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Christopher Henze Collection
H.Mss.1132
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Table of contents
Title: Christopher Henze Collection
Dates: 1944-2020
Collection number: H.Mss.1132
Extent:
0.2 Linear Feet
(1 slim document box)
Repository:
Claremont Colleges. Library. Special Collections, The Claremont
Colleges Library, Claremont, CA 91711.
Abstract: The collection
includes personal letters, memoirs, and documents related to Christopher Henze and his uncle
Carlo Henze. Christopher Henze served as a member of the Peace Corps in Côte d'Ivoire,
before embarking on a lengthy career in the United States Foreign Service. An Austrian
immigrant, Carlo Henze served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a member of the
top-secret Alsos Mission in Europe. Christopher Henze's personal memoirs and letters and
Carlo Henze's letters are available in both print and digital formats.
Physical Location: Please consult repository.
Language of Material: Languages represented in the
collection: English.
Administrative Information
Collection open for research.
All requests for permission to reproduce or to publish must be submitted in writing to
Special Collections.
[Identification of item], Christopher Henze Collection (H.Mss.1132). Special Collections,
The Claremont Colleges Library, The Claremont Colleges Services, Claremont,
California.
Provenance/Source of Acquisition
Gift of Christopher Henze, 2020, 2022.
No additions to the collection are anticipated.
Materials were placed in acid-free folders and housed in an archival document box.
Biography / Administrative History
Christopher Henze was born in Pasadena on January 3, 1942. At age 13, he was enrolled at
the Thacher School, a boarding school in Ojai, California, where he completed his
secondary school education. Henze would go on to attend Pomona College, graduating in 1963
as an anthropology major, with minors in French and German. In 1964, he joined the Peace
Corps at age 22 and served for two years as an English and physical education instructor
in Danané, Côte d'Ivoire. Returning from his Peace Corps service in 1966, Henze taught
English for one year at the Polytechnic School in Pasadena before being accepted into a
position with the United States Foreign Service. Embarking on life long career as a
foreign service officer, Henze served in various locales and roles: South Africa
(1968-69); Tanzania (1969-70); Washington D.C. (1970-74, as Assistant Science Advisor);
Slovenia (1974-76); the Johns Hopkins University Center in Bologna, Italy (1976-77, for
graduate work in economics, political science, and European Community Affairs); Paris
(1977-81, as Press Attaché); Washington D.C. (1981-84, as Policy Officer for Europe);
Geneva, Switzerland (1984-88, as Counselor for Public Affairs at the U.S. Mission to the
United Nations and Other International Organizations); Paris (1988-92, as Cultural
Attaché). After retiring from the Foreign Service, Henze held two subsequent jobs: working
for a year as a consultant for the International Herald Tribune before spending several
years as the acting head of the Press and Publications Division of the International
Energy Agency. Henze is retired and lives in Paris with his wife Shana.
Carlo Henze was born in 1907 in Naples, Italy, the son of biochemist Martin Henze. Carlo
and his family moved to Innsbruck, Austria where his father had become a professor of
biochemistry at the University of Innsbruck. Carlo, himself, would go on to earn a medical
degree from the University of Innsbruck, becoming an assistant professor in the Department
of Pharmacology, before joining Sandoz Pharmaceuticals in Basel, Switzerland. With the
annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in March 1938 and the threat of being drafted into
the German Army as an involuntary German citizen, Carlo was able to secure a company
transfer to the United States, where he became medical director of Sandoz in New York
City. Carlo enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941 and was promoted to captain in the Medical
Intelligence Division of the Office of the Surgeon General of the Army due to his medical
background and being a native German speaker. In 1944, Henze was transferred to the
European Theater and served on assignment as a member of the top-secret Alsos Mission,
whose main objective was to determine German progress in developing an atomic bomb and
biological and chemical weapons. Following the war, Carlo arranged for his parents to move
to the United States, where they settled in Pasadena, California. Martin Henze was
welcomed as a distinguished scientist at the California Institute of Technology. Carlo had
returned to work at Sandoz in New York, becoming vice president in charge of the medical
and research departments, and later, president of the Sandoz Foundation. Carlo Henze died
in 2003.
Scope and Contents of the Collection
The Christopher Henze Collection compiles personal letters, memoirs, and documents related
to Christopher Henze and his uncle Carlo Henze. Included in the collection are transcribed
excerpts of Christopher Henze's letters home to his parents documenting his time working in
Danané, Côte d'Ivoire as a member of the Peace Corps, as well as his personal memoir tracing
his life and career as an officer in the United States Foreign Service.
Also included in the collection are transcribed letters written by Carlo Henze to his wife
Harriet during World War II. Carlo Henze served as a captain in the Medical Intelligence
Division of the Office of the Surgeon General of the U.S. Army and was a member of the
top-secret Alsos Mission during the war. His letters provide an eyewitness account of the
frontline as Allied forces moved towards Berlin and document his personal war experience. An
article for the Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine sharing his war recollections
and a declassified report for Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-Committee co-authored by
Carlo during the Alsos Mission are also included.
Christopher Henze's personal memoirs and letters and Carlo Henze's letters are available in
both print and digital formats.
The collection is arranged alphabetically by folder title.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library’s online public access catalog.
Alumni and alumnae
Côte d'Ivoire
Foreign service
Peace Corps (U.S.)
Pomona College (Claremont, Calif.)
United States. Army
United States. Diplomatic Service
United States. War Department. Alsos Mission
World War, 1939-1945
World War, 1939-1945--Europe
Articles
Biography
Correspondence
Letters
Reports