Werner Thomas Angress

Place: Berlin

Born: 1920

Death: 2010

Biography:

Werner T. Angress was a German-Jewish refugee, WWII veteran, and influential history professor. He was born on June 27, 1920, in Berlin to a comfortable middle-class family. In 1936, he began an apprenticeship at the Jewish emigration estate Groß Breesen in Silesia. Werner Angress fled Germany for England in October 1937, at the age of 17, to join his parents and two brothers who were already in exile. Five months later, the whole family resettled in Amsterdam. Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, he left Europe and traveled alone to the USA. He enlisted voluntarily in the U.S. Army and acquired American citizenship during his basic military training. In January 1944, he was transferred to England with his unit. On D-Day, June 6, 1944, Werner T. Angress parachuted into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division. Nine days later, he was captured behind enemy lines. He died on July 5, 2010, in Berlin at the age of 90.