Latest news with #Gans
Boston Globe
23-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Herbert J. Gans, who upended myths on urban and suburban life, dies at 97
His writing was a tour of Americana from the postwar years into the new millennium, exploring race relations, economic problems, highbrow and popular cultures, nostalgia for the rural past, and a plethora of provocative questions: Why do the poor get poorer and the rich richer? Can Jews and Italians get along in Canarsie? Is landmarks preservation elitist? And what's to be done about the New York Yankees? Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up He was also a liberal activist, opposing the Vietnam War and the Nixon administration's efforts to muzzle the press, testifying for comedian Lenny Bruce in his 1964 obscenity trial, campaigning for the release of imprisoned sociologists in communist Hungary, and serving as a consultant to antipoverty programs and city planners. Advertisement When racial riots racked urban America, he drafted part of the Kerner Commission's 1967 report on the causes and testified that the uprisings were due, above all, to segregation and unemployment, and that only a national jobs program, desegregation, and income-redistribution efforts could solve the crisis. Advertisement As president of the American Sociological Association in 1988-89, he urged colleagues to get closer to their subjects and to write more intelligibly. Sociological studies had long been academically insular, dense with statistics and scientific jargon. But Dr. Gans set an example by inserting himself into the communities and institutions he studied, becoming what he called a 'participant-observer,' and writing lucid prose for ordinary readers. During a bad stretch for the Yankees in 1984, for example, a colleague might have intoned: 'Available evidence would tend to indicate that it is not unreasonable to suppose that a professional athletic entity domiciled in the Bronx, with an ownership in large part under the aegis of a powerful individual, might be elevated to its previous status by transference to the very municipality in which its activity takes place.' Dr. Gans, in The New York Times, wrote: 'New York City ought to take over the New York Yankees.' His findings were often surprising. For his first book, 'The Urban Villagers: Groups and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans' (1962), he immersed himself in the life of Boston's working-class West End. The area was later bulldozed for 'slum clearance,' and he lamented the destruction of a vibrant community. A half-century later, the book still stood as a classic statement against indiscriminate urban renewal. Similarly, Dr. Gans challenged conventional wisdom about postwar suburbia in 'The Levittowners' (1967). For more than two years, he lived in Levittown, N.J., later renamed Willingboro, and concluded that the residents had strong social, economic and political commitments, and that notions of suburbanites as conformist, anxious, bored, cultureless, insecure social climbers were wrong. Dr. Gans, a regular contributor to the Times who also wrote for The Washington Post, Commentary, Dissent, The Nation, The New Republic, and many professional journals, explored in 'Deciding What's News' (1979) how television networks and newsmagazines determined what to cover. Over a span of 15 years, he spent many months with journalists at 'CBS Evening News,' 'NBC Nightly News,' Newsweek, and Time. Advertisement He found that America's news was more about politics than government and personalities than issues; that deadlines left little time for context or accuracy; and that beat reporters often censored themselves to protect sources. He recommended larger staffs, wider perspectives and, to cover the extra costs, federal subsidies such as those given by the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. In 'The War Against the Poor' (1995), Dr. Gans scathingly attacked attitudes of the affluent and middle classes and words used to stereotype and stigmatize the poor by questioning their morality and values. One culprit, he said, was 'underclass,' with its connotation of permanence, and its presumption that all the men are lazy, all the women immoral, and all the poor too undisciplined to escape welfare dependencies. Returning to the media in 'Democracy and the News' (2003), he argued that traditional journalism and an informed citizenry had been weakened by proliferating internet and cable news outlets, the growth of big corporations and special interest groups, and media monoliths obsessed with profits. He prescribed greater newsroom diversity and stiffer walls between editorial and business sides of news organizations. In his 2008 book, 'Imagining America in 2033: How the Country Put Itself Together After Bush,' Dr. Gans depicted a utopian future that had overcome many economic, military, and social problems with progressive ideals and a more humane approach to democracy. Advertisement Herbert Julius Gans was born May 7, 1927, in Cologne, Germany, to Carl and Elise (Plaut) Gans. As World War II enveloped Europe, he and his parents fled to England in 1939 and to America a year later. He joined a generation devoted to radio series such as 'Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy' and to entertainer Jack Benny, as well as Saturday afternoons at the movies: a double feature, two serials, and six cartoons for a dime. 'My interest in American popular culture grew out of coming from Nazi Germany, where there was no such culture,' he told the Times in 1985. 'We came in 1940, moved to Chicago, started out poor. I remember reading a year's comic strips in newspapers the landlady had in her basement.' He became an American citizen in 1945 and served 14 months in the Army. At the University of Chicago, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1947 and a master's in 1950, he studied under sociologists Earl Johnson and Everett Hughes, who stressed the importance of urban field work, and began a lifelong friendship with David Riesman, a Harvard University sociologist whose 1950 book, 'The Lonely Crowd,' was a classic study of postwar conformity. After several years as a planner for public and private agencies, in which he planned two towns in the Mesabi Iron Range of Northeast Minnesota, he taught urban studies at the University of Pennsylvania from 1953-64 and earned his doctorate there in 1957, studying primarily with Martin Meyerson, a prominent scholar of urban design. His first marriage, to artist Iris Lezak, ended in divorce. In 1967, he married Louise Gruner, a lawyer, who survives him. In addition to her and their son, David, he leaves a grandson. Advertisement Dr. Gans taught sociology at Columbia Teachers College from 1964-69 and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1969-71, then joined the Columbia University faculty. He became professor emeritus when he retired in 2007. His letters to the editor were often published by the Times. In 1986, he took issue with an editorial, 'Dear DC Comics,' suggesting that Clark Kent's future in journalism might be as an editorial writer. No, no, no, Dr. Gans wrote, Superman would soon be caught in conflicts of interest -- battling villains supported by the newspaper. 'Better make him a movie reviewer,' he suggested. 'Or how about the obits?' This article originally appeared in
The Independent
22-04-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Herbert Gans, leading sociologist and media analyst, dies at 97
Herbert Gans, a groundbreaking sociologist and media analyst who advocated for greater diversity and public participation in everything from the suburbs and the arts to the voices that shape the news, died Monday at age 97. His death was confirmed by his son, David Gans, who said he died at his Manhattan home after a lengthy illness. Author of such influential works as 'The Urban Villagers' and 'The Levittowners,' Herbert Gans was a refugee from Nazi Germany who liked to say he viewed his adopted country through the eyes of an outsider. He called himself a 'participant-observer,' combining research and direct experience and lending crucial perspective on municipal planning, attitudes toward race and poverty, mass communication and cultural tastes. A professor emeritus at Columbia University and former president of the American Sociological Association, he believed in making scholarly work accessible, and was a popular commentator and prolific essay writer. He served on the committee that prepared the Kerner Report, the 1968 government study that warned the country was 'moving toward two societies, one Black, one white — separate and unequal.' In 1964, he testified on behalf of Lenny Bruce when the comedian was on trial for obscenity. Prolific writer and 'participant observer' Gans wrote often about the local impact of government policy. In 'The Urban Villagers,' released in 1962, he chronicled (and lived in) a blue-collar Italian-American section of Boston's West End that would soon be torn down in favor of more expensive housing. The sociologist Nathan Glazer would praise the book's critique of 'urban renewal' and detailed portrait of those displaced for describing 'truthfully and without damaging preconceptions a part of American reality.' 'The Levittowners,' published in 1967, countered the prevalent feeling of the time that suburbs bred conformity and despair. Gans lived for two years in a New Jersey suburb designed by William Levitt, whose 'Levittowns' helped define the modern bedroom community. Gans didn't dispute that boredom and homogeneity existed in the suburbs, but concluded that most of the residents were satisfied; the suburbs were less likely to change the people who moved there than to provide what they had been looking for. 'I should like to emphasize once more that whatever its imperfections, Levittown is a good place to live,' Gans wrote. '(T)he most urgent priority is to make the benefits of suburban living available to the poor and nonwhite families, now condemned to slum ghettos, who want to give their children and themselves a better life beyond the city limits.' Gans' 'Deciding What's News,' which came out in 1979, was a snapshot of the peak of print journalism and network power. Focusing on the evening broadcasts of NBC and CBS and the news magazines Time and Newsweek, he spent extensive time with reporters in the 1960s and '70s and noted what they covered, what they didn't cover and the thinking behind their choices, whether the pressures of executives, concerns about objectivity or changes in public concerns. He found the news-gathering process to be honest and well intended. But Gans worried that organizations were more invested in stability and the status quo than in fully informing the public, with journalists drawing upon familiar sources in government and business and spending much of their private time with those of their social class. As a solution, Gans proposed 'Multiperspectivism,' allowing everyone from radical leftists to religious fundamentalists to express their views. 'For those who feel, as I do, that the interests of diverse groups have priority over the needs of nation and society, multiperspectival news and some decentralization of the national media are preferable,' he wrote. 'It would be a good deal more effective if it coincided with widespread public demand for greater popular representation in the economy and the polity.' Gans' other books included 'Middle American Individualism,' 'The War Against the Poor' and 'People, Plans and Policies.' In 'Imagining America in 2033,' published in 2009, he outlined his hopes for a 'fairer economy, a more democratic polity, and institutions that cater to a greater extent to the people they are supposed to serve.' A strong belief in the importance of diversity Born in Cologne, Germany to middle-class Jewish parents, Gans and has family fled the Nazis in 1939, moving first to England and settling in Chicago in 1940. Gans became a naturalized citizen in 1945 and served in the Army in 1945-46. He had already liked reading sociology in high school and studied it as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, where he became close to such faculty members as the social scientist Martin Meyerson and David Reisman, the future author of 'The Lonely Crowd,' the classic portrait of social anxiety in 1950s America. Gans received a master's in sociology from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D., in 1957, from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Teachers College before joining Columbia in 1971 and remaining until 2007. He also worked in local government, as an assistant planner for the Chicago Housing Authority, and at the federal level with the predecessor to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was married twice, most recently to Louise Gruner. Gans was a highly educated, liberal Democrat whose belief in diversity meant he resisted imposing his tastes, whether upon his neighbors in Levittown or upon his readers. In the 1974 book 'Popular Culture and High Culture,' he disputed the idea that so-called elite tastes were superior to those of the masses and criticized scholars who followed 'their own standard of the good life.' He wrote, 'all people have a right to the culture they prefer, regardless of whether it is high or popular. The book is thus an argument for cultural democracy and an argument against the idea that only the cultural expert knows what is good for people and for society.'
New Indian Express
22-04-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
Herbert Gans, leading sociologist and media analyst, dies at 97
NEW YORK: Herbert Gans, a groundbreaking sociologist and media analyst who advocated for greater diversity and public participation in everything from the suburbs and the arts to the voices that shape the news, died Monday at age 97. His death was confirmed by his son, David Gans, who said he died at his Manhattan home after a lengthy illness. Author of such influential works as 'The Urban Villagers' and 'The Levittowners,' Herbert Gans was a refugee from Nazi Germany who liked to say he viewed his adopted country through the eyes of an outsider. He called himself a 'participant-observer,' combining research and direct experience and lending crucial perspective on municipal planning, attitudes toward race and poverty, mass communication and cultural tastes. A professor emeritus at Columbia University and former president of the American Sociological Association, he believed in making scholarly work accessible, and was a popular commentator and prolific essay writer. He served on the committee that prepared the Kerner Report, the 1968 government study that warned the country was 'moving toward two societies, one Black, one white — separate and unequal.' In 1964, he testified on behalf of Lenny Bruce when the comedian was on trial for obscenity. Prolific writer and 'participant observer' Gans wrote often about the local impact of government policy. In 'The Urban Villagers,' released in 1962, he chronicled (and lived in) a blue-collar Italian-American section of Boston's West End that would soon be torn down in favor of more expensive housing. The sociologist Nathan Glazer would praise the book's critique of 'urban renewal' and detailed portrait of those displaced for describing 'truthfully and without damaging preconceptions a part of American reality.' 'The Levittowners,' published in 1967, countered the prevalent feeling of the time that suburbs bred conformity and despair. Gans lived for two years in a New Jersey suburb designed by William Levitt, whose 'Levittowns' helped define the modern bedroom community. Gans didn't dispute that boredom and homogeneity existed in the suburbs, but concluded that most of the residents were satisfied; the suburbs were less likely to change the people who moved there than to provide what they had been looking for. 'I should like to emphasize once more that whatever its imperfections, Levittown is a good place to live,' Gans wrote. '(T)he most urgent priority is to make the benefits of suburban living available to the poor and nonwhite families, now condemned to slum ghettos, who want to give their children and themselves a better life beyond the city limits.' Gans' 'Deciding What's News,' which came out in 1979, was a snapshot of the peak of print journalism and network power. Focusing on the evening broadcasts of NBC and CBS and the news magazines Time and Newsweek, he spent extensive time with reporters in the 1960s and '70s and noted what they covered, what they didn't cover and the thinking behind their choices, whether the pressures of executives, concerns about objectivity or changes in public concerns. He found the newsgathering process to be honest and well intended. But Gans worried that organizations were more invested in stability and the status quo than in fully informing the public, with journalists drawing upon familiar sources in government and business and spending much of their private time with those of their social class. As a solution, Gans proposed 'Multiperspectivism,' allowing everyone from radical leftists to religious fundamentalists to express their views. 'For those who feel, as I do, that the interests of diverse groups have priority over the needs of nation and society, multiperspectival news and some decentralization of the national media are preferable,' he wrote. 'It would be a good deal more effective if it coincided with widespread public demand for greater popular representation in the economy and the polity.' Gans' other books included 'Middle American Individualism,' 'The War Against the Poor' and 'People, Plans and Policies.' In 'Imagining America in 2033,' published in 2009, he outlined his hopes for a 'fairer economy, a more democratic polity, and institutions that cater to a greater extent to the people they are supposed to serve.' A strong belief in the importance of diversity. Born in Cologne, Germany to middle-class Jewish parents, Gans and has family fled the Nazis in 1939, moving first to England and settling in Chicago in 1940. Gans became a naturalized citizen in 1945 and served in the Army in 1945-46. He had already liked reading sociology in high school and studied it as an undergraduate at the University of Chicago, where he became close to such faculty members as the social scientist Martin Meyerson and David Reisman, the future author of 'The Lonely Crowd,' the classic portrait of social anxiety in 1950s America. Gans received a master's in sociology from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D., in 1957, from the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Teachers College before joining Columbia in 1971 and remaining until 2007. He also worked in local government, as an assistant planner for the Chicago Housing Authority, and at the federal level with the predecessor to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was married twice, most recently to Louise Gruner. Gans was a highly educated, liberal Democrat whose belief in diversity meant he resisted imposing his tastes, whether upon his neighbors in Levittown or upon his readers. In the 1974 book 'Popular Culture and High Culture,' he disputed the idea that so-called elite tastes were superior to those of the masses and criticized scholars who followed 'their own standard of the good life.' He wrote, 'all people have a right to the culture they prefer, regardless of whether it is high or popular. The book is thus an argument for cultural democracy and an argument against the idea that only the cultural expert knows what is good for people and for society.'
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- Yahoo
Idaho Supreme Court hears arguments to reconsider ruling on ski area liability law
Boise attorney Matthew Gunn, at left, makes arguments to the Idaho Supreme Court on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025, on behalf of Laura Milus, whose husband, Stewart, died in a ski accident in 2019. Milus sued Sun Valley resort over the accident. (Photo by Betsy Z. Russell for the Idaho Capital Sun) Idaho Supreme Court justices struggled with the state's ski area liability law on Friday during arguments in a major lawsuit against Sun Valley Resort, saying the law as written is contradictory and difficult to interpret. 'I think this is a poorly drafted statute,' said Justice Colleen Zahn. 'It conflicts, it internally conflicts.' She pointed to clauses saying skiers can't collect damages and instead bear full liability for any injuries when they don't comply with specific skier duties; and others saying ski areas have certain duties they must follow, or they're liable. 'What if they both contributed?' Zahn asked. Supreme Court case shakes Idaho ski areas by overturning decades of liability precedent Jaclyn Gans, the attorney for Sun Valley, told Zahn, 'I think the language of the statute is clear: There can be no recovery if the skier breached their duty.' Justice Greg Moeller said, 'The statute is fairly inelegantly drafted.' He told Gans, 'Thank you for giving us a second opportunity to take a look at this tough case.' The case, Milus v. Sun Valley Co., involves a skier who hit a bright yellow-padded tower snow gun in the middle of Lower River Run at the resort in 2019, and died from his injuries. The skier, Stewart Milus, was a doctor from Boise. His widow, Laura Milus, sued the ski resort for wrongful death. According to court records, Milus was skiing with 'poor control' on the moderately crowded groomed run on that clear Saturday afternoon. He skied across the backs of another skier's skis and yelled, then fell and crashed head-first into the tower, one of a row of such towers that stretches down the run. The district court dismissed the lawsuit on summary judgment, based on Idaho's 1979 Ski Area Liability Act. The widow appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, which in December of 2023 overturned the lower court's decision, offered an entirely new interpretation of the decades-old law, and said a jury should weigh whether the ski area was at least partially to blame, regardless of the skier's actions. Sun Valley Resort sought reconsideration of the court's decision, which the justices granted. On Friday, both sides made their cases, as the justices closely questioned the attorneys before them. Matthew Gunn, attorney for the widow, called Milus' death 'tragic and preventable.' He said the law 'does not confer immunity and carte blanche on Sun Valley.' 'The bottom line is this court, in its unanimous decision, did not get it wrong,' he said. Gans said, 'Sun Valley is not contending and has never contended that this act is a full-blown immunity statute.' It does, however, provide 'significant' protection for ski areas, she said. Gans noted that the law clearly says a skier can't collect damages if their injury was caused by colliding with 'plainly visible' snowmaking equipment. 'There is no dispute,' she told the justices, 'that Snowmaking Gun 16 was plainly visible here. The court has seen the photographs.' The December 2023 decision from Idaho's highest court has caused great consternation for Idaho's 19 ski areas, which range from giant Sun Valley to tiny, one-chairlift mom-and-pop ski hills. If the state law doesn't afford the resorts the liability protections it's long been thought to provide, they expect to see a big increase in lawsuits, along with sharply increasing liability insurance costs. That could drive up the cost of skiing statewide, and force small resorts out of business if they can't afford the increased costs. Laura Milus attended the arguments on Friday, as did the general managers of three Idaho ski areas and a host of others; the arguments also were streamed live online. Milus said afterward that she thought it was 'reckless' for Sun Valley to have snow guns 'right in the middle of a beginner run, where somebody is going to go out of control.' 'To me, they're ticking time bombs,' she said. Brad Wilson, general manager of Bogus Basin, also was at the arguments. He said there are lots of things in the middle of ski runs — including other skiers. 'Whether they hit a person or a snow gun, they still are obligated by the ski area liability law to ski under control, regardless of their ability level,' he said. Idaho's law, in its nine enumerated duties for ski areas, includes requirements 'to mark with a visible sign or other warning implement the location of any hydrant or similar equipment used in snowmaking operations and located on ski slopes and trails,' and to 'place, whenever snowgrooming or snowmaking operations are being undertaken upon any trail or slope while such trail or slope is open to the public, a conspicuous notice to that effect at or near the top of such trail or slope.' The law also says ski areas can't be held to 'any standard of care' for actions designed to lessen the inherent risks of skiing, meaning they can't be sued for how well they accomplish them. A long line of decisions from the Idaho Supreme Court and federal courts has held that that applies to all nine of the enumerated duties of ski areas. But the December 2023 decision, authored by Zahn, disagreed, instead applying an 'ordinarily prudent person standard of care' to those nine duties for ski areas. That means juries would have to decide, in each case, how well a ski area did in complying with its duty. That's the common-law standard of care that generally applies in lawsuits, and would apply if there was no ski area liability law. 'I struggle with a duty that's imposed with no standard of care,' Zahn said, adding that makes the duty 'essentially meaningless.' The law, at the end of the list of the nine duties for ski areas, says there are 'risks inherent in the sport of skiing,' and 'no activities undertaken by the operator in an attempt to eliminate, alter, control or lessen such risks shall be deemed to impose on the operator any duty to accomplish such activities to any standard of care.' There were three points on which the high court's initial ruling appeared to depart from precedent in Idaho, and from the lower court's ruling: It identified a new 'ordinarily prudent person standard of care' for judging how well ski areas carry out their nine enumerated duties under the law, rather than concluding that the law eliminated any standard of care for those duties; it ruled that it should be up to a jury to decide how well Sun Valley carried out two of those duties, regarding what constitutes a 'warning implement' on snowmaking equipment and whether the resort had adequately posted notice that snowmaking was 'in progress' when snowmaking equipment was in place, but no snow was being made; and it held that the skier's compliance with his own enumerated duties, including controlling speed and course and heeding all posted warnings, can't be considered until a jury decides if the resort was negligent with regard to warning implements and signs — and can't be considered at all if the jury finds the resort failed on those points. CONTACT US Gunn argued that the court got it right this time, and that all the prior cases were focused on different clauses within the law, so they shouldn't be viewed as controlling precedents. 'Is it possible that it's just sui generis, that the case was so different from other cases we've decided under the skier statute?' Moeller asked Gans. Gans replied, 'I don't think it's inapplicable.' She noted that multiple Idaho Supreme Court rulings stated that 'the statute eliminates the common-law standard of care.' Gunn came in for heavy questioning from Zahn when he suggested that while the snow gun may be plainly visible in the photos, 'What is plainly visible to me is not necessarily plainly visible to Mr. Milus, a … novice skier in the middle of a beginner run.' Zahn said Gunn hadn't presented any evidence of that. 'Regardless of whether it's subjective or objective, whether you're a novice or an expert, it's there in the middle of the run, it's the only thing in the middle of the run,' she said. 'How is that not plainly visible?' Gunn responded that 'there is an argument' that could be made to a jury. At the conclusion of the oral arguments, Chief Justice Richard Bevan said, 'This matter will be under advisement, and we'll render a decision.' There's no set timeline for the written decision; it could be weeks or months. Brian Bressel, general manager of Lookout Pass ski area, a small resort in North Idaho, said afterward, 'They are wanting to get it before a jury so they can just play on the heart strings.' He said that's what he's seen in most of the ski area lawsuits he's dealt with over the years. Wilson, of Bogus Basin, said, 'We all do whatever we can to make a ski area as safe as possible, but you're sliding on a slippery surface. … If you can't assume this type of a risk, then you probably shouldn't be participating.' Bressel agreed. 'There's some risks that I'm willing to take on, and some I'm not. Skiing is not one I'm willing to give up.' Jeff Colburn, general manager of Silver Mountain in Kellogg and the president of the Idaho Ski Areas Association, said, 'I think they were asking good questions at the end. I got some hope out of that. I thought the justices did their homework.' Gans said, 'We're grateful that the court is taking a second look at it.' Milus said she wants a jury to hear exactly what happened to her husband in the final moments of his life after striking the snow gun. 'If we lose, I go on with my life,' she said. 'But at least I've brought awareness to this issue to the people in Idaho. And they need to be aware.' 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Boston Globe
26-01-2025
- General
- Boston Globe
Newton couple donates Ritchie Boy's cello, other artifacts to US Holocaust Memorial Museum
Related : The museum recently announced the acquisition, completed last year, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday. This year's commemoration marks the Advertisement Gans's son, Steve, said his father walked through life with his cello. Lori and Steve Gans of Newton donated a cello and other items to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The artifacts belonged to Steve's late father, Werner Gans, a Jewish refugee who escaped Nazi Germany and later participated in a covert operation during World War II as a Ritchie Boy in the US Army. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff 'He played it his whole life,' said Gans, 64, who also lives in Newton. 'The cello was a gate opener.' Lori Gans, Steve's wife, said her father-in-law would be honored to know that his cello and some of his other belongings have joined the museum's collection. The cello, she said, is a 'very special artifact from his life that was in so many ways symbolic of his escape' and his role in securing safe passage to the United States for his parents and sister. 'He always expressed nothing but gratitude for his life,' she said. Fred Wasserman, an acquisitions curator for the museum, said it's unusual to find an instrument transported out of Nazi Germany by a Jewish refugee. 'It's all quite wonderful that it survived,' he said. Werner Gans was born in Mannheim, a city in southwestern Germany in 1923. He began studying violin at age 6 and took up the cello four years later. Related : His parents, Moritz and Bella, owned a chemicals business known as Fabrik Gans s, but the Nazis' rise to power cost them the company and threatened their lives. Werner Gans's certificate of naturalization, right, and photos of his parents, Moritz and Bella Gans. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff Overnight, classmates began chastising Gans at school and his father's passport was seized because he crossed the street on foot against a red light, according to a 2006 Globe story. Advertisement In 1936, when Gans was 13, his parents sent him to live with a family in Milan to study music. The following year, the couple was jailed for violating the Nazis' anti-Jewish laws. They were sanctioned for establishing a firm with a Christian name to facilitate business for their company, and later, they were forced to sell the enterprise for a fraction of its value. Gans and his family left Europe in October 1938 and sailed to Cuba aboard the SS Orinoco. Gans joined the Havana Symphony Orchestra, where music continued to create opportunities for him. Related : A pianist in Cuba recommended Gans to Joseph Malkin, a cellist who directed a music conservatory in Boston. In February 1939, Gans, then 16, traveled alone to the city to study as a scholarship student. Before his departure, he inscribed a note in German on a piece of music he composed and titled 'Consolazione.' 'Dedicated to my beloved parents before my departure for the U.S.A, Havana 19 Feb 1939,' Gans wrote. The composition was also donated to the museum. Werner Gans's musical composition 'Consolazione.' United States Holocaust Memorial World War II erupted seven months later. After the United States joined the conflict in 1941, Gans said he was initially classified as an 'enemy alien,' by a draft board in Massachusetts, according to the transcript of an interview he gave decades later to the Yet in 1943 as Gans was about to make his debut with the Boston Pops, the draft board changed course. He was stripped of 'enemy alien' status, and drafted into the US Army. With his German language skills, Gans landed at Fort Ritchie in Maryland, where he undertook a mission that he kept secret for most of his life. Advertisement Gans trained in military intelligence with a group of soldiers who became known as 'Ritchie Boys.' Many were Jewish refugees who helped gather battlefield intelligence by interrogating German prisoners. Werner Gans as a Ritchie Boy. United States Holocaust Memorial Gans spent some of the war on Long Island in Boston Harbor, where he interviewed German officers and enlisted men who had been captured in and around Paris after US forces liberated the city in 1944. In his interview with the National Park Service, Gans said he told some of the German soldiers about his past. 'I said, 'I happen to be a German Jew who was pushed out of Germany. I have relatives who were killed by the Nazis,'' he told them, according to the transcript. Gans didn't reveal to others that he had been a Ritchie Boy until after a documentary about the program came out in 2004. Photographs of him as a Ritchie Boy were also donated to the museum as was a mercury thermometer from his family's company in Germany. In Massachusetts, Moritz and Werner Gans operated another business, Gansolin Chemical Gans was discharged from the military in 1946. He didn't pursue music professionally, but played with the Newton Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Civic Symphony. At Temple Beth Avodah in Newton, he performed the Kol Nidre on the cello, a musical composition to mark Yom Kippur, his son said. Werner Gans's cello. United States Holocaust Memorial Steve Gans said he has memories from childhood of his father practicing the cello on Sundays in the living room. 'I can still hear the warm-up song,' he said. 'That was a ritual that was calming and beautiful.' Laura Crimaldi can be reached at
