![]() In his spare time, Baer taught himself algebra and also collected foreign weapons and turned them into a makeshift museum ( Baer's collection later served as the basis for the official military small arms exhibit in Fort Riley, Kansas). Before long, Baer was shipped overseas where he served in England and France, training American troops in subjects like weapons handling and recognizing enemy uniforms. After two months, he was reassigned to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, where he learned how to interrogate prisoners of war. In 1943, Baer was drafted into the Army and sent to Fort Dix to train as a combat engineer. He then quit his factory job and went to work servicing radios at a store on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. Intrigued, Baer paid about $1.25 a week out of his meager salary to take the course and followed up by taking the advanced course. ![]() The ad was for a mail-order course in radio repair by the National Radio Institute in Washington DC. The event that led Ralph to a career in electronics occurred one day when he was riding the subway and noticed someone across the aisle reading a magazine with an ad on the back reading “Make Big Money in Radio and Television Servicing”. Passenger list for the Nieuw Amsteram, showing the Baer family (note that Ralph is listed as Rudolf Heinrich) Three of his sisters died in concentration camps: Louise, Augusta (who die in Kaiserwald), and Eugenie (who died in Jungfernhof). While Leo managed to escape Germany, his siblings weren't so lucky. It had its maiden voyage earlier in 1938 and dubbed by some the “ship of tomorrow” with features like a first-class restaurant with a Moroccan leather ceiling and ivory walls. The SS Nieuw Amsterdam was the pride of the Holland America Line. The Baer's (Leo, Charlotte, Ralph, and Isle) sailed from Rotterdam on the SS Nieuw Amsterdam and arrived in New York on 12 August 1938. They went to Stuttgart and met with the American consul, who got them on the short list of people allowed to leave the country (there was a tight quota). By 1938, things had become unbearable and in August, Baer's family fled the country, just three months before the Kristallnacht of “Night or Broken Glass” when Jewish businesses throughout the country were destroyed. At 14, the Nazi's kicked all Jewish students out of school, including Baer, who was forced to go to work typing, taking shorthand, and collecting money from local bars. When Baer was one-and-a-half, his family moved to Cologne, where things became even worse following the Nazi's rise to power. The town had been devastated by World War I, food was scarce, French Moroccan troops occupied the area, and inflation was rampant, causing many (including Baer's father) to go bankrupt. By then, however, there likely wasn't much shoemaking going on. Ralph Henry Baer was born Rudolf Heinrich Baer on 8 March 1922 in Pirmasens. ![]() ![]() Leo ran a tannery that supplied leather to the town's many shoemakers (like Rodalben, Pirmasens was known for its shoes). At some point (before or after the war), he moved to Pirmasens, a town about 5 km from Rodalben. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |