Jon Wertheim: How do you think we should be recalling the Ritchie Boys? Another bit of indispensable Ritchie Boy handiwork: the order of battle of the German army. Photo credit DoD/Holocaust Memorial Center, | Guy Stern: Thank you for asking. The soldiers were sent for training to Longtime Yale and Princeton professor Victor Brombert helped enact the official Allied policy of removing Nazi influence from german public life known as denazification. This books publish date is Sep 01, 2021. Giving out some cigarettes also helps a lot. Jon Wertheim: I understand there are some Ritchie Boys [that] became fairly prominent figures. Singer. Max Lerner: You know how to tell an SS man? Paul Fairbrook: You can learn to shoot a rifle in six months but you can't learn fluent German in six months. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Stern, by then a college student, raced to enlist. Jon Wertheim: This-- This is a remarkable story. Dead people. G. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is an intense action movie, full of gunfire and explosions that make you feel caught in the midst of danger. Jon Wertheim: And you're saying that some of that originated at Camp Ritchie? That is the key to being a good interrogator. Victor Brombert: It was very, very hard, very difficult and very rare to have a German denounce another German at that point. Guy Stern: It was absolutely, we won kid. After the war, the Ritchie Boys continued their work. USO Tour Veteran. And notably, professor Frey says, more than 250 Ritchie Boys continued to work in the field of intelligence after the war, becoming professional spies. At the time though, the military wouldn't take volunteers who weren't born in the U.S. You know, I don't talk like an Alabama person or a Texan. As members of the Ritchie Boys, German and Austrian refugees offered language skills and knowledge that proved vital to American military intelligence. 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. Martin Selling, 24, was undergoing training as a U.S. Army medical orderly in February 1943 and chafing under a Pentagon policy that kept hima Jewish refugee from Germany and hence an enemy alienaway from any combat unit. 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. The Ritchie Boys exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Guy Stern: I preferred not having it. Actress. Fortunately, some of the Ritchie Boys are still around to tell their tales, and that includes the life force that is Guy Stern, age 99. There were two who were actually captured at 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. There were two who were actually captured at the Battle of the Bulge. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. 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. Jon Wertheim: What is it like when you get together and reflect on this experience going on 80 years ago? "How to kill a sentry from behind." David Frey is a professor of history and director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Long-overdue Recognition Comes to the Ritchie Boys. Andrew Hollinger Jon Wertheim: Sixty percent of the actionable intelligence? Victor Brombert: I saw immense debris. My father was 49 years old and-- and my mother was 48 and they left everything they had built up behind. In a different way, the contributions made by a small team or by a large group of individuals may also save lives and deserve to be called heroic. Guy Stern: None of my family survived. David Frey: The purpose of the facility was to train interrogators. did not have the opportunity to serve overseas, he was able to make a significant contribution as an interrogator at Fort Hunt and as the principal facilitator in the integration of German Paperclip scientists and engineers such as Wernher von Braun into our society. and if you don't get it from one prisoner, you might get it from the other. Fort Ritchie, as it later became known, closed in 1998. He project detailed every aspect of the German army's operations during the war, including how they were structured, how they mobilized and how they used intelligence. Guy Stern: They were killed either in Warsaw or in Auschwitz. They were asked, in some cases, to memorize battle books, which told soldiers about the enemys organization, structure, capacity, leadership and experience. Guy Stern recalls arriving at Buchenwald Concentration Camp three days after its liberation, alongside a fellow American sergeant. The knowledge that his adopted country would not let him fight their common enemy was bitterly frustrating. Many were foreign-born or had lived abroad for significant amounts of time. The Ritchie Boys were one of World War IIs greatest secret weapons for U.S. Army intelligence, said Stuart E. Eizenstat, shortly before becoming chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2022, when the museum bestowed the Ritchie Boys with the Elie Wiesel Award, its highest honor. One can readily point to the case of Ritchie Boy, who outwitted Adolf Eichmann and saved an estimated 40,000 lives. In 1943, he was drafted into the Army and in 1944 landed in Normandy after D-day as a "Ritchie Boy." One or more of Hendersons Ritchie Boys was present at every major moment of the American war in Europe: landing on Omaha Beach, speeding with Pattons tanks, liberating concentration camps. The soldiers were sent for training to I can't recommend this book enough! Just two weeks shy of turning 100, Guy Stern drips with vitality. He was shot right away and killed. served as the Intelligence Officer for the Second Ranger Battalion and was among those who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Step back in time and remember the lead up to VE Day, or "Victory in Europe Day," when soldiers and civilians alike across the world celebrated the end of the years-long World War II in Europe. We believe it will also recognize the value of a group as large as 20,000. Salinger was a Ritchie Boy. 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. Engraved on the award are the words from Wiesels Nobel Prize acceptance speech, One person of integrity can make a difference., About the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. It took dedicationthe course at Camp Ritchie required polishing the English needed to communicate with their own side, combat training and intensive study of the German armyas well as courage and the thick skins they had already developed. Guy Stern: I think it was the continuous flow of reliable information that really helped expedite the end of the war. K. Lang-Slattery, Katie Lang-Slattery. They never met for reunions, they did not join veteran associations. Approximately 20,000 menmany of whom were immigrants and refugees from more than 70 countries, including 2,800 German and Austrian refugees who fled Nazi persecution and had arrived in the United States as enemy alienswere trained there. Here are five ways Dietrich supported American troops and the USO during World War II. By 1937, violence against Jews was escalating. Enter. who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. David Frey: The purpose of the facility was to train interrogators. It has been edited for USO.org. By highlighting those individuals who, in the midst of evil, stood for the best, rather than the worst of human nature, the Holocaust Memorial Center seeks to contribute to maintaining an open and free society, he added. Approximately 14%, or 2,200, of them After the war, Frey says, a survey of battalion commanders concluded that intelligence gathered by graduates of Camp Ritchie was responsible for at least 60 percent of actionable intelligence for the Western Front Theater.. Ritchie Boys Image by Sons and Soldiers. Victor Brombert: Our interrogations - it had to do with tactical immediate concerns. Because they served in so many different capacities. WebTheir Unique History and Demographics. The USO is a not-for-profit organization and not part of the Department of Defense (DoD). He still works six days a week. They were members of a secret group whose mastery of the German language and culture helped them provide battlefield intelligence that proved pivotal to the Allies' victory. Ritchie Boys of G. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant is an intense action movie, full of gunfire and explosions that make you feel caught in the midst of danger. Established by Hitler and led by Heinrich Himmler, the SS was responsible for security and intelligence collection in Germany. An official website of the United States Government. One can also point to a Ritchie Boy who was given the opportunity to shape the critically important program of psychological warfare by training nearly all the 850 members of the Mobile Radio Broadcasting Companies. Max Lerner: It was my war. 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. Divided into 6-man teams the Ritchie Boys were attached to different Army units. Jon Wertheim: And you were able to confront the people that had caused this this trauma. "How many machine guns do you have there?" The appearance of DoD visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement. They knew the psychology and the Some of these books, Frey says, were nearly 500 pages long by the end of the war. 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. Jon Wertheim: So there's all sorts of impact years and years and years after the war from this this camp in Maryland? 4.39. Guy Stern, a Bronze Star Medal recipient who attended, said: Ritchie Boy Dr. Surviving soldiers were among the attendees. I can look anybody straight in their eye and say I think I've earned the right to be an American. I think that's quantifiable. Immigrant Soldier, The Story of a Ritchie Boy, based on the true experiences of a refugee from Nazi Germany, combines a coming of age story with an immigrant tale and a World War II adventure. The largest set of graduates were 2,000 German-born Jews. You on one side and we on this side. (See You know a lot about them already. Never. It was an impact on war crimes. The Ritchie Boys were members of a secret American intelligence unit that fought in World War II. WebMany of them, like Brombert, were Jewish. Some of them were very involved with the collection of information that became the basis of the trials at Nuremberg and subsequent war crimes trials, Frey said. And I gave myself the name Commissar Krukov. Sensing danger, Stern's father tried to get the family out. Main telephone: 202.488.0400 Mr. Jon Wertheim: You work 6 days a week, you swim every morning, you lecture, any signs of slowing down? Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 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. Training was designed to be as realistic as possible. "By highlighting those individuals who, in the midst of evil, stood for the best, rather than the worst of human nature, the Holocaust Memorial Center seeks to contribute to maintaining an open and free society," he added. But ask him about his most formative experience - and he doesn't hesitate. All SS members were subject to automatic arrest. We had to-- we got a lot of German prisoners who were willing to help us catalog all those documents. On the front lines from Normandy onwards, the Ritchie Boys fought in every major battle in Europe, collecting tactical intelligence, interrogating prisoners and civilians, all in service of winning the war. 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. Jon Wertheim: What were you trained to do? One can also point to a Ritchie Boy who was given the opportunity to shape the critically important program of psychological warfare by training nearly all the 850 members of the Mobile Radio Broadcasting Companies. In any major military conflict, there will likely be both individual heroes and groups of heroes. Jon Wertheim: This was one of the leaflets that was dropped out--. Through the power of Holocaust history, the Museum challenges leaders and individuals worldwide to think critically about their role in society and to confront antisemitism and other forms of hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Others were actually really important in American science. We hope you find the data, stories, and images here of interest. Many of the Jewish refugees lost family members, and at the end of the war, they searched for them. Guy Stern arrived in the U.S. alone at age 15, settling with an uncle in St. Louis. Victor Brombert: The shared experience, exactly. 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. Jon Wertheim: So physical combat training as well as intelligence? Their job: to provide battlefield intelligence. Although Ritchie Boy Private Henry Kolm did not have the opportunity to serve overseas, he was able to make a significant contribution as an interrogator at Fort Hunt and as the principal facilitator in the integration of German Paperclip scientists and engineers such as Wernher von Braun into our society. At a time when the U.S. military urgently needed foreign language speakers, the Ritchie Boys offered a key resource. Copyright 2023 Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. In the age of mechanized warfare, you need to know what these large armies look like, what their capabilities are, how theyre arrayed, Frey says. 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. And there's nothing that I wanted more is to get some revenge on Hitler who killed my uncles, and my aunts and my cousins and there was no question in my mind, and neither of all the men in Camp Ritchie. WebThe surviving Ritchie Boys are in their eighties now. The soldiers were sent for training to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, beginning June 19, 1942, where they trained at the Military Intelligence Training Center thus their nickname, the Ritchie Boys.. Jon Wertheim: You didn't want to be identified as Jewish going back to Western Europe. Max Lerner: Because I remembered my parents. They all rose to the top of their fields, as did a number of other Ritchie Boys. Jon Wertheim: Did you enjoy hunting Nazis? It was here that over 19,000 Ritchie Boys, many of them German-Jewish immigrants from Europe 97-year-old Max Lerner, an Austrian Jew fluent in German and French, served as a special agent with the counterintelligence corps, passing information to French underground resistance groups. Jon Wertheim: That's the kind of thing you would know. The Ritchie Boys train at Camp Ritchie, Md., sometime during World War II. 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. Their subjects ranged from low-level German soldiers to high-ranking Nazi officers including Hans Goebbels, brother of Hitler's chief propogandist, Joseph Goebbels. Guy Stern: And some we didn't break but 80% were so darned scared of the Russians and what they would do. One can readily point to the case of Ritchie Boy William R. Perl who outwitted Adolf Eichmann and saved an estimated 40,000 lives. Web34K views 1 year ago. (Photo: US Army/US Department of Defense), https://www.history.com/news/ritchie-boys-wwii-jewish-refugees-military-intelligence, The Jewish Refugees Who Fled Nazi GermanyThen Returned to Fight. Amid the chaos of war, Guy Stern and the other Ritchie Boys had a job to do. Some didn't even go over to to Europe. Guy Stern: Yes and it's theatrics in a way yes. Web4.73K subscribers The Ritchie Boys of World War Two were more than 15,000 servicemen who fled Nazi Germany and Austria, becoming instrumental in the allied war effort with Ritchie Boys were a military intelligence unit made up of mostly German, Austrian and Czech refugees and immigrants, many of whom were Jewish. Camp Ritchie served the Maryland National Guard until 1942. Following the war, some of the Ritchie Boys were interrogators during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. The case of Hans Habe stands out in my mind as the essence of the reason why the Ritchie Boys were able to use their intelligence (and motivation) to make an enormous difference. Divisions that liberated concentration camps included hundreds of Ritchie Boys, who interviewed survivors. Photo credit DoD/Holocaust Memorial Center, It was an emotional reunion, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. There were roughly 9000 of these Jews in America and they specialized in the interrogation of German prisoners. But Hitler was determined to continue the war. Jon Wertheim: How did you find out you were going to go to Camp Ritchie? Guy Stern: I was called to the company office and told you're shipping out. 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. I don't know. They significantly helped the war effort and saved lives. David Frey: All in service of winning the war. Guy Stern: This one was our most effective leaflet and why was that? Salinger, author of the classic book "The Catcher in the Rye.". The Ritchie Boys earned a reputation for delivering important tactical information fast, making a major contribution to every battle on the Western Front. By the summer of 1944, German troops in Normandy were outnumbered and overpowered. Guy Stern: Yes, doing my job interrogating. This little-known part of American history deserves national acknowledgement. We hope you find the data, stories, and images here of interest. Bruce Hendersons account of the Ritchie Boys, as the camps graduates came to be known, is full of arresting moments like Sellings arrival, almost all of them virtually unknown. Harmony Jones, a military child, shares how being raised in a military family helped shape her future for success. In exchange for their knowledge of German language, culture and topography, which proved critical in extracting information vital to the war effort, the Army offered citizenship. It is a story of a remarkable synergy between a diverse group of well trained and motivated individuals. Did your dog tag identify you as Jewish? And when their identity was discovered, they were summarily executed by the Germans that had captured them. Max Lerner: Or they had an effort to erase it. And to take those heights against heavy firing, going up those steep cliffs, and of course, it had been done. Gross wrote to me saying, My Many had fled Nazi Germany but returned as American soldiers, deploying their knowledge of German language and culture to great advantage. David Frey: They were in fact. Nina Wolff Feld told her fathers story in Someday You Will Understand: My Fathers Private World War 2. Many of the Ritchie Boys went on to have successful civilian careers, including J.D. 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. Guy Stern: Out of a plane. It was the viewing of that film that converted Dan into a Ritchie Boy Wannabe and launched him on a quest to help publicize this heroic group. Angress followed up leads that took him to an Amsterdam address just five days after VE Day. Jon Wertheim: This dog tag says Hebrew. A friendly approach - trying to be human. Guy Stern, a Bronze Star Medal recipient who attended, said: "It was an emotional reunion, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. About 200 Ritchie Boys are estimated to be alive today. "I would have been killed if I hadn't gone along. David Frey: I think we look at this group and we see true heroes. Essentially they were intellectuals. 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. Early on in World War II, 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. In the Ardennes region of Belgium, the Germans mounted a massive counteroffensive, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge. In August 2021, the bipartisan US Senate Resolution 349 officially recognized the bravery of those troops. Victor Brombert: We improvised according to the situation. Among them were the Ritchie Boys, some 15,200 men who attended the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Md. The Ritchie Boys consisted of approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII. Of late, the Ritchie Boys have been the subject of growing media attention including, in May, on the television news program 60 Minutes. 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. / CBS News. If a German POW wouldn't talk, he might face Guy Stern dressed up as a Russian officer. Text STOP to opt out, HELP for help. I know all about you. David Frey: It was a very broad range And they did it all generally in eight weeks. 5 likes. Why do so few Americans know about this? This is the good conduct medal which I'm not really entitled to (laugh) and this here is the European theatre of operations medal with five battles in which I participated. January 2, 2022 / 6:52 PM Guy Stern: Yes, that carried weight and the belief in the printed matter was very great. told the story of his fathers motivation and bravery in the book Unavoidable Hope. 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. 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. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. Jon Wertheim: You let him know you were Jewish? What's most extraordinary about this group: many of them were German-born Jews who fled their homeland, came to America, and then joined the U.S. Army. Ritchie History Museum Links. The U.S. Army leased the post for $5 a year and established The Military Intelligence Training Center. Walter Midener, an attendee, was awarded the Silver Star. very important because you save life if you know where the mine "where is the machine gun nest?" One can also point to a Ritchie Boy 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. Download our app to find events, locations and programs near you. They chose their eldest son. To do so, they learned photo analysis, terrain analysis, aerial reconnaissance, enemy army analysis, interrogation, signals intelligence and much more.. Guy Stern speaks at the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Centers Ritchie Boys exhibit and reunion at Farmington Hills, Michigan in 2011. When Hitler took power in 1933, Stern says the climate grew increasingly hostile. 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? It was his service in the military during World War II. But certainly what did not work was violence or threat of violence. Jon Wertheim: What do you think is the greatest contribution of the Ritchie Boys? As a Jew, I knew I might not be treated exactly by the Geneva rules. And that's what the key to the success was. The Ritchie Boys exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Tonight, we'll introduce you to members of a secret American intelligence unit who fought in World War II. Paul Fairbrook: Look I'm a German Jew. How German-Jewish refugees who fled the Nazis gathered military intelligence in Europe for the U.S. By Brian Bethune Museum to Confer its Highest Honor, The Elie Wiesel Award, Secret Unit Formed 80 Years Ago Was Instrumental in Nazi GermanysDefeat and Included Many Who Had Fled the Regime. There were 1,985 German born Ritchie Boys. The largest set of graduates were 2,000 German-born Jews. That was the mantra. Max Lerner: There were no Nazis. 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. I tell you when we landed on Omaha beach, there were-- the whole heights had been occupied by the German artillery and I looked up on those heights and there were our American soldiers in full occupation on the day D plus 3 and I said to myself, "that can't be done." The Ritchie Boys landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and helped liberate Paris. But Hildesheim was now in ruins. All had experienced harrowing escapes from Europe and dangerous but productive returns. David Frey: I think they did.

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