Fort Ritchie, as it later became known, closed in 1998. Approximately 14%, or 2,200, of them But at wars end, almost none found what they were really looking fortheir families. Those were the heroes. We are honored to recognize the unique role they played serving the United States and advancing our victory over Germany., Outgoing Museum Chairman Howard M. Lorber added, We selected the Ritchie Boys because of their remarkable actions and heroism in helping to end the war and the Holocaust. Guy Stern: God no. Just two weeks shy of turning 100, Guy Stern drips with vitality. Jon Wertheim: How did you find out you were going to go to Camp Ritchie? Ritchie 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. Some didn't even go over to to Europe. Associate producer, Jennifer Dozor. 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. By providing your mobile phone number, you opt in to receive calls and texts from USO. But joy turned to horror as Allied soldiers and the world learned the full scale of the Nazi mass extermination. Fred is a former longtime Associated Press journalist, where he worked as a reporter and editor. David Frey: Absolutely. You sort of swing it around the neck from behind and then pull. There were two who were actually captured at the Battle of the Bulge. Another unusual sight: towering over recruits, Frank Leavitt, a World War I veteran and pro wrestling star at the time, was among the instructors. Follow him at @ffrommer. According to the kind of unit, according to the kind of person we were interrogating. Additional valuable information on the Ritchie Boys may be found in a forum-type Facebook page, , ably managed with considerable devotion by Bernie Lubran, son of Ritchie Boy, , and by Josh Freeling, whose great uncle was Ritchie Boy. The Ritchie Boys: Americas Secret Weapon Against the Nazis | by United States Holocaust Memorial Museum | Memory & Action | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. 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. July 20, 2017, Martin Selling questions German prisoners near the front in France, 1944. Guy Stern: I had a war to fight and I did it. You really have to understand it helps to have been born in Germany in order to in order to do a good job. For 99-year-old Guy Stern, a German Jew whose entire family was killed by the Nazis, the Allies' victory over Hitler was the culmination of a public crusade and a private one as well. Washington County's Ritchie Boys focus of 60 Minutes segment All Rights Reserved. Guy Stern: Well I think not (laugh) but I don't run as fast, I don't swim as fast but I feel happy with my tasks. Guy Stern became a professor and taught for almost 50 years. Divisions that liberated concentration camps included hundreds of Ritchie Boys, who interviewed survivors. Some of them requested new dog tags with very good reason. With World War II, Camp Ritchie had a new, fascinating and mysterious mission. Victor Brombert: It was very, very hard, very difficult and very rare to have a German denounce another German at that point. 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. Ritchie Boys were a military intelligence unit made up of mostly German, Austrian and Czech refugees and immigrants, many of whom were Jewish. Did your dog tag identify you as Jewish? Nearly 2,000 German-born Jews were trained at Camp Ritchie to interrogate captured German soldiers. They significantly helped the war effort and saved lives. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. "I would have been killed if I hadn't gone along. Jon Wertheim: You have a smile on your face when you think back. The Ritchie Boys exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. Guy Ritchie's The Covenant and why Hollywood is afraid of the Jon Wertheim: So this is you on the job. I can look anybody straight in their eye and say I think I've earned the right to be an American. Ritchie They also drafted and dropped leaflets from airplanes behind enemy lines. 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 largest set of graduates were 2,000 German-born Jews. 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. 202.437.1221 These are people who made massive contributions. Max Lerner: Wear civilian clothes, pass messages, kill. Paul Fairbrook: They sent us back to Camp Ritchie and they created something that I call the equivalent of the Library of Congress. Victor Brombert: I saw immense debris. But ask him about his most formative experience - and he doesn't hesitate. Guy Stern: The Bronze Star was given to me right at the end of hostilities. Ritchie Boy Wannabe Dan Gross and several invited guests joined the Ritchie Boys for the photo. 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. Following the war, some of the Ritchie Boys were used as interrogators during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. Following the war, some of the Ritchie Boys were interrogators during the Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals. The intelligence they gathered was coveted by higher commanda postwar Pentagon report ascribed more than half of the credible battlefield intelligence gathered in Europe to the Ritchie Boys. Many were German- and Austrian-born Jews who had fled Adolf Hitlers genocidal Nazi regimemaking them most determined enemies of the Third Reich. How The Ritchie Boys Helped Win The Ritchie Boys consisted of approximately 15,200 servicemen who were trained for U.S. Army Intelligence during WWII. His mother answered the door. In the Ardennes region of Belgium, the Germans mounted a massive counteroffensive, which became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Victor Brombert: Yes of course. We see those who are the greatest of the greatest generation. Jon Wertheim: How do you think we should be recalling the Ritchie Boys? 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. It was not only that short term impact on the battlefield. They then typed up their daily reports in the field to be passed up the chain of command. This particular edition is in a Hardcover format. Camp Ritchie served the Maryland National Guard until 1942. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. Jewish soldiers were in great danger if captured, and two were captured and executed due to being identified by their captors as German-born Jews. 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. 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. I was the only one to get out. Max Lerner: It was my war. I never calculated that there is such a thing as terror, fear. In trucks equipped with loudspeakers, Ritchie Boys went to the front lines under heavy fire, and tried, in German, to persuade their Nazi counterparts to surrender. You know, I don't talk like an Alabama person or a Texan. And that's what-- that's what it did for me. Jon Wertheim: I imagine all of a sudden no one wants to admit to being a Nazi. We worked harder than anyone could have driven us. 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? 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. Guy Stern: I preferred not having it. The Ritchie Boys exhibit at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich., July 24, 2011. So whatever information they're giving you is information that you probably already know. 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. 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. Guy Stern: Yes and it's theatrics in a way yes. Of late, the Ritchie Boys have been the subject of growing media attention including, in May, on the television news program 60 Minutes. Many had fled Nazi Germany but returned as American soldiers, deploying their knowledge of German language and culture to great advantage. To do so, they learned photo analysis, terrain analysis, aerial reconnaissance, enemy army analysis, interrogation, signals intelligence and much more.. Naturally, I turned to Dan Gross, the unofficial archivist for the Ritchie Boys. The Ritchie Boys earned a reputation for delivering important tactical information fast, making a major contribution to every battle on the Western Front. And that has been the driving force in my life. I have some that were shot. We strive for accuracy and fairness. David Frey: They were in fact. It was published by Stackpole Books and has a total of 432 pages in the book. 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. Ritchie Boys Image by Sons and Soldiers. 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. who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. Newsday 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. 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. 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. What could be more appropriate than to honor them with an award bearing the name of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.. (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. 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: And you think because it had that signature, somehow that certified it. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Of the nearly 20,000 Ritchie Boys who served in WWII, around 140 were killed in action, including at the costly He grew up in a close-knit family in the town of Hildesheim, Germany. Guy Stern: They were killed either in Warsaw or in Auschwitz. Jon Wertheim: All in service of winning the war? ", Jon Wertheim: "Unprincipled and dishonorable and I'm sorry?". How The Ritchie Boys Helped Win World War II For America. David Frey: Because it involves military intelligence, much of it was actually kept secret until the - the 1990's. And incredibly, they were responsible for most of the combat intelligence gathered on the Western Front. Jon Wertheim: That's how you looked at it. 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. Mothers Day.. A website by Dan Gross and Ritchie History Museum. WebOne can readily point to the case of Ritchie Boy William R. Perl who outwitted Adolf Eichmann and saved an estimated 40,000 lives. To Allied investigators it became a sort of Nazi hunter's bible. We hope you find the data, stories, and images here of interest. and he said "no, military secret.". 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. Photo credit DoD/Holocaust Memorial Center, | Did it give you any satisfaction? But certainly what did not work was violence or threat of violence. Surviving soldiers were among the attendees. Jon Wertheim: Did you ever ask yourself why me? By the summer of 1944, German troops in Normandy were outnumbered and overpowered. 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. Andrew Hollinger 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. We had to-- we got a lot of German prisoners who were willing to help us catalog all those documents. Guy Stern: It was absolutely, we won kid. The Ritchie Boys to Receive Museums 2022 Elie Wiesel Ritchie Boys Washington, DC 20024-2126 Eager to fight the Nazis, he, too joined the Army. 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. 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. When the war was over, their German accents and unusual Guy Stern: I had an immediate visceral response to that and that was this is my war for many reasons. Guy Stern: Yes, that's my interrogation tent. The award will be presented this spring. Jon Wertheim: So physical combat training as well as intelligence? As a Jew, I knew I might not be treated exactly by the Geneva rules. Paul Fairbrook: When the soldiers said "I'm not going to talk" they could say "wait a minute. "I had no choice." Jon Wertheim: So there's all sorts of impact years and years and years after the war from this this camp in Maryland? Another was Private First Class Leonard C. Brostrom, 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. A friendly approach - trying to be human. You on one side and we on this side. Max Lerner: Because I remembered my parents. Making such a distinction in this case is very difficult. Choose which Defense.gov products you want delivered to your inbox. 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. From that point on, Ritchie Boys were involved in every major battle in Europe, using their language skills to gather intelligence, interpret enemy documents, and engage in psychological warfare encouraging German soldiers to surrender by dropping leaflets, through radio broadcasts, and in trucks equipped with loudspeakers. It was an impact on war crimes. Jon Wertheim: What is it like when you get together and reflect on this experience going on 80 years ago? The Ritchie Boys practiced street fighting in life-size replicas of German villages and questioned mock civilians in full scale German homes. Contact. Some of these books, Frey says, were nearly 500 pages long by the end of the war. It is a story of a remarkable synergy between a diverse group of well trained and motivated individuals. And to take those heights against heavy firing, going up those steep cliffs, and of course, it had been done. Who helped shape what it meant to be American and who in some cases gave their lives in service to this country. 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. 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. The story of Camp Ritchie and the men (and women) who came there is a story that needs to be broadcast more widely. The Ritchie Boys | The Story In New York, Paul Fairbrook, had a similar impulse. And, it is thanks to them (their native speaking German skills, knowledge of the German culture, and patriotism), that America and her allies were able to defeat Hitler. ", Jon Wertheim: Did you ever confront a Nazi who said "this was morally reprehensible? Photo credit DoD/Holocaust Memorial Center, It was an emotional reunion, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Aren't we all sort of, tired of it?". Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. 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. And when their identity was discovered, they were summarily executed by the Germans that had captured them. 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. Although members of the Ritchie Boys were awarded more than 65 Silver Stars, their group was not very well known during the war. II prisoner-of-war camps in 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Director, Communications So was Archibald Roosevelt, grandson of Theodore Roosevelt. Guy Stern: Yes, that carried weight and the belief in the printed matter was very great. Hundreds of Ritchie Boys were attached to divisions that liberated concentration camps and interviewed former prisoners to document the atrocities that took place. 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.
