American living in occupied Prague during WWII

Discussions on Axis documents, postcards, posters and other paper items as well as feldpost numbers.
history1
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#16

Post by history1 » 19 Jun 2012, 14:16

bilboleslie wrote:Second document
It´s hungarian,
at the left "Student Card with #1042 from 1937/38" at the last line at the right side "Not approved without verification of the knowledge". Issued by the "Local Railway Incorporation in Debrecen" front page of the ID card, you labeled it as back of document 2.
So again a time limited ticket for your man.

history1
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#17

Post by history1 » 19 Jun 2012, 14:50

bilboleslie wrote:sixth
Student ID which confirms that Johnson is a student in the Faculty of Arts at the university in Debrecen (Hungary) in the academic year 1937/38, 1st. semester. Enrolled on Sept. 30th, 1937

PS.: Hungary inserted.
Last edited by history1 on 19 Jun 2012, 17:45, edited 2 times in total.


bilboleslie
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#18

Post by bilboleslie » 19 Jun 2012, 16:21

J. Howell Johnson was born in Philadelphia in 1914. His father and mother were both Americans, and his grandparents, as well. He went to an Ivy league school - I think it may have been Princeton. I can find no sign that he had any ties to Eastern Europe, by reason of travel, ethnic heritage, or anything else.

Attached is photo 3, which for some reason didn't come over. I couldn't figure out how to flip these photos - sorry that they are upside down. I flip them and crop them on my computer but they still come over the same.
Attachments
James Howell Johnson 3.jpg

history1
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#19

Post by history1 » 19 Jun 2012, 17:13

bilboleslie wrote:[...] Attached is photo 3, [...]
Which shows a legitimation card to the postal savings book #12.249.420 of the German national postal authority.

history1
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#20

Post by history1 » 19 Jun 2012, 18:12

bilboleslie wrote: [...] I can find no sign that he had any ties to Eastern Europe, by reason of travel, ethnic heritage, or anything else.[...]
Sorry, I don´t understand this, what do you mean with "by reason.."?
AFAWK at the moment:
1. he studied in Debrecen (Hungary), at the Faculty of Arts starting Sept. 1937.
2. in November 1939 he attended the German University in Prague (Czech Republic), visiting the juridical faculty.
3. then he got the membership card of the Bund Auslanddeutscher Studenten, issued on Dec. 3rd 1939 in Berlin.

That makes me believe that, if he hasn´t german ancients, at least he was a supporter of the Nationalsocialism. Sure I have no proof for this at the moment but that´s my personal oppinion.
Or do you think that a foreigner with no german attitudes would have been affiliated in a NS - association limited for German ethnics in occupied country?

Jm2c

bilboleslie
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#21

Post by bilboleslie » 19 Jun 2012, 19:34

By "reason" I mean that there are no other clues that support that conclusion.
a) I can't see any sign that his parents or grandparents were of Eastern European extraction. Their surnames are quite English.
b) He had no trouble returning to the U.S. in 1945, with his wife and son.
c) Before he went to Eastern Europe, he worked for the U.S. government as an engineer.

Possibilities:
1) I wondered whether he felt compelled to affiliate with the Bund Auslanddeutscher Studenten to survive the Nazi occupation.

2) Frankly, I wondered whether he might be a spy. His son, for what it was worth, served in the U.S. military. If Dad were a Nazi, that would be interesting in and of itself.

history1
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#22

Post by history1 » 19 Jun 2012, 20:26

Correct with a), I´m not familiar with b), (but many former SS also where able to immigrate why an american should not?). Ref. c) he must have been quite young (23<) when working for the gouvernement.?

Excuse that I can´t provideinformations, only those translations from czech and hungarian, both are for me foreign languages, and of course german, my mother tongue.

Good luck on your way, maybe someone else can help you further .

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Vikki
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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#23

Post by Vikki » 21 Jun 2012, 02:26

An off-topic post by waldzee was removed from the thread.

~Vikki

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Re: American living in occupied Prague during WWII

#24

Post by bilboleslie » 16 May 2021, 22:27

I can find no suggestion that that is correct, but that doesn't mean that he is not a dual citizen. But his parents and grandparents seem to be American, with no hint of German extraction. Interesting thought.

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