Hans Habe: An Ostentatious Leader
Hans Habe awakened contradictory emotions in his men. They laughed at his aristocratic air, at his uniquely designed dress uniform...
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Nicholas Riley
- Nov 6
- 34 min
Joseph Wechsberg: Epicurean Master of Cultural Commentary
He was a classical musician, a gastronome, an historian, a biographer, and a novelist. First and foremost, he was an American...
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ritchiemuseum
- Jun 30
- 31 min
Benno Frank: One of the Best
In April 1990 Peter Wyden, father of Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, organized a reunion of members of the 2nd and 3rd Mobile Radio...
58 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- May 31
- 10 min
John Lewis Kay (Giovanni Kaumheimer), We didn't have it so easy in Italy...
John Lewis Kay was born in Munich, September 13, 1919, as Hans Ludwig Kaumheimer, to a prosperous Jewish family. He was the second of...
211 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- May 4
- 28 min
David Akira Itami: A Kibei Tragedy
On December 26, 1950, David Akira Itami fatally shot himself. In Japan, the popular consensus was that the despair leading to Akira’s...
188 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Mar 6
- 20 min
Rubén Cobos: Collector of Songs and Folktales
Throughout his lifetime, Rubén Cobos combined an exuberant wit with an extraordinarily driven sense of purpose, becoming both a lyric...
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ritchiemuseum
- Jan 13
- 20 min
Jere Knight: More Than Lassie’s “Mother”
There is an interesting story about how Ruth Brylawski acquired the first name “Jere,” and it can be found in the Encyclopedia...
60 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Dec 1, 2022
- 9 min
Fred Fields (Siegfried Dingfelder): You Couldn't Get More German Than That
Fred Fields was born Siegfried Dingfielder and fled Germany with his family just after Kristallnacht. They arrived in the United States...
239 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Nov 7, 2022
- 19 min
Klaus Mann: Son of a Genius
When Klaus Mann was born in November, 1906, in Munich, his father, Thomas, was already a dominant force in German literature. Thomas...
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ritchiemuseum
- Nov 4, 2022
- 10 min
Ferdinand Sperl: The International Life of a Swiss Hotelkeeper
Among the papers of Ferdinand Sperl, there is a small black book in which he chronicled the stages of his life from his ...
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ritchiemuseum
- Sep 20, 2022
- 4 min
Erich Waldmann (Eric Waldman): A Spy From All Angles
Born in Vienna Austria, Eric Waldmann attended the University of Vienna where he receive his PhD in Biology. After Hitler marched into...
196 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Aug 24, 2022
- 13 min
Stephen Sigmund Mosbacher: A Hero from Nuremberg
In the 1920s the town of Nuremberg could claim a proud history. It was dominated by a castle built by the later Holy Roman Emperor Henry...
42 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Aug 8, 2022
- 3 min
Simon "Si"Lewen: An Artist of Pain and Resilience
Si Lewen (his professional name), was born in Lublin, Poland, on November 8, 1918, was an internationally known artist who put his...
46 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Jul 6, 2022
- 12 min
Arthur H. Jaffe: The Jewish “Professor”
When, in his novel The Crusaders (1948), the German writer Stefan Heym depicted the moral complexities of the soldiers who served in...
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![Hans A. Pawlak [Pawley]: Ambassador of the Arts](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7c7a22_2726211766ab4bdba95acec2d7cc6ef8~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_234,h_304,fp_0.50_0.50,q_95,enc_auto/7c7a22_2726211766ab4bdba95acec2d7cc6ef8~mv2.png)
ritchiemuseum
- Jun 23, 2022
- 15 min
Hans A. Pawlak [Pawley]: Ambassador of the Arts
In June 1938 the Iowa City Daily Iowan columnist Merle Miller named a young man whom, he said, was “Headed Upward”: Hans Pawlak — because...
66 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Jun 2, 2022
- 13 min
The Classified Case of the Pro Wrestler Who Helped Beat the Nazis: Man Mountain Dean
Man Mountain Dean was Hulk Hogan before Hulk Hogan. He leapt to the big screen before it was the sporting standard. And for his final...
63 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- Jun 2, 2022
- 18 min
Daniel T. Skinner: Black in America
Daniel T. Skinner was a Black student/scholar who benefited from a white and integrated American education system even as he struggled to...
122 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- May 20, 2022
- 18 min
Herbert Murez: An Independent Thinker
When, as a boy growing up in Vienna, Herbert Murez first read Karl May’s popular novels about the American wild west and the friendship...
250 views0 comments
ritchiemuseum
- May 19, 2022
- 34 min
Albert G. Rosenberg:Living in the Shadow of Buchenwald
Of the hundreds of German Jews who fled Hitler’s Germany and then joined the American army to serve in its defeat, Albert G. Rosenberg,...
125 views0 comments
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