Peter Franz Karl Bank

Peter Franz Karl Bank was born in Vienna, the son of accountant Max Bank and Paula, née Klager. In addition to Peter Bank, there was a younger sister in the family, which was Jewish.

Peter Bank graduated from high school in Vienna in 1935 and enrolled at the University of World Trade. In the sixth semester, he witnessed the demise of free and independent Austria with the invasion of the German Wehrmacht. With the occupation of Austria, German legislation is adopted and with it the 'Nuremberg Race Laws', according to which Peter Bank is considered a 'full Jew'. On March 29, 1938, it is decreed that students must declare in lieu of an oath that they are not Jewish when enrolling and that Jewish students are no longer allowed to enrol. Enrolments that have already been made are revoked.
Jewish students are also no longer admitted to final examinations and doctorates.

Thanks to the support of the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde Wien, Peter Bank is able to emigrate to the USA via Italy with his father, his mother Paula and his sister Susanne on June 28, 1938.

On October 13, 1938, Peter Bank settles in Springfield (Illinois). He studies General Business and auditing at the University of Illinois for two years. As the Los Angeles Times later pointed out in its obituary, he graduated in 1941 'with high honors and three degrees'. The following year, he acquired American citizenship.

In November 1942, the linguistically gifted émigré (German, English and French) enlisted in the American army to make his contribution to the liberation of Europe from National Socialism. Initially, until March 1943, he belonged to the Quartermaster Corps in Fort Francis E. Warren (Wyoming) until March 1943. He was then assigned to the Quartermaster Department in Chicago and - from January 1944 - to the Quartermaster Department in Jersey City. From June 1944, he was trained at the Military Intelligence Training Center in Camp Ritchie (Maryland) for interrogating German and Austrian prisoners of war. Peter Bank was one of the 494 "Ritchie Boys" from Austria, along with five other Austrians who had emigrated and had a connection to the University of World Trade. He was deployed in Team 148 of the Special Forces Interrogation of Prisoners of War, which was subordinate to the 3rd US Army under General George S. Patton and operated in Western Europe. Within the American army, he reached the rank of First Lieutenant.

While stationed in Bremen, Peter Bank met Elke Heims, whom he married in Los Angeles in 1947. He had already settled in the Californian capital the previous year. While Elke Bank worked as a travel agent and sang in the famous Roger Wagner Chorale, Peter Bank worked as a chartered accountant. Again according to the Los Angeles Times, at the beginning of his career he was the youngest auditor in the USA at the time. The marriage produced two daughters.