Hans Wolfgang (later Jack Caminer) was the son of Anna Lang Caminer and Hermann Caminer. He was born on November 28, 1922 in Berlin where his father was the attorney for a Jewish bank. He had one brother, Guenther Ernst born on June 13, 1926. In 1932 Hans left his family to attend school in Switzerland. In 1938 the family immigrated to the United States shortly before Kristallnacht. In 1944 Hans (now Jack) was drafted into the American army and was sent to Camp Ritchie with other German immigrants to prepare for intelligence work. In 1945 he returned to Germany as a soldier in the American army and participated in the liberation of the Ohrdruf concentration camp. Shortly after returning home he married Frances Hoytash. Though Hans and his parents and brother survived, Anna's father, Max Lang was unable to emigrate. He had owned a coal business that was Aryanized. He was deported to Theresienstadt where he passed away from natural causes. Hermann's brother and sister-in-law, Hans and Erna Caminer, also perished in the Holocaust. Hermann's sister who was married to a Christian survived in Berlin
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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Consists of 40 photographs taken by Jack Caminer [donor], a member of the United States Armed Forces, in the spring of 1945 as his unit traveled through Germany and Austria. Many of the photographs are of the destruction in Nuremberg. Includes one photograph of the donor, described as"Crossing the Rhine; 29 March 194", taken during the holiday of Pesach. Also includes photographs of Jack Caminer (originally Hans Wolfgang Caminer) as a child in Berlin with various family members. His paternal grandfather, Max Lang, who appears in the photographs, perished of natural causes in Theresienstadt. Also includes the death certificate for Max Lang, noting that he perished in Theresienstadt, and a photocopy of a brochure issued by a group of Jewish families after a rumor began to spread that no Jewish soldiers fought in World War I. The brochure lists families, including the Caminers, in which more than one son fought for Germany.
Jack Caminer photographs