CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[cedmagic]

I'm sorry to report that Dick Sonnenfeldt has passed away. He was RCA Vice President of VideoDisc Operations during the design phase of the CED System. Here's a tribute to him from the AJC:

NEW YORK, Oct. 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC mourns the passing of Richard
Sonnenfeldt, a man of exceptional courage, compassion and conviction.

Sonnenfeldt was a German-born Jew who fled his native land, at the age of 15,
for England in 1938, where he was mistakenly designated a "German Enemy Alien"
and deported to Australia on a prison ship torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat. He
survived, arrived in Australia, and eventually persuaded the authorities to
release him. He then miraculously made his way to the United States, enlisted
in the army, fought at the Battle of the Bulge, and was among the American
troops who entered the Dachau concentration camp.

During his wartime service, Sonnenfeldt was recruited by the Office of
Strategic Services to assist the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials. He
became the Chief Interpreter for the OSS group and, later, the prosecution
team that interviewed the Nazi war criminals on trial. His book "Witness to
Nuremberg" recounts his many meetings with the notorious defendants, including
Hermann Goering, in the historic judicial proceedings.

After the war, Sonnenfeldt attended Johns Hopkins University, graduating first
in his engineering class. He went on to a successful career in business and
technology, helping to create color television, working on NASA projects, and
obtaining numerous patents for his inventions.

Several years ago, AJC had the privilege of meeting Sonnenfeldt and
encouraging him to tell his incredible story in Germany. He did so with
remarkable effectiveness and gusto.

Deidre Berger, director of AJC's Berlin Office, assisted him on several
occasions. She recalls:

"I have wonderful memories of his trips to Germany, where he was able to reach
thousands of people, young and old, sharing with them his unique experience
fleeing Nazi Germany, as well as his later contribution in helping ensure that
those responsible were held accountable for their nefarious deeds.

"He was such a wonderful storyteller that he became a popular guest on German
television. During one of his trips, I felt like a movie agent dealing with
all the inquiries as to his availability!

"We are very pleased that Richard allowed us to use an excerpt from his
best-selling book in Germany, 'Mehr als ein Leben' ('More than One Life'), for
AJC's school-based program in Germany. Thus, Richard's spirit will live on
with future generations of young Germans, something I know would mean a great
deal to him."

David Harris, AJC's executive director, added: "Richard was a remarkable
individual. His life story, some of which was captured in a powerful interview
on the Charlie Rose Show, is almost beyond imagination. He was a man of
extraordinary bravery, tenacity and wisdom. He was also a shining example of
that inspirational generation who, having defeated Nazi Germany and its
allies, quietly set about establishing new lives, creating families and
building careers. In Richard's case, of course, it also took place in a new
land, against the backdrop of all that happened to his family, which only
makes his journey that much more astonishing."

AJC extends our heartfelt condolences to the grieving members of Richard
Sonnenfeldt's family, many of whom are dear friends. May the memory
of Richard Sonnenfeldt forever be for a blessing.


Here's the link to Richard's Who's Who page which contains more links to pictures and the complete text of the VideoDisc chapter from his book:

http://cedmagic.com/mem/whos-who/sonnenfeldt-richard.html

And here's a video I just found of a rather humorous interview Richard gave a few years ago. After World War II at the Nuremberg Trials he was interpreter for two of the most high-ranking surviving Nazis, Rudolph Hess and Hermann Goering, and it seems Hess couldn't even remember who Goering was:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1icbtQUtso

--Tom Howe

[cedmagic]

A lot of obituaries have been published on news sites about Richard Sonnenfeldt in the past few days. Here is one from telegraph.co.uk:

Richard Sonnenfeldt, who died on October 9 aged 86, was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who became the principal interpreter for American prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, helping to interrogate some of the most notorious leaders of the Third Reich. Among the 21 men he questioned were Hermann Goering, commander of the Luftwaffe and Hitler's designated successor; Albert Speer, who ran Germany's war machine as armaments minister; and Rudolf Hess, who had been Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party. All but Hess were convicted of war crimes.

Sonnenfeldt's selection for this role was entirely fortuitous. As a private in the US Army, he had fought at the Battle of the Bulge and was working in a vehicle maintenance pool, greasing an armoured car, when he came to the attention of General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS – later the CIA).
 
Donovan wanted an interpreter, and Sonnenfeldt – fluent in both German and English – was ideal. Donovan subsequently passed him on to the chief US prosecutor, Supreme Court Justice Robert H Jackson, whose team was interrogating the 21 leading Nazis who would become defendants at Nuremberg. Sonnenfeldt effectively became the senior interrogator as he translated for six or seven hours a day from July to October 1945.

He was then one of the two men who actually served the indictments, and in his autobiography, Witness to Nuremberg (2006), he wrote: "As we went through the awful recital of crimes over and over, for each of the 21 inmates, hour after hour, I envisioned anew the stacks of pitiful corpses and gagged once again on the smell of assembly-line extermination these men and their cohorts had unleashed... Elsewhere they might easily have been taken for a group of very ordinary men, picked at random from a crowd."

In an interview in 2007, Sonnenfeldt recalled telling Goering: "When I translate the colonel's questions into German and your answers into English, you keep quiet until I am finished. You don't interrupt. When the stenographer has recorded my translation, you may tell me if you have a problem, and then I will decide whether it is necessary to consider your comments."

At no time, he said, was he motivated by revenge: "Of course, I felt great satisfaction to be at Nuremberg, but my mind was more on doing my job than avenging a personal past in Nazi Germany. As to punishing the defendants for what they had done to humanity – that was the assigned task of the tribunal."

When the business of Nuremberg had been completed, Justice Jackson recommended Sonnenfeldt – by then a sergeant – for the US Army Commendation Ribbon.

Richard Wolfgang Sonnenfeldt was born in Berlin on July 23 1923 and grew up at Gardelegen, in north-east Germany. Both his parents were doctors, and in September 1938, aware that the family should get out of Germany, they sent him and his younger brother, Helmut, to England, where they went to the New Herrlingen School, at Bunce Court, Otterden, in Kent, which took in many Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.
In 1940, however, Richard was classified as an enemy alien and deported to Australia. (His brother, then 14, was allowed to remain in England.) But the Australians allowed him to make his way, via India, to the United States. He arrived there in 1941 to be reunited with his brother and his parents, who had escaped to Sweden before going to live near Baltimore, Maryland.

Richard found work as an electrician in Baltimore, was granted American citizenship and joined the US Army. He was present at the liberation of Dachau concentration camp in April 1945.

After leaving Nuremberg, Sonnenfeldt returned to the United States and studied Electrical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. He then joined the Radio Corporation of America (later RCA), where he worked on the development of colour television.

He later worked on computer technology for the Nasa moon shots and was an executive with NBC. He retired in 2003 as chief executive of NAPP Systems, which produces newspaper printing plates.

In 2006 he was interviewed for the BBC docudrama Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial.

Richard Sonnenfeldt had a sharp mind, taking a keen interest in literature, history and science. He was an inveterate tinkerer with all manner of devices. In recent years, after he had suffered a stroke, his bedroom became his "command centre", festooned with circuits, cables, disks and scanners which he had adapted for his personal use. Among his pastimes was chess, but his real passion was bridge, which occupied him every Thursday.

A keen and proficient sailor, Sonnenfeldt – with a small crew which included one of his sons – crossed the Atlantic three times in his seventies in his 45ft yacht, Peregrine.

His first wife, Shirley, died in 1979. He is survived by his second, Barbara, and by two sons and a daughter from his first marriage and three stepdaughters.