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Historical records matching Harry Lawrence Rothstein
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About Harry Lawrence Rothstein
Harry was born in Vienna, Austria on May 19, 1924 to Marcus Rothstein of Tarnopol, Galicia and Bertha Tillinger of Stanislav, Galicia (Galicia refers to the part of present day Ukraine that was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.) His family had moved to Vienna before he and his older sister Paula were born in response to a request from Emperor Franz Joseph I where he asked Jewish residents of that territory to come to Vienna and help improve the economy and add to the culture of the city. In 1938 he and Paula immigrated to the United States. Before enlisting in the Army he attended George Washington High School in Washington Heights, NY at the same time that future Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attended that school.
Harry enlisted in the U.S. Army on July 29, 1943 at the age of 19. He felt a strong desire to return to his homeland and take his part in defeating the Nazis. His father, Marcus was in a prisoner in Dachau for a period of time before being freed as part of a prisoner exchange. After basic training his unit was sent to France and they made their way through Italy and Germany, finally arriving in Austria.
He eventually joined the CIC as he felt doing this type of work put his skills to their best use in defeating the Nazis. He interrogated prisoners and reviewed and translated Nazi documents. He also seemed to prefer the more "civilized" accommodations provided by this assignment as well.
Like many veterans, he did not speak much of his war experiences, but several stories were told quite frequently. He liberated one of the concentration camps. He seemed to think a good way to get through his experience was to be a "yes man." When asked if he could drive, he said "yes" and was assigned to drive an officer around. This was his FIRST time EVER driving, and it was a standard shift as well. When asked if he could type he said "yes" and was assigned typing duties. He became a very fast two fingered hunter and pecker. A favorite story was the one where he recognized a prisoner he was interrogating, but the prisoner did not recognize him. He told the prisoner he'd better reveal all that he knows because the Americans already know everything about him; where he lived, went to school, even where his mother bought her groceries. The story ends with the prisoner being shocked at how good American counter intelligence was and revealed all that they wanted.
He also was quite accident prone while in the service and had quite a few stays in the hospital. He cut his cheek in a car accident. He also caught malaria and earned the purple heart when he broke his finger.
Harry was asked to remain in the military after the war to continue with reviewing Nazi documents and interrogate prisoners to determine if they should be charged with war crimes. Apparently he had a relapse of his malaria and was sent home.
In September of 1946 he married Judith Polak, who he had started dating before enlisting.
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Harry Lawrence Rothstein's Timeline
| 1924 |
May 19, 1924
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Vienna, Austria
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| 1972 |
June 25, 1972
Age 48
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Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania, USA
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