GANS, MANFRED

Funeral services were held Sept. 14 for Manfred Gans, 88. He died Sept. 11. In response to the Nazi regime, his parents sent him from Germany to England at the age of 16. At 18 he was chosen to join the elite group of British Commandos, known as X-troop. He landed with the allied armies on D-day and fought throughout the European campaign. He rose to the rank of captain and was among the troops who liberated his home town. After the armistice was signed, he and a driver drove to Czechoslovakia and were the first Allied soldiers to arrive at the Terezenstadt concentration camp where he found his parents alive and organized their return to Holland. Through much of the war he corresponded with his childhood sweetheart, the late Anita Lamm, whose family left Germany for New York City in 1938. They were married in New York in 1948. Manfred recorded this in his memoirs, Life Gave Me a Chance, published in 2009. After the war, Manfred studied Chemical Engineering at the University of Manchester and then went on to MIT where he completed a masters of science. He joined the chemical engineering firm, Scientific Design, specializing in design and start ups. His career took him all over the world. and he was part of the first wave of professionals to conduct business in China and East Germany in 1973. In 1976, he started consulting for the UN and went on many assignments that included Cuba, Turkey, Vietnam, and Pakistan. During his professional career, he was awarded patents and authored technical papers. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and was the winner of the 1993 “Chemical Engineering Practice Award.” He was the brother of Gershon Kaddar in Israel; the father of Daniel Gans and his wife Linda of Hoboken, and Aviva Gans Rosenberg and her husband David; the grandfather of Aaron, Jeremy, and Dylan; the brother-in-law of Lilo Goldenberg Thurnauer; the close friend of Esther Okin; and a family member and friend to others throughout the world. Services arranged by Wein &Wein Funeral Home of Hackensack.

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