Forgotten Heroes

Forgotten Her es Jewish Ritchie Boys

By Avi Heiligman

Three Ritchie Boys who were German-born Jews Martin Selling, a German-born Jew, questioning German prisoners, 1944 Practicing interrogation skills at Camp Ritchie

While drafting and enlisting soldiers during World War II, the U.S. Army was looking for multilingual candidates. In particular, they were recruiting soldiers to be trained for the Military Intelligence Service that had two branches. Japanese-speaking Americans were trained in Monterrey, California. Most members of this unit were Nisei, or second-generation Japanese Americans. Another unit was based in Camp Ritchie, Maryland, and consisted of men who spoke European languages, especially German. The Ritchie Boys, as they were soon called, consisted of many Jews born in Germany and other European countries. A recent documentary was recently made on the Ritchie Boys, but there is a lot more to the story and their heroic exploits with the Allies in Europe.

The United States entered the war immediately following the Japanese attack on their naval base at Pearl Harbor. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed that resources should be allocated to forces fighting Germany and then to fighting Japan in the Pacific. Military intelligence knew that this policy would mean that they would need language and cultural experts on Germany sooner than later. This paved the way for a course to be set up to train American soldiers that came from Germany and other European countries.

The eight-week course taught the soldiers to be effective translators and interrogators and trained them in intelligence, counterintelligence, and physiological warfare. They often told German prisoners of war that if they remained silent, they would be transferred to the Russian POW camp. This tactic worked many times. After training, the Ritchie Boys went on to serve in various units, and many were embedded with divisions that raced through Western Europe starting in mid-1944. Many of the Jewish soldiers were refugees from Germany, and several still had families in Europe. These soldiers not only were proficient in the German language but also knew the culture and mentality of the POWs they were interrogating.

One of the Ritchie Boys was with the 82nd Airborne when a German POW (prisoner of war) came in for interrogation. The POW eventually gave him a map of a recently laid-out minefield. Martin Selling was another Ritchie Boy who was able to persuade a German medic to give his away his unit’s positions. Stephan Levy from the 6th Armored Division was yet another Ritchie Boy who got information out of a German officer as to the exact location of his unit’s position. The intelligence from these last two interrogations led to successful American attacks on the German positions. This type of information was invaluable – and time sensitive –and was directly responsible for the saving of countless Allied lives. Knowing troop movements, how many enemy soldiers there were, and the morale of the enemy proved to be vital intelligence for the Allied commanders.

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Manny Steinfeld moved to Chicago when he was just 14, leaving behind most of his family in Germany. After basic training, he attended the school at Camp Ritchie and was attached to the 82nd Airborne Division. He was with a three-man team in Holland, where he provided intelligence for the entire division. On May 2, 1945, he translated the surrender document of the German 21st Army Group for the commander of the 8nd Airborne, General James Gavin. Steinfeld was also present by the American-Russian meet-up at Elbe. Afterwards, he interrogated German POWs and discovered that one officer was the former deputy commandant of the Ravensbruk concentration camp. This interrogation led to the Nazi’s arrest.

Several Ritchie Boys landed with the 4th Infantry Division as they came ashore on Utah Beach on June 6, 1944. These D-Day veterans served throughout the rest of the war and took part in the battle for the Hurtgen Forest and the Battle of the Bulge. The most famous of these soldiers with the 4th Division was writer J.D. Salinger. He was born into a Jewish family (although his mother may not have been Jewish, even though she proclaimed to be) in New York and was drafted into the army in 1942. After completing the

Ritchie Boys were also used as document translators and were expected to inform their superior officers if they came across anything significant. This required many hours, and some became very proficient at this skill. Sergeant T-3 Julius Siegel was awarded the

Afterwards, he interrogated German POWs and discovered that one officer was the former deputy commandant of the Ravensbruk concentration camp.

course at Camp Ritchie, he was present at all three battles mentioned above and was mainly used as an interrogator of POWs. He came ashore on Utah Beach with the 12th Infantry Regiment and had the first seven chapters of the book that would make him famous, The Catcher in the Rye, in his backpack. Bronze Star for working many sleepless nights at translating captured German documents and being very good at gleaning information from POWs.

As the war came to a close, there was still plenty of work for the Ritchie Boys. Many of them were in army units that liberated concentration camps, and they were used as interpreters as well liaisons for the Holocaust survivors. Several Ritchie Boys were utilized as translators during the Nuremberg Trials where many top Nazis faced judges from four Allied countries for their crimes during the war.

The dedication that the Ritchie Boys showed from the invasion of Normandy to the unconditional surrender of Germany and beyond was above the call of duty. For years, their exploits had been kept a secret from the public, and only recently are military historians beginning to delve into their exploits in their successful drive to defeat Nazi Germany. Many of them were immigrants or refugees. The stories of these Forgotten Heroes deserve to be told.

Avi Heiligman is a weekly contributor to The Jewish Home. He welcomes your comments and suggestions for future columns and can be reached at aviheiligman@gmail.com.