Werner Joachim Gans

Werner Joachim Gans
Personal details
Born	1923 Mannheim, Germany
Died	18 December 2012 Needham, Massachusetts
Nativity	Germany
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	31457356
Enlisted	Ft Devens, Massachusetts

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Werner Joachim Gans (1923–18 December 2012) was a Mannheim-born U.S. Army Ritchie Boy who trained at Camp Ritchie in interrogation, document work, and psychological warfare, then stayed on to instruct recruits. He later translated captured papers in Washington and spent most of the war interrogating German prisoners on Long Island in Boston Harbor. After the war he rebuilt the family chemical business in Greater Boston and played cello with the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Civic Symphony.

Biography

Werner Joachim Gans was born in 1923 in Mannheim, Germany, into a comfortable household. His father, Moritz, ran S. Ganss Oil and Fat Manufacture, distributing sanitary products across Germany and into southern France until Nazi boycotts forced a Christian-named middleman firm that the regime later exposed. Werner began violin at six and cello at ten. Antisemitism made schooling in Mannheim impossible, and at thirteen he was sent alone to Milan to study music—he knew no Italian and lived with a host family. In the summer of 1937 he came home to find his parents, Moritz and Bella, briefly incarcerated by the Gestapo; they were freed on condition they sell the business and leave. After Moritz paid a fine to recover a passport the Nazis had confiscated over a trivial traffic offense, the family secured a transit visa to Cuba and left in October 1938, a month before Kristallnacht. An aunt was lost that night. Werner’s sister Ruth, married in Italy, later fled to Switzerland with her young son after her husband’s death and rejoined the family in Boston in 1947.

In Cuba, Moritz supported them selling insecticide with a single Spanish sales pitch, while Werner played cello with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana. A pianist there recommended him for a scholarship to Boston’s Malkin Conservatory of Music (whose staff included Harry Ellis Dickson and Arthur Fiedler). He reached Boston in February 1939 at fifteen on a student visa—“I had no idea where Boston was,” he later said—placed first by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society with a family in Sharon, where he finished high school, then with a Newton family. His parents followed in the fall of 1940 and lived for a time in Brighton before settling in Newton. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Malkin, but a hoped-for debut with the Boston Pops was cut short when he was drafted; so many conservatory students were called up that the school’s director closed the shop and joined the New York Philharmonic.

When the United States entered the war he was classed as an enemy alien—“as if I wanted Hitler to win,” he joked—and only after about eighteen months was he reclassified A-1. Inducted at Fort Devens for clerical basic training, he went on to Camp Grant, Illinois, where he became a U.S. Citizen. Once the Army recognized his German, it sent him to Camp Ritchie for interrogation, document translation, and psychological warfare. He trained to go behind enemy lines and repeatedly received orders to ship out, but he stayed Stateside: several months instructing new arrivals at Ritchie, then three or four months in Washington translating captured German naval and army documents while living in a hotel. He remembered “APO 1142” and appears on P.O. Box 1142 rosters, though he was unsure he ever worked physically at Fort Hunt.

Most of the rest of the war he spent on Long Island in Boston Harbor, living on the island and interrogating German prisoners brought by boat—ordinary soldiers and diehard Nazis among them, some captured in France—while the Allies prepared to invade Germany. The work was intense but not physical; the interrogators wore Army officer uniforms and medallions so prisoners thought they held real authority, and they sometimes displayed a Stalin poster to play on fear of Soviet captivity. “Our job was to find out everything we could about the Nazi installations,” he told the Boston Globe, “where they had been and where the troops were headed.” After Germany’s surrender he lacked the points for discharge and toured with a Victory Bond musical unit around Boston, using those travels to help line up customers for the family firm. He was discharged on 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens.

In 1947 he met Florence Kalis, a Boston native, at the International Institute; on their first date she guessed that his middle initial “J” stood for Joachim—“I said, ‘I have to marry her,’” he recalled—and they married in 1948. With the family funds still thin after the German losses, he set music aside as a full-time career and, with his father, built Gansolin Chemical, selling cleaning and sanitation products (later including contracts with institutions such as the YMCA and hotel and restaurant chains). Florence ran the office. He retired when the business was sold about 1986. Music stayed semi-professional: the Newton Symphony Orchestra and twenty-two years as a cellist with the Boston Civic Symphony, where he also served on the board and played under Max Hobart with violinists such as Joseph Silverstein. In later years he worked at the New England Mobile Book Fair (where his son Steven was house attorney), tutored Roxbury schoolchildren through Generations Incorporated, and returned to Germany twice—in 1987 with his son and in 2000 on a Mannheim mayor’s invitation. He lived in Newton for more than sixty years and died of kidney disease on 18 December 2012 at Wingate at Needham, at 89. Besides Florence he was survived by Steven, daughter Carla Caliga of Boston, sister Ruth Zweig of Newton, and two grandchildren.

Research notes

• Also appears in joint NPS Fort Hunt oral history with Werner Herbert Gumpertz and Henry Schwab.
• Camp Ritchie MIS training and instructor; Washington document translation; Boston Harbor POW interrogation (NPS oral history).
• Named on P.O. Box 1142 rosters / remembered APO 1142; interviewee unsure he was physically stationed at Fort Hunt.
• Postwar musical work (New England Philharmonic / CSU notes).

Gallery

No portrait on file yet.

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	89
Nara ASN	31457356
Nara Name	GANS WERNER J
Nara State	13
Nara County	25
Nara POE	1328
Nara DOE	230344
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	N1
Nara Year of Birth	23
Nara Race	J
Nara Race Description	White not yet a citizen
Nara Education	7
Nara Civilian Occupation	24
Nara Marital Status	6
Nara Height (inches)	0
Nara Weight (lbs)	0
row_source	demographics

Timeline

• 1923 — Born in Mannheim, Germany (middle name Joachim); violin at 6, cello at 10.
• Age 13 — Sent alone to Milan to study music.
• Summer 1937 — Returned from Italy; parents briefly held by Gestapo; freed to sell business and leave.
• October 1938 — Family left Germany for Cuba (transit visa); aunt lost on Kristallnacht the following month; sister Ruth later wartime refuge in Switzerland.
• 1938–1939 — Havana Philharmonic; scholarship to Malkin Conservatory, Boston.
• February 1939 — Arrived Boston (HIAS / Sharon High School); parents immigrated fall 1940 (Brighton, then Newton).
• Early 1940s — Bachelor’s in music, Malkin Conservatory; enemy-alien classification, then A-1 after ~18 months.
• Induction — Fort Devens (clerical basic); Camp Grant, Illinois (U.S. citizenship); Camp Ritchie MIS training and instructor duty.
• Late 1943 – early 1944 — Washington document translation; APO 1142 / P.O. Box 1142 roster link (physical Fort Hunt uncertain).
• Remainder of war — Long Island, Boston Harbor: interrogating German POWs (officer uniforms / Stalin-poster pressure; non-physical).
• After VE Day — Victory Bond musical unit (also helped Gansolin sales); discharged 14 May 1946 at Fort Devens.
• 1947–1948 — Met Florence Kalis at International Institute; married 1948; sister Ruth and her son brought to Boston 1947.
• Postwar – c. 1986 — Gansolin Chemical with father (Florence in office); Newton Symphony; Boston Civic Symphony cello (~22 years) and board.
• 1987 / 2000 — Return visits to Germany (family roots; Mannheim mayor’s invitation).
• 18 December 2012 — Died of kidney disease at Wingate at Needham, age 89; longtime Newton resident.

Sources

• Boston Globe — Michele Richinick, “Werner Gans, businessman; cellist fled from Holocaust,” 3 January 2013 (ProQuest clipping)
• Jewish Advocate — Hinda Mandell, “Local ‘Ritchie Boy’ reaches into the past,” 8 September 2006 (ProQuest clipping)
• Boston Globe — Susan Chaityn Lebovits, “Jewish refugee’s weapon: words,” 3 September 2006 (ProQuest clipping)
• NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — joint interview with Werner Gans, Werner Gumpertz, and Henry Schwab (formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
• NPS Fort Hunt Oral History — Werner Gans interview transcript (Camp Ritchie training and instructor; Washington document translation; Boston Harbor interrogation; APO 1142 memory; formerly published on the NPS Fort Hunt oral-history exhibit)
• 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)