Richard Schifter

Richard Schifter
Personal details
Born	31 July 1923 Vienna, Austria
Died	4 October 2020
Nativity	Austria
Religion	Jewish
Known for	4th Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	32966898
Rank	Private First Class
Camp Ritchie	Class 17 (11 March – 8 May 1944)
Section	5B
Enlisted	New York City, New York
Battles / wars	World War II
Teams	IPW 83, IPW 94

Interview Watch Richard Schifter on American Veterans Center.

On film Richard Schifter appears in The Ritchie Boys (Christian Bauer, 2004).

Teammates

Team — IPW 83

Team — IPW 94

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.

Richard Schifter (31 July 1923 – 4 October 2020) was a Ritchie Boy (from Austria; Jewish) who trained at Camp Ritchie in class 17 and served with IPW Teams 83 and 94.

Biography

Richard Schifter was born in Vienna on 31 July 1923 into a Jewish family. He was the only member of his immediate family able to emigrate to the United States; his parents remained on a waiting list and did not survive the Holocaust. He arrived in the U.S. at age fifteen and later attended City College of New York.

After college he entered the Army in 1943 and trained at Camp Ritchie as an IPW. He was assigned to the same special unit as Morris Parloff and landed in France in summer 1944. During the Battle of the Bulge period he and his team remained in Aachen and took part in interrogating the civilian population. After Germany’s surrender he served with the Military Government as a civilian until returning to the United States in 1948.

Schifter studied law and practiced as a lawyer, later serving in the U.S. State Department and the National Security Council. He was appointed a U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and Deputy U.S. Representative on the U.N. Security Council.

Research notes

• OTC
• 3rd Army
• Ritchie Boy
• Ambassador and Representative to the United Nations

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Nara ASN	32966898
Nara Name	SCHIFTER RICHARD
Nara State	23
Nara County	5
Nara POE	2364
Nara DOE	80643
Nara Grade Alpha	PVT
Nara Grade Code	8
Nara Branch Alpha	NO
Nara Branch Code	2
Branch	No branch assignment
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	N2
Nara Year of Birth	23
Nara Race	J
Nara Race Description	White not yet a citizen
Nara Education	7
Nara Civilian Occupation	992
Nara Marital Status	6
Nara Height (inches)	34
Nara Weight (lbs)	529
Class_ASN	32966898
Class_Name	SCHIFTER, Richard
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• Born 1923.
• 1943 — Entered the U.S. Army.
• 11 March 1944 — Entered Class 17 (IPW Ge).
• 14 June 1944 — Promoted to S/Sgt. Transferred to DEML.
• 8 May 1944 — Graduated with Class 17 (German Document Examiner).
• Summer 1944 — Landed in France with a special unit that included Morris Parloff.
• 1945–1948 — Military Government civilian service in Germany; returned to the U.S. in 1948.
• 1966 — 1970 Served as Democratic Party Chairman in Montgomery County.
• 1985 — 1992 Served as U.
• Also served with IPW Team 83.

Sources

• Wikipedia: Richard Schifter
• 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 2021-07-15 (1 post)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Richard Schifter for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 2 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Schifter, Richard for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 2 source files: RICHARD SCHIFTER.doc, RICHARD SCHIFTER.docx)
• The Ritchie Boys: Richard Schifter
• The Ritchie Boys film site — press photos (© TANGRAM (Harald Stuckmann); high-res https://ritchieboys.com/DL/photos-highq/boys/schifter.jpg)