Most chose the eldest son, to carry on the family name. The appearance of DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. Jon Wertheim: Give us a sense of the kinds of courses they took. Established in 2011, the Elie Wiesel Award recognizes individuals whose actions embody the Museums vision of a world where people confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. There were roughly 9000 of these Jews in America and they specialized in the interrogation of German prisoners. Facing significant intelligence deficiencies, in April 1942, the US Army activated a plan to convert Fort Ritchie, a Maryland National Guard Camp, into an intelligence training center. Personal, of course, but also this country - I was really treated well. Guy Stern: I was a soldier doing my job and that precluded any concern that I was going back to a country I once was very attached to. Max Lerner: Wear civilian clothes, pass messages, kill. The Allies liberated Paris in August and drove Nazi troops out of France. Bill. Jon Wertheim: You have a smile on your face when you think back. Or is it just a habit or habit of obedience or dignity? But at wars end, almost none found what they were really looking fortheir families. They all became American success stories, businessmen or academics. Essentially they were intellectuals. And arrived in the United States penniless. That was potentially lethal in Europe under fluid battlefield conditions, especially during the Battle of the Bulge, when the Wehrmacht infiltrated American lines with soldiers dressed in U.S. uniforms. This was because he could speak fluent German; and indeed many of the interrogators at Nuremberg were German or Austrian Jews who had emigrated to America before WWII and were known as the Ritchie Boys. It's important for people everywhere to remember those who perished and those who survived the Holocaust and, in a world increasingly faced with sectarian strife and intolerance, to set forth the lessons of the Holocaust as a model for teaching ethical conduct and responsible decision-making, Stern said. Guy Stern, a Bronze Star Medal recipient who attended, said: "It was an emotional reunion, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. "How to kill a sentry from behind." Director, Communications The intent of this web page, in addition to providing demographics and statistics not available elsewhere, will be to highlight individual secret heroes whose contributions were also singularly significant. He grew up in a close-knit family in the town of Hildesheim, Germany. After recruiters found out he spoke four languages, they dispatched him to Camp Ritchie, where strenuous classroom instruction was coupled with strenuous field exercises. Many of these soldiers landed at Normandy, France, on D-Day, June 6, 1944, and others followed to perform their specialized tasks, which provided advanced intelligence to allied forces regarding German war plans and tactics. African-American Ritchie Boy William Warfield And when their identity was discovered, they were summarily executed by the Germans that had captured them. Guy Stern: We were walking along and you saw these emaciated, horribly looking, close to death people. My father was 49 years old and-- and my mother was 48 and they left everything they had built up behind. Paul Fairbrook: You can learn to shoot a rifle in six months but you can't learn fluent German in six months. Guy Stern speaks at the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Centers Ritchie Boys exhibit and reunion at Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Individual Ritchie Boys were cited for their contributions by being awarded over 60 Silver Star Medals for bravery. Photo credit DoD/Holocaust Memorial Center, Why Marlene Dietrich Was One of the Most Patriotic Women in World War II, In World War I, African American 'Hellfighters from Harlem,' Fought Prejudice to Fight for Their Country, VE Day Marked End of Long Road for World War II Troops, Programs for Service Members and Their Families. So I experienced viscerally, fear. The Jewish Refugees Who Fled Nazi GermanyThen Returned to who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. and I said "may I know where I'm going?" Naturally, I turned to Dan Gross, the unofficial archivist for the Ritchie Boys. 98-year-old Victor Brombert says they relied on their Camp Ritchie training to get people to open up. Fred Frommer is a historian and writer, and author of several books, including You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals. But there were the odd grace notes among the wreckage of a continent. The Ritchie Boys: The Jewish U.S. Soldiers Who Helped January 2, 2022 / 6:52 PM Of the approximately 19,000 Ritchie Boys who served during the war, about 200 are still living, ranging 95 107 years old. Another was, , a member of the Mormon faith, who was awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroic actions in the Battle of the Philippines. There are valid reasons to consider that the Ritchie Boys as a group made a unique and enormous contribution to our military success in World War II. One can also point to a Ritchie Boy Please take a moment to let our troops know how much we appreciate their service and sacrifice. Not just any Nazi party member. Choose which Defense.gov products you want delivered to your inbox. David Frey: But they also did terrain analysis, they also did photo analysis, and aerial reconnaissance analysis. Look, I got a book here and it tells me that you were here and you went there and your boss was this." Victor Brombert: It was very, very hard, very difficult and very rare to have a German denounce another German at that point. One of the ways they identified subjects wanted for interrogation was by consulting a book - the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects which listed enemy nationals suspected of committing tens of thousands of war crimes in Europe everyone from low ranking members of the armed forces to top Nazi officials. Follow him at @ffrommer. The Ritchie Boys earned a reputation for delivering important tactical information fast, making a major contribution to every battle on the Western Front. What what did that entail? An African-American Ritchie Boy William Warfield If you have ever heard a recording of William Warfield singing Ol Man River, from the musical Showboat by Jerome Kern, you will not have forgotten his deep, rich, bass-baritone voice. Both refugees like Fairbrook and Stern, as well as a number of American-born recruits with requisite language skills - were drafted into the Army and sent to Camp Ritchie. Longtime Yale and Princeton professor Victor Brombert helped enact the official Allied policy of removing Nazi influence from german public life known as denazification. Actress. Besides their language ability, these soldiers were familiar with the culture and thinking of enemy soldiers, which would aid them in their efforts. Guy Stern: I had my whole uniform with medals, Russian medals. His mother answered the door. In the Ardennes region of Belgium, the Germans mounted a massive counteroffensive, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Jon Wertheim: Do you consider yourself a hero? Jon Wertheim: This is going behind enemy lines. He still works six days a week. Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Esc The group also included large numbers of first- or second-generation Americans who still spoke German or other languages at home, Frey says. Why were you the one that made it to the United States? A few years ago, says the Menlo Park, Calif., author of Sons and Soldiers, I was reading an obit in the paper about a local man, a ninetysomething Jewish guy who had left Germany on the Kindertransporthis parents didnt survivemade it to America and become a Ritchie Boy. A what? Then came the surprise transfer to secretive Camp Ritchie in backwoods Maryland, where his first sight was a platoon of soldiers marching byin full-dress Wehrmacht uniforms. A nonpartisan, federal educational institution, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is Americas national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust dedicated to ensuring the permanence of Holocaust memory, understanding, and relevance. In New York, Paul Fairbrook, had a similar impulse. Guy Stern: Defeating the Wehrmacht and the Waffen SS and all the fancy troops they had was a satisfaction both as a team member and as a personal satisfaction. It was Sunday, May 13, 1945, Henderson marvels. St. Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Jon Wertheim: This-- This is a remarkable story. Jon Wertheim: All in service of winning the war? David Frey: Part of what the Ritchie Boys did was to convince German units to surrender without fighting. David Frey: It was a very broad range And they did it all generally in eight weeks. Making such a distinction in this case is very difficult. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. The U.S. War Department used this collection of German documents to study Germany's battles with the Soviets on the Eastern Front, in order to be better prepared for any future conflict with Russia. For 99-year-old Guy Stern, a German Jew whose entire family was killed by the Nazis, the Allies' victory over Hitler was the culmination of a public crusade and a private one as well. Salinger were among the camp gradsbut 2,000 German-language refugees, almost all Jewish, were the prize pupils. I have some that were shot. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. He is among the last surviving Ritchie Boys - a group of young men many of them German Jews who played an outsized role in helping the Allies win World War II. David Frey: They were incredibly effective. Jon Wertheim: This was really a broad range of intelligence activities. The Ritchie Boys practiced street fighting in life-size replicas of German villages and questioned mock civilians in full scale German homes. A contribution made by a single individual, especially if one or more lives are saved, is generally recognized as truly heroic. Harmony Jones, a military child, shares how being raised in a military family helped shape her future for success. Be the first to learn about news, service member stories and fundraising updates from USO. There were Ritchie Boys who were in POW camps embedded and gathering information in the United States. The Ritchie Boys exhibit is at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Essentially they were intellectuals. But Hildesheim was now in ruins. Jon Wertheim: Is that when you first realize I'm I'm in a war here? Jon Wertheim: I understand you you had sparring partners. Hed endured a lot already, including three brutal months in Dachau concentration camp after Kristallnacht in 1938, before finding haven in America. WebThe Ritchie Boys were a secret unit of the US Army during the Second World War. Nearly 2,000 German-born Jews were trained at Camp Ritchie to interrogate captured German soldiers. Jon Wertheim: So this is you on the job. What did work Is complicity. At one point, Max Lerner disguised himself as a German officer and snuck behind enemy lines - leading a team of American soldiers into a German depot at night and destroying the equipment. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. And that's why civilians could be useful and soldiers could be useful, "where is the minefield?" And that has been the driving force in my life. Guy Stern: Yes, that carried weight and the belief in the printed matter was very great. "How many machine guns do you have there?" The Ritchie Boys were members of a secret American intelligence group whose mastery of the German language and culture proved critical to the Allies' victory over Hitler.