Title: Norman Shethar Collection, 1945-1999

ID: RG2/023

Extent: 0.2 Cubic Feet

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Predominant Dates: 1993-1999

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Administrative/Biographical History

Norman Shethar was born on July 30, 1925, in Little Compton, Rhode Island to Prentice Shethar and Susan Burchard. In June 1943 he applied to serve as an ambulance driver with the American Field Service (AFS), and departed from Baltimore, Maryland, for Alexandria, Egypt, in late October. He arrived overseas and was reassigned to CM 53 with the British Central Mediterranean Forces (CMF) in Italy. In December 1943, he was attached to the C Platoon of the 485 Ambulance Car Company (Coy) in Italy where he maintained active duty in the Cassino sector. On March 13, 1944, Shethar received wounds in the leg while on duty after an aerial bombing during the Battle of Monte Cassino. He spent the remainder of the year in the hospital until late January 1945. Shortly after transferring to D Platoon of 567 Coy in April, he and other ambulance drivers from C and D Platoons helped evacuate the survivors of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to temporary hospitals after the liberation of the camp by the British Liberation Army on April 15, 1945. Shethar was repatriated to the United States in June 1945 and was decorated with the 1939-1945 Star, Italian Star, and German Star for his services with AFS.

After the war, Shethar attended Princeton University and graduated magna cum laude in 1948, and received a law degree from Yale Law School in 1951. In 1982 he started his own investment-advisory business in Manhattan, and spent his leisure time teaching and rehabilitating ex-prisoners as well as lobbying for the improvement of criminal justice procedures.

Shethar was a volunteer with AFS through his life. In October 1993 Beate Schopp-Schilling, the director of the German student exchange program chapter of AFS, invited Shethar to the chapter’s annual convention to talk about his experience as an AFS driver at Bergen-Belsen. He also attended and spoke at the Bergen-Belsen Memorial Ceremony, which celebrated the 50^th anniversary of the camp’s liberation on May 27, 1995. In 1997 he participated as a volunteer with AFS International in the Dominican Republic and spoke for the “AFS at Bergen-Belsen” presentation to AFS Costa Rica at the World Congress on September 21, 1999.

Norman Shethar passed away on March 5, 2008 in Littleton, Massachusetts.

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Scope and Contents:

The Norman Shethar Collection contains material related to his volunteer efforts with AFS from World War II through the student exchange programs established after 1947. The bulk of the collection contains speeches (and overhead transparencies he used for one of the speeches) he gave about the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp to various institutions (including partner AFS organizations around the world, the United Congregational Church in Little Compton, RI, and the Wooster School in Danbury, CT.) Three speeches by Shethar, two given at AFS conferences in 1993 and one given to the AFS Costa Rica partner, may not have been donated by him but are still present in the collection.

The collection also includes an autobiographical note and curriculum vitae, and an essay Shethar found at the Bergen-Belsen Museum entitled “The RAMC at Belsen Concentration Camp,” which Shethar believed was the only document about ambulance rescue work at the camp at the time of his visit. Finally, the collection includes a photocopied transcription of a letter he wrote to his parents on May 1, 1945, after his platoon helped evacuate the camp. The letter is very detailed, and contains descriptions of living quarters, camp inmates, and relief efforts.