Richard Böhm

Death https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VZGV-N38

Richard served as a first lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army during World War I, fighting on the Italian front at the end of the war. Hostilities between Austria-Hungary and Italy were ended by an armistice signed on November 3, 1918. Owing to inaccuracies in the wording of the documents, more than 300,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers were taken prisoner by the Italian army. Through a "misunderstanding" of the armistice deadline, the Italians observed a ceasefire 24 hours later than the Austrians, and Richard was taken prisoner of war in Italy on November 4, 1918. He was released from captivity five months later, on March 29, 1919.

Succeeding his father Leopold, Richard managed Brüder Böhm hat manufacturing operations in Neutitschein, Czechoslovakia (now Novy Jicin, Czech Republic), together with his cousin Otto Wolf, between the two world wars. Following Nazi Germany's annexations of Austria and the Czech Sudetenland in 1938, Richard emigrated with his cousins Victor and Joseph Bohm to Belgium in 1938, then to England in 1939, and finally to the United States in 1940.