2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. He added that the military chose intelligent people because they had to process a tremendous amount of information." According to the Holocaust Museum, two Jewish Jon Wertheim: How effective were they at gathering intelligence? What was that like? And they were impressed with that. Jon Wertheim: Did you enjoy hunting Nazis? Fort Ritchie, as it later became known, closed in 1998. 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. Guy Stern: Yes and it's theatrics in a way yes. / CBS News. This group became known as The Ritchie Boys, who were the basis of a documentary film of the same name. Mothers Day.. One of these was Staff Sergeant Stephen (Moose) Mosbacher who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. Singer. That information is of critical importance because it tells you where certain units are, and if you know where certain units are, you know where the weak spots are. Did it give you any satisfaction? 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 One can readily point to the case of Ritchie Boy, who outwitted Adolf Eichmann and saved an estimated 40,000 lives. The Ritchie Boys landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day and helped liberate Paris. First published on January 2, 2022 / 6:52 PM. 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. 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. 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. Hundreds of Ritchie Boys were attached to divisions that liberated concentration camps and interviewed former prisoners to document the atrocities that took place. The Ritchie Boys, a group of more than 19,000 refugees trained in Maryland to be U.S. intelligence specialists during World War II, are being honored in a By the summer of 1944, German troops in Normandy were outnumbered and overpowered. Jon Wertheim: That's how you looked at it. 98-year-old Paul Fairbrook helped set up the German military documents section at Camp Ritchie a vast catalog of more than 20,000 captured German documents. The Ritchie Boys exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Nina Wolff Feld told her fathers story in Someday You Will Understand: My Fathers Private World War 2. Jon Wertheim: What was it like for you, leaving Nazi Germany, escaping as a Jew, and the next time you go back to Europe it's to fight those guys? One of these was. And we were strafed and I said to myself, uh, "now, it's the end' because I could you could feel the machine gun bullets. There were recruiting posters all over town, 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. The unit got its name from where they did their training, Camp Ritchie, Maryl Cast & Crew Read More Christian Bauer Director Their mission: to use their knowledge of the German language and culture to return to Europe and fight Naziism. Of the nearly 20,000 Ritchie Boys who served in WWII, around 140 were killed in action, including at the costly Victor Brombert: One had to playact with some of the people were acting as prisoners and some of them were real prisoners. According to the kind of unit, according to the kind of person we were interrogating. Jon Wertheim: All in service of winning the war? Contact. Guy Stern: God no. 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. Then shaping the cold war era, they really played a significant role. The purpose of the tattoo was to identify a soldier's blood type in case a transfusion was needed or if his dog tags went missing. We now know that this perception needs to be broadened. It turns out that author J.D. Recruits were chosen based on their knowledge of European Language and culture, as well as their high IQs. Message & data rates may apply. Download our app to find events, locations and programs near you. Fred is a former longtime Associated Press journalist, where he worked as a reporter and editor. Jon Wertheim: This dog tag says Hebrew. As members of the Ritchie Boys, German and Austrian refugees offered language skills and knowledge that proved vital to American military intelligence. Among the unusual sights at Ritchie: a team of U.S. soldiers dressed in German uniforms. 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. WebMany of them, like Brombert, were Jewish. Paul Fairbrook: (laugh) You bet your life I'm proud of the Ritchie Boys. St. Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. All students of World War II need to learn about the the Ritchie Boys. And there's nothing that forges unity better than having a common enemy. David Frey: The purpose of the facility was to train interrogators. Aren't we all sort of, tired of it?". 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. Jon Wertheim: I understand you you had sparring partners. In 2011, the Holocaust Memorial Center, in Farmington Hills, Michigan, hosted an exhibit of the Ritchie Boys' exploits. It was also in Europe that some of them, like Guy Stern, learned what had happened to the families they left behind. They fought with the American military in the lands they had recently escaped, helping to turn the course of the war. Many were German- and Austrian-born Jews who had fled Adolf Hitlers genocidal Nazi regimemaking them most determined enemies of the Third Reich. 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. David Frey: A lot of what was learned and the methods used are important to keep secret. 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. I know all about you. Paul Fairbrook: Oh that is a very good question. And only in the early 2000's did we begin to see reunions of the Ritchie Boys. and if you don't get it from one prisoner, you might get it from the other. David Frey: They made a massive contribution to essentially every battle that the Americans fought - the entire sets of battles on the Western Front. A mighty onslaught of more than 160,000 men, 13,000 aircraft, and 5,000 vessels. Their job: to provide battlefield intelligence. To Allied investigators it became a sort of Nazi hunter's bible. Many had fled Nazi Germany but returned as American soldiers, deploying their knowledge of German language and culture to great advantage. 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. Jon Wertheim: Was it your knowledge of the language or your knowledge of the psychology and the German culture? Guy Stern recalls arriving at Buchenwald Concentration Camp three days after its liberation, alongside a fellow American sergeant. Sensing danger, Stern's father tried to get the family out. Sometimes entire German towns were forced to pay respects to the dead. Dr. Did your dog tag identify you as Jewish? Victor Brombert, now 98 years old, is a former professor of romance languages and literature at Yale and then Princeton. 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. Jon Wertheim: This-- This is a remarkable story. Max Lerner: It gave me a great deal of satisfaction. The SS controlled the German police forces and concentration camps and directed the so-called "Final Solution" to kill all European Jews. They all rose to the top of their fields, as did a number of other Ritchie Boys. Jon Wertheim: That's the kind of thing you would know. Now 98, Fairbrook is the former dean of the Culinary Institute of America. Max Lerner: There were no Nazis. Guy Stern, a Bronze Star Medal recipient who attended, said: "It was an emotional reunion, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Some faced antisemitism from their fellow soldiers. Eight Week Classes - Dates & Graduation Numbers. and he said "no, military secret.". After the war, Guy Stern, Victor Brombert, Paul Fairbrook and Max Lerner came home, married, and went to Ivy League schools on the G.I. It is a story of a remarkable synergy between a diverse group of well trained and motivated individuals. The Ritchie Boys trained for war against these fake Germans with fake German tanks made out of wood. Jon Wertheim: That's what you were told. Even after the Pentagons change of heart about handing weapons to enemy aliens, suspicion of their bearing and accents remained widespread among regular American soldiers, sometimes reaching higher ranks. Individual Ritchie Boys were cited for their contributions by being awarded over 60 Silver Star Medals for bravery. Jon Wertheim: This had a real material impact on World War II. I asked them to leave it off. Spy. 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. 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. 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. 4.39. Max Lerner: It was my war. Guy Stern: We were on a PT boat taking off from Southampton. Of late, the Ritchie Boys have been the subject of growing media attention including, in May, on the television news program 60 Minutes. They were heroes not necessarily or predominantly based on bravery but on their intelligence and deserving of the name Secret Heroes. Your average commander in the field might not. 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. Tonight, we'll introduce you to members of a secret American intelligence unit who fought in World War II. "I would have been killed if I hadn't gone along. Background. This was our kind of war. Jon Wertheim: So physical combat training as well as intelligence? 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. Of the approximately 19,000 Ritchie Boys who served during the war, about 200 are still living, ranging 95 107 years old. Already available are biographies and memoirs by and about individual Ritchie Boys as well as the book by the NYT best-selling author Bruce Henderson and books about Austrian-born Ritchie Boys by Robert Lackner and Florian Traussnig. 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. He still works six days a week. But joy turned to horror as Allied soldiers and the world learned the full scale of the Nazi mass extermination. After their training, the Ritchie Boys were dispersed in different Army units. Guy Stern: Out of a plane. Some never went back to Europe, but one retired to Berlin in 1988 and spent his final years visiting German schools to talk about his childhood under Hitler. 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. This books publish date is Sep 01, 2021. They chose their eldest son. And I gave myself the name Commissar Krukov. Bill. Max Lerner recalls that in one respect at least, identifying most SS members was easy. Many of the Jewish refugees lost family members, and at the end of the war, they searched for them. Isn't it a miserable thing? When Hitler came to power, the Bromberts fled to France, and then to the U.S. Guy Stern: We always find another anecdote to tell. 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. As part of denazification, photos of Nazi atrocities were posted in German shop windows and Ritchie Boys led the country's citizens on tours of the concentration camps to educate the local population about the evil Hitler had perpetrated. They significantly helped the war effort and saved lives.. 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. But Hildesheim was now in ruins. Please take a moment to let our troops know how much we appreciate their service and sacrifice. who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. Apart from the fighting, there were other threats confronting the Ritchie Boys. And I said "Well, huh, in slang, there ain't nothing special about you, but if you were saved, you got to show that you were worthy of it. That is the key to being a good interrogator. Walter Midener, an attendee, was awarded the Silver Star. The Ritchie Boys exhibit is at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. All SS members were subject to automatic arrest. On June 6, 1944, D-Day the Allies launched one of the most sweeping military operations in history. In addition to the Holocaust Museums award, the U.S. Senate passed a resolutionin 2021 honoring the bravery and dedication of the Ritchie Boys, and recognizing the importance of their contributions to the success of the Allied Forces during World War II.. David Frey: All in service of winning the war. Long-overdue Recognition Comes to the Ritchie Boys. Here are five ways Dietrich supported American troops and the USO during World War II. The Ritchie Boys consisted of approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII. Some didn't even go over to to Europe. 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. 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. TTY: 202.488.0406, Guidelines for Teaching About the Holocaust, The Presidents Commission on the Holocaust, United States Holocaust Memorial Council (Board of Trustees), Holocaust Survivors and Victims Resource Center. "where are your reserve units?" Salinger was a Ritchie Boy. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. Jon Wertheim: So this is you on the job. Jon Wertheim: And those are your those are your comrades. Many of the 15,200 selected were Jewish soldiers who fled Nazi-controlled Germany, which was systematically killing Jews. After the war, the Ritchie Boys continued their work. In 2011, the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, hosted an exhibit of the Ritchie Boys exploits. 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. 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. Ritchie Boy Dr. K. Lang-Slattery, Katie Lang-Slattery. Victor Brombert: We were supposed to arrest important Nazi officials. According to the Holocaust Museum, two Jewish soldiers were taken captive and executed after being identified as German-born Jews, and there were about 200 Ritchie Boys alive as of May 2022. Guy Stern: The Bronze Star was given to me right at the end of hostilities. Divisions that liberated concentration camps included hundreds of Ritchie Boys, who interviewed survivors. The Ritchie Boys practiced street fighting in life-size replicas of German villages and questioned mock civilians in full scale German homes. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. All were convicted for their crimes and many were executed. 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. Many of the Ritchie Boys went on to have successful civilian careers, including J.D. In trying to assess the contribution of a single participant to an endeavor as gigantic as World War II, the question is often asked How much difference can one man make? Considering how remarkable Ritchie Boys were as individuals, does it make sense to try to find just one or perhaps two Ritchie Boys whose individual contributions stand out in terms of the difference it made? Sons and Soldiers concentrates on six of them, two deadincluding Selling, who passed away at 86 in 2004but who left detailed memoirs, and four still flourishing in their 90s. And they were motivated like few other American soldiers. 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Individual Ritchie Boys were cited for their contributions by being awarded over 60 Silver Star Medals for bravery. And to take those heights against heavy firing, going up those steep cliffs, and of course, it had been done. They crossed into Germany with the Allied armies and witnessed the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. Jon Wertheim: What you describe, it almost sounds like these were precursors to CIA agents. 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. 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. Striecher was later tried and convicted at the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, where concentration camp survivors who bore witness to the mass murder faced down their Nazi tormentors. David Frey: It was a very broad range And they did it all generally in eight weeks. Max Lerner: Wear civilian clothes, pass messages, kill. How German-Jewish refugees who fled the Nazis gathered military intelligence in Europe for the U.S. By Brian Bethune All Rights Reserved. You want to give them that feeling that you know who they are, they know who you are. Guy Stern became a professor and taught for almost 50 years. Its not just a story about Jewish emigres, Frey says, its also a story of what I would call marginal soldiers and their defense of this country.. Already available are biographies and memoirs by and about individual Ritchie Boys as well as the book by the NYT best-selling author Bruce Henderson and books about Austrian-born Ritchie Boys by Robert Lackner and Florian Traussnig. There's no fee to visit the local community 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. Jon Wertheim: What is it like when you get together and reflect on this experience going on 80 years ago? 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. 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.. A childhood friend described to Stern how his parents, younger brother and sister had been forced from their home and deported. and I said "may I know where I'm going?" Readers may be amazed to learn that the Ritchie Boys included five Marines who died on Iwo Jima, including two who graduated with a specialty of Terrain Intelligence) and were killed in action on the day the Marines stormed Iwo Jima (19 February 1945). I was the only one to get out. At a time when the U.S. military urgently needed foreign language speakers, the Ritchie Boys offered a key resource. Jon Wertheim: SS men, you're saying, have a tattoo under their left arm with their blood type? 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. USO Tour Veteran. Other Ritchie Boys were able to express their motivation and accomplishments in memoirs with titles such as I Must Be a Part of This War and A Few Who Made a Difference. 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. But the Sterns could only send one of their own to the U.S. It was his service in the military during World War II. I mean this is you're taking your life in your hands here. The Department of Defense provides the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security. Little did he know he was whining to a Jewish refugee from Nazi-controlled Austria - a refugee who was now a Ritchie Boy, one of the most valuable interrogation units in the Allied forces. 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. Victor Brombert: The shared experience, exactly. 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. In civilian life, he became a noted sculpture and fine arts teacher and rose to the presidency for the Center for Creative Studies at Detroits College of Art and Design. What could be more appropriate than to honor them with an award bearing the name of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.. Produced by Katherine Davis. 202.437.1221 David Frey: Techniques where you want to get people to talk to you. Established by Hitler and led by Heinrich Himmler, the SS was responsible for security and intelligence collection in Germany. Guy Stern: I had a war to fight and I did it. In August 2021, the bipartisan US Senate Resolution 349 officially recognized the bravery of those troops. 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. . Follow him at @ffrommer. Training was designed to be as realistic as possible. WebThe Ritchie Boys were a secret unit of the US Army during the Second World War. What did work Is complicity. "It was a terrible situation. Edited by Stephanie Palewski Brumbach and Robert Zimet. Eventually, David Frey: They were incredibly effective. 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." Still, if they were captured, they knew what the Nazis would do to them. Making such a distinction in this case is very difficult. Some Ritchie Boys were recruited to go on secret missions during the war. 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. 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. Jon Wertheim: You work 6 days a week, you swim every morning, you lecture, any signs of slowing down? Why were you the one that made it to the United States? He grew up in a close-knit family in the town of Hildesheim, Germany. Originally a resort, Camp Ritchie was a curiously idyllic setting to prepare for the harshness and brutality of war. They took their name from the place they trained - Camp Ritchie, Maryland a secret American military intelligence center during the war. In 1943, he was drafted into the Army and in 1944 landed in Normandy after D-day as a "Ritchie Boy." They never met for reunions, they did not join veteran associations. Two Ritchie Boys were identified as German-language interrogators working for the Americans after they were captured in a Nazi counterattack; revealed to be Jewish, the men were summarily executed. Hed endured a lot already, including three brutal months in Dachau concentration camp after Kristallnacht in 1938, before finding haven in America. Embedded in every Army unit, they interrogated tens of thousands of captured Nazi soldiers as well as civilians extracting key strategic information on enemy strength, troop movements, and defensive positions. All had experienced harrowing escapes from Europe and dangerous but productive returns.
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