Martha Cesaro, a military spouse, shares what inspired her to start giving back to the military community through the USO. There were roughly 9000 of these Jews in America and they specialized in the interrogation of German prisoners. Training was designed to be as realistic as possible. Jon Wertheim: This is going behind enemy lines. David Frey: Part of what the Ritchie Boys did was to convince German units to surrender without fighting. Others were actually really important in American science. Elie Wiesel, the Museums founding chairman, was the first recipient of the award, which was subsequently named in his honor. We see those who are the greatest of the greatest generation. African-American Ritchie Boy William Warfield Victor Brombert: Yes, well with a stick. Guy Stern: I had my whole uniform with medals, Russian medals. HistoryNet I don't know. Look, I got a book here and it tells me that you were here and you went there and your boss was this." It was published by Stackpole Books and has a total of 432 pages in the book. In 2011, the Holocaust Memorial Center, in Farmington Hills, Michigan, hosted an exhibit of the Ritchie Boys' exploits. A significant number of people, even those with some knowledge of Camp Ritchie, appear to visualize a graduate of the Armys Military Intelligence Training Center as follows: A physically-challenged man of the Jewish faith, who was born in Germany or Austria, joined the U. S. Army, and after being trained at Camp Ritchie served in the European Theater in World War II as an interrogator in relative safety behind the lines. Jon Wertheim: That's what you called yourself? The Ritchie Boys | The Story The largest set of graduates were 2,000 German-born Jews. Early on in the war, the Army realized it needed German- and Italian-speaking U.S. soldiers for a variety of duties, including psychological warfare, interrogation, espionage and intercepting enemy communications. Since the story of the Ritchie Boys remained relatively unknown for a half-century or more, it was often left to their children and grandchildren to bring their accomplishments to light. Besides their language ability, these soldiers were familiar with the culture and thinking of enemy soldiers, which would aid them in their efforts. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. Guy Stern, a Bronze Star Medal recipient who attended, said: Ritchie Boy Dr. Ritchie History Museum Links. By 1937, violence against Jews was escalating. Guy Stern: I went to my father one day and I said, "classes are becoming a torture chamber". And I gave myself the name Commissar Krukov. Jon Wertheim: Do you remember saying goodbye to your family? Before the Tuskegee Airmen, there were the Hellfighters from Harlem, a group of African American National Guard Soldiers of New York's 15th Infantry Regiment who fought for the right to serve in combat during World War I. The Allies liberated Paris in August and drove Nazi troops out of France. Book Summary: The title of this book is Ritchie Boy Secrets and it was written by Eddy, Beverley Driver. Additional valuable information on the Ritchie Boys may be found in a forum-type Facebook page, Ritchie Boys of WWII, ably managed with considerable devotion by Bernie Lubran, son of Ritchie Boy Walter Lubran, and by Josh Freeling, whose great uncle was Ritchie Boy Kurt Kugelmann. The so-called Ritchie Boys were among roughly 15,000 graduates of training programs at Camp Ritchie, a former National Guard Camp in Maryland named for the late Maryland Governor, Albert C. Ritchie. Although members of the Ritchie Boys were awarded more than 65 Silver Stars, their group was not very well known during the war. Many of the 15,200 selected were Jewish soldiers who fled Nazi-controlled Germany, which was systematically killing Jews. David Frey: The purpose of the facility was to train interrogators. This group became known as The Ritchie Boys, who were the basis of a documentary film of the same name. After Hitler's defeat, many of them took on a challenging new assignment using their language and interrogation skills to find and arrest top Nazi war criminals. Immigrants like Guy Stern. We were crusaders.. You playacted. Many Ritchie Boys took the precaution of anglicizing their names and altering their dog tags by replacing the H for Hebrewa guide to their burial service should the worst happenwith P for Protestant. Jon Wertheim: How do you think we should be recalling the Ritchie Boys? The evidence was before us. That was the biggest weakness that the army recognized that it had, which was battlefield intelligence and the interrogation needed to talk to sometimes civilians, most of the time prisoners of war, in order to glean information from them. Guy Stern: My fellow students it was an all-male school withdrew from you. David Frey: The work they do in the field, being able to glean information simply by from the uniform that a captured POW is wearing or the type of weapon that they have or the unit that they've just captured. And I had no choice." Guy Stern: God no. told the story of his fathers motivation and bravery in the book Unavoidable Hope. Frey noted similarities between the Jewish refugeeswho were considered enemy aliens until mid-1942 because they had come from countries the United States was at war withand Japanese Americans who had been interned. You know a lot about them already. How the Ritchie Boys, Secret Refugee Infiltrators, Took on the Just two weeks shy of turning 100, Guy Stern drips with vitality. Paul Fairbrook: You can learn to shoot a rifle in six months but you can't learn fluent German in six months. After following in his familys footsteps and serving in the military, Air Force veteran Lyle Apo turned to USO Hawaii for the opportunity to volunteer and help current service members. Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Esc Victor Brombert: One had to playact with some of the people were acting as prisoners and some of them were real prisoners. Mothers Day.. A PHOTO FROM A RITCHIE BOY REUNION HELD IN WASHINGTON DC. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant and why Hollywood is afraid of the Guy Stern: None of my family survived. Hundreds of Ritchie Boys were attached to divisions that liberated concentration camps and interviewed former prisoners to document the atrocities that took place. It has been edited for USO.org. Most of the guys in basic training were Southerners who hated the Jewish boys from New York and busted our chops most of the time, George Sakheim, who had fled to the United States by way of Palestine, told POLITICO Magazine. The Ritchie Boys connected with prisoners on subjects as varied as food and soccer rivalries but they weren't above using deception on difficult targets. Never. Guy Stern: Yes, that carried weight and the belief in the printed matter was very great. Some of them requested new dog tags with very good reason. But after a year, he joined the U.S. Army and became one of the 20,000 Ritchie Boys, a special group of soldiers trained at Camp Ritchie (formerly a Maryland National Guard site) to serve in military intelligence during World War II. The Ritchie Boys train at Camp Ritchie, Md., sometime during World War II. Ritchie Boys In 1943, he was drafted into the Army and in 1944 landed in Normandy after D-day as a "Ritchie Boy." Choose which Defense.gov products you want delivered to your inbox. Victor Brombert: What happened to one of the Ritchie Boys - at night on the way to the latrine, he was asked for a password and he gave the name - the word for the password - but with a German accent. As was philanthropist David Rockefeller and media baron and billionaire John Kluge. Victor Brombert: It was very, very hard, very difficult and very rare to have a German denounce another German at that point. Max Lerner: They were all justifying themselves. Victor Brombert: We improvised according to the situation. Wayne State University Professor Ehrhard Dabringhaus, another attendee, was ordered shortly after the war to become the American control officer to Klaus Barbie, the notorious war criminal. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Now is it because they were afraid that the Nazis might come back, that it's not over? 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. He responded with just the information I needed. Among the unusual sights at Ritchie: a team of U.S. soldiers dressed in German uniforms. Max Lerner was assigned to interivew German civilians to help gauge the degree to which they had served the Nazi cause and determine which ones should be punished. WebThe Ritchie Boys were the US special military intelligence officers and enlisted men of World War II who were trained at Camp Ritchie in Maryland. 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. The Ritchie Boys exhibit is at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. By the spring of 1945, Allied forces neared Berlin and Hitler took his life in his underground bunker. It was not only that short term impact on the battlefield. Fortunately, a book written by historian Beverley Eddy tells the story of Camp Ritchie and the Ritchie Boys in great detail and with professional skill. Guy Stern: The Bronze Star was given to me right at the end of hostilities. As the world observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day, some may remember the so-called "Ritchie Boys," who greatly aided allied forces in their fight against Germany and other Axis nations in World War II. Stern also said that its 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. I can't recommend this book enough!
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