Henry Norton

Henry Norton
Personal details
Birth name	Heinrich Julius Nussenbaum
Born	1922 Bautzen, Germany
Died	2012
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Awards	Bronze Star
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	01183147
Rank	Captain
Unit / division	88th Infantry Division

Interview Watch Henry Norton on Zekelman Holocaust Center.

Awards and honors

Bronze Star

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Henry Norton (1922 – 2012), born Heinrich Julius Nussenbaum in Bautzen, Germany, was a Camp Ritchie–trained interrogator with the 88th Infantry Division and later Fifth and Seventh Army G-2 who received the Bronze Star.

Biography

Heinrich Julius Nussenbaum—later Henry Norton—was born in 1922 in Bautzen, Saxony, the eldest of five children of Samuel Abraham and Regina Zweig Nussenbaum. Nazi harassment destroyed his father’s clothing business; the three oldest brothers boarded in a Breslau Jewish orphanage to attend school. In 1937, at fifteen, Henry came alone to Rochester, New York, hoping to bring the family over. His parents and sister Doris were later murdered; brothers Siegfried and Isidor survived camps, though Siegfried was killed after liberation.

After Benjamin Franklin High School and night engineering classes at RIT, Norton declined a defense-plant deferment and entered the Army. He trained in artillery at Fort Bragg, completed OCS at Fort Sill, and later went to Camp Ritchie. As an IPW with the 88th Infantry Division’s 350th Infantry in Italy He interrogated under fire in mountain combat, then moved to Fifth and Seventh Army G-2 for the invasion of southern France and into Germany. Near discharge He traveled Europe contacting German rocket scientists, including leads toward Wernher von Braun’s circle, for U.S. recruitment. He left active duty as a captain with the Bronze Star in October 1945.

Norton married Jenny Cohen in Miami on 9 June 1946, earned a J.D. from the University of Miami in 1952, and practiced law there while remaining active in Jewish War Veterans leadership.

Research notes

• 7th Army

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	90
row_source	demographics

Timeline

• 1922 — Born Heinrich Julius Nussenbaum in Bautzen, Germany.
• 1937 — Emigrated alone to Rochester, New York.
• 1940 — Graduated Benjamin Franklin High School; later studied at RIT at night.
• — Artillery OCS, Fort Sill; later trained at Camp Ritchie.
• — IPW with 88th Infantry Division in Italy; later Fifth/Seventh Army G-2.
• October 1945 — Discharged as captain with Bronze Star, Camp Blanding, Florida.
• 9 June 1946 — Married Jenny Cohen in Miami.
• June 1952 — J.D., University of Miami School of Law.
• 2012 — Died.

Sources

• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral-history index
• Zekelman Holocaust Center oral history, OHV 417
• 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)