Mothers Day.. Edited by Stephanie Palewski Brumbach and Robert Zimet. I can't recommend this book enough! He is still haunted by what he experienced that day. Did it give you any satisfaction? Victor Brombert: Yes, well with a stick. After their training, the Ritchie Boys were dispersed in different Army units. Training was designed to be as realistic as possible. Surviving soldiers were among the attendees. They never met for reunions, they did not join veteran associations. The danger from the German side, of course, was far higher. Divided into 6-man teams the Ritchie Boys were attached to different Army units. Guy Stern recalls arriving at Buchenwald Concentration Camp three days after its liberation, alongside a fellow American sergeant. 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. They were asked, in some cases, to memorize battle books, which told soldiers about the enemys organization, structure, capacity, leadership and experience. In civilian life, he became a noted sculpture and fine arts teacher and rose to the presidency for the Center for Creative Studies at Detroit's College of Art and Design. You want to give them that feeling that you know who they are, they know who you are. Guy Stern: We always find another anecdote to tell. And that's why civilians could be useful and soldiers could be useful, "where is the minefield?" David Frey is a professor of history and director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 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. A few days later, Stern returned to the place of his birth, hoping to reunite with his family. WebThe army recruited not just those fluent in German, French, Italian, and Polish (approximately a fifth were Jewish refugees from Europe), but also Arabic, Japanese, Dutch, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Turkish, and other languages as well as some 200 Native Americans and 200 WACs. David Frey: There were Ritchie Boys that were in the first wave on the first day at D-Day. 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. 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. Copyright 2023 Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. That was the mantra. How The Ritchie Boys Helped Win They crossed into Germany with the Allied armies and witnessed the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps. Washington County's Ritchie Boys focus of 60 Minutes segment 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 Jon Wertheim: How did you find out you were going to go to Camp Ritchie? 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. You're in Belgium? 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. So many of them were Jewish. After the war, a number served as translators and interrogatorsespecially during the Nuremberg Trials. 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. Surviving soldiers were among the attendees. You playacted. As members of the Ritchie Boys, German and Austrian refugees offered language skills and knowledge that proved vital to American military intelligence. A contribution made by a single individual, especially if one or more lives are saved, is generally recognized as truly heroic. ahollinger@ushmm.org. Ritchie Boy Dr. 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? 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. Victor Brombert: I saw immense debris. Many were foreign-born or had lived abroad for significant amounts of time. 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. Making such a distinction in this case is very difficult. 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 has been edited for USO.org. Jon Wertheim: As a former German who understood the psychology and the mentality. Jon Wertheim: What do you remember feeling that day? Web"The Ritchie Boys" is the untold story of a group of young men who fled Nazi Germany and returned to Europe as soldiers in US-uniforms. 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? Originally a resort, Camp Ritchie was a curiously idyllic setting to prepare for the harshness and brutality of war. Many of the 15,200 selected were Jewish soldiers who fled Nazi-controlled Germany, which was systematically killing Jews. 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. 202.437.1221 There were Ritchie Boys who were in virtually every battle that you can think of and some actually suffered the worst fate. Ritchie Boy You really have to understand it helps to have been born in Germany in order to in order to do a good job. And we all were scared. The very aspect of these SOBs now being at my command (laugh) gave me also some personal satisfaction. 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. Bill. All SS members were subject to automatic arrest. Amid the chaos of war, Guy Stern and the other Ritchie Boys had a job to do. This was our kind of war. Dead people. There were at least 30 languages spoken at Camp Ritchie, but the preference obviously was for German speakers because most of the enemy forces would be German, Frey says. All had experienced harrowing escapes from Europe and dangerous but productive returns. 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. 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. By the spring of 1944, the Ritchie Boys were ready to return to Western Europe this time as naturalized Americans in American uniforms. 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. A mighty onslaught of more than 160,000 men, 13,000 aircraft, and 5,000 vessels. 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. 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. We were all on the same wavelength. In 2011, the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, hosted an exhibit of the Ritchie Boys exploits. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. Ritchie Boys also collected evidence which led to the prosecution of many high ranking Nazis including Hermann Goering, head of the Luftwaffe; Rudolph Hess, deputy furher to Adolf Hitler; and Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the Wehrmacht, Germany's armed forces. This little-known part of American history deserves national acknowledgement. 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. This books publish date is Sep 01, 2021. The Ritchie Boys key asset was language skills, and the militarys hunger was for battlefield POW interrogators. The Ritchie Boys | The Story 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. The USO relies on your support to help service members and their families. Salinger were among the camp gradsbut 2,000 German-language refugees, almost all Jewish, were the prize pupils. Ritchie Boys were a military intelligence unit made up of mostly German, Austrian and Czech refugees and immigrants, many of whom were Jewish. Paul Fairbrook helped write this compact manual, known as the red book, which outlined in great detail the makeup of virtually every Nazi unit, information every Ritchie Boy committed to memory. David Frey is a professor of history and director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. 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. Paul Fairbrook: Well, because it was an unusual part of the United States Army. 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. David Frey: They made a massive contribution to essentially every battle that the Americans fought - the entire sets of battles on the Western Front. Longtime Yale and Princeton professor Victor Brombert helped enact the official Allied policy of removing Nazi influence from german public life known as denazification. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. 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. What Henderson found when he looked into their history was that about 100 were still alive, half of them willing and able to talknot everyone has reliable 70-year-old memoriesabout an extraordinary corner of the Second World War. But Hildesheim was now in ruins. 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. Isn't it a miserable thing? Ritchie Boys One can also point to a Ritchie Boy Many of them about 14% were Jewish refugees like Kantor. 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. Untold story of the Ritchie Boys - edmondlifeandleisure.com But there were the odd grace notes among the wreckage of a continent. Jon Wertheim: What were you trained to do? 4.39. Many of the Ritchie Boys went on to have successful civilian careers, including J.D. Victor Brombert: The shared experience, exactly. Victor Brombert: I remember being up on a cliff the first night over Omaha beach. One can readily point to the case of Ritchie Boy William R. Perl who outwitted Adolf Eichmann and saved an estimated 40,000 lives. Guy Stern: Yes, that carried weight and the belief in the printed matter was very great. Among the unusual sights at Ritchie: a team of U.S. soldiers dressed in German uniforms. 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. The Ritchie Boys practiced street fighting in life-size replicas of German villages and questioned mock civilians in full scale German homes. The Ritchie Boys train at Camp Ritchie, Md., sometime during World War II. Guy Stern returned to Normandy in 2016 to pay his respects to the more than 9,300 men buried in the American cemetery there, on the bluff overlooking the hallowed beach. Many of the 15,200 selected were Jewish soldiers who fled Nazi-controlled Germany, which was systematically killing Jews. St. Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. Enter. I never calculated that there is such a thing as terror, fear. When Hitler came to power, the Bromberts fled to France, and then to the U.S. Jon Wertheim: What do you suspect might have happened? Max Lerner: They have a tattoo of their blood group under their left arms. Victor Brombert: It was very, very hard, very difficult and very rare to have a German denounce another German at that point. They then typed up their daily reports in the field to be passed up the chain of command. | David Frey: There are a whole variety of prominent Ritchie Boys. Guy Stern: Handkerchiefs, I couldn't know at that point that I would never see my siblings or my parents again nor my grandmother and so forth and so on. So I experienced viscerally, fear. 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). Given their foreign accents, they were in particular danger of being mistaken for the enemy by their own troops, who instituted passwords at checkpoints. An official website of the United States Government. And I had no choice." He added that the military chose intelligent people because they had to process a tremendous amount of information." 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. Victor Brombert: There were long and demanding exercises and close combat training. Here are five ways Dietrich supported American troops and the USO during World War II. There's no fee to visit the local community I think that's quantifiable. There were 1,985 German born Ritchie Boys. Some of the prisoners were actual German POWs brought to Camp Ritchie so the Ritchie Boys could practice their interrogation techniques. He is a frequent contributor to The Washington Post, and has also written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Politico Magazine, and CNN.com. I'm denouncing this and I was forced to do it. 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. Jon Wertheim: I understand there are some Ritchie Boys [that] became fairly prominent figures. 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, SW Of late, the Ritchie Boys have been the subject of growing media attention including, in May, on the television news program 60 Minutes. If a German POW wouldn't talk, he might face Guy Stern dressed up as a Russian officer. Jon Wertheim: All in service of winning the war? 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. In 1944, the Ritchie Boys headed to Europe to fight in a war that was, for them, intensely personal. Message & data rates may apply. 'Ritchie Boys' Aided Army's Efforts to Defeat Germany Wehrmacht Captain Curt Bruns, convicted by a military tribunal of ordering the murder of those two Ritchie Boys, was executed by a firing squad in June, 1945. Victor Brombert: Yes of course. The soldiers were sent for training to Camp Ritchie, Md., beginning June 19, 1942, where they trained at the Military Intelligence Training Center thus their nickname, the Ritchie Boys. Guy Stern speaks at the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Centers Ritchie Boys exhibit and reunion at Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. They became known as the Ritchie Boys. Their enormous contributions to defeating Nazismone Army study concluded they were responsible for obtaining nearly 60 percent of the actionable intelligence gathered in Europe during the warand their postwar justice efforts remain little known to Americans even today. Victor Brombert: Our interrogations - it had to do with tactical immediate concerns. 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. But at wars end, almost none found what they were really looking fortheir families. Jon Wertheim: And you were able to confront the people that had caused this this trauma. Holocaust refugee turned American Soldier never forgot 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. Because they would know this information. What did work Is complicity. Sensing danger, Stern's father tried to get the family out. The Ritchie Boys | Home The Ritchie Boys trained for war against these fake Germans with fake German tanks made out of wood. All the while, they tracked down evidence and interrogated Nazi criminals, later tried at Nuremberg. Guy Stern: And some we didn't break but 80% were so darned scared of the Russians and what they would do. Max Lerner recalls being put in charge of one prominent captured German prisoner at a jail in Weisbaden, Germany: that was Julius Streicher the founder and editor of the Nazi paper "Der Stuermer" and one of the country's leading antisemites. But the opportunity to help fight and win the war was a wonderful way. All students of World War II need to learn about the the Ritchie Boys. Associate producer, Jennifer Dozor. Their mission: to use their knowledge of the German language and culture to return to Europe and fight Naziism. For decades, they didn't discuss their work. Dabringhaus went on to write a book about the experience, called "Klaus Barbie: The Shocking Story of How the U.S. Used this Nazi War Criminal as an Intelligence Agent. Nearly 2,000 German-born Jews were trained at Camp Ritchie to interrogate captured German soldiers. And it was not until a few years ago that the son of Italian-Jewish Ritchie Boy. We worked harder than anyone could have driven us. 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. "I would have been killed if I hadn't gone along. 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. Fort Ritchie, as it later became known, closed in 1998. Walter Midener, an attendee, was awarded the Silver Star. We hope you find the data, stories, and images here of interest. Guy Stern: I preferred not having it. You know where the strong points are, and you know you what to avoid and what to attack. Victor Brombert: Yes, I realized that I was afraid. We see those who are the greatest of the greatest generation. And if you get up early enough, you might catch him working out at his local park in the suburbs of Detroit. About 200 Ritchie Boys are estimated to be alive today. Guy Stern: It was absolutely, we won kid. 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. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. My father was 49 years old and-- and my mother was 48 and they left everything they had built up behind. We hope you find the data, stories, and images here of interest. David Frey: I think they did. stories from a Nazi interrogator, now a Mill You sort of swing it around the neck from behind and then pull. I mean this is you're taking your life in your hands here. The Ritchie Boys: The Jewish U.S. Soldiers Who Helped They were all forced to do it. 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. Why do so few Americans know about this? "It was a terrible situation. 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.. Dozens of Ritchie Boys worked at the Nuremberg Trials as prosecutors, interrogators and translators. Immigrants like Guy Stern. Jon Wertheim: Why did you want to enlist initially? David Frey: You had a whole load of immigrants who really wanted to get back into the fight. You know a lot about them already. 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. Long-overdue Recognition Comes to the Ritchie Boys. They significantly helped the war effort and saved lives.. And incredibly, they were responsible for most of the combat intelligence gathered on the Western Front. So whatever information they're giving you is information that you probably already know. Andrew Hollinger There were two who were actually captured at 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. It was hard for us not to notice that beyond the stories runs a deep sense of pride. David Frey: Part of what the Ritchie Boys did was to convince German units to surrender without fighting. But joy turned to horror as Allied soldiers and the world learned the full scale of the Nazi mass extermination. The Ritchie Boys consisted of approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII. Beginning in September 1944, the United States military trained Japanese Americans at Camp Ritchie, and their language skills were also used in the war effort, this time against Japan. 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. Guy Stern speaks at the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Centers Ritchie Boys exhibit and reunion at Farmington Hills, Michigan in 2011. Guy Stern: I had an immediate visceral response to that and that was this is my war for many reasons. 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. 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. Personal, of course, but also this country - I was really treated well. We worked harder than anyone could have driven us. He was shot right away and killed. Of the nearly 20,000 Ritchie Boys who served in WWII, around 140 were killed in action, including at the costly This is Guy Stern 80 years ago. 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. Those were the heroes. Then shaping the cold war era, they really played a significant role. . I thought, "I'm never going to do that," but I was shown how to do it. a Clandestine WWII Intelligence Unit: The Ritchie Did your dog tag identify you as Jewish? The Ritchie Boys exhibit is at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), The Ritchie Boys train at Camp Ritchie, Maryland during World War II. Jon Wertheim: What is it like when you get together and reflect on this experience going on 80 years ago? So to get that kind of information, particularly from those you capture on the battlefield, you need people who are trained to get that information. Jon Wertheim: Did you ever worry your accent might get you killed? Please enter valid email address to continue. Max Lerner: You know how to tell an SS man? David Frey: Right. Paul Fairbrook: When the soldiers said "I'm not going to talk" they could say "wait a minute. Jon Wertheim: Why were the Ritchie Boys so successful? The Ritchie Boys Guy Stern: Yes, that's my interrogation tent. Guy Stern: God no. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. 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. They all rose to the top of their fields, as did a number of other Ritchie Boys. Book Summary: The title of this book is Ritchie Boy Secrets and it was written by Eddy, Beverley Driver. With World War II, Camp Ritchie had a new, fascinating and mysterious mission. Ritchie Boys were heroes who used their innate skills to gather information from all sources 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This particular edition is in a Hardcover format. Guy Stern, a Bronze Star Medal recipient who attended, said: "It was an emotional reunion, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 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. Why were you the one that made it to the United States? The Ritchie Boys discovered that the Nazis were terrified of ending up in Russian captivity and they used that to great effect. African-American Ritchie Boy William Warfield The Ritchie Boys exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. 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.