Paul J. Weitzenkorn (born about 1922) was a German-Jewish refugee from Mayen who trained at Camp Ritchie (Class 9) as an interrogator and later returned to his hometown with U.S. forces.

Biography

Paul J. Weitzenkorn grew up in Mayen, Germany, in a Jewish family that owned a department store. During Kristallnacht (9–10 November 1938), when he was about sixteen, Nazis threw his father into Dachau; the family stayed indoors in fear. Within months his father was released and the family fled to the United States in 1939, about two months after Kristallnacht, when Weitzenkorn was seventeen.

He enlisted in the U.S. Army and trained with the Ritchie Boys at Camp Ritchie, Maryland (Class 9), working as an interpreter and interrogator. Service later took him back to Mayen, where he questioned German prisoners in a building he had known as a boy. He recalled prisoners whispering his name and asking what would happen to them; he answered that it would be “the same thing you did with us,” then added that the Americans were “not that cruel.” Family albums preserved names and faces of relatives who did not survive the Holocaust.

In later life Weitzenkorn lived in Lauderhill, Florida, spoke about his wartime service, and celebrated his 99th birthday with family in Fort Lauderdale in June 2021.

Research notes

• 6/19/1922-A

Gallery

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Technical record

Field	Imported value
Class_ASN	32764804
Class_Name	WEITZENKORN, Paul J.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• About 1922 — Born; raised in Mayen, Germany.
• 9–10 November 1938 — Kristallnacht; father imprisoned at Dachau (later released).
• 1939 — Family immigrates to the United States.
• Camp Ritchie Class 9 — interpreter/interrogator; later returns to Mayen with U.S. forces.
• June 2021 — 99th birthday celebration, Fort Lauderdale area.

Sources

• WSVN 7News — Living History interview with Paul Weitzenkorn (27 January 2022)
• Sun Sentinel / Florida Jewish Journal — Weitzenkorn 99th birthday (25 June 2021)
• 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)