Gerald Schwab

Born: February 19, 1925, Freiburg, Germany

Died: April 2, 2014, Annapolis, Maryland

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Podcast Listen to Gerald Schwab discuss being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944, just 4 years after immigrating to the U.S. from Nazi Germany

Gerald was born to a conservative Jewish family in Freiburg, Germany. His father was a businessman. His company was based in Germany and the warehouse was located in Switzerland. His mother helped his father with the business.

Gerald attended a German school until April 1933. The government issued a boycott on Jewish business. They traveled to Switzerland but were unable to stay. Instead they moved to St. Louis, France, where the family lived for a few years. His father ventured back and forth from France into Switzerland to sell supplies to retailers. In 1935, the French allowed refugees to live in France only if they moved 100 km from the border. This made it extremely difficult for his father to conduct business since he needed to travel from France. The family moved to Loerrach, Germany because of this situation.

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David and Paula Schwab pose in front of a car with their two children Gerd and Margot. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Paula Schwab poses with her two children Gerd and Margot in Freiburg, Germany. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Interpreter Gerald Schwab (right) looks over a document with an unidentified commissioner at the IMT Nuremberg commission hearings investigating indicted Nazi organizations. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Certificate issued to the donor's (Gerald Schwab) father, David Schwab, by the Lorrach district office, for having earned a medal for his military service on the front lines during the [First] World War. The certificate is issued “In the Name of the Leader and Chancellor.” —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Class portrait of first grade students at the Lessingschule in Freiburg, Germany. Gerd Schwab was the only Jewish pupil in the school. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
German Field Marshall Gerd von Rundstedt speaks to American prosecutor Robert Kempner (left) and interpreter Gerald Schwab during a pause at the IMT Nuremberg commission investigating the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Group portrait of IMT Nuremberg trial interpreters. Among those pictured is Gerd Schwab (at the right). —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Interpreters working for the IMT Nuremberg commission investigating indicted Nazi organizations pose with Russian prosecutor Colonel Orlov. Among those pictured are Freudenthal, Lowenstein, and Gerd Schwab. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Field Marshall Albert von Kesselring testifies at the IMT Nuremberg commission hearings investigating indicted Nazi organizations. Kesselring sits at the table at right, next to the interpreter, Gerd Schwab. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.
Gerd Schwab reads from the Torah during his Bar Mitzvah ceremony in Loerrach, Germany. —US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Gerald Schwab.

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The Schwab family wanted to leave Germany in 1938. Gerald attended a German school until two days after the Night of Broken Glass on November 9, 1938. By now the Germans began to add the letter J in red to passports of Jews. His father could no longer travel for business.

March 1939, Gerald joined the Kindertransport. He lived with a farmer near Zurich, Switzerland from April till December and then stayed with a Christian family until May 1940. On May 10, 1940, his parent’s received the family’s Visas (the same day the Germans invaded Belgium and Holland). One week later they left for Italy and sailed to the United States on the S.S. Washington.

Gerald was 15 years old when he arrived in New York. His family first lived in Long Branch, New Jersey. After a year in the United States, the family acquired a poultry farm in central New Jersey and Gerald was schooled. In 1944, he was drafted into the U.S. Army and achieved the rank of Corporal by the time he was discharged.

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