USO Tour Veteran. 'Ritchie Boys' Aided Army's Efforts to Defeat Germany 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? 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. And I had no choice." But ask him about his most formative experience - and he doesn't hesitate. 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. Max Lerner recalls that in one respect at least, identifying most SS members was easy. Many had fled Nazi Germany but returned as American soldiers, deploying their knowledge of German language and culture to great advantage. Surviving soldiers were among the attendees. Washington County's Ritchie Boys focus of 60 Minutes segment Some of them requested new dog tags with very good reason. Victor Brombert: Yes of course. The largest set of graduates were 2,000 German-born Jews. Copyright 2023 Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. So little was known about the Ritchie Boys until the excellent documentary film The Ritchie Boys came upon the scene in 2004. 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. One can readily point to the case of Ritchie Boy, who outwitted Adolf Eichmann and saved an estimated 40,000 lives. Dozens of Ritchie Boys worked at the Nuremberg Trials as prosecutors, interrogators and translators. Guy Stern: None of my family survived. The Ritchie Boys train at Camp Ritchie, Md., sometime during World War II. One of these was Staff Sergeant Stephen (Moose) Mosbacher who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. In 1943, he was drafted into the Army and in 1944 landed in Normandy after D-day as a "Ritchie Boy." 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. 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. 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. Guy Stern recalls arriving at Buchenwald Concentration Camp three days after its liberation, alongside a fellow American sergeant. Be the first to learn about news, service member stories and fundraising updates from USO. You really have to understand it helps to have been born in Germany in order to in order to do a good job. Edited by Stephanie Palewski Brumbach and Robert Zimet. I don't think we're heroes. They fought with the American military in the lands they had recently escaped, helping to turn the course of the war. Guy Stern: Thank you for asking. Guy Stern: God no. 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There were Ritchie Boys who were in virtually every battle that you can think of and some actually suffered the worst fate. Still, if they were captured, they knew what the Nazis would do to them. Many of the 15,200 selected were Jewish soldiers who fled Nazi-controlled Germany, which was systematically killing Jews. What did work Is complicity. Fred is a former longtime Associated Press journalist, where he worked as a reporter and editor. Recruits were chosen based on their knowledge of European Language and culture, as well as their high IQs. There were two who were actually captured at the Battle of the Bulge. Jon Wertheim: Did you worry what might happen if you were captured? Did your dog tag identify you as Jewish? WebIn the United States at the end of World War II, there were prisoner-of-war camps, including 175 Branch Camps serving 511 Area Camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war (mostly German).The camps were located all over the US, but were mostly in the South, due to the higher expense of heating the barracks in colder areas. 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 But there were the odd grace notes among the wreckage of a continent. As a Jew, I knew I might not be treated exactly by the Geneva rules. All students of World War II need to learn about the the Ritchie Boys. And arrived in the United States penniless. 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. Jon Wertheim: Is that when you first realize I'm I'm in a war here? The unit consisted mostly of young Germans, some of them of Jews, that had found a new homeland in America after their flight from the Nazis. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Never. 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. Here are five ways Dietrich supported American troops and the USO during World War II. 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: And you're saying that some of that originated at Camp Ritchie? 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. He is still haunted by what he experienced that day. Just two weeks shy of turning 100, Guy Stern drips with vitality. 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. Personal, of course, but also this country - I was really treated well. The Ritchie Boys discovered that the Nazis were terrified of ending up in Russian captivity and they used that to great effect. 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. Sixty-plus percent of the actionable intelligence gathered on the battlefield was gathered by Ritchie Boys. 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. And when their identity was discovered, they were summarily executed by the Germans that had captured them. Because they would know this information. Nina Wolff Feld told her fathers story in Someday You Will Understand: My Fathers Private World War 2. After the war, Guy Stern and the other Ritchie Boys were celebrated for their achievements. Jon Wertheim: Did you enjoy hunting Nazis? Jon Wertheim: Did the Ritchie Boys redefine what it means to be a soldier and contribute to a military? We now know that this perception needs to be broadened. What what did that entail? Many were German- and Austrian-born Jews who had fled Adolf Hitlers genocidal Nazi regimemaking them most determined enemies of the Third Reich. Starting in 1942, more than 11,000 soldiers went through the rigorous training at what was the army's first centralized school for intelligence and psychological warfare. Many had fled Nazi Germany but returned as American soldiers, deploying their knowledge of German language and culture to great advantage. 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. Many of the Ritchie Boys went on to have successful civilian careers, including J.D. About 200 Ritchie Boys are estimated to be alive today. They never met for reunions, they did not join veteran associations. Guy Stern speaks at the opening of the Holocaust Memorial Centers Ritchie Boys exhibit and reunion at Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Another bit of indispensable Ritchie Boy handiwork: the order of battle of the German army. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. It was wonderful to be part of them. The Ritchie Boys consisted of approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII. Many of them were Jewish refugees from Europe, who fled their homeland, came to America and joined the U.S. Army. Ritchie Boy This group became known as The Ritchie Boys, who were the basis of a documentary film of the same name. Jon Wertheim: What do you suspect might have happened? Their mission: to use their knowledge of the German language and culture to return to Europe and fight Naziism. Ritchie The Ritchie Boys practiced street fighting in life-size replicas of German villages and questioned mock civilians in full scale German homes. 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. Of the nearly 20,000 Ritchie Boys who served in WWII, around 140 were killed in action, including at the costly Jon Wertheim: You didn't want to be identified as Jewish going back to Western Europe. The Ritchie Boys were members of a secret American intelligence unit that fought in World War II. 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. So was Archibald Roosevelt, grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. "Enjoy" is perhaps not the right word. The largest set of graduates were 2,000 German-born Jews. But certainly what did not work was violence or threat of violence. 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. David Frey: There are a whole variety of prominent Ritchie Boys. They took their name from the place they trained - Camp Ritchie, Maryland a secret American military intelligence center during the war. Jon Wertheim: Did you ever worry your accent might get you killed? Jon Wertheim: I understand you you had sparring partners. Produced by Katherine Davis. 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. The award will be presented this spring. 98-year-old Victor Brombert says they relied on their Camp Ritchie training to get people to open up. One can also point to a Ritchie Boy Jon Wertheim: As a way to honor your family that perished. This was our kind of war. Jon Wertheim: Sixty percent of the actionable intelligence? Victor Brombert, now 98 years old, is a former professor of romance languages and literature at Yale and then Princeton. 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. Jon Wertheim: That's how you looked at it. Guy Stern: Out of a plane. Ritchie Boy Dr. The soldiers were sent for training to Many of the 15,200 selected were Jewish soldiers who fled Nazi-controlled Germany, which was systematically killing Jews. The danger from the German side, of course, was far higher. On a cold November morning in 1938, Herman watches in horror as his Jon Wertheim: So there's all sorts of impact years and years and years after the war from this this camp in Maryland? 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.
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