Philip J. W. Glaessner

Philip J. W. Glaessner
Personal details
Born	29 June 1919 Lausanne, Switzerland
Died	2009
Nativity	Switzerland
Religion	Jewish
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
ASN	32718832
Rank	First Lieutenant
Rank at Ritchie	Private First Class
Camp Ritchie	Class 15 (4 January – 3 March 1944)
Section	5B
Team	IPW 54

On film Philip J. W. Glaessner appears in The Ritchie Boys (Christian Bauer, 2004).

Teammates

Team — IPW 54

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.

Philip J. W. Glaessner (1919–2009) was a United States Army Pfc who trained at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, in Class 15.

Biography

Philip Glaessner was born in Lausanne in 1919 and spent his childhood in Vienna. In 1936 his father sent him to England, where he attended college at Cambridge. In 1940 he was interned and sent to Canada; after release he went to Cuba, then immigrated to the United States in 1942 and rejoined his parents and sisters in New York.

Drafted after brief study at Columbia, he trained at Camp Ritchie and returned to Europe in 1944, arriving in Normandy shortly after D-Day. During the Battle of the Bulge he was captured; his Jewish identity was not discovered. In the POW camp he used his language skills to gather information and support fellow prisoners’ morale until liberation in spring 1945.

After the war he graduated in economics and worked for the Federal Reserve, U.S. government posts in Latin America, the Alliance for Progress, and international development banks in Washington.

Research notes

• Ritchie Boy
• Alliance for Progress; World Bank economist

Gallery

• 
  Earlier profile photograph (retained after press-photo update)

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	90
Class_ASN	32718832
Class_Name	GLAESSNER, Philip J.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• Born 29 June 1919 in Switzerland.
• 1936 — Sent to England; studied at Cambridge.
• 1940 — Interned; sent to Canada; later went to Cuba.
• 1942 — Immigrated to the United States (New York).
• 9 April 1943 — Became naturalized citizen.
• 1944–1945 — Normandy service; captured in the Battle of the Bulge; liberated spring 1945.
• 27 March 1944 — Transferred to DEML. Promoted to T/3.
• 3 March 1944 — Graduated Class 15 (‘German linguist’).
• Assigned to IPW Team 54 attached to VII Corps.
• Assigned to IPW Team 54 attached to VIII Corps.

Sources

• 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 Philip J. W. Glaessner for Camp Ritchie (private research document; 2 source documents reviewed)
• Dan Gross, Timeline of Glaessner, Philip J. W. for Camp Ritchie (private research files; selected non-private narrative findings; 2 source files: PHILIP J. GLAESSNER (2021).doc, PHILIP J. GLAESSNER.doc)
• The Ritchie Boys: Philip Glaessner
• The Ritchie Boys film site — press photos (© TANGRAM (Harald Stuckmann); high-res https://ritchieboys.com/DL/photos-highq/boys/glaessner.jpg)