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. Max Lerner: Or they had an effort to erase it. By 1937, violence against Jews was escalating. As was philanthropist David Rockefeller and media baron and billionaire John Kluge. You're in Belgium? Salinger, author of the classic book "The Catcher in the Rye.". Guy Stern: Yes, even last night. We see those who are the greatest of the greatest generation. As Nazi persecution of Jews intensified in the late 1930s, desperate families often found they could get only a single child out of Germany via the efforts of Jewish relief agencies. 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. Naturally, I turned to Dan Gross, the unofficial archivist for the Ritchie Boys. The Department of Defense provides the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security. 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. The Ritchie Boys train at Camp Ritchie, Md., sometime during World War II. Jon Wertheim: This had a real material impact on World War II. David Frey: There are a whole variety of prominent Ritchie Boys. Both refugees like Fairbrook and Stern, as well as a number of American-born recruits with requisite language skills - were drafted into the Army and sent to Camp Ritchie. 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. Making such a distinction in this case is very difficult. He was shot right away and killed. Individual Ritchie Boys were cited for their contributions by being awarded over 60 Silver Star Medals for bravery. Who helped shape what it meant to be American and who in some cases gave their lives in service to this country. There were Ritchie Boys who were in virtually every battle that you can think of and some actually suffered the worst fate. I have some that were shot. 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. David Frey: Many of those who trained at Camp Ritchie actually did go on to the OSS the precursor to the CIA, That meant that the people who learned their craft at Camp Ritchie played a significant role in setting up what eventually became the CIA. In 2011, the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan, hosted an exhibit of the Ritchie Boys exploits. Actress. 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. Your average commander in the field might not. Victor Brombert was with the first American armored division to land on Omaha Beach. First published on January 2, 2022 / 6:52 PM. They then typed up their daily reports in the field to be passed up the chain of command. Our country owes them an enormous debt of gratitude for their courage and sacrifices. But joy turned to horror as Allied soldiers and the world learned the full scale of the Nazi mass extermination. Established in 2011, the Elie Wiesel Award recognizes individuals whose actions embody the Museums vision of a world where people confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Many of the Jewish refugees lost family members, and at the end of the war, they searched for them. Essentially they were intellectuals. But within a few months the government realized these so-called enemy aliens could be a valuable resource in the war. When they landed on the beaches of Normandy, Wehrmacht troops were waiting for them well armed and well prepared. It is a story of a remarkable synergy between a diverse group of well trained and motivated individuals. Guy Stern: Yes, that's my interrogation tent. Ritchie Boy Dr. A mighty onslaught of more than 160,000 men, 13,000 aircraft, and 5,000 vessels. 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. Some of the prisoners were actual German POWs brought to Camp Ritchie so the Ritchie Boys could practice their interrogation techniques. very important because you save life if you know where the mine "where is the machine gun nest?" Fortunately, some of the Ritchie Boys are still around to tell their tales, and that includes the life force that is Guy Stern, age 99. David S. Frey,a history professor and director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide at the United States Military Academy,said that in the late 1930s, Gen. George Marshall, then the Army Chief of staff, realized that if the United States was going to war, it needed battlefield intelligence capabilitywhich its military lacked. They were members of a secret group whose mastery of the German language and culture helped them provide battlefield intelligence that proved pivotal to the Allies' victory. Jon Wertheim: As a former German who understood the psychology and the mentality. 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. Book Summary: The title of this book is Ritchie Boy Secrets and it was written by Eddy, Beverley Driver. 2022 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. Why do so few Americans know about this? Jon Wertheim: As a way to honor your family that perished. And it was not until a few years ago that the son of Italian-Jewish Ritchie Boy Alessandro Sabbadini told the story of his fathers motivation and bravery in the book Unavoidable Hope. What was that like? Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. 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. And they were motivated like few other American soldiers. Jon Wertheim: And you were able to confront the people that had caused this this trauma. David Frey: Well the most important part of the training was that they learned to do interrogation, and in particular of prisoners of war. 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. The USO relies on your support to help service members and their families. As members of the Ritchie Boys, German and Austrian refugees offered language skills and knowledge that proved vital to American military intelligence. Ritchie Boys Image by Sons and Soldiers. David Frey is a professor of history and director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The U.S. Army leased the post for $5 a year and established The Military Intelligence Training Center. Apart from the fighting, there were other threats confronting the Ritchie Boys. 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. Now in their late 90s, these humble warriors still keep in touch, swapping stories about a chapter in American history now finally being told. Every day, Americas service members selflessly put their lives on the line to keep us safe and free. That changed over the years as the Ritchie Boys began to receive more recognition. Divided into 6-man teams the Ritchie Boys were attached to different Army units. 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. Jon Wertheim: What do you remember from that? 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. And that's what the key to the success was. Guy Stern: I was called to the company office and told you're shipping out. Jon Wertheim: I understand you you had sparring partners. Gross wrote to me saying, My By the summer of 1944, German troops in Normandy were outnumbered and overpowered. Jon Wertheim: So there's all sorts of impact years and years and years after the war from this this camp in Maryland? And only in the early 2000's did we begin to see reunions of the Ritchie Boys. You know where the strong points are, and you know you what to avoid and what to attack. Jon Wertheim: Did you ever worry your accent might get you killed? St. Joseph Communications uses cookies for personalization, to customize its online advertisements, and for other purposes. My father was 49 years old and-- and my mother was 48 and they left everything they had built up behind. David Frey teaches history to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He still works six days a week. 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. After the German army's surrender, Guy Stern and the other Ritchie Boys took on a new assignment: hunting down top Nazi officers responsible for the atrocities that killed so many, including many of their loved ones. We were crusaders.. Paul Fairbrook: Well, because it was an unusual part of the United States Army. So little was known about the Ritchie Boys until the excellent documentary film The Ritchie Boys came upon the scene in 2004. This is Guy Stern 80 years ago. Jon Wertheim: What do you suspect might have happened? Victor Brombert: My parents were pacifists so the idea of my going to war was for them calamitous, however they realized that it was a necessary war, especially for us. WebTheir Unique History and Demographics. 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. 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 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. I asked them to leave it off. It was wonderful to see these people again. 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. Guy Stern: Out of a plane. 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. who was awarded a Silver Star medal posthumously for gallantry beyond the call of duty. Jon Wertheim: What you describe, it almost sounds like these were precursors to CIA agents. 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 trained for war against these fake Germans with fake German tanks made out of wood. In any major military conflict, there will likely be both individual heroes and groups of heroes. Victor Brombert: I remember being up on a cliff the first night over Omaha beach. He was born in Berlin to a Russian Jewish family. 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. Guy Stern, a Bronze Star Medal recipient who attended, said: "It was an emotional reunion, definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 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). We were delighted to get a chance to do something for the United States. Max Lerner: He spent several days in my jail. July 20, 2017, Martin Selling questions German prisoners near the front in France, 1944. 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.
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