Ritchie Boy But ask him about his most formative experience - and he doesn't hesitate. 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. Some of them were trained as spies and some of them went on to careers as spies. It has been edited for USO.org. The boys were members of a military intelligence unit; strongly discouraged from talking about their war, they didnt hold their first reunion until 60 years after it ended. Salinger, author of the classic book The Catcher in the Rye.. 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Because they served in so many different capacities. But at wars end, almost none found what they were really looking fortheir families. According to the kind of unit, according to the kind of person we were interrogating. 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." It was wonderful to see these people again. Another bit of indispensable Ritchie Boy handiwork: the order of battle of the German army. 60-plus percent of the actionable intelligence gathered on the battlefield was gathered by Ritchie Boys. Guy Stern: Yes, that carried weight and the belief in the printed matter was very great. Most chose the eldest son, to carry on the family name. All students of World War II need to learn about the the Ritchie Boys. But the Sterns could only send one of their own to the U.S. The soldiers were sent for training to We were crusaders.. 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. It was also in Europe that some of them, like Guy Stern, learned what had happened to the families they left behind. Max Lerner: Or they had an effort to erase it. Jon Wertheim: I understand you you had sparring partners. Be the first to learn about news, service member stories and fundraising updates from USO. Sons and Soldiers: The Untold Story of the Jews Who Esc 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. 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. The Ritchie Boys exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. 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. By the summer of 1944, German troops in Normandy were outnumbered and overpowered. 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. Max Lerner: They were all justifying themselves. 98-year-old Victor Brombert says they relied on their Camp Ritchie training to get people to open up. Ritchie Boys were heroes who used their innate skills to gather information from all sources Bill. 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. 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. Jon Wertheim: And those are your those are your comrades. The unit got its name from where they did their training, Camp Ritchie, Maryl Cast & Crew Read More Christian Bauer Director They all rose to the top of their fields, as did a number of other Ritchie Boys. How The Ritchie Boys Helped Win 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. The case of, 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. Established by Hitler and led by Heinrich Himmler, the SS was responsible for security and intelligence collection in Germany. Their job: to provide battlefield intelligence. At the time though, the military wouldn't take volunteers who weren't born in the U.S. This books publish date is Sep 01, 2021. My father was 49 years old and-- and my mother was 48 and they left everything they had built up behind. 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.. Director, Communications But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Immigrants like Guy Stern. WASHINGTON The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum will confer its highest honor, the Elie Wiesel Award, on the Ritchie Boys, a little-known special World War II US military intelligence unit that included many Jewish refugees from Nazism and was instrumental to the Allied victory. Jon Wertheim: You work 6 days a week, you swim every morning, you lecture, any signs of slowing down? In 2011, the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, hosted an exhibit of the Ritchie Boys exploits. It was wonderful to see these people again. When Hitler came to power, the Bromberts fled to France, and then to the U.S. They knew the psychology and the A friendly approach - trying to be human. You know where the strong points are, and you know you what to avoid and what to attack. A childhood friend described to Stern how his parents, younger brother and sister had been forced from their home and deported. Jon Wertheim: This had a real material impact on World War II. very important because you save life if you know where the mine "where is the machine gun nest?" In any major military conflict, there will likely be both individual heroes and groups of heroes. Others were actually really important in American science. ", Dr. Recruits were chosen based on their knowledge of European Language and culture, as well as their high IQs. 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.
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