Timeline - Ralph Schulz

1926

Ralph Schulz was born in Alton, Illinois.

1942

Ralph’s family moved from Alton to Louisville, Kentucky.

While away in school Ralph met the Von Trapp family. After hearing their story about their experiences in Europe and about the treatment of the Jews, Ralph began to have second thoughts about becoming a priest. Instead, he had thoughts of possibly joining the army.

1945

Ralph’s family was still living in Louisville when he left school in October and joined the regular Army for an 18-month term. He was shipped to Camp Atterbury near Edinburgh, Indiana. He spent three weeks there, and then transferred to Camp Roberts in California, where he was trained as an infantryman. He then spent a short time at Camp Kilmer, an overseas processing center.

1946

Ralph was shipped out to Germany. He first arrived in Le Havre, France, at Camp Lucky Strike. He then traveled by train through Reims into Frankfurt and then to Erlangen. Ralph was there for about three weeks and then he was assigned to War Crime Trials Unit 7708 War Crimes group. The group was part of USAFE (US Air Forces in Europe). Ralph’s job was to maintain all the files that would be given to the lawyers.

August: All the files were moved to Oxburgh, Germany and put in a casern, or military barracks.

For safety reasons, all officers were stripped of their weapons, cameras and recording devices during the trial. They were treated like visitors in order to make sure no information was released without approval.

Ralph listened to Hermann Goering, head of the Nazis, as Goering attempted to rationalize his actions by stating during the trial, “I held high office. I was responsible for many people. I did what I thought was good for the German people just as your president would do for your people.”

1947

Ralph was honorably discharged from the US Army after completing his 18 months of service.

2005

Ralph Schulz passed away in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 79.