“There are times when I wonder…”: Flying Officer Kenneth McKellar White and the Crew of Hudson AE523 – Myanmar (Burma), September 9, 1942

 “…I now know that my job in this world is not yet done…”

“As I said at the beginning of this somewhat long winded narrative
my object in writing this story is that you may be able to inform their people
and the story itself brings out how well they all did their job
even when faced with death and how they actually gave their lives doing their duty.”

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Men write for different reasons.  Some, to communicate the driest of information, whether vocationally or professionally. in the most nominal sense.  Some, to express feelings and emotions that form a natural bond with friends, lovers, family, and even the larger world.  Some, to accurately and minutely record their life experiences  – whether mundane or unprecedented; to create compelling works of fiction; to describe the world in verse, all with the aim of placing their words before the public for recognition, and (if so favored by lady fortune…?) compensation.

And, there are some, for reasons perhaps arising from happenstance, who are compelled to write simply to place their memories – even of events brief and fleeting – before the world, not for themselves, but for the sake of human memory.

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The Canadian Jewish Congress’ 1948 two-volume compilation of biographies of Canadian Jewish soldiers (straightforward title! : Canadian Jews in World War II) is comprised of two volumes, one pertaining to servicemen who received decorations for military service, and the other for servicemen who died during the war, whether through action with enemy forces, in training, accidentally, or other circumstances.  Generally, the biographical profiles of the many soldiers covered in these two volumes comprise nominal biographical information about a soldier and his family, his prewar war, and naturally, the events surrounding his military service.  The majority of the biographies are accompanied by photographic portraits (half-tone, naturally – we’re talking late 1940s technology, after all!) which lend a sense of reality to these accounts and carry them beyond a dry and rote recitation of mere historical “data”.  Overall, the Canadian Jewish Congress did magnificent work in the creation of these two works, taking them to a level of detail vastly beyond that from the nominal state-by-state lists of soldiers’ names in American Jews in World War Two.  (Though in fairness, the body of documents the Canadian Jewish Congress had to work with was orders of magnitude less than the number of records held by the American National Jewish Welfare Board.)  

Though I’ve extensively reviewed Canadian Jews in World War II in an ongoing effort to identify Jewish military casualties in WW II, recently (how recently? – I’ve no idea!) another source of information about Canadian WW II military casualties (specifically, servicemen who died during the war) has become available.  These are Casualty Files for Canadian WW II personnel, which have been made available through Ancestry.com.  These documents are of enormous value in terms of genealogy and military history.  Though they have no exact analogue – “data-wise” – in terms of the design of American military records, they might be considered as being a composite of the information carried in Attestation Papers for soldiers in the armed forces of the British Commonwealth, plus – from the American perspective – Individual Deceased Personnel Files, and (in the case of aviators) Missing Air Crew Reports.  Some of the Casualty files include photographic portraits; a few (for example, for Flying Officer Philip Bosloy, a ferry pilot missing over Nova Scotia on February 24, 1943) include newspaper articles; many include correspondence – whether handwritten original or transcribed – by family, friends, comrades, and others.

Which leads to the impetus for this post: My search for records concerning Flight Sergeant Albert Abraham Margolis (R/60404) of the Royal Canadian Air Force.

Here’s his biographical profile from Volume II (page 48) of Canadian Jews in World War II.  Though the information in his biography is nominally complete, additional details comprise his date of birth: July 29, 1914; his parents’ full names: “Benjamin Max” and “Tillie (Russuck) Margolis”; the report of his “Missing” status in The Jewish Chronicle: October 16, 1942; the memorialization of his name: on Column 420 of the Singapore Memorial, in Singapore.

This document’s from his Casualty File: It’s an Interview Report of the kind typically compiled for applicants seeking service as air crew members in the RCAF.  Note the fields for “Sports” (first), followed by “Appearance”, “Dress”, “Intelligence”, and “Personality”; and especially, the “Summary” section at the bottom of the form.  Albert A. Margolis is described therein in these terms: “Applicant is a heavy-built, muscular type, of satisfactory appearance.  Slow manner and personality.  Good average intelligence, limited flying experience but very keen.” 

As suggested by Albert Margolis’ Interview Report, comments in the Summary Section are frank and direct.  In terms of Jews who applied for service in the RCAF, Interview Reports are a window upon the perception of Jews in the Canadian military (and probably not just the Canadian military) in the social and cultural context of Canadian society the early 1940s.  Of the comments in Interview Report Summary Sections in the seventy-odd Casualty Files (available via Ancestry.com) I’ve reviewed for Jewish members of the RCAF, most simply focus on those attributes – intelligence, personal rapport, attitude, bearing, enthusiasm, and participation in individual or team sports (that’s a big one) – that would reflect upon most any applicant’s suitability as an air crew (read: team) member, which in effect are pertinent to most any military leadership position.  A few Interview Reports definitely allude to an applicant being Jewish, typically in a word or two that accompanies more extensive commentary – whether negative or positive (and sometimes, very positive) – about to an applicant’s suitability for service in the RCA.  Other Interview Reports, like that of Albert Margolis’, do not, at all.

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F/Sgt. Officer Margolis’ biographical profile in Volume II of Canadian Jews in World War Two is absent of specific information about the mission on which he was missing.  However, though I don’t presently have access to Squadron Summaries or Squadron Records for No. 62 Squadron, this question is largely – albeit not completely – answered by information in Margolis’ Casualty File:  He was the observer of an aircraft that was shot down during an attack against Japanese shipping in the harbor adjacent to Akyab, Burma, on September 9, 1942.  

First, let’s start with a copy of a letter sent from the Royal Canadian Air Force Casualties Office to Abraham’s mother Tillie in mid-February of 1943:

2152

12th February 1943

          C7/CAN/R.60404

Dear Madam,

          With reference to the letter from this department dated 16th October 1942, I am directed to inform you, with deep regret, that all efforts to trace your son, No. CAN/R.60404 Flight Sergeant Albert Abraham MARGOLIS, Royal Canadian Air Force, have proved unavailing.

          The aircraft of which your son was the Observer took off from base at 10.20 a.m. on 9th September 1942, in conjunction with other aircraft, to carry out an attack against enemy shipping in the harbour at Akyab, Burma. Enemy aircraft were encountered over the target area and your son’s aircraft was seen to break away from the formation, losing height. Your son’s aircraft failed to return to base and nothing further has been heard of him.

          In view of the lapse of time, it is felt that there can now be little hope of his being alive, but action to presume that he has lost his life will not be taken until at least six months from the date on which he was reported missing. Such action will then be for official purposes only, and you will be duly informed.

          Meanwhile I am to assure you, with the sincere sympathy of the department, that all possible enquiries will continue to be made.

I am,
     Dear Madam,
           Your obedient Servant,

        for Royal Canadian Air Force Casualties Officer,
for Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief R.C.A.F. Overseas.

Mrs. H. Margolis,
604 Centre Street,
Calgary, Alberta,
CANADA.MH.

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Here’s an Apple Map of the location of Akyab (now known as Sittwe), showing its position on the western coast of Myanmar.  The city “…is the capital of Rakhine State, and located on an estuarial island created at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers where they empty into the Bay of Bengal.”  The Bay of Bengal lies to the west, while to the northwest and out of map view, is Bangladesh, which during the year in question – 1942 – would have been part of Colonial India.

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This 1:7500 scale map of Akyab, produced in December, 1944, shows the city’s location at the confluence of the three rivers, with its waterfront “facing” east.  The map, “A town map of Akyab (Sittwe)”, from the National Library of Australia, can be found at COPP (Combined Operations Pilotage Parties) Survey.  As stated in the legend, this map – a first edition of December, 1944 – was drafted based on aerial photographs taken in November of that year.  Designated “HIND 1036 AKYAB”, the map was “compiled, draw and printed by Survey Directorate, Main Headquarters, ALFSEA.”  (Australian Land Forces South East Asia?)

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Further information about F/Sgt. Margolis’ fate would wait until August of 1945, when his sister, Miss E. Pearlman, of Regina, Saskatchewan, received a letter from the Royal Canadian Air Force Casualties Office.  This revealed that a certain “Pilot Officer White” was the sole survivor of the mission, with Margolis and White’s fellow crewmen (P/O George O. Maughan and Sgt. Neil McNeil) having been killed, the three men’s casualty status now having been changed to “missing believed killed”.  This revelation was based on an account of the mission clandestinely written by F/O White while he was a prisoner of war of the Japanese, in Rangoon.  Tragically, he was killed in an Allied air raid on November 29, 1943.  Miraculously, the document was preserved.  Postwar, the document was sent to F/O White’s wife, who in turn forwarded it – I presume a copy and not the original – to the overseas headquarters of the Royal Canadian Air Force Casualties Office.  A transcribed copy of the story was then sent to F/Sgt. Margolis’ family (as well as, I’m sure, the families of Maughan and McNeil).  And so, almost four years after the fact, the crew’s fate was known.

Here’s the Casualty Office’s letter to Miss Pearlman…

OTTAWA, Canada, 14th August, 1945.

Miss E. Pearlman,
2330 Rose Street,
Regina Saskatchewan

Dear Miss Pearlman:

It is with deep regret that I must confirm our recent telegram informing you that Flight Sergeant Albert Abraham Margolis, previously reported missing on Active Service, is now reported “missing believed killed”.

A complete report which was written by Pilot Officer White, the captain of Flight Sergeant Margolis’s crew, prior to his death in a Rangoon jail as a result of an air raid, was received by his wife and forwarded to our Overseas Headquarters who passed it to us.  This report states that Flight Sergeant Margolis, Pilot Officer Maugham [sic] and Sergeant McNeil, two members of the crew who were not of the Royal Canadian Air Force, lost their lives when their aircraft crashed.  In view of this information Flight Sergeant Margolis is now reported “missing believed killed”.

I am deeply sorry that this information is so distressing and extend to you my deep and heartfelt sympathy.

Yours sincerely,
R.C.A.F. Casualty Officer,
for Chief of the Air Staff.

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…and here’s a transcript of F/O White’s story.  Interspersed between paragraphs are images of the Lockheed Hudson bomber, and, a video showing Hudsons on a training mission in England, in 1940.

White’s words:

Ever since I have been here I have had the desire to put some of my thoughts down on paper, and I am now going to endeavour to do this and the method I have decided on is to put it in the form of a letter.

Whether this letter will ever reach its destination or not has yet to be decided but as the writing of it will give me a lot of pleasure and help to pass away the seemingly endless days, I shall persevere.  It will undoubtedly appear disjointed for I am often assailed with many and troublesome thoughts and in any case all thoughts when diagnosed are pretty disjointed, so I must ask you to bear with me and try to understand the ideas or expressions I am going to attempt to convey.

The first thing I wish to write about is quite apart from the rest of this letter and it is the circumstances in which I became a prisoner and the rest of my crew lost their lives.  My reason for writing this is that in the event of my not surviving my present circumstances and this comes into your possession you may be able to trace their families and put their minds at rest as to their fate.

First I shall give you their names and addresses as I know them –

Observer – Canadian No. R.60404,
Flight Sergeant Albert Asher [Abraham] Margolis
Central Square,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Wireless Operator – R.A.F. No. 110880,
Sergeant Neil McNeil – Glasgow.  [CWGC: Son of Daniel and Mary McNeil, of Croftfoot]

Air Gunner – Flight Sergeant George Oliver Maugham [sic – should be “Maughan”], D.F.M. [CWGC: Son of Mr. and Mrs. J. G. Maughan, of Darlington, Co. Durham.]

We were engaged on a bombing raid on Akyab a port on the western coast of Burma about 200 miles south of the Indian Border and flying in formations of three at a height of approximately 2000 ft.  There was quite a lot of clouds about and unexpectedly we flew into one of these and I became separated from the other two machines in the formation and when we got out of the cloud I saw them a short distance ahead of me and it was then that our troubles began.  I opened the engines to catch up with the other planes but the port motor instead of increasing its speed started coughing and cutting and no matter what I did it kept gradually dying away.

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This illustration, “box art” for Classic Airframes Hudson Mk. III/IV/V/VI/PBO-1 1/48 plastic model (kit #449) is a very nice depiction of a Hudson in flight.  The aircraft shown is Mk I Hudson A16-25 of No. 1 “Malaya” Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force.  According to ADF Serials, this plane was lost at 2100 hours on May 7, 1941 over the Straights of Johore, during searchlight practice.  The crew comprised F/Lt. A.R. Stevenson, F/O A.H. Brewin and F/O G.D. Robinson, Sgt. F.S. Gildea (403286) and Cpl. A.T. Thompson (2399).

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In the midst of this Mac’s (McNeil) voice came through to me on the telephone saying that there were two fighters up above us and were closing into attack.  Mac was in the rear gun turret and immediately following this I heard the crackle of Mac firing his guns.  Mac never spoke again.  I again opened the motors and the port engine by this time was more or less useless and started twisting and turning the plane in order to dodge the Jap fighters.  One of them came belting down in a dive on my starboard side and pulled up underneath me and a burst of cannon fire from its guns rocked the plane from one side to the other.  The starboard motor was hit and stopped dead and burst into flames.  Other cannon shells burst inside the plane and in the matter of seconds the whole of the front of the plane was a mass of flames and a choking white smoke.  The smoke was so dense and hard to breathe that in order to see where we were going and also to breath I was forced to hang out of the window and at the same time to try and keep control over the plane which was a pretty difficult job.

Even had I wanted to control the plane by the instruments I could not as they also had been hit and in any case the smoke was so thick that it was impossible to see them.  All this had happened in a matter of a very few seconds and all the time I could hear Mac firing his guns, altho, as I said he never spoke again.  As the Jap fighters continued to attack us and, by this time the plane was almost beyond control, and we were diving at the ground at a terrific speed.  Immediately after we were first hit “Happy” (Margolis, the Observer) came rushing back from his position in the nose with blood streaming down his face, he had been hit by shrapnel and started combating the fire with extinguishers and kept fighting the flames in the terrific heat and choking smoke until we crashed and when I got his body out later he was still grasping a fire extinguisher In his hand.  Simultaneously George (Maugham) who was operating the wireless immediately commenced a message to air base telling them of our plight and advising them of the rough position of where we would crash.  One of the last things I remember was the sound of George transmitting continuous S.O.S. and then we crashed.  My own part was a frantic endeavour to try and control the plane and as both motors had gone and the plane on fire I quickly realized that a crash was inevitable and my only chance was to try and make a crash landing.  As I said the smoke in the plane was choking and blinding and all I could achieve was to poke my head out of the window, get a very rough idea where we were going.  I could not see very much even so, as I was nearly blinded by the smoke and then come back in and try and get the plane out of a dive it had got into.

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Digressing once more…  From World War Photos, here’s a great in-flight view of Hudson Mk. I VX * C P5120 of No. 206 Squadron RAF. 

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A third digression!…  From British Pathé movie channel, this video – appropriately titled “Hudson Bombers (1940)” – coincidentally shows aircraft of No. 206 Squadron,  identifiable as such because of the squadron code “VX” visible on an aircraft at 5:08, probably at Bircham Newton.  Close-up views of the bulbous Boulton Paul Type C turret and aircraft interior clearly reveal the conditions in which Hudson crews “went to work”.  

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On the last occasion, I looked out I caught a sudden glimpse of the ground rushing up to meet us and I just had time to get my head inside and shout through the telephone to the others to hang on and to make a last attempt to get the plane out of the dive, which was successful and we then hit the ground with a terrific crash and I remember no more.  Events after this I cannot bring myself to write about, the result was that “Happy” and George were killed instantly and Mac died in my arms a couple of hours later.  That I did not lose my life is nothing short of a miracle and although I was pretty badly cracked up I do not think that I have any permanent disability and am firmly of the conviction that it was not God’s will for me to die then.  Then and again later have I faced death and very narrowly escaped and I now know that my job in this world is not yet done and as I have in these times of peril and of course at other times resorted to prayers and these have been answered so whatever my ultimate fate is to be I know that it will be His will and that He is with me.

As I said at the beginning of this somewhat long winded narrative my object in writing this story is that you may be able to inform their people and the story itself brings out how well they all did their job even when faced with death and how they actually gave their lives doing their duty.  The three of them were the best friends any man could ever have and the fact that I who was the only one who could even attempt to avoid this catastrophe, should have been the only one to survive makes me feel responsible for their lives and wonder whether I did my part as well as they.  My conscience is quite clear but nevertheless, there are times when I wonder.

This is the transcript of F/O White’s story as found within in F/Sgt. Margolis’ Casualty File.  Note the handwritten notation at the bottom of the first page: “Original sent to next-of-kin per S/L Westman [sic].”  So, the original document remained in possession of F/O White’s widow.

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Though I don’t have the Squadron Records or Squadron Summaries for No. 62 Squadron, it’s obvious from F/O White’s words that Hudson IV “T” AE523 was shot down by Japanese fighters.  He doesn’t specify the type of Japanese aircraft involved, but I think, given the location and time-frame (Burma; late 1942) the enemy planes would have been Nakajima Ki.43 Hayabusa (“Peregrine Falcon”; Allied reporting name “Oscar”) aircraft, of the 1st, 11th, 50th, 64th, 77th … or … 204th Burma-based Sentais.  For purposes of illustration, this image, from Richard M. Bueschel’s Nakajima Ki.43 Hayabusa I-III in Japanese Army Air Force * RTAF * CAF * IPSF Service shows the camouflage schemes worn by such aircraft in Burma and Thailand from 1941 through 1944.

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Since we’re talking about military units, here’s the emblem of No. 62 Squadron RAF, from RAF Vector Badges

“INSPERATO” (“UNEXPECTED”)

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And then what happened?

By late 1947, the Research and Enquiry Service (of the Royal Canadian Air Force? – Royal Air Force?) had located the wreckage of Hudson AE523.  The aircraft had crashed in hills on the opposite bank of the Kaladan River, near Tatmaw village, which by direction is northeast of Sittwe.  However, the burial place of P/O Maughan, F/Sgt. Margolis, and Sgt. McNeil could not be located and remains unknown.  This information was conveyed to Tillie Margolis, and I assume the families of Maughan and McNeil, in a letter dated December 10, close to six years after the crew’s last mission.  Here it is:

R60404 (RO)

OTTAWA, Canada, December 10th, 1947.

Mrs. Tillie Margolis
604 Centre St.,
Calgary, Alta.

Dear Mrs. Margolis:

     It is with regret that I must renew your grief by again referring to your son, Warrant Officer Class II Albert Abraham Margolis, but you will wish to know of a communication which was received from our missing Research and Enquiry Service.

     The report states that the wreckage of your son’s aircraft was located near the snail village of Tatmaw, a few miles northeast of Akyab, Burma.  The exact location of the crash as given on the report is 20° 13′ north, 93° 01′ east.  Although the villagers believed that three of the crew had been buried, an intensive search failed to reveal any graves.

     Pilot Officer White, who survived the crash only to lose his life later whilst a prisoner-of-war in Japanese hands, is buried in the British Military Cemetery at Rangoon.

     Permanent commemoration to the memory of all the gallant airmen who lost their lives in our fight for freedom will be carried out as soon as details are complete and conditions permit.  Unhappily, the task of preparing and erecting permanent memorials to our Fallen is a very great one and it will be some time before all of the work can be completed, but notification of your son’s permanent commemoration will be sent to you when the information becomes available.

I realise that this is an extremely distressing letter, and that it is quite impossible to convey this information to you in any manner which will not add to the heartaches of you and the members of your family, and I am keenly aware that nothing I may say will lessen your great sorrow, but I would like to express my deepest sympathy in the irreparable loss of your gallant son.

Yours sincerely,
R.C.A.F. Casualty Officer
for Chief of the Air Staff

FFF: JIF

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This succession of a single (Apple) map and a few air photos, at larger and larger scales as you move “down” this post, shows what I believe is the approximate location of the crash of Hudson AE523.

First, the map below shows Sittwe (Akyab), at the confluence of the Kaladan, Mayu, and Lay Mro rivers.  The Hudson’s crash location is designated by the red circle, which is centered upon latitude and longitude coordinates given in the letter of 10 December 1947.  Given that coordinates are listed with figures for “degrees” and “minutes” but not “seconds”, one can conclude that the aircraft came to earth within an area no more precise than the length of the lowest unit of measurement: a minute.  At the latitude and longitude specified in the letter, a minute of latitude is about 1.85 km, while a minute of latitude is about 1.75 km.  (This is based on the “Length Of A Degree Of Latitude And Longitude Calculator” at CGSNetwork.com.)  Given this level of uncertainty, if the center of the Hudson’s crash location is taken as 20° 13′ north, 93° 01′ east, then the aircraft came to earth somewhere – somewhere – within an area of 3.22 square kilometers around this point.  

This air photo – at the scale as the above image – reveals that the bomber crashed within hilly terrain, rather than the flat terrain of the flood plain.

Even closer.  The range of hills is very prominent at this scale.  Tatmaw village lies within the western edge of the circle.

Here’s a much closer view.  Tatmaw village immediately stands out as the array of five rows of evenly-spaced buildings (individual homes?), adjacent to cultivated land on the left.  Most of the area where AE523 crashed is obviously hilly and uninhabited terrain to the east of the village.

The position of 20° 13′ north 93° 01′ east lies at the center of this image.  The rugged nature of this terrain is suggested by the presence of only two man-made structures, which are in the middle of the image.  Otherwise, ridges and stream channels are prominent across the landscape.  

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Here are additional map and aerial photo views of contemporary Sittwe (Akyab), at successively smaller scales, as you move “down” this post.

This map reveals that the city is serviced by an airport with a single runway, though I don’t know if, in 1942, any airfield even existed in the area in the first place.  Wharfs have unsurprisingly expanded since 1944, and extensive residential development has occurred to the west. 

This air photo view, at the same scale as the above map, gives a clearer impression of the extent of the city’s growth.

Zooming out reveals the city’s setting within the Bay of Bengal…

…while this map shows the rather sparse interior of Myanmar (Burma) to the east.  (Well, at least at this map scale!)  

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This portrait of Flying Officer Kenneth McKellar White, at his FindAGrave biographical profile, is via researcher Digger.  

As revealed in the letters of August, 1945, and December, 1947, F/O White survived the crash of AE523 and the loss of his crew, only to die a little over one year later, when the Rangoon POW camp was struck by bombs dropped by 10th Air Force B-24s during a raid against the Botataung docks at Rangoon.  From a variety of internet sources, it’s revealed that White and seven other POWs (three Americans and four British) took shelter in a slit-trench which collapsed upon them, probably from the concussion of bombs which struck in or near the camp.

The seven other men were:

Americans

10th Air Force, 7th Bomb Group, 88th Bomb Squadron

Captured June 4, 1942
Aircraft: B-17E; Pilot: Capt. Frank D. Sharp; eight men in crew.

One crewman (Pvt. Francis J. Teehan) was killed aboard the aircraft.  Five were captured, of whom (see below) three killed while POWs.  Two others survived captivity, while the pilot and co-pilot evaded capture and returned to duty.

Cummings, Harold Benjamin, Sgt., 6970825
Gonsalves, Elias E., Sgt., 6570123
Malok (“Malock”), Albert L., S/Sgt. 6942456

British

No. 99 Squadron

Manser, William Albert James, Sgt., 915429, RAFVR
Captured Feb. 12, 1943, Wellington IC HD975; Six men in crew
Pilot F/O Richard E. Watson and four other crew members survived as POWs

No. 139 Squadron

Flower, Albert, Sgt., 919720, RAFVR
Jackson, Gordon Henry, W/O, 1284578, RAFVR
Captured April 18, 1942, Hudson III V9221; Four men in crew
One crew member (Sgt. John R. Frehner) killed in aircraft; one other (Sgt. Percy W.G. Hall) survived as a POW

Gloucester Commando

Martin, Alexander George, Pvt., 5182332
Captured in India, May 17, 1942

F/O White, Sergeants Manser and Flower, W/O Jackson, and Pvt. Martin are buried at Collective Grave 6,E,1-6 at the Rangoon War Cemetery in Myanmar.  Though Flying Officer White’s Attestation Papers and Casualty file (at the National Archives of Australia) have not been scanned as of this post – June, 2023 – the CWGC reveals that his wife was Liliane Yvonne White, of Lindfield, New South Wales, and his parents, Stanley McKellar White and Florence Amy White, information which can also be found at his biographical profile at FindAGrave.  

What’s also revealed at FindAGrave is that F/O White’s brother (and only sibling?) Captain Captain Stanley Boyd McKellar White, NX70920, also lost his life in the Second World War, but under circumstances – it they can so be described – horrifically worse than those of his younger brother.  Captured on February 2, 1942 during the fall of Ambon, it was only discovered after the war’s end that he was among some 300 Australian and Dutch POWs who were executed (murdered) within that same month during what became known as the Laha Massacre.  His grave is listed as plot 23,D,4 at the Ambon War Cemetery, in Indonesia.  He was twenty-six years old.

His portrait below, via Peter Holm, can be found at his FindAGrave biographical profile.

Captain Stanley White was a physician before the war, having attained his medical degree at Sydney University.  His biography can be found at Tasmanian War Casualties, which features this photograph – probably from May of 1940 – of the Captain with his (then) new wife, Christine (Dickey) White, at an immeasurably happier time.

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Eighty-one years have transpired since the loss of Hudson AE523. 

Though the precise location of the aircraft’s crash site is unknown, assuming any wreckage still exists (if so, probably by now limited to corroded remnants of engines and landing gear) and hasn’t been removed by the inhabitants of Tatmaw village for salvage or household use, these small fragments of the plane can probably only be located by consulting native lore (is there any?), or, through a helicopter-borne aerial magnetometer survey

But, the point is moot.  There is no incentive for this, and it will not happen.  

Much more importantly, as for the burial location of Flying Sergeant Margolis, Pilot Officer Maughan, and Sergeant McNeil … taking into account the remote location of the crash; given the area’s subtropical to tropical geography and vegetation; in light of the Japanese attitude towards Allied military casualties; considering the probable absence, loss, or destruction of Japanese records about the crash (assuming records were even kept to begin with) … that, too, will probably never be known among men.

Time has moved on, and the men, or to be more specific, the memories of these men, and even those who knew and remembered them personally, have passed into history.

But, is the point moot?

I find it remarkable that Flight Officer White made the attempt at leaving a written record about his final mission; let alone that the record was preserved; let alone that the record survived to be returned to his wife, and in the course of time, made publicly available.  But, there does seem to have been more to the original document: The typed transcript as found in F/Sgt. Margolis’ Casualty File very strongly suggests that this text was only part of a much lengthier document that may have only been intended for F/O White’s wife or family.  Specifically note the statement, “The first thing I wish to write about is quite apart from the rest of this letter…”  Thus, due to its private nature, the entire document never became incorporated into RAF or RCAF records, Casualty Files for F/Sgt. Margolis, P/O Maughan, and Sgt. McNeil, or eventually the “public record”.      

Unfortunately, information about specifically how his account was created and preserved – in terms of writing materials, ink, the mechanics of how and where within the Rangoon POW camp the letter was hidden and concealed, and under whose auspices the document was preserved until the war’s end – is unknown. 

In practical terms, the most impressive fact about the letter’s creation is simply the extraordinary risk F/O White was taking in the eventuality (which never came to pass) that the letter would be discovered by the Japanese.  Though I’m unable to cite references corroborating this supposition, it’s my anecdotal understanding that the discovery by the Japanese of written information recorded by a POW, even about the most innocuous, mundane, entirely “un”-military topic, would eventuate in extraordinarily severe punishment.  (Being euphemistic, there…)  Considering the level of intelligence and sensitivity displayed in the letter, certainly F/O White was perceptive and realistic enough to appreciate the risk he was taking by making a written record of his experiences. 

Finally, one cannot help but wonder if he had an intuition – whether from rational calculation, intuition, or otherwise – that he would not survive the war.  Regardless, it is clear that for F/O White, remembering the past was of greater priority than the safety of the present.

Perhaps the point was not moot, after all.  The past was remembered.       

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Sittwe today: Here’s a video from Oung Oo’s YouTube channel (“Oung Oo – Photography – Cinematography“), entitled ““Sittwe 4K, Rakhine, Myanmar” – August 10, 2020“.  

Another contemporary view of Sittwe:  From the “In Locum Mundo” YouTube channel, this video is entitled ““Sittwe, Myanmar” – April 16, 2019“.

Some Books

Abella, Irving, and Troper, Harold, None Is Too Many – Canada and the Jews of Europe 1933-1948, Random House, New York, N.Y., 1983

Bueschel, Richard M., Nakajima Ki.43 Hayabusa I-III in Japanese Army Air Force * RTAF * CAF * IPSF Service, Arco Publishing Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1970

Canadian Jews in World War II – Part II: Casualties, Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1948

Some Websites

Canadian Jews in World War II

Bill Gladstone Genealogy (“Canadian Jews in World War II, Part II — Casualties”)

Ellen Bessner (“Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military, and World War II”)

The Crew

F/Sgt. Albert Abraham Margolis

P/O George Oliver Maughan

Sgt. Neil McNeil

Sgt. Kenneth McKellar “Ken” White

Lockheed Hudson

Wikipedia

Lockheed Martin

ADF Serials

Royal Air Force Museum

UBoat.net

Grubby Fingers Shop (“Lockheed Hudson Walkaround Gallery”)

A Controversy of Zion: Zionism and Its Foes, in The Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia) III – December 18, 1942: ZOA President Replies to Anti-Zionist Group

A Controversy of Zion – III

“They seem to think they have but to wave their hand,
draw up a charter of incorporation,
and the reality of the Jewish people will disappear into thin air
and Zionism will be exorcised.”

Continuing from the prior post – a discussion of the first meetings of the American Council for Judaism in Philadelphia – the same December 1942 issue of the Jewish Exponent carried a statement by the President of the Zionist Organization of America criticizing the premises and rationale of anti-Zionism.  The organization’s president (uncertain, but possibly Rabbi Simon Greenberg, who was Rabbi at Har Zion Temple in Philadelphia until 1946) focuses on the central and animating fallacy at the heart of the Council’s agenda: Denial.  That is, denial of Jewish peoplehood, and from that, the inevitable denial of the natural legitimacy of a Jewish nation-state.

I find it especially interesting that the author mentions the “Protestrabbiner”, a term coined by Theodore Herzl for the title of an article which appeared in Die Welt on July 16, 1897.  Herzl’s article was a protest against a letter written by five German rabbis – both Liberal and Orthodox – against Zionism and the Zionist Congress, written in the name of the German Rabbinical Association. 

As described in the 1971 edition of Encyclopedia Judaica, “Their attitude as formulated in the protest letter contained three postulates: the intention to establish a Jewish state in Palestine contradicts the messianic destiny of Judaism; Judaism obligates all her believers to be faithful to their native land, serving it as best they can; philanthropic support for agricultural settlers in Palestine is permissible, since it is not connected with the establishment of a Jewish national state.  The letter closes with the assertion that love for one’s country obligates all those who care for Judaism to shun Zionism and in particular the Zionist Congress.  It was mainly because of this letter that the first Zionist Congress was held in Basle rather than in Munich, as was originally planned.  The letter also aroused an unusual amount of agitation because of its hints about the Zionists’ unfaithfulness to Germany.  Herzl severely criticized the signatories (two Orthodox rabbis – M. [Markus Mordechai] Horowitz of Frankfurt and A. [Sigmund Selig Aviëzri] Auerbach of Halberstadt – and three liberals – S. [Siegmund] Maybaum of Berlin, J. [Jakob] Gutmann of Breslau, and K. [Mose Cosman] Werner of Munich) – and a great number of Zionist rabbis, Orthodox, and liberal, wrote letters and articles condemning the “protest rabbis.”  The protest letter was endorsed, however, by the general assembly of the Rabbinical Association, convened in Berlin a year later (July 1–2, 1898), with only one rabbi – Selig Gronemann (Samuel Gronemann ‘s father) – voting against it.  Seventy years after the publication of the protest letter, a survey discovered that almost all the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren of the “protest rabbis” had settled in Israel. – BIBLIOGRAPHY: Zionistisches A-B-C Buch (1908), 227–30; Ma’ariv (July 16, 1968). (Getzel Kressel)”

Here’s Theodore Herzl’s letter as it appeared in Die Welt.  It’s followed by an English-language translation, and, the text in the original German.  

As relevant in 2023 as in 1897.

If not more.

Zentralorgan der Zionistischen Bewegung
Zentralorgan der Zionistischen Bewegung

_____________________________

Protest Rabbis

The World

No. 7 – Year I.
Appears every Friday.
Vienna, July 16, 1897.

The latest in the Jewish movement are the protest rabbis.  Max Nordau has already branded this type with a word that will remain: They are the people, who sit in the safe boat and hit the heads of the drowning people who want to cling to the edge of the boat, with the oar.  That’s how the usual aggressive Jewish enemy of Zion is.  If you add employment as a “spiritual forger” of a larger community, then the protest rabbi is serious.  Five such protest rabbis issued the following statement in the Berliner Tageblatt and elsewhere:

The Executive Board of the Rabbinical Association in Germany: Dr. Maybaum (Berlin), Dr. Horovitz (Frankfurt), Dr. Guttmann (Wroclaw), Dr. Auerbach (Halberstadt), Dr. Werner (Munich) publishes the following statement: “By convening a Zionist Congress and publishing its agenda, such erroneous ideas about the doctrinal content of Judaism and the aspirations of its adherents have been spread that the undersigned board of directors of the Rabbinical Association in Germany considers it necessary to make the following statement:

1.  The efforts of so-called Zionists to found a Jewish national state in Palestine contradict the messianic promises of Judaism as contained in the Holy Scriptures and later religious sources.

2.  The Jewish theme obliges those who misjudge it to serve the fatherland to which they belong with all devotion and to promote its national interests wholeheartedly and with all their might.

3.  This obligation, however, does not conflict with those noble aspirations aimed at the colonization of Palestine by Jewish farmers, because they have no connection whatsoever with the establishment of a national state.

In the same way, religion and love of fatherland impose on us the duty to ask all those who care about the well-being of Judaism to keep away from the aforementioned Zionist efforts and especially from the Congress, which is still planned despite all warnings.”

This is a strange document.  The first impression we have of this is that it’s not exactly going to improve the reputation of the Jews.  The whole explanation is, as every Jew sees at first sight, turned outwards.  It is one of those contemptible and despised protestations that beg for the favor of enemies.

Luckily not all rabbis are like that.  Names like those of Mohilewer in Bialystok, Zadok Kahn in Paris, Rülf in Memel, Gaster in London and many, many others we can only mention with sincere admiration.  And we don’t do it as [political] party people.  Zionism is not a party.  One can come to it from all parties, just as it encompasses all parties in a people’s life.  Zionism is the Jewish people en route.  And that’s why the reproach of the protest rabbis is an outrageous one.

If someone wants to turn away from the Jewish nation from which he comes and go over to another people, he may do so.  We Zionists will not stop him.  He is only a stranger to us.  His new national affair does not bother us any further, but neither does ours.  He has nothing to interfere with us, and if he’s clever he won’t even try, because it can only make him suspicious among Teutons, Gauls, [and] Anglo-Saxons if he’s still concerned about internal Jewish things.  If he wants to be comrades for his assimilationist solution to the Jewish question, the best means is for him to show how well he is received; how fully he is recognized; how well he feels.

But belonging to Judaism, practicing Judaism as a profession, so to speak, and fighting it at the same time; that is something against which every legal feeling must rebel.

Now let’s take a look at the “statement” of the five gentlemen point by point.  It is based on your fundamental untruth.  The five gentlemen state that “by convening a Zionist congress and by publishing its agenda, such erroneous ideas about the teachings of Judaism and the aspirations of its adherents were spread”.  Where did the five gentlemen read any reference to the “doctrinal content of Judaism” in the “convocation” or in the “agenda” of the Congress?  There is not a word, not even a hint of this, in the announcements of the conveners.  Consequently, something other than the convocation of the Congress can also be to blame for the “so erroneous ideas about the teaching content” that these five gentlemen claim to be familiar with.  Incidentally, the five gentlemen must have laughed heartily when they presented “such erroneous ideas about the teaching content” and so on as an excuse.  And now you go to point 1.  “The efforts of so-called Zionists, etc.”  “So-called” is good, “so-called” is even very good.  There’s irony in that.  Later commentators will call point 1 of the explanation the ironic one.  What kind of a face might the five gentlemen have made when they put the “messianic promises of Judaism” into their mouths?  We already know how they turn everything into its opposite and reinterpret it.  When they speak of Zion they mean anything but, for God’s sake, not Zion.

A thorough refutation of this first point has been put at our disposal by a man as truly pious as he is learned.  Our friend proves the correctness of the Zionist efforts precisely from the Holy Scriptures and later religious sources.  But we refrain from bringing up these reasons because this is not a theological discussion.

And now we come to point two.  What does that mean when “Jewishness obliges its believers to serve the fatherland to which they belong with all devotion” etc.?  That only has a denunciatory meaning.  Incidentally, one notices that Mr. Maybaum’s cradle was not in Germany.  The protest rabbis of Frankfurt, Breslau, Halberstadt and Munich should have entrusted the drafting of the document to a writer who was more proficient in German.  A German would never write: “the fatherland to which I belong”, but “my fatherland”, “your fatherland”, “her fatherland”.  One does not belong to a fatherland, it belongs to one; the whole fatherland belongs to each individual.  But whoever does not own his fatherland is in bad shape.  He still loves it because he just can’t stop loving it.  This love does not express itself in hollow declamations, it includes every willingness to make sacrifices; but it does not preclude the energetic from turning to themselves and seeking a solution that can remedy the situation.  And there is no sophistication in the Zionist view: that everyone serves his fatherland just as much as the nation to which he belongs – the word is appropriate here – if he strives to bring about the inner peace of the citizenry through a reasonable and modern colonization movement.

Incidentally, the five gentlemen bow to the third point, which one can call the evasive one, also to the “noble efforts” to settle Jewish farmers in Palestine.  And that contains a light but understandable pandering to certain wealthy co-religionists who want to make great sacrifices for colonization.  Of course, we Zionists consider the attachment of peasants to be more foolish than noble if it happens without guarantees under international law.  We don’t just want to take our poor, severely oppressed, persecuted brothers away from prison, we want to secure their future as well.  And that we want to establish these guarantees, dare one suspect, attack?

The five gentlemen close with the urgent request to stay away from the “despite all warnings still planned Congress”.  The gentlemen may admonish as much as they like; the Congress is taking place because it must take place, because the scattered people are awaiting it with longing and hope.  The situation of the Jews is unprecedented, and it would be impossible for us to discuss it calmly and in full legality, before the eyes of the whole world?  What righteous Christian will find anything blameworthy in that?  If our efforts do not arouse any sympathy, then the mighty of this earth will simply not support us, then the peoples will not help us in the work of redemption – and the misery will continue.  Whose situation will we make worse?  Is there a single reproach that hasn’t been leveled at us before?  The incendiary speeches and diatribes that have been used against us ninety-nine times will be repeated for the hundredth time.  But we don’t believe that either.  We have clear signs that our loyalty and openness do not displease even our opponents, before whom we calmly face.  After all, a great suffering speaks from our movement, and with the human one always finds the way to the heart of the people.  Who will blame us if we, who are mostly not directly affected, do not ignore the nameless misery of our brothers?

But where were and are the protest rabbis with their protests when unhappy Jews, unhappy only because they are Jews, were and are being insulted, robbed and killed.  Now in Algiers, now in Russia, now in Persia and now in Galicia, here and there and everywhere cries of lamentation.  And the protest rabbis then only murmur something about a mission in their after-dinner hours; of a mission that would be the most crass pride, if it meant anything at all, because the civilized peoples would and must resolutely refuse to be missionized by us.  If there was a Jewish mission, it was Christianity, and that is no longer dependent on the protest rabbis.

But Zionism, as we see more and more clearly, will become a healing force in Judaism.  The contrasts that arise must lead to a clarification of rotten relationships and finally to a purification of the character of the people.  Everything is for the better!  It is also for the good that some rabbis take such a stand against their own people.  And even if it were only that a new name was won for these gentlemen, that would also be of value.  A [Rabbi Samuel] Mohilewer, a [Rabbi Isaac] Rülf; noble, admirable men, who in their faithful hearts sympathized with every suffering of their poor co-religionists, who stand in the midst of the people, where it is most severely persecuted – their names were none other than the first wedding or funeral orator who came along.  Now we have the distinction.  Lest they be confused with the good rabbis in the future, let us call the synagogue employees who oppose the salvation of their people the protest rabbis.

H.

__________ __________ __________

Protestrabbiner

Die Welt

Nr. 7 – I. Jahrgang.
Erscheint jeden Freitag.
Wien, 16. Juli 1897.

Das Neuste in der Judenbewegung sind die Protestrabbiner.  Max Nordau hat diesen Types bereits mit einen Worte gebrandmarkt, das bleiben wird: Es sind die Leute, die im sicheren Boot sitzen und den Ertrinkenden, die sich an den Bootrand klammern möchten, mit dem Ruder auf die Köpfe schlagen.  So ist schon der gewöhnliche aggreisive jüdische Zionsfeind.  Nimmt man noch die Anstellung als „Seelforger“ einer grösseren Gemeinde hinzu, so ist der Protestrabbiner serrig.  Fünf soche Protestrabbiner haben in „Berliner Tageblatt“ und an anderden Orten die nachstehende Erklarung erlassen:

Der Geschäftsführende Vorstand des Rabbinerverbrandes in Deutschland: Dr. Maybaum (Berlin), Dr. Horovitz (Frankfurt), Dr. Guttmann (Breslau), Dr. Auerbach (Halberstatd), Dr. Werner (München) veröffentlicht folgende Erklarung: „Durch die Einberufung eines Zionisten-Congresses und durch die Veroffentlichung seiner tagesordung sind so irrige Vorstellungen über den Lehrinhalt des Judenthums und über die Bestrebungen seiner Bekenner verbreitet worden, dass der unterzeichnete Vorstand des Rabbinerverbrandes in Deutschland es für geboten erahtet, folgende Erklärung abzugeben:

1. Die Bestrebungen sogenannter Zionisten, in Palästina einen jüdisch-nationalen Staat zu gründen, widersprechen den messianischen Verheissungen des Judenthums, wie sie in der heiligen Schrift und den späteren Religionsquellen enthalten sind.

2. Das Judenthem verpflichtet seine Verkenner, dem Vaterlande, dem sie angehören, mit aller Hinbegung zu dienen und dessen nationale interessen mit ganzem Herzen und mit allen Kräften zu fördern.

3. Mit dieser Verpflichtung aber stehen nicht im Widerspruch jene edlen Bestrebungen, welche auf die Colonisation Palästinas durch jüdische Ackerbauer abzielen, weil sie zur Gründung einese nationalen Staates keinerlei Beziehungen haben.

Religion und Vaterlandsliebe legen uns dager in gleicher Weise die Pflicht auf, Alle, denen das Wohl des Judenthums am Herzen liegt, zu bitten, dass die sich von den Vorerwähnten zionistischen Bestrebungen und ganz besonders von dem trotz aller Abmahnungen noch immer geplanten Congress fern halten.”

Das ist ein merkwürdiges Document.  Der erste Eindruck, den wir davon haben, ist, dass es das Ansehen der Juden nicht gerade erhöhen wird.  Die ganze Erklärung ist ja, wie jeder Jude auf den ersten Blick, sicht, nach aussen hin gewendet.  Es ist eine jener verächtlichen und verachteten Betheuerungen, die um die Gunst der Feinde winseln.

Zum Glück sind nicth alle Rabbiner so.  Name, wie die von Mohilewer in Bialystok, Zadok Kahn in Paris, Rülf in Memel, Gaster in London unde viele, viele andere können wir nur in aufrichtiger Verehrung nennen.  Und wir thun es nicht als Parteileute.  Der Zionismus ist keine Partei.  Man kann zu ihm von allen Parteien kommen, gleichwie er alle Parteien eines Volkslebens umfasst.  Der Zionismus ist das jüdische Volk unterwegs.  Und darum ist das Vorhalten der Protestrabbiner ein ungeheureliches.

Will Einer von der jüdischen Nation, aus der er stammt, sich wegwenden und zu einem anderen Volk übergehen, so mag er es nur thun.  Wir Zionisten werden ihn nicht aufhalten.  Nur ist er ein Fremder für uns.  Seine neuen Volksangelegenheiten tümmern uns nicht näher, aber auch ihn nicht die unserigen.  Er hat bei uns nichts dreinzureden, und wenn er klug ist, wird er es auch gar nicht versuchen, deen es kann ihn bei Teutonen, Galliern, Angelsachsen nur verdächtig machen, wenn er sich noch um innere jüdische Sachen sorgt.  Will er für seine assimilatorische Lösung der Judenfrage Genossen werden, so ist dazu das beste Mittel dass er zeige, wie gut man ihn aufnimmt, wie voll man ihn anerkennt, wie wohl er such befindet.

Aber dem Judenthum angehören, das Judenthum sozosagen berufsmässig ausüben und es gleichzeitig bekämpfen, das ist etwas, wogegen sich jedes rechtliche Gefühl auflehnen muss.

Sehen wir uns nun Punkt für Punkt die „Erklärung“ der fünf Herren an.  Sie beruht auf euner fundamentalen Unwahrheit.  Die fünf Herren geben an, dass „durch die Einberusung eines Zionistencongresses und durch die Veröffentlchung seiner Tagesordnung so irrige Vorstellungen über den Lehrinholt des Judenthums und über die Bestrebungen seiner Bekenner verbreitet worden“ seien.  Wo haben die fünf Herren in der „Einberusung“ oder in der „Tagesordnung“ des Congresses irgend einen Hinweis auf den „Lehrinhalt des Judenthums“ gelesen?  Davon steht kein Wort, keine auch nur entfernte Andeutung in den Verlautbarungen der Einberufer.   Folglich kann an den „so irrigen Vorstellungen über den Lehrinhalt“, den diese fünf Herren zu kennen angeben, auch etwas Anderes Schuld sein, als die Einberusung des Congresses.  Die fünf Herren müssen übrigens recht herzlich gelacht haben, als sie die „so irrigen Vorstellungen über den Lehrinhalt“ u.s.w. zum Vorwand nahmen.  Und sie gehen nun zu Punkt 1 über.  „Die Bestrebungen sogenannter Zionisten u.f.w.“  „Sogenannt“ ist gut, „sogenannt“ ist sogar sehr gut.  Es ist Ironic darin.  Spätere Com2mentatoren werden Punkt 1 der Erklärung den ironischen nennen.  Was mögen die fünf Herren wohl für ein Gesicht dazu gemacht haben, als sie die „messianischen Verheissungen des Judenthums“ in den Mund nahmen?  Wir wissen ja schon, wie sie Alles in sein Gegentheil drehen und umdeuten.  Wenn sie von Zion sprechen ist Alles darunter zu verstehen, nur um Gotteswillen nicht Zion.

Es ist uns von einem ebenso wahrhaft frommen wie gelehrten Manne eine gründliche Widerlegung dieses ersten Punktes zur Verfügung gestellt worden.  Gerade aus der heiligen Schrift und den späteren Religionsqullen beweist unser Freund die Richtigkeit der zionistischen Bestrebungen.  Aber wir versagen es uns, diese Gründe in’s Treffen führen zu lassen, weil es sich nicht um eine theologische Discussion handelt.

Und nun kommen wir zu Punkt zwei.  Was soll das heissen, wenn „das Judenthum seine Bekenner verplichtet, dem Vaterlande, dem sie angehören, mit aller Hingebung zu dienen“ u.f.w.?  Das hat doch nur einen denunciatorischen Sinn.  Man merkt übrigens, dass die Wiege des Herrn Maybaum nicht in Deutschland gestanden ist.  Die protestrabbiner von Frankfurt, Breslau, Halberstadt und München hätten einen des Deutschen mächtigeren Schriftsteller mit der Abfassung der Urkunde betrauen sollen.  Ein Deutscher schriebe nie: „das Vaterland, dem ich angehöre“, sondern „mein Vaterland“, „dein Vaterland“, „ihr Vaterland“.  Man gehört einem Vaterland nicht an, sondern es gehört Einem; jedem Einzelnen gehört das ganze Vaterland.  Wem aber sein Vaterland nicht gehört, der ist übel dran.  Er liebt es darum noch immer, weil er eben nicht aufhören kann, es zu lieben.  Diese Liebe äussert sich nicht in hohlen Declamationen, sie schliesst jede Opferbereitschaft ein; aber sie schliesst nicht aus, dass sich die Energischen auf sich selbst besinnen und nach einer Lösung suchen, durch die Abhilfe geschaffen werden kann.  Und es ist durchaus keine Spitzfindigkeit in der Auffassung der Zionisten: dass Jeder seinem Vaterland ebensosehr diene, wie der Nation, der er angehört – hier ist das Wort am Platze – wenn er den inneren Frieden der Bügerschaft durch eine vernünstige und moderne Colonisationsbewegung herbeizuführen trachtet.

Die fünf Herren verbeugen sich übrigens heim dritten Punkt, welchen man den ausweichenden nenne kann, auch vor den „edlen Bestrebungen“, jüdische Ackerbauer in Palästina anzusiedeln.  Und das enthält eine leichte aber verständliche Augendienerei gegenüber gewissen wohlhabenden Glaubensgenossen, die für die Colonisation grosse Opfer bringen wollen.  Wir Zionisten halten nun freilich die Bauernanfiedlung für thörichter als edel, wenn es ohne völkerrechtliche Garantien geschieht.  Wir wollen ja unsere armen, schwerbedrückten, verfolgten Brüder nicht nur in der Haft fortschaffen, sondern auch ihre Zukunft sichern.  Und dass wir diese Garantein herstellen wollen, das wagt man zu verdächtigen, anzugreifen?

Die fünf Herren schliessen mit der dringenden Aufforderung, man möge sich von dem „trotz aller Abmahnungen noch immer geplanten Congress“ fernhalten.  Die Herren mögen abmahnen so viel sie wollen, der Congress findet statt, weil er stattfinden muss, weil das zerstreute Volk seiner mit Sehnsucht und Hoffnung harrt.  Beispiellos ist die Lage der Juden, und es wäre uns versagt, darüber in Ruhe und vollster Gesetzlichkeit, unter den Augen aller Welt zu berathen?  Welcher rechtschaffene Christ wird darin etwas Tadelnswerthes finden?  Wenn unsere Bestrebungen keine Sympathien erwecken, so werden uns die Mächtigen dieser Erde einsach nicht unterstützen, so werden uns die Völker nicht bei dem Erlösungswerke helfen – und der Jammer wird eben fortdauern.  Wessen Lage verschlechtern, wir damit?  Gibt es einen einzigen Vorwurf, den man uns nicht schon früher machte?  Die Brand- und Hetzreden, die neunundneunzigmal gegen uns geführt wurden, wird man zum hundersten Male halten.  Aber auch das glauben wir nicht.  Wir haben deutliche Zeichen dafür, dass unsere Loyalität und Offenheit selbst unseren Gegnern, vor die wir ruhig hintreten, nicht missfällt.  Schliesslich spricht doch ein grosses Leiden aus unserer Bewegung, und mit dem Menschlichen findet man immer den Weg zum Herzen der Menschen.  Wer wird es uns verübeln, wenn wir, die zumeist nicht unmittelbar betroffen sind, am namenlosen Elend unserer Brüder nicht kalt vorübergehen?

Wo aber waren und sind die Protestrabbiner mit ihren Protesten, wenn unglückliche Juden, unglücklich nur, weil sie Juden sind, beschimpft, beraubt und erschlagen wurden und werden.  Jetzt in Algier, und jetzt in Russland, bald in Persien und bald in Galizien, hier und dort und überall Klagerufe.  Und die Protestrabbiner murmeln dann höchstens in ihren Verdauungsstunden etwas von einer Mission; von einer Mission, die der krasseste Hochmuth wäre, wenn sie überhaupt etwas bedeutete, denn die Culturvölker wüden und müssten sich entschieden verbitten, von uns missionarisiet zu werden.  Wenn es eine jüdische Mission gab, so war es das Christenthum, und das ist auf die Herren Protestrabbiner nicht mehr angewiesen.

Der Zionismus aber, das sehen wir immer deutlicher, wird zu einer heilsamen Krife des Judenthums werden.  Die Gegensatze, die entsehen, müssen zu einer Klärung verrotteter Verhältnisse, und endlich zu einer Läuterung des Volkscharakters führen.  Alles ist zum Guten!  Es ist auch zum Guten, dass manche Rabbiner gegen ihr eigenes Volk eine solche Stellung einnehmen.  Und wäre es auch nur, dass eine neue Bezeichnung für diese Herren gewonnen wurde, so ist auch das schon von Werth.  Ein Mohilewer, ein Rülf, edle, bewunderswerthe Männer, die in ihren treuen Herzen jedes Leid ihrer armen Glaubensgenossen mitlitten, die mitten drin im Volke stehen, wo es am schwersten verfolgt wird – sir hiessen nicht anders, als der erstbeste Hochzeits – oder Leichenredner.  Jetzt haben wir die Unterscheidung.  Damit sie fürder nicht mit den guten Rabbinern verwechselt werden, wollen wir die Angestellten der Synagoge, die sich gegen die Erlösung ihres Volkes verwahren, die Protestrabbiner nennen.

H.

_____________________________

And so, now we come to the third of the Exponent’s six articles…

ZOA President Replies to Anti-Zionist Group

The Jewish Exponent
December 18, 1942

Announcement of the proposed organization of an anti-Zionist group under the leadership of Dr. Louis Wolsey of Philadelphia is but another manifestation of the irrational prejudice against our national movement which persists among a small minority of the Reformed rabbis of this country.  Personally, the feeling that I have toward these Protestrabbiner is one of pity as well as of scorn.

To pretend that Zionism is opposed to Judaism, as these men charge, is obviously absurd.  Zionism has its very roots in our Bible and every page of our Prayer Book gives expression to the Jewish yearning for the restoration of the Land of Israel to the People of Israel. 

The religious aspects of Zionism cannot be denied or ignored without eliminating the very soul and essence of the movement.  But those who speak of Judaism as only a religion, and then confine that religion to a few high-sounding universal ethical maxims, are reducing Judaism to a bare skeleton of itself.  These anti-Zionists are denuding Judaism; they seek to strip it bare of all the meaning with which history has endowed it.  They try, in effect, to tell us that the sixteen millions of Jews throughout the world today are but a spirit and a soul, bound together by naught but a few majestic prophetic utterances of the past and devoid of that feeling of brotherhood which a common ancestry, common historic and contemporary experiences, and a sense of common destiny have implanted in their inmost beings.  All the efforts of these anti-Zionists to convince themselves that we do not exist as a people prove but vain delusions.

I venture also to assert that by their disavowal of Zionism in America these Protestrabbiner have repudiated American democracy itself.  They have said, in effect, that in America Jews must not be themselves; they dare not be different.  They must reject Zionism or any other movement which recognizes the identity of the Jews as a people.  For as a people, these rabbis say, as a people the Jews do not exist.  Using the terms “nationality” and “nationalism” in their own peculiar misconception of their meaning, they insist that there is no Jewish nationality, no Jewish nationalism.  If they be right, then history is a lie, and all contemporary evidence which serves to confound their point of view is but illusion.  They seem to think they have but to wave their hand, draw up a charter of incorporation, and the reality of the Jewish people will disappear into thin air and Zionism will be exorcised.

I am confident that we Zionists need spend little time worrying about these anti-Zionists who hope by incantation and publicized statement to wipe Zionism out of existence.  The opposition of these men will but increase the passionate devotion of the overwhelming majority of Jews in this country to our sacred cause.  Jewish history will brand these internal enemies of the Jewish people as they deserve.

Arriving next: December 18, 1942 “36 Local Rabbis Support Jewish Home in Palestine”

Protestrabbiner, at…

Encyclopedia.com

Encyclopedia of Judaism (Encyclopedia of Judaism, 1971)

de.wikipedia

Maybaum, Sigmund (KehilaLinks)

Ruelf, Isaac (Jewish Virtual Library)

Vogelstein, Heinemann (Wikipedia)

Vogelstein, Heinemann (National Library of Israel (irony, irony, irony!))

A Controversy of Zion: Zionism and Its Foes, in The Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia) II – December 18, 1942: Form Group to Fight Zionism in U.S.A. and Palestine

A Controversy of Zion – II

For your consideration: Some thoughts, the naïveté of which are only exceeded by their unintended irony…

“We have spoken in the past of European Judaism,
we speak of Palestinian Judaism,” he said.
“There is no reason why for Jewish Americans
there shall not be a modern, vibrant, vigorous application of Jewish faith
which will be thoroughly and dominantly American.

“In advocating the formation of an American Council of Judaism,
we do not in any way minimize our kinship with our brothers
in every land and in every other interpretation of Judaism.
We merely say to our neighbors and to the world at large
that for us here in America our prayers and our customs
will be so shaped as to be intelligible not only to our children
but to all Americans and that we shall so use our Jewish heritage
that all who may wish to come to our temples will find themselves at home.
Thus, on our part,
the oft-repeated aim to Bring Christian and Jew together
will become more than a pious phrase or a publicity slogan.
It will become a sincere program of better understanding.”

Rabbi William F. Rosenblum, 1942

______________________________

Continuing with the Jewish Exponent’s mid-WW II articles about opposition to Zionism organized from within – but not entirely representing – Reform Judaism, and, countervailing forces from Orthodox and Conservative Judaism, let alone the Reform movement itself, here’s the newspaper’s second article.  From December 18, 1942, it’s one of three on this topic published on this date. 

This article focuses on the creation of the American Council for Judaism, in the text actually titled the “Council for American Judaism”.  Reporting comes from the “Independent Jewish Press Service, Inc.”, an organization – described in an extensively footnoted entry at Wikipedia – as having been founded in 1935, based in New York, and active in the 1940s.  The Service was under the leadership of Martha Neumark (executive director in the early 40s) and Dr. Judd L. Teller, one of its reporters having been Bernard Lerner, and ceased activity at the end of 1948.  Neumark was the first American women to have been accepted to Rabbinical School (at Hebrew Union College).  (However, she was only permitted to earn a “…qualification as a religious school principal instead of ordination, though she had spent 7 and a half years in rabbinical school.”)  

The Exponent’s article covers the initial two meetings of the Council, held on November 2 and November 23, 1942, at Temple Rodeph Shalom.  Though the reporter’s name is not given, the Philadelphia associations – Rodeph Shalom having been the setting of the two meetings, the Exponent’s detailed coverage of those events, the fact that the organization was founded in Philadelphia, and the mention of Attorney Morris Wolf and Lessing Rosenwald of that city – suggest to me that an IJPS correspondent or stringer simply sat in on one or both meetings, or, received information about the Council’s formation from one of its attendees.  More likely – given the level of detail, quotes, and unflattering anecdotes – the former.  

The Exponent’s article first summarizes the main points pertaining to the Council’s creation, and then goes into much deeper detail about the events, personalities, and agendas of the two meetings.  Particularly interesting are the reported claim by Rabbi William Fineshriber about interacting with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, and, Rabbi Morris Lazaron’s attempt “to “see” Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes, in order to present the Council’s anti-Zionist position. 

The article closes with statements by Rabbi Louis Wolsey and Rabbi William F. Rosenblum which present the ethos and aims of the Council.  In that regard, it’s essential to present this quote from Rabbi Wolsey’s FindAGrave biographical profile:

“Beginning in the fall of 1944, however, Wolsey began to experience a sense of alienation from the anti-Zionist movement.  He felt that [Elmer] Berger and Wallach ran the ACJ in an “undemocratic fashion” and that they overemphasized ACJ’s anti-Zionist aspects rather than its Reform principles.  As a result, Wolsey resigned as vice-president in December 1945 and thereafter became totally inactive in the ACJ.

In 1948, upon the creation of the State of Israel, Wolsey formally withdrew as a member of the American Council for Judaism.  In a statement released to the press, he called for the dissolution of the Council and pleaded for an effort to heal all wounds in order to strengthen Israel by creating a united spiritual front of American Jews.  Wolsey’s recognition for the realities of the situation and his willingness to state his changed position in public won him much acclaim.”

And so, the article:

Form Group to Fight Zionism in U.S.A. and Palestine

The Jewish Exponent
December 18, 1942

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story which follows is an exclusive account dealing with the formation of the Council for American Judaism, released to its subscribers by the Independent Jewish Press Service, Inc.

PHILADELPHIA (JPS) – With the objective of splitting all of American Jewish life, war has been pledged on Zionism and on all persons and institutions sympathetic to that program, with the wealth of influential Jews and the power even of irreligious Jews mobilized in order to smash every gain the Zionist movement has made in the United States and Palestine in forty years.

That is the goal set for itself by the group called the Council for American Judaism, which was born in this city six weeks ago although its birth was announced only this week.  Dedicated to battle against those who would build up the Jewish National Home in Palestine, the initial meeting was held in Temple Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia.  The anti-Zionist rabbis held their first gathering here on November 2nd and perfected their plans on November 23rd.  Behind them, they contend, are some of the most powerful and wealthy Jews in America, who, one of the conveners alleged, have the power of persuasion over the State Department and ready access to present these anti-Zionist views to other members of the United States Cabinet.

The Independent Jewish Press Service has learned the secret background of the Council and, because of the extraordinary issues raised and the outstanding personalities involved, decided to make the lengthy material available to the general public.

These are some of the elements involved in a drama which derives special significance from the present situation in Europe, where millions of Jews are being slaughtered by the Nazis.

(1)  A small group of anti-Zionist Reform rabbis, many of them retired from their pulpits, has undertaken a wide-ranging political program against Zionism, to which these Rabbis allegedly object because it is political in character.  Asserting that Zionism is “secular” and “irreligious” and that is why Reform Judaism, as they understand it, opposes it, these anti-Zionist rabbis have decided to enlist irreligious Jews as well as the religious in order to attempt to achieve their anti-Zionist aims, long rejected by the majority of American Jewish leaders.

(2)  The names of Morris Wolf, prominent Philadelphia lawyer, associated with Lessing Rosenwald of this city, Henry Ittleson, wealthy head of Commercial Investment Trust; Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times; Samuel Leidesdorf, prominent New York accountant; Paul Baerwald, Honorary Chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, are among those of laymen involved in the remarkable story.

(3)  Match that lit the antizionist fire of these rabbis and laymen into flame was Sidney Wallach, until recently “educational director” of the American Jewish Committee, retiring from that body under unknown circumstances.  But a decade ago, Mr. Wallach was the editor of The New Palestine, official organ of the Zionist Organization of America.  Another person associated with the tale is Dr. Maurice Hexter, now Executive Vice-President of the New York Jewish Federation, but prior to that for many years in Palestine as the Felix Warburg named member of the Jewish Agency Executive.

(4)  Secretary of State Hull’s department can be “reached” by this anti-Zionist group, one member of it, Rabbi William Fineshriber, of this city, claims, quoting a statement of anti-Zionist intent by one of the leading members of the State Department.

(5)  Rabbi Lazaron also undertook to “see” Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes before he delivered his speech on December 6th at the National Council of the United Palestine Appeal in New York in order to present the anti-Zionist position to the Secretary.  Whether he “saw: him or not, Mr. Ickes said not one word about Palestine at a national Palestine gathering.

(6)  Among the epithets hurled at various other leading American Jewish personalities were these: Adolph H. Rosenberg, head of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, was described as an “appeaser” by Rabbi Louis Wolsey, of Philadelphia; Rabbi James G. Heller, President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and Rabbi Israel Goldstein, President of the Synagogue Council of America, were both denounced as using these organizations for Zionist purposes; the American Jewish Committee itself, under present control, was charged with having “ducked” the Zionist issue.

Campaign for Large Funds

To achieve its purposes, the Council for American Judaism, a name proposed by Rabbi Lazaron, has launched a campaign for $25,000 in the first month.  On the advice of a “public relations” counsel that it would look “nicer” to have a rabbi instead of a layman as the executive director of the organization, youthful Rabbi Elmer Berger, of Flint, Mich., was appointed to the post.

Meeting of November 2nd

The story is best told as it unfolded, itself at two intimate and private meetings at Rabbi Wolsey’s Rodeph Shalom.  Rabbi Wolsey was in the chair.  Others present were venerable Rabbi Samuel Goldenson, of New York’s Temple Emanuel-El, William Rosenau, Morris Lazaron, A.D. Shaw and Abraham Shusterman, the last four of Baltimore, Rabbi William Fineshriber, H.J. Schachtel, and Isaac Landman of new York, Norman Gerstenfeld, of Washington; emeritus David Phillipson, of Cincinnati; emeritus Solomon Foster, of Newark; and C.A. Rubenstein, of Baltimore.

Rabbi Samuel Goldstein introduced Mr. Sidney Wallach, until recently with the American Jewish Committee but now a “free lance” in public relations.  Mr. Wallach, once the editor of the official Zionist journal, told the group that non-Zionism was the most important issue in American Jewish life and that the failure of this cause would be harmful to everything American Jewry values.  The opposition movement is the last stand of the anti-Zionist forces, he stressed, and to achieve its objective an organized group must be fought with organization.  The Zionists, he charged, have captured the organs and media of public opinion.  In his view, the number of Zionists is very small.  Most of them had been “taken in” and were, in reality, only philanthropically minded.  He said it would be regrettable if the anti-nationalist fight remained Reform.  A place should be found for the non-Reform, even in the irreligious anti-Zionist.  Let the irreligious Jew find his place in American Jewish life, but not the place the Zionists want him to have.  The American Jewish Committee, he charged, has “ducked” this issue.  Its members were not aggressively anti-Zionist, although they were and are basically anti-Zionist.

Mr. Wallach’s plan involved “grooming for action” several thousand people, at least one representative in every city who would fight for a hearing and who would have, according to Mr. Wallach, the same function as a Christian Science representative in a community.  He declared that Dr. Magnes was “crucified” by the Jewish press.  To reveal this, he stated, would reveal the unreliability of the Zionists, showing the parallelism between the German 19th century mysticism and Zionist ideology.  This would help show up Zionist errors.  Even the “gad-fly,” he declared, has a place in the establishing of truth.

At this point, Mr. Wallach modestly suggested that he did not want to earn his living doing this type of public relations but, after all, he would have to have the “burden of making a living lifted” from him, if he were to do this public relations work.

Rabbi David Phillipson said he had come from Cincinnati to present the point of view of Mr. Adolph Rosenberg, leader of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.  Mr. Rosenberg felt the group must have a “positive” view, with Americanism as its central theme.  The only salvation for Judaism, he felt, was to identify this movement with Americanism.  Dr. Phillipson said he shared that view and would return to Cincinnati to organize a group on that basis.  But this was not satisfactory to Rabbi Wolsey, with said that in his relations with the U.A.H.C., Mr. Rosenberg had been an appeaser.

Rabbi Rosenau said that the Baltimore rabbis had given a great deal of thought to this cause.  It was their endeavor to create a non-U.A.H.C. organ of Reform Judaism.  It was his thought, however, that stressing of the American keynote would cast aspersion on thousands of those who differ.  They claim to be Americans and are loyal Americans.  The movement, he felt, is a religious one in opposing Zionism.

Rabbi Schachtel was impatient to proceed with practical matters and said the immediate engagement of a person such as Mr. Wallach was essential.  Rabbi Fineshriber agreed that the group ought to follow Mr. Wallach’s plan.  It was necessary to have a person like Wallach or to start a magazine, for financial reasons.

Mr. Wallach responded that a “man’s size job must be done by a man,” whether himself or somebody else.  He felt it would be wise to get clarification of the views of Wendell Willkie and Secretary Hull on Zionism.  In his view, money-raising for anti-Zionist purposes should be very easy.  He knew many men who would be ready to contribute.

Dr. Goldenson agreed to this, saying once a man was engaged the financial support would flow in.

Rabbi Foster was opposed to joining with irreligious Jews, saying his antagonism to Zionism was of religious origin.

Rabbi Lazaron asked the practical questions:  How much would Wallach’s services entail?  What would he do if he had the money?  How would he raise the money?

Mr. Wallach said he would need from $7,200 to $7,500 a year.  He would get busy doing the kind of thing he had been talking about, get a hearing for anti-Zionism.  One magazine was not enough.  If we show we mean business, Wallach said, groups in every city will contribute, especially if we can get tax-exemption.  The zealots in every city must be found.  He believed that anti-nationalism would strengthen Reform, rather than Reform strengthen anti-nationalism.

Rabbi Gerstenfeld, of Washington, was satisfied.  He would call his laymen together promptly to raise funds.

Would Use Yiddish Press

Mr. Wallach suggested a key group of individuals in New York to supervise the spending of the money and the conduct of the work.  This group would have to have freedom to work and to make decisions.  The Yiddish press, he suggested, should be approached, so that with “friends” inside, an occasional item would be published to inject doubt of Zionism in the readers’ minds.

Rabbi Schachtel wanted to know whether “our movement is to be pro-Reform or anti-nationalist”.  In his view, the main program should be “anti-nationalist”.  Rabbi Lazaron said he did not like to see an anti-program but a positive one.  Rabbi Shaw agreed.

Then the discussion went on, with suggestions being offered for various types of magazines, methods of getting tax exemption, and getting speakers onto various lecture platforms.  Rabbi Goldenson asked whether the group should identify itself solely with Reform or strike the larger American note.  He was for the latter, although sole identification with either would be a limitation on any money-raising venture.

It was Rabbi Gerstenfeld, seconded by Rabbi Phillipson, who proposed that $25,000 be raised in one month, that Mr. Wallach be engaged and a program be worked out for the year.  The motion carried.

After adjournment for lunch, Dr. Goldenson started off the afternoon proceedings by reading the letter in the New York Times of November 1st, from Dr. Judah L. Magnes, President of the Hebrew University.  Each of the men, led off by Rabbi Phillipson, explained how he was going to raise funds in his city for this crusade.  With Rabbi Lazaron as chairman, a committee was appointed to formulate objectives.  Other members were Goldenson, Schachtel, Gerstenfeld, and Fineshriber.

Rabbi Wise Reports on Meeting

The second meeting of the group, called in the same temple, here, on November 23rd, heard a letter read from Rabbi Jonah B. Wise, of New York, a national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal and fund-raising chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee, who described a meeting held in New York on November 16th to consider purposes in which Rabbi Wolsey’s group was extremely interested.

Rabbi Wise dismissed the importance of the answer to the 95 anti-Zionist rabbis singed by 733 rabbis.  He declared that only 199 of 476 members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis were included.  He pointed out that neither Dr. Julian Morgenstern, President of the Hebrew Union College, nor Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary, had joined the 733 rabbis.

Another letter was then read by Rabbi Wolsey from Rabbi Jonah B. Wise.  In it the latter described a meeting in New York, on November 16th.  Those present were:  Alan M. Stroock, son of the late President of the American Jewish Committee; William Rosenwald, President of the national Refugee Service and a national chairman of the United Jewish Appeal; Paul Baerwald, honorary chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee; Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, who, in four years, made no contribution to the United Jewish Appeal on the ground of his principle objection to Palestine; Edward M.M. Warburg, a lieutenant and chairman of the Joint Distribution Committee; Maurice Hexter, once a member of the Jewish Agency Executive in Jerusalem; George Backer, president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency; Samuel Leidesdorf, treasurer of the New York United Jewish Appeal; Edgar Nathan, Manhattan Borough president; Henry S. Hendricks, and Henry Ittleson, head of the Commercial Investment Trust.  Excuses for absence were sent by Judge Samuel Rosenman, confidant of President Roosevelt; Lewis Rosenstiel, head of Schenley Distillers; Nathan Ohrbach, New York merchant; and Alexander Kahn, managing editor of the Jewish Daily Forward; Joseph M. Proskauer, anti-Zionist candidate for the Presidency of the American Jewish Commiteee, conveyed his views to the group in a letter.

Rabbi Wise told the Philadelphia meeting in his letter to Rabbi Wolsey that the New York gathering of November 16th had reached certain conclusions on their common interests and that Maurice Hexter had been instructed to report as soon as possible on a program of procedure and an outline of probably enterprise.  Rabbi Wise concluded that he and Rabbi Goldstein were very much pleased with the results of the meeting.  There is no doubt, Rabbi Jonah Wise reported, that these laymen mean business.  What the Zionists regarded as a victory for themselves the men present at the Rabbi Wise meeting regarded, on the contrary, as a victory for their own viewpoint.  The reference was to a big story in The New York Times (whose publisher was present at the Wise meeting and who is related by marriage to Rabbi Wise), headed “733 Rabbis Rebuke Anti-Zionist Jews.”  The anti-Zionists at the Wise meeting regarded the story as an evidence of progress and as giving public notice that not all American Jews were Zionists.

At this point Rabbi Israel Goldstein, President of the Synagogue Council, came in for sharp criticism from Rabbi Schachtel, who charged that Goldstein was using the Synagogue Council for Zionist purposes.  He reported that he had secured the consent of Rabbi James Heller for a change in the constitution to permit, hereafter, a vote by majority instead of unanimously.  As criticism was offered, letters were read in criticism of Rabbi Julius Gordon, of St. Louis, for his activities as chairman of the Committee on Palestine of the C.C.A.R.  He was alleged to be acting without authority.  Rabbi Heller and Rabbi Barnett Brickner, of Cleveland, were charged with making replacements on C.C.A.R. commissions of Zionists almost exclusively.

During the discussion on the question of an executive director, it was pointed out that Sidney Wallach has advised that it would be better for a rabbi than a layman to be chosen.  Rabbi Elmer Berger was then selected to obtain “a salary commensurate with the position”.  A lay public relations adviser, t be Wallach, was also agreed upon, the actual choice to await the gathering of funds.

Rabbi Fineshriber then summed up the achievements of the group: 1. We have stirred up the Zionists and the country at large to a realization of the opposition; 2. We have started the first effective collective action on the part of American rabbis in opposition to Jewish nationalism; 3. Rabbi Lazaron has to his credit the achievement of wide publicity for Arthur Hays Sulzberger’s anti-Zionist speech in Baltimore; 4. We have 96 actively interested rabbis.

Rabbi Lazaron reported that he has already received some funds for his so-called Lay-Rabbinate Committee, the forerunner of which is now the Council of American Judaism, a name unanimously chosen after Rabbi Lazaron had suggested it.  It was pointed out that the name has several advantages.  1. It meets the desires of the financial backers; 2. It meets the request of Adolph Rosenberg, President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, for emphasis on Americanism; 3. It defines the aims of the group, it was said.

Rabbi William Rosenblum, of New York, was chosen chairman of a committee, with Rabbi Schachtel and Nathan Perilman, assistant Rabbi Goldenson, to draw up incorporation papers and a constitution.  They will submit their work to Lazaron, Wolsey, David Lefkowitz, of Dallas; Julius Feibelman, of New Orleans; Irving Reichert, of San Francisco; Louis Binstock, of Chicago; and Dr. Leo Franklin, retired Detroit rabbi.

The management of a lecture bureau, to send speakers all over the country to spread anti-Zionism, was entrusted to Solomon Foster, retired rabbi of Newark, who will operate the bureau form his home.  Rabbi Foster reported he had already obtained $1,500 in Newark for his work.

The rabbis, who continuously emphasize that they are in favor of the upbuilding of Palestine although they oppose Zionism, agreed that it would be an excellent thing to have their next meeting in New York on December 7th, because it was the day following the meeting of the National Council of the United Palestine Appeal, which is a non-partisan fund-raising organization for Palestine.  They could then deal with the subject matter of that meeting.

__________

Rabbi Wolsey’s Statement

PHILADELPHIA. – In explaining the functions of the Council for Judaism, Rabbi Wolsey said the plans for the American Council for Judaism were formulated at a meeting last June in Atlantic City, “with the purpose of combating nationalistic and secularistic trends in Jewish life”.

“We are definitely opposed to a Jewish State, a Jewish flag or a Jewish army,” he said.  “We are interested in the development of Palestine as a refuge for persecuted Jews, but are opposed to the idea of a political State under Jewish domination in Palestine or anywhere else.”

Rabbi William F. Rosenblum, of Temple Israel, New York City, chairman of one of the organizing committees, in addressing his congregation, declared that while Judaism was a universal religion, it was evident that the spiritual capital of world Judaism after the war would be in the United States.

“We have spoken in the past of European Judaism, we speak of Palestinian Judaism,” he said.  “There is no reason why for Jewish Americans there shall not be a modern, vibrant, vigorous application of Jewish faith which will be thoroughly and dominantly American.

“The members of this congregation have heard me advocate such an accent on our Jewish faith for the last twelve years.  In advocating the formation of an American Council of Judaism, we do not in any way minimize our kinship with our brothers in every land and in every other interpretation of Judaism.  We merely say to our neighbors and to the world at large that for us here in America our prayers and our customs will be so shaped as to be intelligible not only to our children but to all Americans and that we shall so use our Jewish heritage that all who may wish to come to our temples will find themselves at home.  Thus, on our part, the oft-repeated aim to Bring Christian and Jew together will become more than a pious phrase or a publicity slogan.  It will become a sincere program of better understanding.”

Appearing Next: December 18, 1942 “ZOA President Replies to Anti-Zionist Group”

The American Council for Judaism, at…

The American Council for Judaism (the organization’s own web page)

Wikipedia

Jewish Virtual Library

Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: February 25, 1945 (United States Marine Corps and United States Navy…)

The prior post having covered Jewish military casualties on February 25, 1945 (Adar 13, 5705) in the ground forces of the United States Army and other Allied nations, “this” post moves to the Pacific Theater of War, and focuses on Jewish servicemen in the United States Marine Corps, and, United States Navy.

______________________________

United States Marine Corps

The thirteen Marines whose names are listed below – whether wounded or killed in action – were all casualties during the Battle of Iwo Jima.

3rd Marine Division

(This reproduction of the 3rd Marine Division shoulder patch is by WW II Impressions.)

Jastrow, Mylon Louis, PFC, 438815, Purple Heart
9th Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Headquarters Company
Died of wounds (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born Chicago, Il. 6/14/25
Mr. and Mrs. Isidore Louis (1/10/91-9/68) and Frances (Ephraim) (1/9/95-9/9/56) Jastrow (parents)
7050 South East End Ave., Chicago, Il.
National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawaii – Section N, Grave 325
American Jews in World War II – 104

This photo of PFC Jastrow’s matzeva is by FindAGrave researcher Jeff Hall, who, in May of 2017 after a four-year effort, created “…virtual cemeteries for all American Ground Forces casualties during WWII.”  The image shown here comes from Mr. Hall’s project to photograph headstones for all “…WW2 dead at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl) in Honolulu.”  Few headstone photos existed for this cemetery before 2008.

Lowe, Leonard, PFC, 395271, BSM, Purple Heart
12th Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion, D Battery
Wounded in Action
Born Ohio 2/26/20 – Died 4/24/97
Mr. and Mrs. Michael and Bertha Lowe (parents); Florence (sister), 9607 Garfield Ave., Cleveland, Oh.
American Jews in World War II – 494

Newman, Irving, Cpl., 474277, Purple Heart, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster
21st Marine Regiment, 1st Battalion, Headquarters Company
Wounded in Action (wounded previously at Guam; approximately 8/1/44)
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. 12/15/22 – Died 2001
Mrs. Gladys Newman (wife), 223 E. 96th St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mr. and Mrs. Harry and Kate (Schneiderman) Newman (parents), 223 E. 96th St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Casualty Lists 9/28/44, 5/14/45
American Jews in World War II – 400

4th Marine Division

(This example of the 4th Marine Division shoulder patch comes from TTMilitaria.)

Abrams, Leon Joseph, Cpl., 808008, Fire Team Leader, Purple Heart
24th Marine Regiment, 1st Battalion, A Company
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born New Bedford, N.Y. 9/4/20
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Esther Abrams (parents), 27 Ryan St., New Bedford, Ma.
Annette C. and Herbert Abrams (sister and brother)
Plainville Cemetery, New Bedford, Ma. – Tifereth Israel, Row B, Lot 43
American Jews in World War II – Not Listed

Becker, William (Zeev bar David), PFC, 859148, Purple Heart
24th Marine Regiment, 1st Battalion, A Company
Wounded in Action
Born Denver, Co. 9/18/24 – Died 9/2/80
Mr. and Mrs. David (1876-9/18/31) and Minnie C. (1890-2/8/48) Becker (parents), 1100 Laurence St., Denver, Co.
Golden Hill Cemetery, Lakewood, Co. – Plot 18
American Jews in World War II – 58

Birnbaum, Seymour, Cpl., 863240, Purple Heart
4th Engineer Battalion, B Company
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. 5/12/24
Mr. and Mrs. Louis and Flora Birnbaum (parents); Morris and Ruth (brother and sister), 371 S. 5th St., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Casualty List 5/31/45
Place of Burial Unknown
American Jews in World War II – 278

David, Matthew, PhM3C, 8128880, Purple Heart
23rd Marine Regiment
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
Born New York, N.Y. 6/16/23
Mr. and Mrs. Morris (7/10/81-6/23/34) and Sarah / Sabra (Naphtali) (8/10/96-5/16/77) David (parents)
Anna (sister) (4/11/27-12/11/95)
850 Bryant Ave., New York, N.Y.
Another address…  1056 Fox St., Bronx, N.Y.
Mount Carmel Cemetery, Glendale, N.Y. – Section 5, Block J, Lot 525, Grave 1
Casualty List 4/28/45
American Jews in World War II – 295

Galperin, Hyman, PhM2C, 2247056, Purple Heart
Attached to 4th Marine Division
Wounded in Action
Born New York, N.Y. 12/25/24 – Died 6/6/08
Mr. Joseph Galperin (father), 24-17 Ditmars Ave., Astoria, Long Island City, N.Y.
Cedar Park Cemetery, Paramus, N.J.
American Jews in World War II – 317

Gershen, Irvin Jack, 1 Lt., 0-18848, Purple Heart
24th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion, I Company
Wounded in Action
Born Elizabeth, N.J. 7/23/20 – Died 12/27/76
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob (Jack) (Gershenowitz) (12/1/96-1/21/68) and Libby (Lillie) (Sherman) (8/11/00-11/19/99) Gershen (parents)
104 Lake Drive, Allenhurst, N.J.
U.S. Marine Corps History Division – Casualty Card Database gives date as 2/26/45
Fold3.com WW II War Diaries: USS Knox 19 (I-3-24-4) COMRANSDIV 44 30
American Jews in World War II – Not Listed

Rozner, James Howard (Yaakov Heersh bar Ben Tzion), Cpl., 329608, Purple Heart
25th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion, L Company
Killed in Action (.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)
(wounded previously; approximately 6/26/44)
Born McKeesport, Pa. 6/4/16
Mr. and Mrs. Ben and Esther Rozner (parents), R.D. #1, Washington, Pa.
Beth Israel Cemetery, Washington County, Pa.
Navy Department Casualty Release 8/26/44
U.S. Marine Corps History Division – Casualty Card Database has only one entry – for 2/25/45
American Jews in World War II – 547

Jessica Dulis took this picture of Corporal Rozner’s mazteva.

5th Marine Division

(From Fitzkee Militaria comes this 5th Marine Division shoulder patch.)

Lauer, Julius Howard, PFC, 958064, Purple Heart
26th Marine Regiment, 3rd Battalion, G Company
Wounded in Action
Born Chicago, Il. 6/9/18 – Died 9/17/00
Mrs. Geraldine J. (Grinberg) Lauer (wife) (12/20/17-2/11/82), 3001 Paseo St., Kansas City, Mo.
Mr. and Mrs. Meyer (7/97-?) and Sarah (Margolis) (1899-?) Lauer (parents) (Or … was father Joseph Lauer?)
4225 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, Il.
American Jews in World War II – 107, 213

Remis, Isadore Harold, Pvt., 523506, Purple Heart
27th Marine Regiment, 2nd Battalion, E Company
Wounded in Action
Born Kansas City, Mo. 5/15/26 – Died 8/20/04
Mr. and Mrs. Abe (3/4/02-6/18/66) and Fannie (Plutzik) (12/3/06-3/18/59) Remis (parents), 2124 East 38th St., Kansas City, Mo.
American Jews in World War II – 215

Siegal, Norman Abraham, Pvt., 931139, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart
5th Engineer Battalion, Headquarters and Service Company
Wounded in Action
Born Chicago, Il. 12/26/11 – Died 11/51
Mrs. Sylvia (Vitz) Siegal (wife) (10/26/13-6/28/81), 5946 West Washington Blvd. / 6842 Clyde Ave., Chicago, Il.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob and Lena (Kessler) Siegal (parents)
Draft Card lists name as “Norman A(initail only) Siegal”
American Jews in World War II – 116
United States Navy

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United States Navy

Fighter Squadron VF-12

(Via Wikipedia, here’s the insignia of VF-12 from 1943 through 1945.)

On February 25, 1945, among the nine F6F-5 Hellcat fighters of Navy Fighter Squadron VF-12 on the USS Randolph, which embarked on a fighter sweep mission to airfields in the Tokyo Bay area was the aircraft (Bureau Number 72329) piloted by Lt. JG Norman Wesley Sandler (0-113013), of Des Moines, Iowa…

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Norman W. Sandler’s portrait from the 1938 yearbook of Roosevelt High School (via Ancestry.com)

(.ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. / Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím)

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…armed with HVAR rockets instead of bombs, the planes struck hangars at the Hokoda Airfield, and, a radar station at Iso Saki, east of the Mawatari airfield.

As described in the Squadron’s Aircraft Action Report, adverse weather hindered planned operations during the mission: “Cloud cover was 1/10 throughout the mission, lowering to 3000-foot base at Mawatari airfield.”  No Japanese planes were observed to be airborne, few were found on the ground, and no anti-aircraft fire was seen, the latter making the loss of Ensign Sandler – based on information in the Aircraft Action Report – a mystery.

Lt. JG Sandler’s wingman Ensign J.M. Finley, who’d followed Sandler into a diving attack on Hyakurigahara Airfield, had just pulled out of his dive when he noticed Sandler’s Hellcat tumbling “like a belly tank” toward the ground.  The aircraft’s tail was detached, and was about 150 feet behind, above, and to the left of the fuselage of Sandler’s fighter.  After turning to avoid the detached tail section, Ensign Finley noted an aircraft burning in a location where the main body of Sandler’s F6F would have struck the earth, though he didn’t actually see Sandler’s fighter crash.  Finley specifically noted that Sandler’s dive angle was not excessive, with (visual) evidence suggesting that Sandler’s tail section was lost during or immediately after the Ensign’s pull-out.  Sandler was not seen to have parachuted from his Hellcat.

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If I have my geography correct (!), think the former Hyakurigahara Airfield, the wartime base of the Hyakurihara Naval Air Group, is the site of the present Ibaraki Airport – 茨城空港 / Hyakuri Air Base: specific location Shimoyoshikage, Shirakawa-mura (Ogawa-cho), Higashiibaraki-gun, Ibaraki-ken.

This map shows the present Ibaraki Airport – 茨城空港 / Hyakuri Air Base (circled in red) in relation to Tokyo.

This closer look shows the facility itself, with the civilian airport to the west of the paired runways and the air base to the east.

Same scene, different view: An air photo of the above.

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Though I’m not aware of F6F losses being associated with structural failure of the aircraft’s tail section (for example, an early problem in the history of the Hawker Typhoon), in this case the possibility can’t be dismissed, particularly given the absence of anti-aircraft fire.

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A VF-12 Hellcat on the flight deck of the USS Randolph in 1945.  

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This image, “box art” for Eduard’s 1/48 plastic model of the late F6F “Dash 5” Hellcat (kit number 8224), a nice depiction of a pair of VF-12 Hellcats in action over Japan, clearly displays the squadron’s horizontal white-stripe fin and rudder, white ailerons, and, plane-in-squadron number on fuselage side and cowling.  

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From Fighters – Forum Maquettes Avions & Helicos, this photo shows the “real” #32 and other VF-12 Hellcats on the deck of the Randolph.  Unfortunately, VF-12’s Aircraft Action Report doesn’t list the individual plane-in-squadron number of Lt. JG Sandler’s missing Hellcat, only the plane’s Bureau Number.  (The original source of this picture isn’t listed, though I suppose it’s an official US Navy photo.)    

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A review of Aviation Archeology’s database and FindAGrave reveal that Ensign Finley was shot down on April 8, 1945 (in F6F-5 72295) during an attack against Wan Airfield on Kikai Shima.  Parachuting at sea, he drifted in his life raft for five days before being rescued by a PBM.  His survival was the subject of an article in Air-Sea Rescue Bulletin No. 128 (of June 12, 1945; see page 28), published by the Coast Guard’s Air-Sea Rescue Agency.

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Born in Des Moines on December 20, 1919, Norman W. Sandler was the son of Nathan (1/28/96-12/3/62) and Belle (Klimosky) (3/6/96-12/19/84) Sandler, of 909 Polk Boulevard.  He was the husband of Geraldine (Krum) Sandler (later Wolk) (11/29/23-5/20/04) and father of Karen Blair.  The recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, and Purple Heart, his name can be found on page 127 of American Jews in World War II.

Lt. JG Sandler’s name appeared in Casualty Lists released on 3/10/45 and 3/15/46.  On December 19, 1948, Lt. JG Sandler was buried at Glendale Jewish Cemetery in Des Moines.  This image of his matzeva was taken by Katie Lou, who researches cemeteries and memorials in Polk County, Iowa.

References

Books

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947

Combat Connected Naval Casualties, World War II, by States: U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, United States Navy Office of Public Information Casualty Section, Washington, D.C., 1946

Sites on the Web

National Diet Library Digital Collection of Japan, Aircraft Action Report No. VF12#12 1945/02/25 : Report No. 2-d(53): USS Randolph, USSBS Index Section 7 (文書名:Records of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey ; Entry 55, Security-Classified Carrier-Based Navy and Marine Corps Aircraft Action Reports, 1944-1945 = 米国戦略爆撃調査団文書 ; 海軍・海兵隊艦載機戦闘報告書) (課係名等:Intelligence Branch ; Library and Target Data Division) (シリーズ名:Aircraft action reports (carrier-based aircraft))

VF-12 Insignia (“Artwork by anonymous friend of VF-12 – Photographed by Hymmolaya”), from Wikipedia entry for VF-12.

F6F Hellcat of VF-12 on deck of USS Randolph (color image; Unknown photographer; “Part of U.S. Navy photo 80-G-K-5339 from the collections of the Naval History Center”), from Wikipedia entry for VF-12.

Fukubayashi, Toru, Allied Aircraft and Airmen Lost over the Japanese Mainland During WW II, at POW Research Japan

Fukubayashi, Toru, Allied Aircraft and Airmen Lost over the Japanese Mainland During WW II, Records for Tobu (Kanto and Koshinetsu) Army District, at POW Research Japan

A Controversy of Zion: Zionism and Its Foes, in The Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia) I – November 20, 1942: 733 Rabbis Rap Opponents of Zionism

A Controversy of Zion – I

“They are not ex-Jews or non-Jews,
because many of them are and remain deeply involved Jewishly,
despite their harsh dissent.
Many un-Jews are active in forms of Jewish leadership,
running Jewish studies departments,
speaking from rabbinic pulpits,
hosting Shabbat dinners.
For many of these un-Jews,
the public and communal staging of their anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist beliefs
appears to be the badge of a superior form of Judaism,
stripped of its unsavory and unethical “ethnocentric” and “colonialist” baggage.”

– Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy, “The Un-Jews“, 2021

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From late November of 1942 through early January of 1943, Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent published six articles that explored opposition to Zionism, explained the moral and historical imperative of the revival of Jewish statehood amidst the terrible context of the early 1940s and the anticipated urgency of post-war years, and, delved into the motivation and rationale for opposition to Zionism. 

The articles are:

November 20, 1942: 733 Rabbis Rap Opponents of Zionism
December 18, 1942: Form Group to Fight Zionism in U.S.A. and Palestine
December 18, 1942: ZOA President Replies to Anti-Zionist Group
December 18, 1942: 36 Local Rabbis Support Jewish Home in Palestine
January 8, 1943: We Reject Zionism (by Rabbi Hyman J. Schachtel)
January 15, 1943: The “Bogey” of Zionism (by Rabbi Simon Greenberg)

The impetus for these articles was, unsurprisingly, no different in 1943 than 2023: Ambivalence about – if not flat-out opposition to – Jewish peoplehood, nationhood, and statehood, as expressed by individuals who’d attained positions of prominence and leadership in both the American Jewish Community and wider society, who viewed the “place” and future of the Jewish people along a continuum spanning the founding premises of Reform Judaism, and, secular universalism.  

The Exponent’s articles were in response to a “Statement of Principles” released in mid-1942 by a group of ninety Reform Rabbis – these men later to form the nucleus of the American Council for Judaism – who were members of but not acting within the auspices of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the central organization of Reform Rabbis in the United States and Canada.  The Statement declared that this group of Rabbis could not, “…support the political emphasis in the Zionist program which diverts attention from the historical Jewish role as a religious community and which confuses people as to the nature of Judaism.”

Unfortunately (!), I’ve been unable to find the full text of the Statement of Principles.  However, the origin and gist of the document is described in this American Council for Judaism 1969 Memorandum (for those interested, WorldCat Record ID 694520404!): 

“In 1942, at its annual conference held that year in Cincinnati, Ohio, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) passed a pro-Zionist resolution supporting the formation of a Jewish army in Palestine.  This resolution nullified a 1935 CCAR agreement which stated that the CCAR would remain neutral on the Zionist issue. Immediately after the 1942 conference, several non-Zionist rabbis met to discuss their displeasure with the resolution.

“As a result of this meeting, sixteen CCAR rabbis, led by men such as Louis Wolsey, William Fineshriber, and Morris Lazaron, addressed letters to CCAR members concerning the formation of a Jewish “anti-nationalist” organization.  Although various attempts were made to appease the “anti-nationalists” (on the grounds that they would split the CCAR as well as the American Jewish community) they remained adamant and held a meeting in early June.”

This is probably the meeting described by Howard Robert Greenstein in his PhD Thesis, “The Changing Attitudes Toward Zionism in Reform Judaism, 1937-1948”:

“On June 1, 1942, the non-Zionist rabbis convened in Atlantic City and organized the association which subsequently became the American Council for Judaism.  On June 2, the founders of this organization also issued a statement of principles which declared in part that “… realising the dearness of Palestine and its importance in relieving world problems, (the Council) members will render unstinted aid to all Jews in their economic, cultural and spiritual endeavors there.  But … (we) cannot support the political emphasis in the Zionist program which diverts attention from the historical Jewish role as a religious community and which confuses people as to the nature of Judaism.

This is consistent with the ACJ’s 1969 Memorandum: “At this meeting a “Statement of Principles” was formulated.  In essence, the “Principles” declared that the non-Zionists supported Palestine and Palestinean rehabilitation but, in light of their universalistic interpretation of Jewish history and destiny, and also their concern for the welfare and status of the Jewish people living in other parts of the world, they could not “subscribe to or support the political emphasis now paramount in the Zionist program.”  Futhermore, they could not help but believe “that Jewish nationalism tends to confuse our fellowmen about our place and function in society and diverts our own attention from our historic role to live as a religious community wherever we may dwell.”

“In August of that year, this “Statement,” signed by 90 Reform rabbis and lay leaders, was released to the press. By the end of 1942, this group of “anti-nationalists” had chosen a name for itself: the American Council for Judaism (ACJ). They adopted a constitution and named Elmer Berger, a rabbi from Flint, Michigan, as executive director.  On March 19, 1943 the American Council for Judaism was incorporated in the state of New York and, by the end of the year, a slate of officers was selected.  As president, the Council chose Lessing Rosenwald; as vice-presidents, Rabbi Louis Binstock, Fred F. Florence, Ralph W. Mack, Rabbi Irving Reichert and Rabbi Louis Wolsey; and as treasurer, D. Hays Solis-Cohen.”

And here we come to the impetus for the Exponent’s series of articles, as described by Greenstein: “The “coup de grace” of repudiation appeared in the forum of a declaration entitled, “Zionism — An Affirmation of Judaism” signed by 757 Orthodox, Conservative and Reform rabbis.  Circulated primarily under the direction of Stephen S. Wise, Abba Hlllel Silver, James Heller, Philip Bernstein, Joshua Loth Liebman and Barnett Brickner, the document charged that the non-Zionist statement “comes as a cruel blow” and that opposition to the restoration of a Jewish homeland at such a critical hour has been “unwise and unkind.”  The signatories rejected the Council’s attack upon the “political” aspects of Zionism by declaring that “there can be little hope of opening the doors of Palestine for Jewish immigration after the war without effective political action.”

Which brings us to the first of the Exponent’s six articles, below…

The article focuses on a statement of over seven hundred Rabbis in response to the “Statement of Principles” issued by the above-mentioned group of non-Zionist Reform Rabbis.  Interestingly, the number of rabbis differs: Howard Greenstein states that the response was signed by 757 Rabbis, while the Exponent gives a total of 733.  How to explain the discrepancy?  I don’t know!  In any event, though I don’t have the full text of the Rabbis’ response, the Exponent’s excerpt should suffice.  As you can see from the hyperlinks in the Exponent’s article (hyperlinks of May 2023, not 1942!) three of the four listed organizations are still very much in existence. 

I hadn’t known – until writing this post – that the The Synagogue Council of America, as founded in 1926, actually encompassed Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Judaism.  As stated at Wikipedia, “The organization dissolved in 1994, facing financial difficulties and fractiousness among its members, the organization effectively collapsed after a proposal to relocate the council’s offices from Manhattan to White Plains, New York, where it would have been housed in a Reform congregation, was rejected by Orthodox members of the organization.  Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of the Orthodox Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun served as the organization’s final president lamented the lack of “people who are really interested in maintaining the organization.”  Steven Bayme considers that the Council’s collapse was symbolic of the general Orthodox 1drift to the right, and raised serious questions of how orthodoxy can cooperate with the broader Jewish community in areas of external protection, support for Israel and Jewish continuity.” 

All well and good, but it depends on one’s perspective: Could not the Synagogue Council’s dissolution instead be attributed to the ideological movement of Reform Judaism (and in 2023, hardly just Reform Judaism!) under the combined, ongoing, and accelerating influences of secularism and autonomy underlying contemporary Western civilization back to its original, founding principles?    

And so, the Exponent’s article:

733 Rabbis Rap Opponents of Zionism
The Jewish Exponent
November 20, 1942

In an action said to be without precedent in the history of American Jewry, 733 Rabbis, including the heads of all the national rabbinical associations and drawn from all wings of religious Jewry in America, this week issued a joint pronouncement severely rebuking Jewish opponents of Zionism as dealing a “cruel blow” to the Jewish people.  The statement declares that “the defeat of Hitler will not of itself normalize Jewish life in Europe” and points out that after the war “Europe will be so ravaged and war-torn that large masses of Jewish will elect migration to Palestine as a solution of their personal problems.”

Prominent among the signatories are Rabbi James G. Heller of Cincinnati, President of American Rabbis; Rabbi Louis M. Levitsky of Newark, President of the Rabbinical Assembly of America; Rabbi B.L. Levinthal of Philadelphia, member of the Praesidium of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis; Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein of New York, President of the Rabbinical Council of America, and Rabbi Israel Goldstein of New York, President of the Synagogue Council of America.  These leaders recently called on Secretary of State Hull and presented to him a memorandum in support of Zionism, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration which is being observed this month throughout the country.

The declaration now made public is a rejoinder to the statement recently made by a group of Reform Rabbis regarded as unfriendly to the Zionist cause.

The statement refutes the charge that Zionism is a secularist movement and asserts that “it has its origins and roots in the authoritative religious texts of Judaism” and scores anti-Zionism as “a departure from the Jewish religion”.  It defends the political program of the Zionist movement as an indispensable means for assuring large-scale Jewish colonization in the Homeland and affirms that “the settlement of a half million Jews in Palestine since the last war was made possible by political action which culminated in the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate”.  It adds “there can be little hope of opening the doors of Palestine for mass Jewish immigration after the war without effective political action.”

Scouting the idea that Jews in Palestine should be prevented from ultimately constituting a majority of the population, the rabbinical pronouncement declares that those who are opposing the movement render “a grave disservice” and adds “it may well be that to the degree to which their efforts are at all effective, Jews who might otherwise have found a haven in Palestine will be denied one.”  They also state “to the Jews of Palestine facing the greatest danger in their history and fighting hard to maintain morale and hope in the teeth of the totalitarian menace” anti-Zionist agitation comes as a “cruel blow”.

Continuing, the statement declares “the noblest spirits in American life – statesmen, scholars, writers, ministers and leaders of labor and industry have lent their sympathy and encouragement to the movement.

“The freedom which, we have faith, will come to all men and nations after this war, must come not only to Jews as individuals wherever they live, permitting them to share freedom on a place of equality with all other men, but also to the Jewish people, as men, restored to its homeland, where where at long last it will be a free people within a world federation of free peoples.”

Coming up next:  December 18, 1942 “Form Group to Fight Zionism in U.S.A. and Palestine”

Three links…

American Council for Judaism memorandum, March, 1969.  WorldCat record id: 694520404

Greenstein, Howard Robert, The Changing Attitudes Toward Zionism in Reform Judaism, 1937-1948, Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1973

Sharansky, Natan, and Troy, Gil, The Un-Jews – The Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood, Tablet, June 26, 2021

Stories from a Vanished Empire: Dr. Bloch’s Öesterreishische Wochenschrift

Then, one evening, he sat in a train travelling westward
and felt as if he was not making this journey of his own free will.
Things had turned out as they always had in his life,
as indeed much that is important does in the lives of others,
who are deceived by the more noisy and deliberate nature of their activities
into believing that an element of self-determination governs their decisions and transactions.
However, they forget that over and above their own brisk exertions lies the hand of fate.

(Joseph Roth, Flight Without End, 1927)

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If a tree falls in a forest, does anyone hear it?

And if the forest should fall, will it be remembered?

The Great War ended over one hundred years ago, though its political, cultural, and perhaps even theological impact (the latter in a secular guise) have persisted to the present, and doubtless will continue – even if in muted and unrecognized form – into the future.  Typical of transformative civilizational events, the war has inspired and generated an incalculably expansive body of literature – fiction; personal memoirs; poetry; unpublished manuscripts and personal correspondence; historical studies; archival records – the volume of which is an indirect measure of the scope of its effects.

Such for “the world” in general, and as much for the Jewish people as well.  As described by David Vital in his magisterial overview of European Jewish history A People Part – A Political History of the Jews in Europe, 1789-1939, during an era of confident if not exuberant nationalistic feeling among both the Allied and Axis powers, the war provided the opportunity for the Jews of Europe and the United States (even to some extent among the Jews of Imperial Russia) to manifest – no more or less than other peoples – sincerely felt feelings of patriotism undergirded by an ethos of acculturation and assimilation.

Regardless and perhaps in spite of the war’s outcome, in terms of trauma and human suffering, what’s particularly notable about the postwar era is the profusion of compilations of historical information concerning Jewish military service, created by individuals, Jewish communities, and organizations of Jewish veterans, within countries that comprised both the Allies and Central Powers.  Among the Allies, such compilations covered military service by Jews in the British Commonwealth (the content of which overlapped onto a monograph about the military service of Jews in both Australia and New Zealand), Bulgaria, France, Italy, and Serbia.  No such works were created about the military service of the Jews of the United States (I rectified that astonishing absence a few years ago; see here and here), or, to the best of my knowledge, Belgium, Greece, Romania, and Russia.

Of the four countries that comprised the Central Powers (the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire) parallel books about Jewish military service were limited to Bulgaria and Germany.

And in this, we find a forest of memory that is fallen and long-forgotten: That of the Empire of Austria-Hungary, the multi-national state formed from an alliance between those two nations that was formed in 1867 and survived until the 31st of October, 1918.  According to Martin Gilbert’s Atlas of Jewish History, the Jewish military contribution in the Austro-Hungarian Empire – 320,000 in service, with 40,000 dead – far exceeded that of Imperial Germany, or, that of the British Commonwealth, France, and the United States combined.  Military service and casualties among the Jews of the Empire were second in gravity only to the terrible military toll incurred by the Jews of Imperial Russia, from whom of the 650,000 in military service, 100,000 lost their lives.    

And with this; and in spite of this; and probably because of this: the Empire’s dissolution, and I’d think its social and cultural effects on the Jews of the newly autonomous Austria, and, Hungary; the nominal fact that the Empire no longer existed, no compilation (to the best of my knowledge) about the military service of Austro-Hungarian Jewry was ever created, or would be created.  The following video places this in perspective…

Jewish Soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian Army (August 30, 2013), at Centropa Cinema

But, even in 2023 and beyond, there might be a way to created such a record.  It would be approximate.  It would be incomplete.  It would be open-ended.  But, a nominal record of Jewish military service in the Austro-Hungarian Empire it would nonetheless be.  This would be via the newspaper Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift, created (as implied by the title!) by Rabbi Joseph Samuel Bloch. 

As part of the Digital Collection (Digitale Sammlungen) of Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, this newspaper, “…was originally founded with the intention of using an offensive organ to put the enemies of the Jews in their place.” “The newspaper, under its editor of many years, was primarily directed against the influential, openly anti-Semitic Christian-social movement around Karl Lueger.  Another focus of the “Österreichische Wochenschrift”, which became the official organ of the Viennese religious community soon after its founding, was the often very sharp criticism of Zionism, whose colonization plans the orthodox scholar Bloch supported in principle, but whose leaders he accused of domestic political misconduct in the implementation accused of their program.”  Published weekly between 1884 and 1920, the periodical is available through the University’s Judaica Section under the Compact Memory heading, here, the University’s holdings encompassing the years 1891 (Volume 8 – January 2, 1891) through 1920 (Volume 37 – February 20, 1920).

Fortunately, I had the time to create such a record.  Or, more aptly phrased, I made the time to create such a record.  As described in my post about identifying Jewish military casualties of the First World War, during the early 2000s, while in the corporate world, I encountered a situation that was – by all stereotypical standards of “cubicle-land” – entirely unexpected.  Rather then being utterly deluged with work, I found myself in the opposite situation: For many months, I simply had nothing to do.  And so, while perusing the Internet for websites pertaining to Jewish and military history, I discovered Goethe University’s Digital Collection, and there, along with AufbauDr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift.  Realizing that the opportunity would not again arise, I reviewed each and every issue of the newspaper published between August, 1914, and December, 1918, in an effort to identify all (seriously!) news items, articles, essays, and other items published during that time interval pertaining to Jewish military service in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as in Germany, or even the armed forces of the Allies. 

In this endeavor, I discovered over such 3,500 items.  A year-by-year tabulation follows below:   

1914: 353
1915: 1162
1916: 822
1917: 812
1918: 420
Total: 3,569

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But what about Rabbi Joseph Bloch the person; himself?  The Wikipedia record for Rabbi Bloch, largely based on the 1901-1906 entry in The Jewish Encyclopedia, provides an overview of his family background, early life, rabbinical positions, and subsequent career in journalism and politics – the latter geographically centered in Vienna – particularly in terms of his defense of Austrian Jews against antisemitism.  However, this account makes only a brief reference to Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift

Robert Wistrich’s 1986 Jewish History article “Zionism and Its Religious Critics in fine-de-siècle Vienna”, provides a wider overview of the creation of the Rabbi’s newspaper, his initially positive, then ambiguous, and ultimately (ironically!) negative attitude towards political Zionism.  The latter seems seems to have sprung from the theological unacceptability of human and thus purely secular – versus Divine and Messianic – efforts to recreate a Jewish nation-state, and quite astonishingly, for one who had so confidently and successfully defended the Jews against antisemitic calumnies, fear about the potential social and political repercussions of Zionism upon the Jews of Austria, and perhaps by implication (?) Europe and beyond.  As noted by Dr. Wistrich, “For Rabbi Bloch, the Jews had to defend their ethno-religious interests while remaining a supranational, mediating element within the multi-national State, but they should on no account be defined as a separate political nation.”  In terms of the clash between Rabbi Bloch and Theodore Herzl, specifically as presented in Dr. Wistrich’s paper, in light of political developments in Israel in 2023, Dr. Bloch was prescient about the implications of “defining Jewry as a secular political nation”.  For more about this deeply fraught topic, you might want to read Israel Eldad’s The Jewish Revolution – Jewish Statehood, and, David Vital’s The Origins of Zionism.     

And so, from Dr. Wistrich’s article…

The Galician-born Rabbi Joseph Samuel Bloch, perhaps the foremost defender of Jewish rights in the Austrian Reichsrat at the end of the 19th century, in his own maverick way reflected this Orthodox world-view while combining it with a pugnacious political militancy and astute sense of public relations.  Bloch came from the Austrian provinces to the Viennese industrial suburb of Florisdorf at the end of 1870s and from the outset challenged the social and political philosophy of the Viennese liberal establishment.  He won popularity among working-class Gentiles by lecturing to them about the advanced social doctrines in the Hebrew Bible and respect among traditional Jews by his vigorous defense of the Talmud.  Above all, he became a popular Jewish hero and parliamentary candidate through his vitriolic onslaught on the Catholic anti-Semite, Canon August Rohling, whose scurrilous Talmudjude had left the official Viennese Jewish leadership, both lay and religious, floundering in impotent silence and embarrassment. 

Like many other Orthodox Galician Jews, Rabbi Bloch aligned himself politically with the Polish Club in the Austrian parliament and with Count Taafe’s [Eduard Taaffe, 11th Viscount Taaffe] conservative ruling coalition.  A Habsburg dynastic patriot, he constantly warned the Austrian Jews to remain neutral in the nationalities’ conflict and on no account to identify themselves with German, Czech, Magyar or any other form of national chauvinism.  At the same time, militant Jewish self-defense was necessary to counteract the threat of organized political anti-Semitism – a point in which Bloch differed from other Orthodox rabbis as well as from most liberal establishment Jews.  Indeed, in his aggressively political stance and with his proud, self-assertive Jewish ethnic consciousness, Rabbi Bloch in the early 1880s seemed closer to the students of Kadimah than any other prominent Jewish public figure in Austria.  The journal which he founded – the Oesterreichische Wochenschrift – for all its conservative, Austrian dynastic loyalism, was also infused with a Jewish national spirit that seemed radical and even populist at the time.  Not surprisingly, Rabbi Bloch was a guest of honor in December 1884 at the Maccabean dinner held by Kadimah students, though significantly he warned against misinterpreting the message of the Maccabees in a nationalistic, warlike spirit.  But he shared with the early Zionists the same consciousness of the common fate of the Jews, the same determination to fight against apostasy and self-hatred within Jewish ranks, the same rejection of assimilation and reassertion of Jewish honor and self-respect.

Yet Rabbi Bloch’s attitude to the political Zionism which emerged in the 1890s was clearly ambiguous.  He had always been sympathetic, like Spitzer and Güdemann, to the moderated, practical colonization efforts of the Hovevei Zion.  In 1896 he had even encouraged Herzl’s first efforts to publicize his Zionist ideas and introduced him to the Austrian finance minister, Leon Ritter von Bilinski, a Catholic of Jewish origin and a leading member of the Polish Club.  Like Bilinski, Bloch had been impressed by Herzl’s magnetic personality and by his vision and political insight, but remained highly skeptical about his nationalist ideology and its long-term implications for Jewry.  He had been pleasantly surprised (like the Chief Rabbi of Vienna, Moritz Güdemann) that a witty feuilletonist and literary editor of the Neue Freie Presse should suddenly become passionately interested in Jewish affairs.  At a private reading of what would later become known as Der Judenstaat, Rabbi Bloch had moreover liked its literary style and was relieved that there was no mention of Palestine as the future location of the Jewish State.

When Herzl subsequently evoked the historic Jewish claim to Palestine, Bloch’s reaction was, however, sharply disapproving.  Recalling the disastrous episode of the “false messiah,” Shabbetai Zevi, Rabbi Bloch advised Herzl of the history of the Holy Land and its exposed geo-political position.  He also lent to Herzl two addresses on the Talmud given by Dr. Jellinek [Rabbi Adolf Jellinek] nearly thirty years earlier, which reflected the prophetic supra-national spirit of Judaism and which warned against attempts to rebuild the Temple.  He even recounted to Herzl the historic encounter of 1882 in Vienna between Jellinek and Leo Pinsker.  Only this time he sided with the recently deceased liberal rabbi, despite the fact that Jellinek had been his bête noire for many years and had helped to block his appointment to the Chair of Hebrew Antiquities at the University of Vienna.  Rabbi Bloch explained to Herzl that though residence in the land was considered a great virtue in the Talmud, Judaism forbade a mass return to Palestine and a restoration of the Jewish State before the advent of the Messiah. 

Bloch, like his close friend and ally, Rabbi Moritz Güdemann, favored a philanthropic Zionism along the lines of the agricultural settlements encouraged by Sir Moses Montefiore, Baron Maurice de Hirsch and Baron Edmond de Rothschild.  But he objected to Herzl’s insistence on defining Jewry as a secular political nation, holding the view that this would undoubtedly endanger the status of Jews in Austria at a time of rampant anti-Semitic propaganda calling for their disenfranchisement.  For his part, Herzl was arrogantly dismissive of Bloch’s “medieval, theological tussle with the anti-Semites,” which to his mind suffered from all the familiar illusions of Jewish self-defense activity.  When Herzl founded Die Welt, a rival journal to Dr. Bloch’s well-established Wochenschrift, relations deteriorated still further.  By the turn of the century, Bloch’s weekly was publishing articles sharply critical of Herzl’s Regierungs-Zionismus, his reliance on high diplomacy, and his ignorance of Jewish history and of the Jewish masses in Russia and Galicia.  The official line of the weekly was to support a practical emigration policy that included Palestine as one of its goals but to reject the diplomatic “Kunststücken” and utopian fantasies behind the idea of the Jewish State. 

After Herzl’s death in 1904, the Austrian Zionists began to engage more openly in Landespolitik and the rivalry between them and the Austrian Israelite Union – which Rabbi Bloch had done so much to found in 1886 – grew more intense.  Bloch resented Zionist politicking in Austrian parliamentary elections, though he chose to see the election of four Jewish national deputies to the Reichsrat in 1907 as a victory for his own credo of vigorous Jewish political representation.  For Rabbi Bloch, the Jews had to defend their ethno-religious interests while remaining a supranational, mediating element within the multi-national State, but they should on no account be defined as a separate political nation. 

Bloch’s antipathy to political Zionism appears to have grown with the years.  According to one source – though the authenticity of the claim has been challenged – he received some 250 negative written opinions on Herzlian Zionism from prominent Orthodox rabbis in the period between 1897 and 1913.  The successes of the Zionist movement after 1917 in the sphere of international diplomacy did not diminish his conviction that political Zionism was a great danger to the Jews, that it was playing with fire and would only serve to inflame anti-Semitism.  Indeed, in a letter to his namesake, Rabbi Chaim Bloch, shortly before his death at the end of 1923, he urged the latter to work for the creation of an “anti-nationalist movement within Jewry” to contain the threat posed by political Zionism. 

Here’s the front page of Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift for the issue of July 7, 1916, symbolically chosen for this post because of the connotation of that date with the opening week of the Battle of the Somme.  (Not that there’s anything about that battle in this issue!)  There’s no need to display the first page of any other issue of the paper published during the Great War, because the cover design was identical from year to year to year throughout that time interval.

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“Rabbi Joseph Samuel Bloch – born in Dukla 20.11.1850”

This postcard image of Rabbi Bloch from KehilaLinks at JewishGen is described by Jeffrey Alexander and Philip Ross as being one of ten postcards published by Sztetl Dukla in 2015 showing portraits of Jews from Dukla.  Taken from period photographs, the postcards’ line drawings were created by Krakow artist Wojciech Gryszkiewicz, with postcard design by Judith Stola.  

Here’s the original photograph upon which the Sztetl Dukla postcard is based.  From the Wikipedia record for Rabbi Bloch, the image, by an unknown photographer, is described as being from Erinnerungen aus meinem Leben (Vienna & Leipzig: R. Löwit, 1922) by Dr. Joseph S. Bloch”.  

As for Dukla, the small town is described by Alexander and Ross at JewishGen as being, “…located in the southern part of Poland, at latitude 49° 34´, longitude 21° 41´.  Although the town began in Poland, it was part of Galicia (an Imperial Province of the Austrian Empire) from 1776 to 1919.  Today the town of Dukla is found in Poland’s Supcarpathian Volvodeship [province], within the powiat [county or district] of Krosno and is part of the gmina [municipality or commune] of Dukla consisting of the Dukla town and villages surrounding it.  At the end of the 2020 calendar year, the town of Dukla had a population 2,005 people.”

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As noted above, my survey of Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift for news items, articles, essays, and other items about Jewish military service in the Austro-Hungarian armed forces identified over such 3,500 items published from August of 1914 through November of 1918.  Being that the translation of these items would be an effort gargantuan – far more in terms of time than effort – my records for these items are limited to their titles, and, bibliographical information about the issue in which they were published.  So continuing with the theme of the opening of the Battle of the Somme in July of 1916, here are relevant news items for that month, listed under the date of publication.  The front-page news item is in boldface.

July 7, 1916 (Issue 27)

Human Race’s Latest Rifts – By Privy Councilor Ed. King in Bonn – II
War Decorations of Jewish Officers and Soldiers
Award of a Jewish MP
The False Russian Reports (Approved by the War Press Office.)
Doubly Heroic
Medical Officer Tobias Weinstock
Silver Medal First Class for Bravery
More Awards
The Heir to the Field House of Worship
Good and Blood
Jewish Families in the Field
Awards of Jewish Warriors with the Iron Cross
Field Post Letters
Pesach in Tschita and Pjetchanska (see below…)
Internment of an Austrian Inventor in England
Prof. Adolf Frank, Founder of the Potash Industry, Died
Vienna Official Gazette of June 21

July 14, 1916 (Issue 28)

Celtic-Aryan “Cultural Work” – On the Second Air Bombardment of Karlsruhe on June 22, 1916
War Decorations of Jewish Officers and Soldiers
The Father with Three Sons
The Grossman Family
Appointment of a Field Rabbi
Jewish Families in the Field
More Awards
Jewish Baggage Ahead! – An Episode from the Battles before Luek
Honor of a Fallen War Volunteer
Awards of Jewish Warriors with the Iron Cross
The Blood Sacrifices of the Russian Jews
Heroic Death of a Jewish-Polish Legionary
Honored after Death
Fallen Before the Enemy

July 21, 1916 (Issue 29)

A Reminder for the Heern Prosecutor
War Decorations of Jewish Officers and Soldiers
Colonel v. Racy About the Jewish Soldiers
More Awards
Fallen in the Field of Honor
Warfare Awards
Red Cross Awards
Promotion
Commendatory Recognitions
Heroic Death
List of Officers and Men Buried in Vienna from May 15 to July
Honored after Death
Fallen Before the Enemy
Remedy Against Profiteering Traders in Old Times
Awards of Jewish Warriors with the Iron Cross
A Letter from Dr. Gaster

July 28, 1916 (Issue 30)

The “Plutocracy” as the Cause of the World War (A Revelation of the “Reichspost”) – II
War Decorations of Jewish Officers and Soldiers
High Distinction of a Field Rabbi
Jewish Families in the Field
Lieutenant Emmerich Biro
Awarded the Silver Medal for Bravery
Recent Award
More Awards
Fallen in the Field of Honor
Red Cross Award
The Father of Seven Sons
Imperial Gift
Honored after Death
Well Deserved Recognition
Awards of Jewish Warriors with the Iron Cross
Fallen Jewish Heroes in the Jewish Cemetery of Ungvar
A Jew on the Merchant Submersible “Deutschland”
Gobineau and Chamberlain
Cultural Work in the East
Secretary of State Helfferich in a Jewish Cheder School
A Tour of the Chief Rabbi in Strassburg
Women as Funeral Orators

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Here are four random news items from Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift, one for 1915 and 1916, and two for 1917.  They’re presented such that the English-language translation appears first, followed by a verbatim transcript of the article in German (in blue), then an image of the article as it appeared in the newspaper, concluding with an image of the entire page in which the news item appeared.  I’ve also included three sort-of-randomly-chosen images – two individual pictures and a group photo – of Jewish soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian military, to lend a visual “flavor” to the text.

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Just a photograph: A Jewish soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army:

“Maximilian Rosenbluth, soldier and baker of Dukla.” 

Also from KehilaLinks at JewishGen; like the portrait of Rabbi Bloch, this image is one of Sztetl Dukla’s 2015 ten postcard set by Wojciech Gryszkiewicz and Judith Stola.

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Year 1915

This article, from 1915, follows a theme seen in The Jewish Chronicle during the same time-frame: The plan to create a historical record of Jewish military service.  Perhaps less out of innate pride and the natural need to record the historical experience of the Jews per se, than the anticipated need to refute antisemitic calumny in the future.  This assumes, of course, that antisemitism – Jewhatred – can be refuted by facts, logic, and reason.  

Jewish War Archive
January 29, 1915
Issue Number 5, Page 85 (Issue page 9)

Our readers are urged, in the sense of the publication of the Jewish War Archive, published in the previous issue, to inform the Jewish War Archive without delay of all facts of Jewish legitimacy, which they have so far experienced and will continue to experience on the occasion of the present war.

Do not frustrate fulfilling this important duty.  Remember everyone that the enemies of our people are preparing themselves to turn the clear facts that speak for us to our detriment, and thus to oppose our just claims to perfect national validity in the state and in the peoples!  Shall we equip them without seriously attacking and executing our countermeasures, without establishing for everlasting times and as undeniable what needs to be established in the Jewish interest?

Once upon a time: the honor and the salvation of our community are important!  And no one may fail, who knows something and has something to say.  The notifications are to be sent to the Jewish War Archive, Vienna, II., Zirkusgasse 33.

Judisches Kriegsarchiv

Unsere Leser werden im Sinne des in voriger Nummer veröffentlichen Aufrufs des Jüdischen Kriegsarchivs dringendst gebeten, alle von jüdischen Gestchtspunkte wichtigen Tatsachen, die sie aus Anlass des gegenwärtigen Krieges bisher erfahren haben und weiter erfahren werden, unverzüglich dem Jüdischen Kriegsarchiv mitzuteilen.

Säume niemand, diese wichtige Pflicht zu erfüllen.  Bedenke jeder, dass die Feinde unseres Volkes sich rüsten, um die klaren Tatsachen, die für uns sprechen, zu unseren Ungunsten zu verbrehen, und hiemit unseren gerechten Ansprüchen auf vollkommene volkliche Geltung im Staate und in der Völkerwelt entgegenzutreten!  Sollen wir sie rüsten lassen, ohne unser Gegenrüsten ernstlich in Angriff zu nehmen und durchzuführen, d.h. ohne für immerwährende Zeiten und als unleugbar festzustellen, was im jüdischen Interesse festgestellt warden muss?

Noch einmal: Es gilt die Ehre und das Heil unserer Gemeinschaft!  Und keiner darf fehten, der etwas weiss und zu sagen hat.  Die Mitteilungen sind an das Jüdische Kriegsarchiv, Wien, II., Zirkusgasse 33, einzusenden.

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Year 1916

This article is fascinating, moving, and inspiring.  It’s a transcript of a letter sent to a family somewhere in Austria-Hungary by their son, then somewhere in the vicinity of “Tschita” (Chita), a city in south central Russia east of Lake Baikal.  The writer describes having attended the second Pesach Seder of 1916, in the temple in Chita, a central clue identifying the city being mention of Ingodinskaya Street, on which the schul was (still is) located.  There are absolutely no specifics in the letter about the author.  But, comments in the text strongly suggest that he was a prisoner of war in Russian captivity, the most obvious being that his attendance at the Seder with three companions occurred while under guard of a bayonet-wielding Russian soldier, the latter who it seems remained at a penal house – with a number of other Russian guards? – while the writer and his companions attended the Seder, in the schul.  

As you can see in the images below, the schul is very much still standing on Ingodinskaya Street, albeit it hasn’t been a schul for many decades.

Pesach in Tschita and Pjetchanska
July 7, 1916
Issue Number 27, Page 451 (Issue page 7)

Pjetchanska, Wednesday, June 19.
April (Pesach), 2nd day, evening.

Dear parents and sister!

Despite many difficulties to be overcome, I can confidently apply the words of the Haggadah to yesterday: Chassal Siddur Pesach Kehilchosan…

Yesterday, on the 1st day of Passover, I was in the big temple in Tschita at the valley prayer [?] and had lunch in the Talmud Torah building, later in the afternoon also had tea there and was here again in the evening.

The city is 7 kilometers from here; despite the fact that it had snowed quite heavily just yesterday, during the night and throughout the day the snow and wind made themselves unpleasantly felt, I am extremely satisfied with yesterday.

The impressions I gathered yesterday will probably stay alive for a long time and I won’t soon forget the valley prayer [?] in the Tschita temple.

Three men and the Russian guard, who followed with rifle and fixed bayonet, counting our four, we walked about 1 1/4 hours at a rather brisk pace through the snowy forest, in which for the time being no footsteps were to be seen, to the town.  We soon came to the wheeled path, where it was easier, and it wasn’t long before we saw the building of the big penal house, in front of which many guards were standing.

In the east lane, which leads from the road into the city, in Ingodinskaya, so named after the river Ingoda that flows past here, there is also the large, whitewashed temple with a broad dome that can be seen from afar.  Some stairs lead from the foundation, which has a certain height, to the entrance.  The temple itself is quite high and although it now only has a women’s gallery, it seemed to me higher than the temple in Bucharest, also a bit bigger.  Very simple painting, everything in white (also inside), the light floods through large, wide windows.  Nevertheless, in honor of the day, the temple was electrically lit and all the bulbs were lit.  Quite a few prisoners with posts and a large native audience had appeared, but they did not fill the great temple; in passing I noticed tuxedos and tailcoats, many wide silk thongs, few top hats.

The valley prayer [?] was performed by a religious leader Schlesinger, who, according to today’s newspaper, received the Anne’s Order [Order of Saint Anna] in his capacity as a member of the supervisory board of the Russian State Bank of Tschita.  I also exchanged two words with Rabbi Herr Lewin, maybe he will write to you again…

I came back a little tired, but with a lifted feeling that I had walked through the snow to the “valley”.

Here, too, Passover was celebrated according to the regulations under the supervision of a Hungarian-Jewish doctor, who performed the Musaf prayer in the local prayer room today.

On the first night of the Seder, I sang part of the Seder…

Via Auction.ru, this undated postcard shows the Chita Synagogue. 

As does this image, from Stephanie Comfort’s flickr photostream.  

Taken by E. Kutysheva on March 6, 2018, this image (“Чита Синагога – Русский Здание синагоги в Чите – 2018 03“) gives a contemporary view of the Chita Synagogue.  Though intact, the building no longer serves as a center of Jewish life.  The “broad dome” noted by the unknown prisoner – the central cupola – no longer exists, and, the Mogen David(s) that surmounted each of the smaller cupolas have vanished.    

This Yandex map shows the building’s location on Ingodinskaya Street…

…while at a smaller scale, this Oogle map shows the general geography of Chita.  Note the Ingoda River (as mentioned in our unknown POW’s letter) that winds adjacent to and within the southern part of the city, and, Lake Kenon on the city’s western edge.

The city is directly east of the southern part of Lake Baikal…

…and directly north of Mongolia.  (By over 125 miles.)

Pessach in Tschita und Pjetschanska

Pjetschanska, Mittwoch, 6./19.  April (Pessach), 2. Tag abends.

Vielgeliebte Eltern und Schwester!

Trotzdem viele Schwierigkeiten zu überwinden waren, kann ich getrost die Worte der Hagadah auf den gestrigen Tag anwenden: e chassal siddur pessach Kehilchosan…

Gestern, am 1. Pessachtage, war ich im grossen Tempel in Tschita beim Talgebet und habe im Talmud-thoragebäude zu Mittag gegessen, später nachmittags dort auch Tee genommen und war gegen Abend wieder hier.

Die Stadt ist 7 Kilometer von hier entfernt; trotzdem es gerade gestern ziemlich stark geschneit hatte, in der nacht und den ganzen Tag über Schnee und Wind sich fortgesetzt unangenehm fühlbar machten, bin ich mit dem gestrigen Tage überaus zufrieden.

Die gestern gesammelten Eindrücke werden wohl lange Zeit lebendig bleiben und ich werde das Talgebet im Tschitatempel nicht so bald vergessen.

Drei Mann und den russischen Posten, der mit Gewehr und aufgepflantzem Bajonett folgte, miteingerechnet, unserer vier, gingen wir ungefähr 1 ¼ Stunden in ziemlich lebhaftem Tempo durch den verschneiten Wald, in dem vorerst keine Fussstapfen wahrzunehmen waren, nach der Stadt.  Wir kamen bald auf den fahrbaren Weg, wo es leichter ging, und es dauerte nicht lange, da sahen wir schon das Gebäude des grossen Strafhauses, vor dem viele Wachen standen.

In der estern Gasse, die vom Wege in die Stadt führt, in der Ingodinskaya, nach dem hier vorbeifliessenden Fluss Ingoda so genannt, steht auch der grosse, ganz weiss getünchte Tempel mit einer breiten, weithin sichtbaren Kuppel.  Einige Treppen führen vom Fundament, das eine gewisse Höhe hat, zum Eingang.  Der Tempel selbst ist ziemlich hoch und trotzdem er jetzt nur eine Frauengalerie hat, schien er mir höher als der Tempel in Bukarest, auch etwas grösser.  Sehr einsache Malerie, alles in Weiss gehalten (auch drinnen), das Licht fluter durch grosse, breite Fenster.  Trotzdem war der Tempel zu Ehren des tages elektrisch beleuchtet und alle Birnen waren entzündet.  Recht viele Gefangene mit Posten und zahlreiches einheimisches Publikum waren erschienen, doch füllten sie nicht den grossen Tempel; im Vorbeigehen bemerkte ich Smokings und Fracks, viele breite Seidentalessim, wenige Zylinder.

Das Talgebet verrichtete ein Kultusvorsteher Schlesinger, der laut heutiger Zeitung den Annernorden in seiner Eigenschaft als Aufsichtsrat der russischen Staatsbank von Tschita erhalten hat.  Mit dem Rabbiner Herrn Lewin habe ich auch zwei Worte gewechselt, vielleicht schreibt er Dir noch…

Etwas müde zwar, aber mit gehobenem Gefühl, durch Schnee zum „Tal“ gegangen zu sein, kam ich züruck.

Auch hier wurde unter Oberaussicht eines ungat.-jüdischen Arztes, der heute das Mussaphgebet im hiesigen Betlokal verrichtet hat, vorschriftsmässig Pessach gefiert.

Am ersten Sederabend sang ich einen Teil des Seders vor…

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Just a photograph: Yiddish and Hebrew poet, essayist, and writer Uri Zvi Greenberg (alternative: Uri Tsevi Grinberg; Hebrew: אורי צבי גרינברג), during his service in the Austro-Hungarian army.  (Photo from Zeev Galili’s Blog, Logic in Madness (היגיון בשיגעון), within his April 20, 2009 post Uri Zvi Greenberg – the poet who predicted the Holocaust (אורי צבי גרינברג – המשורר שחזה את השואה).)  

The Great War has long been recognized as having a significant and enduring impact upon twentieth century poetry and literature, a legacy that persists to this day.  A poet whose verse is stunning in its power, visual symbolism, moral clarity, and eventual political and religious urgency, Uri Greenberg arrived in the Yishuv in December of 1923, by which time he’d become a supporter of Zionism as the only path for the survival of the Jews of Europe.  Perhaps his vision about the future of European Jewry is best embodied in his poem “In malkhes fun tseylem” (In the Kingdom of the Cross), “his last great Yiddish work before he emigrated to Palestine and channeled his burgeoning poetic energies into the writing of Hebrew poetry.”

The following excerpt from Glenda Abramson’s article in the Fall, 2010, issue of Shofar, “The Wound of Memory – Uri Zvi Greenberg’s ‘From the Book of the Wars of the Gentiles’”, describes Greenberg’s war experiences in terms of their being an impetus for (but by no means the sole influence upon) the development of his subsequent literary oeuvre:  

In 1914 Greenberg was conscripted into the Imperial army, and after a brutal period of basic training in Hungary he was sent to the even more brutal frontline trenches on the Serbian border.  Although a bookish and sensitive young man apparently unsuited for war service, Greenberg participated in all the battles fought in Serbia until the fall of Belgrade and distinguished himself in the field, although the experience scarred him for the remainder of his life.  In his first book, published in 1915 with the title Ergits oif felder (Somewhere in the fields), he writes, “The world is a great graveyard and you—nothing but shadows, eternally afflicted on the isle of death.”

In the winter of 1914 on the Serbian front Greenberg fought in the Battle of Cer on the River Sava in which about 25,000 Austro-Hungarian officers and men were killed and wounded, and around 4,500 were captured.  The weather was bad, rain and mud adding to the armies’ difficulties.  In this campaign, between Austria, Germany, and Bulgaria on the one side and Serbia on the other, the Austrians crossed the river under fire from the Serbs, who strongly and effectively resisted, in order to reach Belgrade.  The number of casualties was high during the river crossing, and when the forces reached the opposite bank they launched an attack on the enemy trenches, which were encircled with barbed wire.  Greenberg was one of the few survivors of those who were ordered to mount the wire to reach the Serbian trenches.  The Imperial army lost the battle.  Greenberg saw his dead comrades hanging upside down on the wire, a sight that left a profound and lasting impression on him.

Or, as described at YIVO: “Summarily drafted in 1915, Grinberg experienced the horrors of warfare in which many of his fellow soldiers died or were severely wounded.  The fording of the Save River, in particular, etched itself in his memory, and was to reappear obsessively in poems he would write throughout his life.  Exposed to enemy fire while crossing the river, Grinberg suddenly found himself alone and disoriented in a Serbian post on the other side of the river.  All his fellow attackers were hanging lifeless, heads down and boots pointing up, on the electrified wire, while all the defenders were probably killed by a hand grenade.  Then the moon shone from the clearing autumnal sky, casting its silvery light on the well-worn metal cleats of the upturned boots of the soldiers.  The poet was mesmerized by the eerie effulgence, which he was never to forget.  The image would later inspire the title of his first Hebrew book: Emah gedolah ve-yareaḥ (Great Terror and Moon; 1925).  What he saw then – a heap of cadavers illuminated by moonlight – amounted to a horrendous negative epiphany: an indifferent God incorporated in dead and mutilated human flesh.  This proved to be one of the sources of Grinberg’s modernistic vision.  Still, when Bikeles-Shpitser published Grinberg’s first poetry collection, Ergets oyf felder (Somewhere in the Fields; 1915) he included in it, without violating the unified tonality of the slight booklet, both the war poems the poet had penned when still safe in his parents’ home and those he sent from the battlefield.”

You can gain more insight into the life and poetry of Uri Tzvi Greenberg at the blog of Israel Medad – long-time resident of Shiloh, Samaria, Israel – MyRightWord.  

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Year 1917 – I

Published in the newspaper’s correspondence section, this letter, by Corporal Alfred Ellinger, and, Einjahr Freiwilliger (One-Year Volunteer) Konrad Heim on behalf of their comrades, focuses on the social, communal, intellectual, and spiritual challenges facing Jewish soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian military, the correspondents implying that in such matters, Jewish soldiers have essentially been left to themselves.  This is juxtaposed against support received Gentile soldiers, and, Jewish soldiers in the German military, the latter whose needs are met by Jewish organizations in that country.  The letter concludes by imploring the leaders of the Jewish community in Vienna, and, Jewish organizations in that city and beyond, to assist their sons at the Front.  

Open letter to the leaders of the Austrian Jewry in Vienna.
November 9, 1917
Issue Number 43, Page 708 (Issue page 8)

From the front we address these lines publicly to the leaders of Judaism in Austria.  The largest Jewish community in Austria is in Vienna; the heads and leaders of this community are therefore also the leaders of all Austrian Jewry and have repeatedly publicly acknowledged themselves as such.  The venerable President of Vienna’s Israelite religious community is also President of the Israelite Alliance and the Austrian Association of Communities.  We Jewish soldiers at the front must turn to him and his colleagues with our specifically Jewish needs.

The Jewish soldiers at the front have other interests that stem from Judaism in addition to those shared with all their comrades.  Judaism means to us one of the few spiritual values through which one feels a constant connection to one’s homeland; it is a refuge for us in the hours of despair and mental depression.  The war has deepened our interest in everything Jewish, and we want to know how things are with Judaism at home.  The lively interest of the Jewish soldiers at the front for Jewish things found only insufficient satisfaction.  Why don’t you take care of such matters?  The Lord’s administration does not have the task and duty of satisfying all such needs.  The Christian soldier is well supplied with religious and national literature through the efforts and achievements of non-governmental organizations.  Why does Judaism not think of bestowing the same kindness and care on its sons in the field?  A German prayer book for the field, for example, which, if written with understanding, satisfies the sensibilities of the educated, would be an urgent need and should be sent to every soldier from home free of charge.

Magazines are too rare an article at the front, and Jewish works and books are almost impossible to find.  And yet (with all recognition of the difficulty of realizing it) every man should have at least one Jewish newspaper or magazine at his disposal.  A concise field edition of the history of the Jewish people up to the present would be most welcome.

Our comrades of Jewish faith in the German army are much better cared for and cared for by Jewish organizations in Germany.  They receive a lot of reading material with Jewish content and their own commemorative publications of an instructive nature for every Jewish holiday.

We are at the front and initially fighting for Kaiser and fatherland.  But we also fight for the honor of Judaism at the same time.  The Jewish leaders in Vienna should seriously consider this.  As we faithfully do our duty in need and death at the front, we also fight for the honor of the Jewish name.  Does Austrian Jewry feel no obligations towards their sons at the front?  We hereby want the leaders of Viennese Jewry to accept these serious duties, the presidents and heads of both the community and the Alliance, as well as other organizations, of these serious duties.  Should it then be said that Jews only fulfill those duties which are enforced by force, but neglect moral duties?

No!  We hope that our public appeal will not go unheeded.

Alfred Ellinger, Corporal
Konrad Heim, One-Year Volunteer
on behalf of 40 Non-Commissioned Officers and
One-Year Volunteers

Offenes Schreiben an die Führer der österreichischen Judenschaft in Wien.

Von der Front aus Wenden wir uns mit diesen Zeilen öffentlich an die Führer des Judentums in Oesterreich.  Die grösste jüdische Gemeinde Oeterreichs ist in Wien; die Vorsteher und Leiter dieser Gemeinde sind darum auch die Führer des österreichischen Gesamtjudemtums und haben sich wiederholt öffentlich als solche bekannt.  Der ehrwürdige Präsident der Wiener israelitischen Kultusgemeinde ist auch Präsident der Israelitischen Allianz und des Oesterreichischen Gemeindebundes.  Un ihn und an seine Kollegen müssen wir jüdischen Soldaten an der Front uns mit den spezifisch jüdischen Bedürfnissen, wenden.

Die jüdischen Soldaten an der Front haben neben den mit allen Kameraden geteilten noch andere, aus dem Judentum entspringende Interessen.  Das Judentum bedeutet uns eines der wenigen geistigen Werte, durch die man sich fortwährend mit der Heimat verbunden fühlt; es ist uns eine Zuflucht in Studen der Verweiflung und seelischer Depression.  Der Krieg hat unser Interesse für alles Jüdische vertieft, und wir wollen wissen, wie es mit dem Judentum in der Heimat bestellt ist.  Das lebhafte Interesse der jüdischen Frontsoldaten für jüdische Dinge findet aber nur ungenügende Befriedigung.  Warum sorgt man nicth für solche Belange?  Die Herresverwaltung hat nicht die Aufgabe und die Pflicht, alle solche Bedürfnisse zu befriedigen.  Der christliche Soldat wird mit religiöser und nationaler Literatur reichlich versehen, und zwar durch Bemühungen und Leistungen nichtstaaatlicher Organisationen.  Warum denkt das Judentum nicth daran, seinen Söhnen im Felde die gleiche Wohltat und Sorgfalt zuzuwenden?  Ein deutches Gebetbuch fürs Feld zum Beispiel, das, verständnisvoll abgefasst, das Empfinden des Gebildeten befriedigt, wäre ein dringendes Bedürfnis und sollte jedem Soldaten von der Heimet aus unentgeltlich geliefert werden.

Zeitschriften sind ein zu seltener Artikel an der Front, jüdische Werke und Bücher so gut wie gar nicht zu finden.  Und doch müsste (bel aller Anerkennung der Schwierigkeit der Verwirklichung) jedem Mann mindestens eine jüdsiche Zeitung oder Zeitschrift zur Verfügung stehen.  Eine kurzgesasste Feldausgabe der Geschichte des jüdischen Volkes bis zur Gegenwart wäre hochwillkommen.

Unsere Kameraden jüdischen Glabens in der deutschen Armee werden von jüdischen Organisationen in Deutschland ungleich besser bedacht und versorgt.  Diese erhalten viel Lektüre jüdischen Inhaltes und eigene Festschriftchen lehrreicher Natur zu jedem jüdischen Feiertage.

Wir stehen an der Front und kämpfen zunächst allerdings für Kaiser und Vaterland.  Allein wir kämpfen auch gleichzeitig für die Ehre des Judentums.  Das sollten die jüdischen Führer in Wien doch ernstlich bedenken.  Indem wir treu in Not und Tod an der Front unsere Pflicht ersüllen, kämpfen wir auch für die Ehre des jüdischen Namens.  Empfindet das österreichische Judentum gegenüber seinen Söhnen an der Front gas keins Pflichten?  An diese ernsten Pflichten wollen wir hiemit öffentlich die Führer des Wiener Judentums, die Herren Präsidenten und Vorsteher, sowohl der Gemeinde als auch der Allianz, sowie anderer Organisationen ernstlich gemahnt haben.  Sollte es denn heissen, dass Juden nur soche Pflichten erfüllen, die durch Gewalt erzwungen werden, die moralischen Pflichten aber vernachlässigen?

Neine!  Wir hoffen, dass dieser unser öffentlicher Appell nicht ungehört verhallen wird.

Alfred Ellinger, Korporal
Konrad Heim, Einj.-Freiw.
im Namen von 40 Unteroffizieren und
Einjährig-Freiwilligen

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Just a photograph: “Postcard featuring Jewish soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian army, ca. 1914-1918”.  From the Blavatnik Archive, the postcard is described as being 9 by 14 inches, but (!) I think that’s an error, the correct unit probably being centimeters.  The reverse side of the postcard is absent of any information.

Of those men who survived the war, what became of them by 1927?

And 1937?

Were any still alive in 1947?  

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Year 1917 – II

Paralleling The Jewish Chronicle, and, l’Univers Israélite, throughout the war, Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift regularly published lists of the names of Jewish servicemen who had received military awards, such compilations including the soldier’s rank, civilian occupation, town or city of residence, and, the name or title of the award he’d received.  As a sad and inevitable parallel to these award lists, the newspaper published lists of casualties, albeit absent of the specific date and location when he was killed, missing or wounded.  In either case, I don’t know the source of the information utilized by the Wochenschrift in this endeavor: Perhaps the names were collected by a central organization of the Austrian Jewish community.

An example follow below: A list of fifty Jewish officers and soldiers in the 307th Honved Infantry Regiment who received military awards.

Fifty Jewish Heroes of the No. 307 Honved Infantry Regiment.
January 26, 1917
Issue Number 4, Pages 53-55 (Issue pages 5-7)

In the Honved Infantry Regiment No. _____, which had been in existence since June 1915 and was first under the command of Colonel Julius Parsche, then under that of Lieutenant Colonel Paul Bozo, and which, according to the official Höser reports, was particularly distinguished in the Toporoutz battles, such as “Egyenlöseg” reports that the named officers and members of the squad received the highest awards, partly for brave and self-sacrificing behavior in front of the enemy, partly for excellent and particularly dutiful service:

Fünfzig jüdische helden des Honvedinfanterie-regiments Nr. 307.

Bei dem seit Juni 1915 bestehenden und zuerst unter dem Kommando des Obersten Julius Parsche, dann unter demjenigen des Oberstleutnants Paul Bozo kämpfenden und in den Toporoutzer Kämpfen auch laut den amtlichen Höser-Berichten sich besonders ausgezeichneten Honved-Infanterieregiment Nr. _____ haben, wie „Egyenlöseg“ berichtet, die nachkenannten Offiziere und dem Mannschaftspande angehörnden Personen teils für tapferes und aufopferundsvolles Verhalten vor dem Feinde, teils für vorzügliche und besonders pflichttreue Dienste Allerhöchste Auszeichnungen erhalten:

Names as listed in article…

Lebovics, Heinrich, Oberleutnant d.R. (1)
Erdös, Wilhelm, Chefstellvertreter (2)
Wurm, Nikolaus, Reserve Leutnant (3)
Müller, Arpad, Landsturm-Oberleutnant (4)
Merö, Bernhard, Mitchef, Oberleutnant d.R. (5)
Steiner, Edgar, Oberleutnant d.R. (6)
Strancz, Isidor, Reserveleutnant (7)
König, Armin (8)
Rosza, Rudolf, Einjährig-Freiwilliger (9)
Halasz, Andor, Dr., Regimentarzt (10)
Töröf, Heinrich, Dr., Assistenzarzt (11)
Fleischl, Josef, Reserveleutnant (12)
Kuttner, M.L., Landsturm-Fähnrich (13)
Levac, Karl, Landsturm-Veterinärarzt (14)
Keppich, Alfred, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (15)
Fischer, Arthur (16)
Deak, Ludwig (17)
Reich, Armin, Landsturm-Fähnrich (18)
Witrael, Wilhelm, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (19)
Wolf, Desider, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (20)
Pick, Emerich, Sanitätsfähnrich d.R. (21)
Marton, Alexander, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (22)
Kalman, Arthur, Feldwebel (23)
Fleischmann, Ignatz, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (24)
Nathan, Moritz, Rechnungsunteroffizier 2. Klasse (25)
Rosenzweig, Julius, Feldwebel (26)
Elkan, Paul, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (27)
Fülöp, Aler. (28)
Holczmann, Max, Landsturm-Oberleutnant (29)
Fessler, Adolf (30)
Farago, Nikolaus, Fähnrich (31)
Rona, Bela, Fähnrich (32)
Löwy, Friedrich, Feldwebel (33)
Neumann, Bernhard, Fähnrich (34)
Steiner, Josef, Leutnant (35)
Stern, Adolf, Zugsführer (36)
Hecht, Josef (37)
Horn, Adolf (38)
Laszlo, Adolf, Reserveleutnant (39)
Ringwald, Arthur, Zugsführer (40)
Stern, Julous, Landsturm Fähnrich (41)
Szel, Ladislaus, Fähnrich (42)
Spitzer, Moriz, Zugsführer (43)
Schwarz, Franz, Feldwebel (44)
Stein, Heinrich, Oberrechnungsführer 1. Klasse (45)
Aigner, Ludwig, Fähnrich (46)
Schneider, Isidor, Zugsführer (47)
Raab, Wilhelm (48)
Leipnik, Alexander, Einj.-Freiw.-Fähnrich (49)
Weiner, Jakob (50)

Listed alphabetically…

Aigner, Ludwig, Fähnrich (46)
Deak, Ludwig (17)
Elkan, Paul, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (27)
Erdös, Wilhelm, Chefstellvertreter (2)
Farago, Nikolaus, Fähnrich (31)
Fessler, Adolf (30)
Fischer, Arthur (16)
Fleischl, Josef, Reserveleutnant (12)
Fleischmann, Ignatz, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (24)
Fülöp, Aler. (28)
Halasz, Andor, Dr., Regimentarzt (10)
Hecht, Josef (37)
Holczmann, Max, Landsturm-Oberleutnant (29)
Horn, Adolf (38)
Kalman, Arthur, Feldwebel (23)
Keppich, Alfred, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (15)
König, Armin (8)
Kuttner, M.L., Landsturm-Fähnrich (13)
Laszlo, Adolf, Reserveleutnant (39)
Lebovics, Heinrich, Oberleutnant d.R. (1)
Leipnik, Alexander, Einj.-Freiw.-Fähnrich (49)
Levac, Karl, Landsturm-Veterinärarzt (14)
Löwy, Friedrich, Feldwebel (33)
Marton, Alexander, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (22)
Merö, Bernhard, Mitchef, Oberleutnant d.R. (5)
Müller, Arpad, Landsturm-Oberleutnant (4)
Nathan, Moritz, Rechnungsunteroffizier 2. Klasse (25)
Neumann, Bernhard, Fähnrich (34)
Pick, Emerich, Sanitätsfähnrich d.R. (21)
Raab, Wilhelm (48)
Reich, Armin, Landsturm-Fähnrich (18)
Ringwald, Arthur, Zugsführer (40)
Rona, Bela, Fähnrich (32)
Rosenzweig, Julius, Feldwebel (26)
Rosza, Rudolf, Einjährig-Freiwilliger (9)
Schneider, Isidor, Zugsführer (47)
Schwarz, Franz, Feldwebel (44)
Spitzer, Moriz, Zugsführer (43)
Stein, Heinrich, Oberrechnungsführer 1. Klasse (45)
Steiner, Edgar, Obertleutnant d.R. (6)
Steiner, Josef, Leutnant (35)
Stern, Adolf, Zugsführer (36)
Stern, Julous, Landsturm Fähnrich (41)
Strancz, Isidor, Reserveleutnant (7)
Szel, Ladislaus, Fähnrich (42)
Töröf, Heinrich, Dr., Assistenzarzt (11)
Weiner, Jakob (50)
Witrael, Wilhelm, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (19)
Wolf, Desider, Rechnungsunteroffizier 1. Klasse (20)
Wurm, Nikolaus, Reserve Leutnant (3)

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More to follow from Dr. Bloch’s Oesterreichische Wochenschrift

… Jewish in the Allied Armed Forces

… Jewish Aviators in the K.u.K. Luftfahrtruppen (Kaiserliche und Königliche Luftfahrtruppen)

… Jewish Life Beyond the Great War

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And even more…

Austria-Hungary, at…

Wikipedia

Britannica

Habsburg monarchy

fine-de-siècle, at…

Wikipedia

Austro-Hungarian Army, at…

Wikipedia

Austrian Philately (John Dixon-Nuttall)

… The World of the Habsburgs (“Jewish soldiers in the Austro-Hungarian army”)

Jewish Artifact Education (Rabbi Binyamin Yablok’s Virtual Jewish Museum)

Israeli Ministry of Defense (Jewish Combatant Collection)

Joseph Samuel Bloch, at…

Wikipedia

Geni.com

Encyclopedia.com

Britannica.com

Jewish Encyclopedia (Eisenberg, Das Geistige Wien, s.v.; derived from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.)

Center for Jewish History

National Library of Israel

YIVO

Uri Tzvi Greenberg…

Abramson, Glenda, “The Wound of Memory – Uri Zvi Greenberg’s ‘From the Book of the Wars of the Gentiles’”, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, V 29, N 1, Fall, 2010, pp. 1-21

Galili, Zeev, Uri Zvi Greenberg – The Poet who Predicted the Holocaust (אורי צבי גרינברג – המשורר שחזה את השואה), at “Logic in Madness” (Zeev Galili’s blog (היגיון בשיגעון -הטור המקוון של זאב גלילי))

(From Zeev Galili’s blog: “Reporter at “Yediot Ahronoth” – chief reporter at the news desk, chief of reporters, editorial center and acting editor-in-chief.  A columnist in the “Mekor Rishon” newspaper.  Teaches in academia (communication, philosophy), effective writing instructor in dozens of businesses, government offices and public institutions, author of children’s books, shadow writer – all former.”)

Weingrad, Michael, “An Unknown Yiddish Masterpiece That Anticipated the Holocaust – Written in 1923, ‘In the Crucifix Kingdom’ depicts Europe as a Jewish wasteland.  Why has no one read it?”, at Mosaic.com,
April 15, 2015

… at YIVO Encyclopedia

Chita, Russia, at…

Wikipedia (Chita, Zabaykalsky Krai)

ru.Wikipedia

Britannica.com

Chita Oblast, at…

Wikipedia

Jews of Chita, at…

JewishGen (email by Naomi Fatouros – September 21, 1998)

Jewish Telegraphic Agency (“Jewish Population of Chita Drops 75 Percent in Decade” – July 10, 1931)

Otherwise, …

Eldad, Israel, The Jewish Revolution – Jewish Statehood, Shengold Publishers, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1971

Gilbert, Martin, Atlas of Jewish History, Dorset Press, 1984

Roth, Joseph, Flight Without End, J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd., London, England, 1984

Vital, David, The Origins of Zionism, Oxford University Press, Oxford, England, 1980

Wistrich, Robert, Zionism and Its Religious Critics in fine-de-siècle Vienna, Jewish History, V 10, N 1, Spring, 1986, pp. 93-111

Soldiers from New York: Jewish Soldiers in The New York Times, in World War Two: February 25, 1945 (On the ground…)

As part of my ongoing series of posts about the military service of Jewish soldiers in the Second World War – based on news reports in The New York Times – this post covers February 25, 1945, its basis being articles about Second Lieutenant Alfred Kupferschmidt and Private First Class Herbert Joel Rosencrans, who were both killed in action on that date.

Given the relatively large number of military casualties that occurred on this date for whom I have information, historical accounts for this late-February-day will be presented as three posts: One for ground forces, one for the United States Marine Corps and Navy, and the last for the United States Army Air Force, the latter including information about two men who became prisoners of war.

And so, to begin ground forces: Here are records for Jewish military casualties in the United States Army, and a relative few soldiers from the armed forces of Canada, England, Poland (specifically, the Polish Army East) and the Soviet Union.

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Second Lieutenant Alfred Kupferschmidt 

An appointment in America.
An appointment in Germany.
An appointment in Samarra?

_____ _____

If, as John Donne wrote…

“No man is an island,
Entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main,”

…so is every event:

Not an island in time,
Unto itself;
But a child of the past;
And father to a future.

_____ _____

Such was the life of United States Army Second Lieutenant Alfred Kupferschmidt (0-552513), whose death in combat was reported in The New York Times on May 6, 1945.  An exploration of his past reached into an event eleven years before his birth, which has resonance even today.

Born in Berlin on September 29, 1922, he was the son of Clara Kupferschmidt (12/27/01-10/24/72), whose wartime address was 991 President Street in Brooklyn.  Sadly, his father’s name has disappeared into the mists of the past.  Having resided for a time in Philadelphia, Alfred Kupferschmidt’s secondary wartime “contact” was Harry M. Bass, who lived a 2745 North Front Street in that city. 

Via Apartments.com, here’s a contemporary image of 991 President Street.

Assigned to the 116th Reconnaissance Squadron of the 101st Cavalry Group, he served in the Squadron’s IPW (Interrogation Prisoners of War) Team due to his fluency in German.  It was in this capacity that he was killed in action on February 25, 1945.  Though notice of his death appeared in three publications during that year – Aufbau, on March 30; The Jewish Exponent, on June 29; The New York Times, in a full obituary on May 6 – like many WW II American Jewish servicemen chronicled in this series of posts, his name never appeared in the 1947 compilation American Jews in World War Two

His sole military award was the Purple Heart.

Here’s the account from the Times:

BERLIN-BORN SOLDIER CASUALTY IN GERMANY

Second Lieut. Alfred Kupferschmidt, 22-year-old paratrooper, who lived at 991 President Street, Brooklyn, before entering the Army in February, 1943, was killed in action in Germany Feb. 25.  His mother, Clara, is a private nurse.

A native of Berlin and an only son, he was sent to this country six years ago, as an emigrant, and his mother followed a year later.  Being a Pole, he had been taken from his home by the Gestapo one morning in 1938 and sent to Poland, but his American visa had been issued and his mother got him back and sent him to America with the aid of our consul.  He went to school in Philadelphia, winning scholastic and sports honors, and after entering the Army studied languages in Boston University.  He was promoted from private to second lieutenant last year.

Mrs. Kupferschmidt, whose husband died eighteen years ago, said her son had tried to enlist and was happy when he was drafted because, he said, “I remember the Gestapo.”

And, the obituary as published in the Times.

Aufbau‘s article inevitably parallels that of the Times, but presents details not revealed in the “paper of record”:

2nd Lt. Alfred Kupferschmidt died in Germany on February 25 at the age of 23.  In 1938, when he was 16 years old, the Nazis deported him from his native Berlin to Poland because he was the son of Polish citizens.  At the intervention of his mother, who in the meantime had received the immigration visas for America for herself and for him, he was brought back to Berlin after seven weeks.  Since the outbreak of war, Lt. Kupferschmidt had no more ardent desire than to be accepted into the army and settle accounts with the Nazis.  Before joining the army, he studied aerotechnical engineering.  A cousin of his, also named Alfred Kupferschmidt, serves in the R.A.F.

2nd Lt. Alfred Kupferschmidt ist am 25. Februar im Alter von 23 Jahren in Deutschland gefallen.  1938, als er 16 Jahre alt war, haben ihn die Nazis aus seiner Geburtsstadt Berlin nach Polen abgeschoben, weil er der Sohn polnischer Staatsbürger war.  Auf Intervention seiner Mutter, die inzwischen für sich und für ihn die Einwanderungsvisen nach Amerika erhalten hatte, wurde er jedoch nach Sieben Wochen wieder nach Berlin gebracht.  Lt. Kupferschmidt hatte seit Ausbruch des Krieges keinen glühenderen Wunsch, als in die Armee aufgenommen zu warden und mit den Nazis abzurechnen.  Vor seinem Eintritt in die Armee hare er “aerotechnical engineer” studiert.  Ein Vetter vo ihm, der ebenfalls Alfred Kupferschmidt heist, dient in der R.A.F.

The actual, as it appeared in Aufbau.

Though inevitably – given their wartime publication – these brief articles reveal little to nothing about the events of February 25, Lt. Kupferschmidt’s military service is described and placed in a clearer context in Terry Trautman’s Clippings From A Cluttered Mind, and, Melaney Welch Moisan’s Tracking The 101st Cavalry, passages from which respectively follow:

From Clippings From A Cluttered Mind…

By this time [late 1944 to early 1945], the allied juggernaut was rolling across Europe after the D-Day invasion and German Prisoners of War (Prisoner of War) were being captured in increasing quantities.  What the Allied Command soon learned was that the German-born soldiers were not only fluent in the German language, they also knew the culture and psyche of Germans better than anyone else, a deep intimate knowledge born from the small details of their lives growing up in Germany.  As children they had gone to school and played sports with boys who were now soldiers in the German army.  As interrogators of Prisoner of War they would be familiar with the workings of German minds, the habits of German life and the influences of Nazi doctrine upon German soldiers and civilians alike.  They also knew regional dialects and accents, something that could not be taught to American soldiers who knew only school book German.  The German-born soldiers used this innate knowledge to great advantage.

Their infiltration among American soldiers and officers in command was not without some difficulty.  Surprised by the interrogators’ heavy accents and fearful of German spies in their midst, regional officers often debated among themselves whether to disarm them and assign them to permanent KP duty.  It usually took the Officer in Charge of the IPW team … to assure the antsy regional officers that these guys were on our side.  Before long it became apparent the German-born soldiers were performing admirably and once word got around, there were a lot of demands and requests for “Ritchie Boys.”

The IPW teams were initially ensconced behind the front lines and Prisoner of Wars were transported to them for interrogation.  The information the interrogators sought included enemy locations, manpower size, troop movements, etc.  They used maps and aerial photos in their interrogations.  While this worked fine for a while, it became apparent that the intel the IPW teams was getting was too slow to be of immediate value.  A recommendation from Major Leo J. Nawn changed that.  He recommended to “…attach one member of the IPW team to each intelligence section (at the front) for prompt interrogation on matters pertaining to the unit’s immediate situation.”  This meant that while the information was timely and extremely valuable, it also put the IPW soldiers in harm’s way.  In one report, Uncle Fred (now Capt. Hellman) wrote that as their team advanced on the front, “…we kept moving ever onward, our travels spiced with the usual ingredients of war – bombing, strafing, sniping, artillery.”  In fact, Uncle Fred reported that his second in command, Lt. Alfred Kupferschmidt “was killed in action 25 February 1945 in the vicinity of Lauterbach, Germany.  Lt. Karl H. Schafer replaced Lt. Kupferschmidt on 4 March 1945.”  Both of these soldiers were natives of Germany.

In Tracking The 101st Cavalry…

On the afternoon of February 25, 2nd Lt. Charles Pierce, Troop A, 116th Squadron, and 2nd Lt. Alfred Kupferschmidt, of the IPW team, were at Troop A’s outpost near Werbeln with a prisoner of war who had been captured earlier that day.  The prisoner pointed out specific installations in Schaffhausen, and then he told Pierce and Kupferschmidt that he and the second prisoner had thrown away their weapons about fifty yards inside the wood, near the spot where they exited to surrender.  Pierce and Kupferschmidt asked the prisoner to show them the location, and, at about 5:30 that evening, the group headed down the hill.  At the bottom, they met up with other members of the 116th: 1st Lt. Robert Schafer, S/Sgt. Walter Mennel, and Pvt. Earl Geiger, all of Troop C; and S/Sgt. John Schnalzer, Troop A.  At the base of the hill, the men, with the prisoner in the lead, walked cautiously in the dark of early evening along the edge of a marked mine field that followed the line of the woods.  They moved slowly, as one false step would mean disaster.  Instead, disaster fell out of the sky when, without warning, a concentration of mortar fire fell all around them.

The blast killed 2nd Lt. Pierce instantly, and S/Sgt. Schnalzer jumped or was thrown into a nearby ditch.  Lt. Schafer jumped into the same ditch, falling on top of Schnalzer.  No sooner had they landed than a second mortar shell flew through the air and landed almost directly on top of them, killing Schafer instantly and hurling his body from the ditch to the edge of the mine field.

Wounded in the hands and legs, Sgt. Schnalzer managed to jump up and run back the way they had come to take cover in a small brick building.  While running, he noticed the panicked prisoner run directly into the mine field.  There was nothing Schnalzer could do but watch as the fleeing prisoner tripped a land mine and flew into the air.  Also killed were 2nd Lt. Kupferschmidt, who died within an hour of being wounded, and S/Sgt Mennel, who died later the day.  Pvt. Geiger was seriously wounded. (pp. 29-30)

The full names of the soldiers who were killed in this incident were:

2 Lt. Charles New Pierce (born in 1923)
1 Lt. Robert Knox Schafer (born in 1922) (See also Cenotaph Memorial)

Though PFC Earl Geiger (10/18/22-12/16/67) survived the mortar attack, it sadly seems – based on information at FindAGrave – that he was permanently disabled, for he passed away not long after his 45th birthday.

Lt. Karl H. Schafer, mentioned in Clippings From A Cluttered Mind as Lt. Kupferschmidt’s replacement, arrived with his family in the United States in 1929 at the age of seven.  He survived the war, and passed away in Illinois in 2013 at the age of 91.

But, there’s more, and this is where the past intersects the future, in a way best suited to fiction.

And so…

…while searching for information about Alfred Kupferschmidt via FultonHistoryI discovered this article, published in The Brooklyn Eagle on October 18, 1942.

Somber Rites Recall Triangle Fire Tragedy

A number of Brooklyn residents will participate late today at a somber ceremony reviving memories of an old tragedy.  In Mount Richmond Cemetery, Staten Island, a headstone will be unveiled over the grave of a victim of the historic Triangle fire.

Reposing in the hitherto unmarked grave is the body of Tillie Kupferschmidt, who was 16 when in March of 1911 she and 147 other employees perished in the burning Triangle Waist Company factory, 23 Washington Place, Manhattan.  An elder sister, Clara, a European refugee, is now living at 10 Saratoga Ave.

Friendless Immigrant

Tillie was a friendless immigrant, according to the story told by Mrs. Solomon Altenhaus of 686 E. 7th St.  She had come to this country from a little town in Poland and, like so many other immigrants, was drawn into the then booming sweatshop needlework industry.  After the fire her charred body, unclaimed by relatives or friends, was buried in Agudath Achim Chesed Shel Emeth, the Jewish Potter’s Field.

Several months ago, said Mrs. Altenhaus, Clara met Mr. Altenhaus, whom she had known as a leading citizen of their native town in Poland.  Mr. Altenhaus provided her with details of the Triangle tragedy and Clara Kupferschmidt was shocked to learn that no marker had been placed on her sister’s grave.

Mrs. Altenhaus spoke to Mrs. Samuel Kramer of 1025 St. John’s Place, president of the Peczenyszyner Ladies Auxiliary, an organization named after the Polish town from which its member emigrated.

Through the efforts of the two, funds were raised for the purchase of the stone which will be unveiled today.  Members of a number of organizations of former Peczenyszyner residents will be present.

The article itself…

Old Newspapers

… and, as it appeared in the newspaper.  Specifically, page A3, lower left.

Old Newspapers

So, Clara Kupferschmidt had a sister.

So, Alfred Kupferschmidt had an aunt who, having been born in 1895, he would never know, though I assume he knew “of”.

This image of Tillie Kupferschmidt, at her FindAGrave biographical profile, is via Robert DiTolla, who from 2013 through 2014 contributed photographs and / or biographical information of 21 Triangle fire victims to FindAGrave.  Three of these images, comprising those of Tillie Kupferschmidt, Julia “Yutta/Ita” Oberstein, and Bessie Viviano, appear to have been among a compilation of images published in a newspaper, but the title and date of that periodical are unknown.  

A list of Triangle Fire victims at History on the Net lists information for Tillie as follows: “KUPFERSMITH, Tillie, 16, multiple injuries and burns.  750 E. Second Street.  Identified by her uncle, Morris Schwartz.  Name also given as Cupersmith/Kupersmith.  Multiple newspapers, March 27.”

Information at the list of the 146 victims of the Triangle Fire, via Cornell University, differs from that at HistoryNet.  Though Tillie’s age is identical, her full name is given as “Tillie Kupferschmidt”; her place of birth as Austria; her residence as 750 2nd Avenue in Manhattan.  Her place of burial is listed as “Mount Richmond Cemetery”.

Though there doesn’t appear to be any “750 2nd Avenue” in Manhattan, within that borough there is a 750 East Second Street – where that street intersects with Essex Street – as indicated on the list of names at the HistoryNet article.  This location is shown in the Oogle map below…

…while this map shows that address in a larger perspective.

Oddly, her death certificate lists her parents as “Golideo Borranai and Marris Schwartz”, which is impossible to square with the surname “Kupferschmidt”.  

Curiously, neither source indicates that Tillie was married, which is evident via information at Ancestry.com.  There, her husband is listed as Israel Teiksler.  They were married on November 6, 1910, a mere month-and-a-half before the fire at 23-29 Washington Place in Manhattan.

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Clara spent the remainder of her life as a private nurse, and passed away in 1972.  She’s buried at Floral Park Cemetery, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.  

And in the story of the Kupferschmidt family, I’m reminded of the ancient literary epigraph – known from both Judaism and Islam – as the “Appointment in Samarra”, which is the title and underlying theme – a sense of inevitability – of John O’Hara’s 1934 novel by that name.

As presented at the SubSubLibrarian, the tale goes as follows:

The Gemara relates with regard to these two Cushites who would stand before Solomon:
“Elihoreph and Ahijah, the sons of Shisha” (I Kings 4:3), and they were scribes of Solomon.
One day Solomon saw that the Angel of Death was sad.
He said to him: Why are you sad?
He said to him: They are asking me to take the lives of these two Cushites who are sitting here.
Solomon handed them to the demons in his service,
and sent them to the district of Luz, where the Angel of Death has no dominion.
When they arrived at the district of Luz, they died.

The following day, Solomon saw that the Angel of Death was happy.
He said to him: Why are you happy?
He replied: In the place that they asked me to take them, there you sent them.
The Angel of Death was instructed to take their lives in the district of Luz.
Since they resided in Solomon’s palace and never went to Luz, he was unable to complete his mission.
That saddened him.
Ultimately, Solomon dispatched them to Luz, enabling the angel to accomplish his mission.
That pleased him.
Immediately, Solomon began to speak and said:
The feet of a person are responsible for him; to the place where he is in demand, there they lead him.

The ultimate written source of the story is almost certainly the Babylonian Talmud, specifically, Sukkah 53a5-6, which you can read at Sefaria.org.

But, where is the justice – where is the fairness – in the tale?
Is there justice in the tale?
Is, there justice?

But, where is free will in the tale?
Is there free will in the tale?
Is, there free will?

_____ _____

This composite image shows the matzevot of Tillie, Clara, and Alfred.  (Images by LeonC, Andy, and F Priam, respectively.)  Information about Tillie Kupferschmidt also appears at the Wikipedia entry for the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.

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As described in the Times’ account of October 20, 1945 (probably based on the original award citation), PFC Herbert Joel Rosencrans (16105945) was awarded the Silver Star (and inevitably, the Purple Heart) for his actions as an infantry squad leader.  Here’s the article:

Pfc. Herbert J. Rosencrans, Company C, 415th Infantry, 104th Division, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvin J. Rosencrans of Woodmere, L.I., who died of wounds last Feb. 25 in Arnoldsweiler, Germany, has received posthumously the Silver Star Medal, it was announced yesterday.

On Feb. 25 Private Rosencrans, leading his squad forward in a fight for an enemy town, met a large force of enemy troops preparing to launch a counter-attack the citation said.  Exposing himself to enemy artillery fire to determine the location of the enemy, he the organized a strong defense.  When the enemy attacked, he led his men in a furious fight, inflicting heavy losses on the enemy.  He was fatally wounded.

Private Rosencrans was born in this city Oct. 13, 1923, was graduated with honors from Woodmere Academy in 1941 and completed two years work at the University of Michigan.  He entered the Army in March, 1943, and went overseas in August, 1944.  Besides his parents, he leaves a brother, Robert M. Rosencrans of the Army Air Forces.

The full article…

Private Rosencrans’ mother was Eva (Green) Rosencrans.  His family resided at 7 Willow Road in Woodmere.  His name appeared in a casualty list published in the Long Island Star Journal on March 12, 1945, a similar list in the Nassau Daily Review Star on April 6, and in the “In Memoriam” section of The New York Times on February 24, 1946.  His name does appear in American Jews in World War II; specifically, on page 418.  He’s buried at Plot A, Row 1, Grave 7, at the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.

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Here‘s biographical information about other Jewish soldiers who were casualties on the 25th of February 1945…

For those who lost their lives on this date…
Sunday, February 25, 1945 / Adar 13, 5705
– .ת.נ.צ.ב.ה. –
…Tehé Nafshó Tzrurá Bitzrór Haḥayím
May his soul be bound up in the bond of everlasting life.

8th Infantry Division

Cowen, Carl, Pvt., 39722606, Purple Heart
28th Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. 10/12/11
Mrs. Thelma Tillie “Gigi” (Cowen) Rittenberg Flapan (wife) (6/4/17-12/26/13)
248 North Chicago, St, / 2737 1/2 Fairmont Ave., Los Angeles, Ca.
Mrs. Bessie Cohen (mother) (5/8/90-5/20/67), Los Angeles, Ca.
Home of Peace Memorial Park, Los Angeles, Ca. – Mausoleum, Corridor of Remembrance, Crypt 310 NW
American Jews in World War II – 41

Fidler, Louis, PFC, 42127210, Purple Heart (in Germany)
28th Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. 11/16/12
Mrs. Vivian (Hoffman) Fidler (wife) (1920-?), 2081 Wallace Ave., Bronx, N.Y.
Mr. and Mrs. Frank (1870-?) and Mary (1883-?) Fidler (parents)
Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery, Henri-Chapelle, Belgium – Plot F, Row 9, Grave 51
American Jews in World War II – 308

10th Mountain Division

(This image is via Medals of America.)

Stern, Horst “Horace” Alexander, Sgt., 36735406, Purple Heart (near Firenze, Toscana, Italy)
86th Mountain Infantry Regiment, I Company
Killed in Action
Born Kassel, Germany 1/17/24
Mr. and Mrs. Julius Jacob (4/10/94-5/2/83) and Lenora “Nora” (Kosman) (4/2/01-10/21/82) Stern (parents); Peter Jacob (brother) (5/21/28-7/10/66)
3314 Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Il.
Student at Northwestern University
Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy – Plot F, Row 2, Grave 18
Chicago Tribune 3/21/45
American Jews in World War II – 118

83rd Infantry Division

(Image from Butler’s Military & Vintage.)

Ferber, John Hanns, Pvt., 33750697, Purple Heart, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster (in Germany)
330th Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born Vienna, Austria 2/5/13
Mrs. Birdie (Ratner) Ferber (wife) (12/23/14-9/4/74), 1820 Clydesdale Place, Washington, D.C.
Mr. and Mrs. Jacques (12/25/87-11/30/45) and Jeanne (Dolivet) (11/25/88-11/73) Ferber (parents)
Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Holland – Plot G, Row 6, Grave 3
American Jews in World War II – 76

94th Infantry Division

Kramer, Jack (Yakov bar Zeruel), PFC, 42038488, Purple Heart (in Germany)
302nd Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born 6/14/24
Mr. and Mrs. Sol (10/18/93-6/13/71) and Lena (?-7/25/83) Kramer (parents), 1372 Franklin Ave., Bronx, N.Y.
Mildred (Kramer) Fishman (sister)
City College of New York Class of 1944
Montefiore Cemetery, Springfield Gardens, N.Y. – Block 139/S –
First Independent Rishkaner Besserabier, Young Men’s & Young Ladies’ B.A., Row 011R, Grave 3
Casualty List 4/3/45
American Jews in World War II – 367

102nd Infantry Division

(Shoulder patch illustration from Prior Service.)

Wittenberg, Melvin Eugene, PFC, 31299189, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart
405th Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born Boston, Ma. 4/24/23
Mr. and Mrs. Myer and Rose Wittenberg (parents), 16 Verrill St., Boston, Ma.
Tablets of the Missing at Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Holland
American Jews in World War II – 185

Weinstein, Sander Mayer, PFC, 42118028, Purple Heart (in Germany)
406th Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born Caldwell, N.J. 4/15/25
Mr. and Mrs. Morris and Anna Weinstein (parents), 19 Sander St., Morris Plains, N.J.
Hannah Blum (sister), Samuel Hollander (brother); Robert A. Matthews (friend), Morristown, N.J.
Rutgers University Class of 1946
Beth Israel Cemetery, Cedar Knolls, N.J.
American Jews in World War II – 258

Edelman, Jack, Sgt., 33469528, BSM, Purple Heart (in Germany)
407th Infantry Regiment, D Company
Killed in Action
Born Philadelphia, Pa. 6/6/22
Mr. and Mrs. Morris (6/19/58-74) and Eva (10/2/69-83) Edelman (parents), 4837 Larchwood Ave., Philadelphia, Pa.
Benjamin, Isadore, Samuel, Mrs. Marion Forman and Mrs. Edythe Sacks (brothers and sisters)
Occupation: Worked at Edelman Company Wholesale Fruit Dealers
Mount Jacob Cemetery, Glenolden, Pa. – Section L, Lot 408, Grave 1; Buried 10/31/48
Jewish Exponent 4/6/45, 10/29/48
Philadelphia Inquirer 10/29/48
Philadelphia Record 3/29/45
American Jews in World War II – 518

Here’s Jack Edelman’s portrait from West Philadelphia High School’s class of 1940 yearbook.  

His matzeva; my own photograph.

104th Infantry Division

(This 104th Division shoulder patch is from Paratrooper.fr.)

Blumenthal, Robert Lewis, PFC, 34787488, Purple Heart (at Ellen, Germany)
415th Infantry Regiment, I Company
Killed in Action (Wounded (in jaw) previously – on 12/1/44)
Born in New York 3/9/25
Mr. and Mrs. Nathan and Martha Blumenthal (parents); Edward (brother), 1045 Pennsylvania Ave., Miami Beach, Fl.
Mount Sinai Memorial Park, Miami, Fl.
American Jews in World War II – 82

Probably a portrait from his high school yearbook, this photo of PFC Blumenthal is via Robert Blumenthal.

This news article about PFC Blumenthal is via Jaap Vermeer, Netherlands-based WW II RAF and USAAF historian.

Blumenthal

Pfc. R.C. Blumenthal, 20, was killed in action in Germany Feb. 25, the War Department has informed his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Blumenthal, 1045 Pennsylvania Ave., Miami Beach.

Shortly before his death Pvt. Blumenthal wrote his parents: “I don’t want you to worry.  I want you to force yourselves to be brave.  I am coming home, and I’m coming home with two arms and two legs, but if anything should happen I want you to take it like soldiers.”

Pvt. Blumenthal was awarded the Purple Heart for a jaw wound last Dec. 1.  His company also received the Presidential Unit Citation.  He was returned to combat Dec. 21.

Graduate of Miami High School, where he was president of the senior class, he attended Georgia Tech for a year before entering service in June, 1943.

Surviving Pvt. Blumenthal besides his parents is a brother, Edward, 17, senior at Miami Beach High School.

This photo of PFC  Blumenthal’s matzeva is also via Robert Blumenthal.  Note that the insignia of the 104th Infantry Division has been engraved into the upper center of the stone.

1st Cavalry Division

(This example of the 1st Cavalry Division’s shoulder patch is also from Paratrooper.fr.)

Wertheim, Erich Seligman, PFC, 32908959, Purple Heart, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster
8th Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born Burgeln bei Marburg, Germany 5/29/22
Mr. Albert Hess (uncle), 2211 Whitter Ave., Baltimore, Md.
Mr. Julius Katz (?), 279 Lincoln Road, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines – Plot D, Row 14, Grave 37
Aufbau 5/18/45
American Jews in World War II – 146

PFC Wertheim arrived in the United States in mid-November of 1938.  Here’s the very brief new item about him that appeared in Aufbau in mid-1945…

Pfc. Eric Wertheim died on February 27th at the age of 22 during the liberation of Manila.  He was born in Bürgeln near Marburg and lived in Baltimore, Md. until he enlisted in the army.  His parents and sister are in London.

Pfc. Eric Wertheim ist am 27. Februar im Alter von 22 Jahren bei der Befreiung von Manila gefallen.  Er wurde in Bürgeln bei Marburg geboren und hat bis zu seinem Einrücken in die Armee in Baltimore, Md., gelebt.  Seine Eltern und seine Schwester sind in London.

…and, the news item itself…

… followed by an image of the full sheet while where the article (at center right) was published.

Americal Division

(An example of the Americal Division shoulder patch, from Dutch WW 2 Collector.)

Woliansky, Harry, 1 Lt., 0-1301399, DSC, SS, BSM, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, Purple Heart (at Bougainville, New Guinea)
182nd Infantry Regiment
Killed in Action
Born New York, N.Y. 3/15/15
Mrs. Elizabeth (Dobis) Woliansky (wife) (1918-?), 576 15th Ave., Newark, N.J.
Mr. and Mrs. Morris (1881-?) and Dora (1885-?) Woliansky (parents); Bertha (sister) (1918-6/13/00)
Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines – Plot N, Row 9, Grave 50
Casualty List 4/3/45
American Jews in World War II – 259

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740th Tank Battalion, C Company, First Platoon (attached to 121st Infantry Regiment of 8th Infantry Division)

(The emblem of the 740th Tank Battalion – a devil atop a WW I tank, hurling a thunderbolt – adorns the cover of Lt. Col. George Kenneth Rubel’s 1947 Daredevil Tankers – The Story of the 740th Tank Battalion, United States Army.)

“…one Infantry Officer even went so far as to state
that it took over twenty years to make a soldier
but only two months to make a tank;
that if a tank was knocked out, what the Hell of it —
all that would be required would be to have another tank and crew sent up. 
When it was explained to him that there were no replacement tanks
and that tankers were regarded by most people as human beings,
it still failed to register.”

***

“Lieutenant Oglensky, the platoon leader,
had asked for smoke and artillery fire on these AT [anti-tank] positions
but this was refused and he was given a direct order to attack.
In order for him to take his objective
it was necessary for him to advance over a flat, open field some 3,000 yards long,
directly into this battery of 88 mm guns
that were firing from about the center of the field on a slight mound.”

During the Second World War the United States Army created 72 separate tank battalions, primarily for use in the European Theater.  As described at Wikipedia, These battalions were temporarily attached to infantry, armored, or airborne divisions according to need…  They were also known as general headquarters (“GHQ”) tank battalions.”

“The Invasion of Normandy and the subsequent breakout confirmed the need for tanks to support infantry.  Infantry units found that tank support was essential in defeating German formations entrenched in towns and amongst the bocage.  From that moment on, until the end of the war in Europe, separate tank battalions were attached to as many infantry divisions as possible. While armored divisions were expected to perform the massed breakout thrusts that were increasingly commonplace in Europe, the smaller battalions were essential in supporting and maintaining smaller infantry advances.  Armored and airborne divisions also received separate tank battalions when they were needed to successfully complete their objectives.”

“Separate tank battalions were rarely, if ever, used as a single formation in combat, and spent most of their time attached to infantry divisions.  The U.S. infantry division of World War II contained three infantry regiments, and each medium tank company was usually assigned to a regiment for close support operations.  This could be broken down even further when required, with each of the three tank platoons of a medium tank company being assigned to one of the regiment’s three infantry battalions.”

As described by Patrick J. Chaisson in his article “Daredevil Tankers Turn the Tide at the Bulge“, and secondarily at the 70th Infantry Division Association, one of these armored formations was the 740th Tank Battalion, which was activated on March 1, 1943, at Fort Knox, Kentucky, under the command of Major Harry C. Anderson.  The battalion was reorganized on September 10 of that year as a special battalion to be issued CDL (Canal Defence Light) searchlight tanks, intended to illuminate battlefields at night.  Constructed on the chassis of M3A1 medium tanks, these vehicles, “…used a high-intensity carbon arc lamp inside the turret to light up the night sky while blinding enemy defenders.”  Despite intensive training, through a combination of issues involving leadership, performance, and morale, which coincided with a simple lack of CDL equipment, Major Anderson was relieved, and on November 12, the Battalion was placed under command of Lt. Col. George K. Rubel.  Under his command the unit’s proficiency dramatically improved.

Here’s the Colonel’s portrait, from Daredevil Tankers

Departing the United States in July of 1944, the 740th reached France in September, joining the First Army in November.  Within one month, it was directly involved in halting the advance of Kampfgruppe Peiper, “the German spearhead at Stoumont during the Battle of the Bulge”.  

As described in Chaisson’s article…  On December 21, 1944, American forces captured the Belgian hamlet of Targnon, with some men occupying Saint Edouard’s Sanatorium – a large brick building situated on a steep hill on the eastern edge of the municipality of Stoumont – and thus dominating the battlefield.

“The enemy knew this and around 11 pm launched a fanatical counterattack.  Between 50 and 100 SS panzergrenadiers, many screaming “Heil Hitler,” stormed St. Edouard’s and pushed the GIs out.  Held up by a sharp cliff, the Daredevil tankers could do nothing to help.  They had to wait for daylight to resume their attack.”

One of the 740th’s Shermans was commanded by 1 Lt. David Oglensky:  “At 4 am on December 21, [his M-4] crawled cautiously forward into the murk.  Suddenly, according to driver Technician 4th Grade Robert Russo, “All hell broke loose.”  Shells from a hidden antitank gun pierced Oglensky’s tank, forcing his crew to bail out.  As the lieutenant boarded the next Sherman in line a panzerfaust rocket hit that tank, causing it to burst into flames.  German panzerfausts then blasted two more M4s.  In an instant, four tanks were destroyed, three of them burning fiercely.  With the road blocked and St. Edouard’s Sanatorium in Peiper’s hands, the American attack bogged down almost before it started.”

Or…  As recorded by Lt. Col. Rubel in his book Daredevil Tankers:

On the 21st the attack was resumed at 0400 hours.  It moved forward about 100 yards when an AT [anti-tank] gun knocked out the lead tank.  Lt. Oglensky, who was riding the tank, found that his gun had been rendered useless, and fearing that Jerry was about to begin a tank attack he placed his own tank crosswise in the road to form a road block.  As he was doing this another shot hit his tank.  He ordered his crew to get out and go to the rear, while he took over the tank immediately in the rear.  He had hardly got aboard when an enemy Panzerfaust hit the tank and the machine started to burn.  He and his new crew dismounted and almost at the same instant two more tanks were hit by Panzerfausts.  That left four tanks in the road — three of them afire.

The attack had now definitely bogged down.  The three tanks that had been hit by bazookas were burning fiercely and made a perfect road block.  Moreover, the heat was so intense that it was impossible to get close enough to them to fasten a towing cable.

During the day the enemy made several more fanatical counter-attacks but the Infantry stood their ground on each attack.  Casualties were running high.  We had lost five tanks and the Infantry battalion had lost nearly 200 men.  The chateau was a source of great trouble to us.  It had to be taken before we could take Stoumont.  That night Captain Berry crawled through the enemy lines and made a circle of the chateau to find out if there was any possibility of getting tanks up off the road to attack the chateau from the northwest.  He found a place where he thought he could build a corduroy road to lead from the main highway up over the embankment to this building.

Upon his return to friendly troops he asked for volunteers to help build the road.  At about midnight he got four tanks up there and personally directed their fire by running from one tank to another.  Before morning he had knocked out two enemy tanks, had captured the chateau, and had rescued 22 infantrymen who were trapped there.  This feat cleared the way for the capture of Stoumont, which we then planned to take early on the morning of the 22nd.

During the day, while on reconnaissance, I found an excellent place at Targnon to use a self-propelled 155 mm gun.  I sent my S-4 out to look for one and also made a request to Colonel Sutherland and General Harrison for one.  During the same day I had picked up a slight wound when a high velocity round came in while I was standing on the road a few hundred yards east of Targnon.  Just before sundown on the 21st the 155 gun came in.  We fired about 50 rounds direct fire with it before darkness forced us to quit.  We arranged for the gun to be back on the morning of the 22nd for the attack on the town of Stoumont.

Before the attack could be resumed, however, the four tanks that had been knocked out near the chateau had to be removed.  We decided to lay a smoke screen and under cover of it send the recovery vehicle forward, attach a line, and tow the tanks off the road.  Lt. Oglensky’s tank, which had not burned, was believed to be in running condition, and T/5 James E. Flowers volunteered to drive it off the road.  It stuck out like a sore thumb and any movement toward it brought down all kinds of fire.  Flowers somehow made it, entered through the escape hatch, and drove it back into our lines.  In the meantime, Captain Walter Williams and his Battalion maintenance section with their recovery vehicles had removed the three burned out tanks, and before morning of the 22nd the way was cleared for the attack.

Lt. Oglensky received Silver Star for his actions on December 20.  His citation reads: “Lt. Oglensky distinguished himself by leading a platoon of tanks in an attack against the enemy.  His tank was hit to such an extent that his gun was put out of action.  After evacuating the crew he reentered the tank and placed it across the road as a block.  Taking over command of the tank immediately behind this roadblock, he continued to fire at the enemy until the second tank was also knocked out of action by enemy fire.  The inspiring fortitude, courage and outstanding devotion to duty demonstrated by Lieutenant Oglensky reflect great credit to himself and are in keeping with the traditions of the armed forces.”

From Daredevil Tankers, this map shows the position of the 740th in late December 1944: Moving west to east, from the vicinity of Lorce (on 19 December) through Stavelot (on 25 December).  The Battalion’s position on the 22nd, just west of Stoumont and the Chateau (“where 22 doughs were trapped”), is just left of the map’s center

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Lieutenant Oglensky was killed in action a little over two months later.  This occurred on February 25, in the context of an attack of the 8th Infantry Division’s 121st Infantry Regiment in the direction of the German towns of Binsfeld and Girbelsrath, which lie between Duren – just to the southwest – and the city of Koln, to the northeast.  Against his advice, the five tanks under his command, comprising the 1st Platoon of C Company, were ordered to advance across an open field between Düren and Girbelsrath.  As a result, three tanks were quickly destroyed by 88mm anti-tank guns, resulting not only in Oglensky’s death, but that of tank commander Sergeant Ira M. Case and five other 1st Platoon tank crewmen.

Lt Oglensky’s body was never recovered.

Something particularly notable about the historical record of this brief event is the way it is described in the 740th Tank Battalion’s After Action Report, versus Lt. Col. Rubel’s independent (and I think much more personal) account in Daredevil Tankers.  The differences between the accounts, which I’ve italicized for emphasis, are striking and not at all subtle.  Perhaps Daredevil Tankers – published by the Colonel in Germany on September 19, 1945, independently of the Army – allowed him to give vent to aspects of the historical record that are not at all laudatory, and would otherwise have remained forgotten.  

Here’s the After Action Report:

C Company, attached to 121st Infantry, attacked towards towns of Binsfeld and Girbelsrath at 250200 [0200 hours; 2 A.M.] with 1st and 2nd Platoons.  The towns were taken approximately by 251400 [1400 hours; 2 P.M.].  The 3rd Platoon remained in Regimental Reserve at Duren.  The 2nd Platoon of C Co was split into 2 sections, 1st Section supporting A Co., 1st Battalion and 2nd Section supporting C Co, 1st Battalion.  The 1st Platoon had three tanks destroyed by 88mm fire at 1310 [1:10 P.M.] as they were approaching Girbelsrath across an open field.  The platoon had been ordered to advance across the field against the platoon leader’s advice.  The 3 tanks were commanded by Lt. Oglensky, Sgt. Case, and Sgt. Keen.  Lt. Oglensky was killed in addition to 8 other casualties in the 3 tanks.  S/Sgt. Nemnich took command of the remaining two tanks and stayed under cover until darkness and then withdrew to Duren.  Lt. Powers (3rd Platoon) was hit by mortar fire and evacuated at approximately 251100 February [1100 hours].  S/Sgt. Looper took command of the 3rd Platoon at this time. 

This is from Daredevil Tankers:

“C” Company, attached to the 121st Infantry, attacked toward the towns of Binsfeld and Girbelsrath at 0200 hours, with the First and Second Platoon.  The fight was rough but the towns were taken at about 1400 hours that afternoon.  The Third Platoon remained in Regimental reserve at Duren.  The Second Platoon had been split into two sections, the first section supporting “A” Company of the 121st Infantry, and the second section supporting “C” Company of the 121st Infantry.  The First Platoon had three tanks destroyed by 88 mm AT fire at 1310 hours as they were approaching Girbelsrath across an open field.  Lieutenant Oglensky, the platoon leader, had asked for smoke and artillery fire on these AT positions but this was refused and he was given a direct order to attack.  In order for him to take his objective it was necessary for him to advance over a flat, open field some 3,000 yards [1.7 miles; 2.8 km] long, directly into this battery of 88 mm guns that were firing from about the center of the field on a slight mound.  The platoon had advanced about 500 yards [0.28 miles; 0.47 km] when the AT guns opened up from the front and right flank.  Three of Oglensky’s five tanks were hit and burned.  Lieutenant Oglensky, Sergeant Case, and Sergeant Keen were killed and eight other men were wounded.

Given that the First Platoon was attached to (and under command of?) the 121st Infantry Regiment, the question arises as to why there was a refusal to provide smoke and artillery fire on the German anti-tank position.  Assuming there even was a reason, to begin with.          

From Daredevil Tankers, this map shows the main line of advance (MLA) of the 740th from February 23 (at Duren) through March 9, 1945 (south of Koln).  Note that the MLA is specifically indicated for every day (except March 1?) of this 12-day time interval.  The MLA for 25 February is oriented north to south from Merzenich to Stochheimm, ending that day a little more than halfway between Duren and Girbelsrath.  

At roughly the same scale at the above map, this Apple map gives a contemporary view of the geography of this part of Germany.  

The relative locations of Duren and Girbelsrath are readily visible in this map.  (Note the scale at upper left.)  Though I’ve no idea of the geographic extent of Duren in 1945 versus the city’s size now in 2023, what is apparent is the farmland separating that city and Girbelsrath.   

At the same scale at the above map, this photo reveals the farmland situated between the two locales.  Though I don’t have a topographic map of the area, one gets the general impression that the terrain is essentially, well…  Like the book says:  Flat.  

____________________

1 Lt. David Oglensky (David bar Shmuel Shlema ha Levi) (0-1016415), also – well, inevitably, the recipient of the Purple Heart – was born in Colchester, Connecticut, on December 25, 1944 to Sam (3/15/79-1/6/44) and Rose (Seigal) (1885-8/4/56) Oglensky (parents).  He was married, his wife, Helen (Ides) Oglensky, resided at 17 West Front Street in Red Bank, New Jersey.  He had a brother, Bernard (3/26/20-9/16/95).  His name appeared in articles in the Asbury Park Press on 3/1/45, 6/8/45, and, 5/5/85 (that’s ’85, not just ’45!), and on page 248 of American Jews in World War II.  He is commemorated on the Tablets of the Missing at the Netherlands American Cemetery, in Margraten, Holland.

This photo of Lt. Oglensky, the only one I’ve thus far discovered, appears in the Lieutenant’s biographical profile at FindAGrave, c/o lemaire.sergejean@gmail.com.  

____________________

The 740th’s After Action Report and Daredevil Tankers are both vague or incorrect about the casualties incurred by the battalion on February 25, 1945.  In reality, tank commander Sergeant Keen (J.D. Keen) survived the war unwounded.  Of the eight casualties noted in both the After Action Report and Daredevil Tankers, two men were wounded and six killed.  The men’s names are listed below:  

Wounded

Pvt. Harold H. Wichmann, 36992951
T/4 Rex A. Wiley, 38400423

Killed

Sgt. Ira M. Case, 38431663

This image of tank commander Sgt. Case is via Nelda.

T/5 Herbert T. Howell, 38431608

Cpl. Ray T. Merritt, 38400458 (see also)

T/5 Grady Morris, Jr., 38474899

PFC Orland D. Myers, 39911710

Cpl. Herbert V. Sweeney, 31510625

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A monument in honor of Lieutenant Oglensky, dedicated in 1966 by the Oglensky Jackson Post of the Jewish War Veterans, stands at the Freehold Hebrew Cemetery in New Jersey.  The Post still existed as of 2018.  (These three images are by wharfrat.)

Come the year 2066, will the monument still exist?

______________________________

208th Combat Engineer Battalion (Signal Corps)

Levinson, Moses, Pvt., 34648465, Purple Heart (in Germany)
Killed in Action
Born 1925
Mrs. Carmellia Levinson (wife), 8 Felson / Folsom Place / 38 Fountain Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Possibly from South Carolina
Netherlands American Cemetery, Margraten, Holland – Plot J, Row 11, Grave 4
Casualty List 3/27/45
American Jews in World War II – Not Listed

Levitt, Paul David, T/5, 32296314, Purple Heart (at Iwo Jima)
Killed in Action
Born Brooklyn, N.Y. 12/29/11
Mr. and Mrs. Samuel and Maye (Mamie) Levitt (parents)  , 227 Linden Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Mortimer H. and Raymond I. Levitt (brothers)
Long Island National Cemetery, Farmingdale, N.Y. – Section J, Grave 16560
Casualty List 4/12/45
American Jews in World War II – 379

England

(This example of a Glamorgan Yeomanry cap badge is from The Quartermaster Store.)

Brown, Morris, Gunner, 3775495
Royal Artillery, 81st (The Glamorgan Yeomanry) Field Regiment
Born 1919
Mr. and Mrs. Wolf and Lena Brown (parents), Liverpool, England
Uden War Cemetery, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands – 6,E,13
We Will Remember Them Volume I – 68 (incorrectly lists unit as “The Welch Regiment”)

Poland
Polish People’s Army – Ludowe Wojsko Polskie
(During Operation Pomeranian Wall)

Judka, Albin, Pvt., at Wieloboki, Poland
18th Infantry Regiment
Born Nowosiolki (d. Zaleszczyki), Poland, 1907
Mr. Lejb Judka (father)
JMCPAWW2 I – 89

Lewkowicz
, Grzegorz, Pvt., at Walcz, Zachodniopomorskie, Poland

23rd Light Artillery Regiment
Born Bedzin, Slaskie, Poland 1912
Mr. Jozef Lewkowicz (father)
JMCPAWW2 I – 45

Mizibrocki, Izydor, Pvt., at Wieloboki, Poland

18th Infantry Regiment
Born Szczytowce (Zaleszczyki), Poland 1900
Mr. Eliasz Mizibrocki (father)
JMCPAWW2 I – 93

Polish Army East

Kudysiewicz, Henryk, Capt. (Died in the Yishuv, at Tel-Aviv)
Physician
Born Radom, Poland 1/4/87
Buried somewhere in Israel
JMCPAWW2 II – 106

Soviet Union / U.S.S.R. (C.C.C.Р.)
Red Army [РККА (Рабоче-крестьянская Красная армия)]

Barman, Gennadiy Aleksandrovich (Барман, Геннадий Александрович), Junior Lieutenant (Младший Лейтенант)
Tank Commander
517th Autonomous Tank Regiment
Killed in Action
Born 1921 or 1923, city of Dzerzhinsk
Buried in Poland

Chapakh, Moisey Laarevich (Чапах, Моисей Лазаревич), Junior Lieutenant (Младший Лейтенант)
Sapper Platoon Commander (Командир Саперного Взвода)
9th Motorized Brigade
Born 1918

Davidson, Yakov Abramovich (Давидсон, Яков Абрамович), Lieutenant (Лейтенант)
Company Commander (Командир Роты) / Rifle Platoon Commander (Командир Стрелкового Взвода)
37th Rifle Regiment, 1st Shock Army
Born 1910 or 1911

Markovich, Aleksandr Yakovlevich (Маркович, Александр Яковлевич), Guards Sergeant (Гвардии Сержант)
Cannon Commander (Командир Орудия)
1st Tank Battalion, 3rd Guards Tank Brigade
Killed in Action
Born 1925, city of Stavropol
Buried in Poland

Rubinshteyn, Ioil Abramovich (Рубинштейн, Иоил Абрамович), Guards Lieutenant (Гвардий Лейтенант)
Platoon Commander (Командир Взвода)
219th Guards Light Artillery Regiment, 2nd Guards Artillery Division
Born 1923

Sandler, Ionya Gershkovich (Сандлер, Ионя Гершкович), Captain (Капитан)
Machine Gun Platoon Commander (Командир Пулеметного Взвода)
1235th Rifle Regiment, 373rd Rifle Division
Born 1923

Wounded in Action

Adler, Harry, PFC, Purple Heart (in Germany)
Wounded in Action (wounded by bomb, in left arm)
Born Kinsk (Swietokrzyskie), Poland 9/1/09 – Died 4/24/85
Mrs. Ruth (Schor) Adler (wife) (6/16/14-7/9/99); Barbara Carol Adler (daughter – YOB 1943)
68-27 75th St., Middle Village, Queens, N.Y.
Mr. and Mrs. Herschel “Harry” Szmedra-Adler (1879-5/14/09) and Ida Cyna (1882-6/18/54) Adler (parents)
Casualty List 3/27/45
Long Island Star Journal 3/27/45
American Jews in World War II – 264

Glazer, Morton Sawyer, Pvt., 33815157, Purple Heart (in Germany)
Wounded in Action
Born Philadelphia, Pa. 4/24/26 – Died 1/28/82
Mr. and Mrs. Eugene (10/12/93-5/1/78) and Irene (Lipsitz) (7/15/94-4/1/84) Glazer (parents), 5535 Pine St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Home of Peace Cemetery, Sacramento, Ca.
Jewish Exponent 4/13/45, 4/27/45
Philadelphia Record 4/3/45
American Jews in World War II – 523

Morton Glazer’s portrait from Temple University’s class of 1949 yearbook, via Ancestry.com.

29th Infantry Division

(This original example of the 29th Infantry Division yin-yang shoulder patch is via Topkick Militaria & Collectables.)

Nathan, Norvin, 2 Lt., 0-1315349, Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart, 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, PUC, 1 Oak Leaf Cluster
116th Infantry Regiment, I Company
Wounded in Action (Wounded previously, approximately 8/1/44)
Born Bronx, N.Y. 12/6/22 – Died 4/25/06
Mrs. Janice (Fried) Nathan (wife) (2/2/28-6/22/98)
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Maurice (7/4/98-5/11/59) and Dorothy (Bushansky) (1/1/04-2004) Nathan (parents)
1625 S. 58th St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. – Section 68, Grave 4883
War Department News Releases 9/30/44, 1/4/45
Jewish Exponent 10/13/44, 4/6/45
Philadelphia Inquirer 3/29/45
Philadelphia Record 10/1/44, 3/29/45
American Jews in World War II – 541

Nathan Norvin’s high school graduation portrait, from the 1940 Yonkers High School yearbook, via Ancestry.com.

Tannenbaum, Samuel E., PFC. 33470399, Purple Heart (in Germany)
Wounded in Action
Born Philadelphia, Pa. 9/21/16 – Died 6/20/03
Mrs. Esther (Fishman) Tannenbaum (wife) (12/25/23-9/8/18); Mark Harris Tannenbaum (son)
309 S. 4th St. / 818 Gainsboro Road, Philadelphia, Pa.
Mr. and Mrs. Max (1879-11/6/36) and Rebecca (Leahy) (Sudgalter) (5/8/82-9/9/73) Tannenbaum (parents)
2545 South Sixth St., Philadelphia, Pa.
Jewish Exponent 4/13/45
Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Record 4/5/45
American Jews in World War II – 556

Ackerman, Harry Sternberg, Sgt., 37605043, Purple Heart (in Germany)
Wounded in Action
Born St. Louis, Mo. 11/16/24 – Died 7/24/02
Mr. and Mrs. Lester Patrick, Sr. (3/17/91-11/23/66) and Helen (K. Sternberg) (6/14/95-2/20/59) Ackerman (parents); Emily and Lester (sister and brother)
7246 Wydown Blvd., Clayton, Mo.
New Mount Sinai Cemetery and Mausoleum, St. Louis, Mo.
Saint Louis Post Dispatch 3/9/45
American Jews in World War II – 207

Canada

(Emblem of the North Shore New Brunswick Regiment)

Blank, Harry, Pvt., D/141305
Wounded in Action
Royal Canadian Infantry Corps, North Shore (New Brunswick) Regiment
Born May 14, 1915
Mr. U. Blank (father), 5358 Hutchison St., Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Canadian Jews in World War II – Part II: Casualties – 87

References

Books

Dublin, Louis I., and Kohs, Samuel C., American Jews in World War II – The Story of 550,000 Fighters for Freedom, The Dial Press, New York, N.Y., 1947

Meirtchak, Benjamin, Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II: I – Jewish Soldiers and Officers of the Polish People’s Army Killed and Missing in Action 1943-1945 [“JMCPAWW2 I”], World Federation of Jewish Fighters Partisans and Camp Inmates: Association of Jewish War Veterans of the Polish Armies in Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1994

Meirtchak, Benjamin, Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armies in World War II: II – Jewish Military Casualties in September 1939 Campaign – Jewish Military Casualties in the Polish Armed Forces in Exile Soldiers and Officers of the Polish People’s Army Killed and Missing in Action 1943-1945 [“JMCPAWW2 II”], World Federation of Jewish Fighters Partisans and Camp Inmates: Association of Jewish War Veterans of the Polish Armies in Israel, Tel Aviv, Israel, 1995

Moisan, Melaney Welch, Tracking the 101st Cavalry, Wheat Field Press, 2008 (via lulu.com; ISBN 0615250408)

Morris, Henry, Edited by Gerald Smith, We Will Remember Them – A Record of the Jews Who Died in the Armed Forces of the Crown 1939 – 1945, Brassey’s, United Kingdom, London, 1989

Rubel, George Kenneth, Lt. Col., Daredevil Tankers – The Story of the 740th Tank Battalion, United States Army, printed and bound at “Muster Schmidt”, Ltd., Werk Gottingen (Germany), 1945 (OCLC Number / Unique Identifier: 624759899)

Trautman, Terry, Clippings From A Cluttered Mind, AuthorHouse, 2022 (ISBN 9781665565608, 1665565608)

(No Specific Author)

Canadian Jews in World War II – Part II: Casualties, Canadian Jewish Congress, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 1948

Sites on the Web

ETO Tank Battalion Histories, at yeide.net (Harry Yeide)

U.S. Army Separate Tank Battalions, at Wikipedia

740th Tank Battalion, at 70th Infantry Division Association

Canal Defence Light (CDL) Tanks, at Tank Encyclopedia

Chaisson, Patrick J., Daredevil Tankers Turn the Tide at the Bulge, Warfare History Network, December, 2013

After Action Report, 740th Tank Battalion, January thru April 45, at Ike Skelton Combined Arms Research Library Digital Library

A Bad Day Over Derben: Accounts of the 390th Bomb Group’s Mission to Derben, Germany, of January 14, 1945

A Bad Day Over Derben

I previously wrote of the 8th Air Force’s mission to Derben, Germany – specifically focusing on the losses incurred by the 390th “Square J” Bomb Group “here”.  But, there’s more…

The references I consulted for that post included both volumes (I, and II) of the 390th Memorial Museum Foundation’s 390th Bomb Group Anthology, which were published in 1983 and 1985, respectively, and edited by Wilbert H. Richarz, Richard H. Perry, and William J. Robinson.  The books include five essays about the mission – three in volume one, and three in volume two – and I thought it’d be worthwhile to create another post (“this one”!) – to present their stories and broaden historical memory of the events of January Sunday in the skies west of Berlin, nearly eight decades ago.  And so, below are full transcripts of written accounts by T/Sgt. George J. Zadzora and S/Sgt. Ralph K. Spence (members of the same crew), and 2 Lt. Melvin L. Johnson (volume I), as well as Lt. Rafael H. Galceran, Jr., and Sgt. Vincent K. Johnson (volume I).  Of these five men, Zadzora, Spence, and Johnson did not return to Framlingham, England; they were shot down and survived as POWs.  Galceran and Johnson, members of the same crew, the latter severely wounded and enduring a very long recovery, returned aboard their damaged B-17.

These stories are accompanied by images of the insignia of the 568th, 569th, and 571st Bomb Squadrons.  These were scanned from Albert E. Milliken’s The Story of the 390th Bombardment Group (H).

__________

More information about the Derben mission can be found in the prior blog post.  In the meantime, here are some Oogle maps and air photos showing the geographic setting of Derben relative to the Berlin metropolitan area, and, two official Army Air Force photos taken during the mission, probably from automatic strike cameras.  (These images also appear at the prior post.)  

This map shows the location of Derben relative to Berlin.  A formerly independent municipality, in September 2001 it merged with the six municipalities of Bergzow, Ferchland, Güsen, Hohenseeden, Parey and Zerben to form the larger municipality of Elbe-Parey, which in 2021 had a population of about 6350.  

Oogling in more closely reveals Derben’s street layout.  As is more evident in the images below, the target of the 8th Air Force’s January 14 mission – underground petroleum storage tanks – was not located in the town itself, but instead in the undeveloped (and still so today) wooded area adjacent to the eastern edge of the municipality…

…which is revealed below, in an air photo at the same scale as the above map.  Currently, the area – designated the Crosstreke Ferchland – is a location for motocross racing, evident by the numerous trails (designated in gray) through the area.

Army Air Force Photo 55871AC / A21154 shows the oil storage tank area near Derben at the beginning or in the midst of the 8th Air Force’s attack.  This and the subsequent photo have been rotated, via Photoshop, such that they conform to geographic north, consistent with the maps above.

Also – presumably – photographed from the automatic camera of a higher aircraft, Army Air Force photo (56022AC / A21155) shows a 390th Bomb Group B-17G – notice the square-J on the plane’s starboard wing? – flying north-northwest over the Elbe River.  Due to the dispersal of smoke and debris from bomb explosions – obscuring a wider area than in the image above – this photo was probably taken subsequent to picture 55871AC.  While the municipality of Derben appears to be undamaged, it looks (?) as if some bombs have fallen onto the uninhabited land to the west of the municipality, which would account for the billowing cloud of smoke rising into the sky from that location.

______________________________

Volume I

“He Endured a 850 Mile Forced P.O.W. March”

George J. Zadzora, Radio Operator-Gunner, 568th Bomb Squadron

“Time was a commodity that we had in abundance.”

THIS was our 34th combat mission.  If we completed this mission and one more then our tour of duty would be completed and we would be homeward bound — IF!

Our mission this morning January 14, 1945 took us over Germany flying a south-easterly heading toward Berlin.  Our escort Mustangs were above us crisscrossing the formation, and watching over their “big brothers”.  The target was underground fuel storage tanks in the Berlin area.

We were about 10 or 15 minutes away from the IP.  I was in the radio room monitoring the code messages from the station in England.  I looked out the window and saw a P-51 flying about 150 feet below and going in the opposite direction to the flight of the bombers.  I immediately signed “off watch” on the radio log, disconnected the oxygen and intercom, went to the right waist position, connected oxygen and intercom, then unhooked the gun from its stored position.

Over the intercom gunners were calling out the location and number of enemy fighters.  An FW-190 flew past, then went into a loop with a P-47 on its tail.  This is the first time that I saw a Thunderbolt fending off enemy fighters so I assumed that there were a lot of enemy fighters attacking.  An ME-109 passed by very close, belly towards me and I let go a long burst from the 50 calibre.  The other gunners were blasting away.  An FW-190 passed by in the same manner as the 109 and I gave it a long burst.  I looked momentarily inside the fuselage and saw there were long openings, about 2 feet in length.  These were caused by machine gun and cannon fire from enemy fighters attacking from behind.

The next thing I experienced was a sensation that felt like about a dozen bee stings.  I knew I was hit.  The left waist gunner, Spence, went down but got up again, so I knew he had been hit.  Over the intercom came the words, “Bail out, we’re on fire.”

Horan, the ball-turret gunner, got out of the ball and clipped on his chute as did Spence in the waist.  My chute was in the radio room, so I had to go there to get it.  As I turned and headed for the radio room, I could see flames and a grayish smoke in the radio room.  I had no choice but to go and look for my chute.

As I went into the radio room, the smoke came in contact with my eyes, they began to burn.  I inhaled a small amount of smoke and began to cough.  The flames were about 3 feet from me.  I got down on my hands and knees, eyes closed and began searching for the chute by feeling with my hands.  At first, I couldn’t find it so I began moving about on my knees and feeling for a bulge that would be the chute.  It wasn’t in the usual position where I kept it, but then I felt it with one hand, then both hands to be sure.  I found the chute.

I got out of the radio room fast and to the rear exit door, clipping the chute to the harness as I went.  I reached the exit door and without hesitation went out feet first.

Eight or ten seconds after leaving the ship, my right hand grabbed the chute ring and pulled – nothing happened.  Pulled again – nothing happened.  A few more tries and no results.  Thoughts went through my mind – is something stuck?  There seemed to be only one thing to do and that was to use both hands on the chute ring and pull hard.  This was done and the chute opened at approximately 18,000 or 19,000 feet.

As I drifted down, 2 ME-109s came into view and circled clockwise around me.  They descended at the same rate as my descent.  After several circles they broke away and disappeared.

The ground was getting closer now and I was drifting toward a wooded area with several open spaces.  By this time, I had a good idea of where the landing would take place: in a small clearing with a scattering of small trees.

As I hit the ground, I lost my balance and fell down.  I then got up, unfastened the harness, rolled it and the chute into a compact roll and hid it in the nearby woods.  It was now apparent that I could walk well.  I felt a severe pain in my right arm.  It now dawned on me that with a wounded right arm, I didn’t have the strength to open the chute initially.

It was early afternoon, I checked the position of the sun, determined which direction was west and started walking.  I found that by supporting the right arm in a position like that of being in a sling, the pain would lessen.  Heading westward, I avoided small towns by walking around them, across fields and thru wooded areas staying off the roads until dusk.  I came upon a haystack on the edge of a field and slept there the first night in enemy territory.

Surprisingly, I slept well that night and awoke just after dawn.  Checking the position of the early sun, I headed in a westerly direction keeping off the roads to be less conspicuous.  I was able to avoid people living in the area until late that morning.  While crossing a small field, I was approached by 2 boys.  One was about 15 years of age, the younger one about 10.  I decided not to change direction or start to run but continued walking towards them until we met.  The boys noticed my flight suit and asked me if I spoke German.  I replied that I did not speak German in one of the few phrases I know of that language.  Then I asked the older boy in the Slovak language if he understood what I said and to my astonishment, he replied in Slovak.  We spoke for several minutes, then he invited me to go to his brother’s home which I assumed to be a mile or two away.

As we three walked along, we were approached by a German soldier carrying a rifle.  He was about 16 years of age and began conversing in German with the two youngsters I met some 10 minutes previously.  The young soldier then indicated by pointing his finger in the direction that I was to walk and he followed me, and at no time did he provoke or abuse me.  I still carried my right arm as though it was in a sling.  It still pained me.

We entered a small town, walked past a number of houses, then the young guard indicated to me to walk through a gateway and to the front door of a house.  This house was the Burgomeister’s home.

The Burgomeister answered the door and he and the young soldier talked in German.  Then I was asked to go inside the house by a hand sign along with the young soldier.

Inside the house, the Burgomeister dialed a number, presumably to notify the authorities that a prisoner was here in his home and to send a guard escort.  He was on the phone for quite some time and it seemed to me that phone connections were difficult to make because of the time lapses between phone conversations and the number of times that he dialed.

The Burgomeister’s wife was there and while her husband was phoning, she indicated to me to be seated at the kitchen table.  This I did.  She then placed before me, two slices of bread, butter, knife and a cup of black ersatz coffee, that had an acorn-like flavor.

While eating the buttered bread and coffee, she sat down at the table and spoke in German using only basic words and hand gestures rather than long sentences.  I believe that she was saying that their son was in the service and that he was about my age.

Shortly afterwards, an army truck stopped in front of the house and two guards came inside while the driver remained in the truck.  It was time to go.

As I approached the front door to leave, I turned around to the Burgomeister and his wife who were standing side-by-side, and said two of the very few German words that I knew – “Danke schon” – and departed with the two guards.

We climbed in the back of the truck with a canvas cover and sat on a bench seat facing backwards with myself in the middle and the guards on either side of me.  The driver started the truck and we drove off into the night to a temporary cell at a military installation where I stayed that night.

The next morning I was escorted by two guards, taken on a train from Berlin to a camp about 30 or 40 miles south of that city.

After being searched, I was led to a cell that was barricaded with a stout piece of lumber about four feet long resting on steel brackets.  Removal of this lumber permitted the door to the cell to be opened and in I went.  The cell was about ten feet long by six feet wide with a very small window set high in the wall near the ceiling opposite the door.  The only thing that I could see when I looked out the window was the sky.

There was a bed of rough lumber with a carpet on it about four feet long and two feet wide.  These were the only items in the cell.

While in the cell, I received one bowl of watery soup in the evening that was delivered to my cell.  I was permitted to the latrine three times a day – morning, noon and evening, each time accompanied by a guard.  There was no reading material, no one to talk with so I spent my time with my thoughts.

I spent six days at this camp where I was interrogated then taken by train northward through Berlin and Stettin then eastward to a camp somewhere in the northwest or northern part of Poland in an isolated area.

I was taken into a small room and searched by a young English-speaking German.  After being searched, he showed me, by pointing, a small wooden railing about 18 inches high and about 15 feet inside the wire enclosure.  It was made of about 3/4 inch square wood stock having only a top rail and supported by vertical wooden stakes driven into the ground.  He warned me that if I so much as touched that wood railing the guards have orders to shoot to kill.

I was assigned to a room in one of the barracks.  This room was about 20 feet square having one door, one window and a single light bulb in the center of the ceiling.  The double-decker bunks of rough lumber against each of the four walls provided sleeping facilities for 16 men.  With my appearance that made 24 men occupying that room.  Eight of us slept on the floor without the straw mattresses.

The first thing mentioned to me by the men with whom I was to share the room was that under no circumstances should I touch the wood railing because the guards have orders to shoot to kill.  I was informed that a few of our guys didn’t believe that warning, touched the railing and were shot dead by the guards in the tower.

That evening for our meal one of the fellows in our room was authorized to go to the central kitchen where the meal was prepared, usually soup with potatoes and whatever the G.I. cooks could find to add to the soup.  It was brought to our room in a metal bucket and carefully ladled out so that each man would receive an equal portion.  There was no meat in the soup but previously there had been.  The meat came from occasional large dogs that ran loose in the compound, who were caught and added to the soup except for one tiny dog that was too small to qualify for the soup kettle so it became a pet.

Red Cross parcels were received from time to time that supplemented our evening meal of soup.  Depending on the number of parcels determined the distribution to each individual.  At times several G.I.s divided a food parcel and each man kept his own food supply along with a ration of bread that was provided by our captors.  For anyone to steal another man’s food was considered a most serious matter.

Time was a commodity that we had in abundance.  We kept occupied by walking around the compound, playing cards and checkers, reading, keeping diaries, playing soft-ball during warm weather, hand washing the few items of clothing, writing a few letters and cards per month since that is all that was permitted, making pencil sketches on paper when it was available, preparing a snack during the day from our individual food supply, making items from the cans we received in our Red Cross parcels (such as hand-operated mixers for stirring coffee, tea and powdered milk), etc.

In early February, 1945, we were told at evening roll call to be prepared to move out the next morning.  Nothing was said about our destination, just pack up and be ready.  About a week before I had received some new G.I.  clothing and a new pair of G.I. shoes.

Extra clothing was rolled up in a small bundle to be carried along with whatever food we had, plus the blankets that were rolled up and tied with rope or a strip of cloth in such a way as to carry it like a suitcase or over the shoulder like a set of golf clubs.  Immediately after morning roll call the guards escorted us out the camp and we were on our way.

We could only assume that the Russians coming from the east were getting close to this internment camp and in all likelihood we would be marching west.

The weather was cold.  After walking 4 or 5 days, it was possible to determine the general direction in which we were going, using the sunrise and sunset as reference points.  It was generally west.

About a day later, we crossed the Oder River, south of Stettin.

One week went by, then two weeks.  Food was now more scarce.  We began to search for anything edible along the road as we travelled westward.  Sometimes a potato would be found by an alert pair of eyes, or perhaps a carrot or some other vegetable.

Whenever possible we were given shelter in a barn but some evenings we slept outdoors.  Harry had three blankets and so did I.  Three blankets were spread on the ground and the other three used to cover us.  Sometimes the blankets would be spread on damp ground or damp grass since no dry places were available.  Eventually the moisture would be soaked up by the blankets on which we slept which resulted in a soggy and uncomfortable night.

We walked almost every day but occasionally we would get a day’s rest.  When we did, a large part of the day was spent lying to conserve our energy for the next day’s march.

During our march we crossed the Elbe river indicating that we were still going west.  During the many weeks of the march, the weather varied – snow, rain, sleet, fog, sunshine – but generally cold and at times very cold.  We usually travelled 15 to 25 miles per day and several times near 30 miles.  Our bodies ached with fatigue and our stomachs pained for food, which was scarce causing loss of weight.  We all developed short tempers.  Morale was dropping even lower.  Those unable to walk rode in horse-drawn wagons.

One clear morning, a few hours after sunrise, a loud noise shattered the calm air.  It came from beyond a low ridge some 400 feet to our right.  Moments later, a V-2 rocket appeared, accelerated rapidly and disappeared some 20 seconds later.  We watched in awe while the guards, pointing fingers at the rocket, cheered loudly until it was out of sight.

We were all very fatigued from so much walking and so little food.  We were taken to a P.O.W. camp at Fallingbostel which was occupied by R.A.F. internees.  This camp was located about 50 miles south of Hamburg and about 160 miles west of Berlin.  The camp was crowded, tents were erected and we stayed there for about 3 or 4 days.  The next day an R.A.F. internee came into our tent holding a piece of paper and asked that we gather around him while lookouts were stationed at each end of the tent to notify us in case German guards came near.

He then began to read from the paper in his hand.  It was the latest war news from the B.B.C.

After hearing the news, I asked one of the P.O.W.s, a Canadian, how is the news obtained?  He explained that when work parties were sent out to cut wood, a few of them drifted off to where a Lancaster bomber was downed and proceeded to bring in radio parts taken from that plane.  They had to be careful not to be seen by the guards as they smuggled the parts into camp.  In time enough parts had been gathered, a receiver assembled, tuned to the B.B.C. frequency and the news was then handwritten on paper and read to the prisoners at Fallingbostel.

After a short rest, we were then moved out of that camp.  The march began again, this time eastward crossing the Elbe River and later the Oder River.  This took us back into Poland not far from our original starting point.

Part of this trip we travelled by train.  I have no positive way of knowing how far we travelled but I assume it was about 60 or 70 miles.  The train would rumble along then stop for hours at a time.

We were jammed into the box cars and doors locked.  During the night, it was pitch black inside; during the day only a small amount of light entered the box car and this was from small cracks around the door.  Those who had food could eat; those who did not couldn’t.  No sanitation facilities were available, not even a bucket.

It was now about the end of March, 1945.  Our march continued northward then westward from Poland for the second time.  We again crossed the Oder River north of Stettin, followed the Baltic coast line, through the town of Swinemunde, then headed away from the Baltic Sea.

The days were getting longer and the weather became warmer.  This was some consolation but we were still captives, hungry, weak, dirty and tired.

As we continued westward for the second time, ominous signs were evident.  A flight of four Mustangs flew over at about 4,000 feet unchallenged.  We went by an airfield of parked JU-88s none of which were operational; explosives were used to totally destroy the cockpits of these planes.  A squadron of B-17s bombed a target several miles away at an altitude of about 4,000 or 5,000 feet with no enemy opposition.

With the Allies coming from the west and the Russians from the east, German controlled areas were considerably reduced and so were the distances that we walked each day.  Now it was marches of only 5 to 8 miles each day.

Plodding along at a slow pace, we went past some buildings on a small rise of land that looked familiar.  Suddenly the name came to my mind – Fallingbostel.  This was the same camp where we rested some 6 weeks previously.

From the morning in early February, 1945, when we began our march, one name comes to mind immediately.  The name is Dr. Pollack, an English doctor who with his medical assistants walked every mile of our trek.  It was they who carried the medical supplies in addition to their possessions and administered to the wounded and sick during our entire journey.

One day after a tiring march, we stopped just outside of a small town to rest for the night.  It was getting dark and we were almost totally exhausted.  Dr. Pollack went to the nearby houses, knocked on doors and told the people that there were a lot of sick people in our group and requested that they bring hot water to us which they did.  Buckets and buckets of hot water arrived enabling us to have a hot drink.

It was April 13, 1945.  On this day, we walked through a small town while some of the villagers watched as we passed.  One of our guys named Gunzberg spoke German fluently and stopped momentarily to talk with a few of the local inhabitants.  Moments later he joined us and gave us the news that he just received and that was that President Roosevelt died yesterday, April 12. (“Gunzberg” was probably T/Sgt. Werner J. Gunzburger, a radio interceptor in 726th Bomb Squadron, 451st Bomb Group, 15th Air Force, shot down and captured July 14, 1944.  Born in Landau, Germany, on January 1, 1922, he was the son of Lily Gunzburger, of Holland Street in New Orleans.  One of the twelve crew members of Capt. Richard S. Long in B-24G 42-72808 (covered in MACR 6900 and Luftgaukommando Report ME 1724) – all surviving their “shoot-down” – his name does not appear in American Jews in World War II.  He died in March of 1996.)

It was now late in April 1945.  The outcome of the war was no longer in doubt.  Our captors took us to a delousing station, divided us into groups of about 40 where we showered.  Our clothing was placed in individual wire baskets and sent to a delouser.  I looked at my body, arms and legs and couldn’t believe how frail I was weighing about 75 pounds.  I lost nearly 100 pounds during this ordeal of nearly three months.  This was the second time that I was able to take a shower.  The other shower was taken during the first visit to Fallingbostel.

I wore the same clothes, day and night, during this march from when it began in early February until May 2, 1945, when we were liberated by armored units of the British Second Army.

Recently I referred to maps of our march to determine the approximate distance that we travelled.  After locating the names of familiar towns, I began measuring distances from point to point on a straight line basis; the distances that we walked would be greater since we walked on secondary roads with curves, hills and frequent changes of direction.

The first leg of our journey was from our camp in Poland westward to Fallingbostel, a distance of about 300 miles.  From Fallingbostel, we travelled eastward some 250 miles back to Poland.  Another 50 miles northward to the coast of the Baltic Sea.  Westward again to Fallingbostel for approximately 275 miles and finally about 40 miles to the northeast near the town of Luneberg where we were liberated.  This comes to about 915 miles less about 75 miles for the train ride which brings the total of approximately 840 miles point to point distance.

I assume that we walked a minimum of about 850 miles and this distance was walked using a single pair of G.I. shoes.

____________________

“Tribute to Zad”

Ralph K. Spence, Waist Gunner, 568th Bomb Squadron

THIS is about our radio man, George Zadzora.  The day we went down 14th January ‘45 near Berlin.  I was knocked unconscious.  When I came to, Zad was shooting from the right waist gun and he really made a tune on it.  I was facing the radio room, the bomb-bay door was open and it looked like a furnace.  I hit Zad on the leg and snowed him the fire – our wings were on fire.

He said, “Get the parachute on.”  He grabbed me under the armpit and dragged me to the waist door and pulled the pin release.  The door fell off and out I went with it.

He went back and got Jim Horan out of the ball turret.  He was all shot up – his foot, knee and elbow.  He put his parachute on him and dragged him to the door and pushed him out.  By that time the smoke was so bad he had to crawl on hands and knees to find his own parachute and bail out.

I don’t think there is any medal high enough to repay Zad for his guts and courage under fire.  Jim nor I could never have made it to the door without him.  “Thanks again, Zad!”

George Zadzora and Ralph Spence were crewmen aboard B-17G 42-102956, BI * K, otherwise known as “Doc’s Flying Circus” / “Girl of My Dreams“.  Unfortunately, there don’t seem to be any photos of this Fortress, which crashed two kilometers south of Vietznitz / three kilometers south-southeast of Friesack.  As you can see from the crew list below, Lt. Paul Goodrich and S/Sgt. Losch, the bomber’s pilot and tail gunner, were killed, the bomber’s seven other crew members surviving as POWs.  The plane’s loss is covered in MACR 11726 and Luftgaukommando Report KU 3570.  

These two Oogle maps show the approximate crash location of Doc’s Flying Circus, based on information in KU 3570.

First, a “close-up” of Vietnitz and Friesack…

…and the crash site’s location, relative to Berlin.

This image of Paul Goodrich’s crew is via the 390th Memorial Museum.  Crewmens’ names are listed below the photo.

Rear, left to right

Flight Engineer: Thomas, Jim K., T/Sgt., 38351808 – Survived (12/21/23-6/20/01)
Portales, N.M.
Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, Dallas, Dallas County, Tx. – Section 10, Site 57

Gunner (Waist): In photo: Irwin, J. (Not in this crew on January 14 mission)

Radio Operator: Zadzora, George John, T/Sgt., 13083211 – Survived (4/21/24-5/7/15)
Jenners, Pa.
All Souls Cemetery, Chardon, Oh. – Section 26C, Lot 4204, Grave 2

Gunner (Waist): Spence, Ralph K., S/Sgt., 39334034 – Survived (8/2/13-2/19/91)
Vancouver, Wa.
National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona, Phoenix, Az. – Section 22B, Site 34

Gunner (Ball Turret): Horan, James M., S/Sgt., 35547195 – Survived (1/19/24-11/5/10)
Toledo, Oh.
Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va. – Section N70QQ, Row 14, Site 1

Gunner (Tail): Losch, Leonard A., S/Sgt., 38494454 – KIA (Born 4/12/23)
New Orleans, La.
Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, La. – Plot 21 Lilly Cedar Aloe; Buried 6/14/49

Front, left to right

Pilot: Goodrich, Paul, 1 Lt., 0-748398 – KIA (Born 2/1/22)
Valparaiso, In.
Graceland Memorial Park, Valparaiso, In.

Co-Pilot: Thomas, Raymond E., 1 Lt., 0-771156 – Survived (Possibly 6/26/22-7/27/05)
San Gabriel, Ca.
(Possibly) Hamilton Cemetery, Tulare County, Ca.

Navigator: In photo: Nording, William L. (Not in this crew on January 14 mission)

Navigator: Not in photo: Lutzer, Erwin M., 2 Lt., 0-719973 – Survived (5/28/24-11/9/88)
Kew Gardens, N.Y.
Montefiore Cemetery, Springfield Gardens, N.Y.

Bombardier: In photo: Shipplett, Wallace Blair, 1 Lt. – KIA (Born 2/7/24)
Rowan County, N.C.
Epinal American Cemetery and Memorial, Epinal, France – Section B, Row 39, Grave 44
(Not in this crew on January 14 mission; KIA aboard B-17G 42-31744, Little Butch II)

Togglier: Not in photo: Piston, Frank H., Jr., S/Sgt., 3362401 – Survived
Lansdale, Pa.

______________________________

“Mission 243 – Derben, Germany”

Melvin L. Johnson- Navigator, 571st Squadron

“The next thing I remember I was on the snow-covered ground.”

OUR target for the January 14, 1945 mission was an oil dump near Derben, Germany.  I was the navigator and the clear, sunny weather made that job easy, but it also was bad as it provided no cloud cover for our planes.  We encountered some light flak at the coast, but everything went fairly well until noon.  As we were approaching the IP about 100 FW-190 and ME-109 German fighters hit us.  All eight aircraft remaining in the G Squadron and one from A Squadron were shot down.

We were shot down on the first pass.  The 20mm shells were exploding in front of the plane and when they hit us we were really knocked around.  The plane started spinning and Ross Hanneke called on the intercom, “Bail out!  I can’t hold her!”  I was wearing my flak vest over my parachute harness so I pulled the quick release on the flak vest.  The release worked, but the front half of the vest was hanging from my oxygen mask as I had clipped the oxygen hose to it.  I pulled off the oxygen mask and grabbed for the chest chute pack laying by my feet.  Instead of the carrying handle I got the rip cord handle and opened the chute in the plane!  With no choice, I gathered the chute up and managed to snap it to the harness.  Fred Getz, the bombardier, was near me, chute on and ready to bail out.

The next thing I remember I was on the snow-covered ground.  I had a bloody nose, a contusion of my right knee, no gloves, no flying boots or heated inserts and most of the wires were pulled out of the right leg of my heated suit.  There was airplane wreckage in the field about 1/4 mile from me, large chunks of aluminum but no definite part I could recognize.  The German Home Guards, wearing arm bands and carrying shotguns, were approaching.  I believe the plane had exploded and I had been knocked unconscious.  The open parachute must have pulled me out of the nose section at some fairly low altitude, as I did not have frozen fingers or toes.  The temperature was about minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit at the 29,000 ft. altitude where we encountered the fighters, and well below freezing at ground level.  When hit we still had our bomb load and a large amount of gas.  I know we were hit many times on their initial pass and I assume the German fighters continued the attack until something drastic happened.  It’s hard to believe no one else survived of our 10 man crew unless the plane had exploded.

The home guards ordered me to carry my parachute to a farm house near-by and sit on the parachute to await the military authorities.  I had a “Mae West” life vest on and decided to see if the CO2 cylinders worked.  Only one side inflated but that scared the German Guards as they thought I was going to blow myself up.  Later a German looked me over, took out his pocket knife, grabbed my wrist, then cut the cloth band on my wristwatch.  It was about this point I found I still had my 45 automatic in the shoulder holster, and I didn’t know what to do.  I didn’t speak German and the guards didn’t speak English.  When I tried to talk they indicated that I should just sit still and be quiet, that someone was going for an interpreter.  The interpreter finally arrived and I stood up to tell him I still had my pistol.  “Pistol” they all understood and it really upset them.  The interpreter took the pistol and cut the holster harness to remove it, but it wouldn’t pull off as the bottom was snapped around my belt.  After several jerks I managed to have him allow me to open my coat and unsnap the holster.  If they were trying to impress me with their sharp knives, it worked, but I expected them to shoot me anyway.

An hour or so later a German Air Force enlisted man came along on his bicycle.  He had me walk to another farm house where he searched me and made a list of all my belongings.  At this farm I met two other U.S. airmen.  One had a bad leg wound while the other was uninjured.  At dusk we were told to climb onto a horse drawn wagon which I believed to be loaded with parachutes, coats, and other items of Air Force issue.  We rode for some time and were told to unload the wagon.  It was then I discovered the equipment on which we were riding was covering the bodies of eight or nine dead airmen.  I didn’t recognize any of the dead, but they must have been from our Group.  The two of us lined the bodies up in the garage area and the guards then put us in separate jail cells and gave us ersatz coffee and black bread.  I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and I was hungry, but just couldn’t eat that hard, sour, black bread.  The coffee was almost as bad.  However, after a few days that black bread ranked almost at the angel food cake level!

The next day we were taken to Berlin by train and by double-decker bus to the German Airport (probably Tempelhof).  The wounded man was kept in the hospital there.  I was given first aid and held in the air raid shelter area with the other flyer.  The next day we were taken on a 17 hour passenger train trip to Frankfurt-on-the-Main for interrogation.  There I was placed in solitary confinement in a small cell with one little, very high, barred window.  We were not allowed to talk to anyone except the interrogator.  Our cells had a “flag” arrangement to signal the guards that we had to use the toilet.  They wouldn’t talk to us and made since no one else was in the toilet area when we were allowed its use.  The food was very meager.  The interrogator insisted that I was a spy because no one else had reported me as a crew member.  They knew more about our base than I did!  Even used our “secret and confidential” code number, 153, to identify the base.  They knew most of the permanent personnel as well as all the Squadron Flight Leaders.  Alter 10 days and several rounds with the interrogator they decided I didn’t know much and shipped me out with about 200 other P.O.W.s being transferred to Luft I Camp at Barth.

We were loaded into boxcars and I thought we “had it made” with about 50 men in each car, but then the guards took over the center third of the car.  We were so crowded that we had to take turns lying down.  The trip was to take five days but on the fifth day we reached Berlin in time for the nightly air raid.  The British did a fine job of bombing Berlin every night for the five nights we were there.  When the air raid sirens sounded the guards would head for the shelter leaving us locked in the cars.  It is very scary when bombs are exploding all around and you know you are in one of the target areas.  We could see the parachute flares used by the Royal Air Force to mark targets for the following planes to drop their bombs.  The marshalling yards suffered a great deal of damage but none of our boxcars were hit.  Some of the prisoners developed fever.  We had exhausted the food supply by the time we reached Berlin, so the authorities finally decided to forget Barth and take us to Stalag III A at Luckenwalde about 30 miles to the south.  A day or two after arriving there we watched the 8th AF hit Berlin.  We were thankful to be out of Berlin but envious of those crews that would be back in England in a few hours.

A few hungry, cold, bed bug bitten months later we were liberated by the Russians but still confined to the camp.  The Russians talked about taking us back through Russia to Odessa.  The Germans strafed us a few times, so when we heard the Americans and Russians had linked up at the Elbe River, only fifty miles away, five of us decided to try to walk there.  It took three days and was rather difficult but we all made it to the American Troops.  Two months later I still had big blisters on my feet.

A few weeks later we were on a Victory ship, the Marine Dragon, headed for Boston and home.  As mess officer on the trip back I managed to put on lots of weight.  It’s a wonder we didn’t run out of food!

Melvin Johnson was a member of the Emory Hanneke crew aboard B-17G 43-38665 FC * Z, otherwise known as “Queen of the Skies“.  According to Luftgaukommando Report KU 3575 and MACR 11723 (which of course includes translations of KU 3575), the bomber crashed 40 kilometers southwest or west of Neuruppin, at Bartschendorf.  As indicated in Johnson’s account, he was the crew’s sole survivor. 

This set of Oogle maps show the approximate crash location of Queen of the Skies, based on Luftgaukommando Report KU 3570.

First, a “close-up” centered on Bartschendorf…

…and the crash site, relative to Friesack, Neuruppin, and Berlin.

The picture of Queen of the Skies is American Air Museum in Britain photo UPL 30452, contributed by Lucy May.

This image of the Hanneke crew is via Lenny Andrews, nephew of flight engineer Leonard E. Andrews.  As captioned, “Their Boeing B-17G Fortress went down approx 40km WestSouthWest of Neuruppin [at “Bartschendorf”], Germany.  All crew (except Pilot Hanneke & Navigator Johnson), were reported dead at crash site by German Command at Neuruppin Air Base.  Hanneke’s body was not recovered (at the time), and Melvin Johnson was captured as a POW.  The bodies were buried in Common grave #1 of the Municipal Cemetery Bartschendorf, District of Ruppin southeast corner on 15 Jan 1945.”  The photo caption also includes the men’s names, which are listed below.  The names of their towns and cities of residence are via the next-of-kin roster in the Missing Air Crew Report. 

Standing, left to right

Radio Operator – Gurbindo, Julian J. “Slim”, Sgt.
Fresno, Ca.
Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, Ca. – O, 0, 995

Gunner (Ball Turret) – Carlson, Harry Dean, Sgt., 19012859
Turlock, Ca.
Turlock Memorial Park, Turlock, Ca. – Lot 190 Block 20

Flight Engineer – Andrews, Leonard E., Sgt., 31299231
Attleboro, Ma.
Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium – Plot C Row 1 Grave 24

Spot Jammer – Miles, Eugene, Sgt., 18126764
Chicago, Il.
Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium – Plot A Row 41 Grave 30

Seated, left to right

Gunner (Tail) – Mosley, Walterine “Tex”, Sgt., 38629775
Burleson, Tx.
Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium – Plot A Row 32 Grave 36

Gunner (Waist) – Johnson, Eugene M., Sgt., 37524607
Picher, Ok.
Grand Army of the Republic Cemeter, Miami, Ok.

Co-Pilot – Kendall, Victor James, 2 Lt., 0-2062217
Kirkwood, Mo.
Mount Hope Cemetery, Webb City, Mo.

Pilot – Hanneke, Emory Ross, 2 Lt., 0-829011
Abbotsford, Mi.
Lakeside Cemetery, Port Huron, Mi.

Bombardier – Getz, Fred K., 2 Lt., 0-2068024
Lewisburg, Pa.
Ardennes American Cemetery and Memorial, Neuville-en-Condroz, Belgium – Plot A Row 41 Grave 44

Inset, upper left

Navigator – Johnson, Melvin L., 2 Lt., 0-2069029
Lagrange, In.

From Luftgaukommando Report KU 3575, this “Angabe über Gefangennahne von feindlichen Luftwaffenangehörigen” (“Information on the capture of enemy air force members”) form records Lt. Johnson’s capture by local gendarmes at the scene of his bomber’s crash, 35 kilometers west-southwest of Neuruppin.  Interestingly, German investigators incorrectly identified Johnson’s bomber as 43-38337 “BI * N” / “Cloud Hopper” of the 568th Bomb Squadron, rather than the correct 43-38665 “FC * Z” / “Queen of the Skies” of the 571st.  

______________________________

______________________________

Volume II

“Group Mission #243 – Derben Germany”

Rafael H. Galceran, Pilot, 569th Bomb Squadron

“…if this had been a milk run we sure as hell did not want to be on a rough one.”

IT was 25 December 1944, a cold wet afternoon when the British Railway train pulled into Ipswich Station to off-load its cargo of combat crews who were assigned to nearby groups of the 3rd Air Division by the replacement depot at Stone, England.  A number of 2 1/2-ton G.I. trucks, canvas-topped and camouflage-painted, were lined up awaiting their passengers.  A driver from the 390th Bomb Group called my name and crew number informing us that he would transport us to our new unit, the 569th Bomb Squadron.  We loaded our gear, B-4 bags and baggage, in the back.  My crew climbed in for the journey to Station 153 – Framlingham.  It was raining lightly when we arrived and once again off-loaded our possessions in the front area near the Squadron orderly room and headquarters.  We dutifully signed in on the unit roster.  The C.Q. gave us our quarters assignment and directed us to the supply building where we would draw our bedding and a ration of coal.  Since it was Christmas day, we thought that it was the reason that the area seemed deserted.  However, we soon learned the 569th was participating that day on the mission to Morscheid Bridge, Germany, in an effort to slow the German forces in the Battle of the Bulge.

On the following morning the 390th had a stand-down so at 0800 hours my crew lined up to meet our new Squadron Commander, Lt. Colonel Joe P. Walters.  A snappy salute, “Reporting as ordered sir!!”

The formalities over, we were placed at ease and our new leader then gave us a brief history of the unit and a lecture on what was to be expected of us.  We learned that training never stopped, and that we would go through a short course of training in ground school and flight checks to demonstrate our ability to takeoff, fly formation, navigate a timed course, find the airfield, and land safely.  This all had to be accomplished in-between the Squadron’s participation in almost daily bombing missions.  On the next Squadron stand-down we had our check ride leading to certification as being combat ready on 10 January 1945.  However, we still had to wait a few days for our first mission assignment.  Lt. Colonel Walters explained this short delay as his desire for us to start with a “milk run” for our combat baptism.  Thus it was that fate determined our first mission would be what was later described as one of the 390th’s greatest air battles.

At 0300 hours on 14 January 1945 the front door of our Nissen hut opened to allow a cold blast of air and the wake-up artist from the orderly room to rouse our crew.  I was already seated on the edge of my bunk with my feet on the cold floor when he reached me in the front corner alcove.  My eagerness of the days anticipated experience had made sleep virtually impossible.  We dressed and, following the morning ablutions in a nearby building, we walked the few hundred feet to the combat mess hall.  We were to discover that combat crews were served fresh eggs, any way you liked them, and real ham or bacon, potatoes, toast and coffee.  This was a far cry from the powdered eggs and spam that was the fare on non-combat days and to the remainder of the personnel.  (I would soon locate a private source of fresh eggs for those days that I was not scheduled to fly.)  We then returned to the barracks to get into our flying clothing before hopping aboard a vehicle for the ride to the Group briefing room on the flight line.  The briefing began with remarks by Col. Moller, our Group Commander.  He informed us that even though Higher Headquarters considered this a low priority target, it was, none the less important in the overall strategy of the war to continue the interruption of any semblance of a steady flow of petroleum products to the German military machine.  Derben was a synthetic oil refinery with many underground storage tanks.  Again we mounted waiting vehicles of every description that delivered us to a hardstand where we found our assigned aircraft fully loaded and ready for pre-flight.  Twelve blades were pulled through and then we climbed in to watch the tower for the green-green Very pistol flares to light up the sky.  On this mission I would have 2nd Lt. Benny Meyers (later killed-in-action on another mission) as my co-pilot for his experience, and Bob Barritt would fly as the co-pilot with his crew.  The signal to start engines soon came.  The steady hum of 36 B-17s filled the early morning air.  I often wondered what went through the minds of all of the nearby farm people whose buildings we would literally fly between on our taxi and take-off rolls.  The noise must have been deafening.  As our turn came, we taxied into the line of slow zig-zagging aircraft headed for the main runway.  At the precise brief moment the Group Leader began his roll and one by one, at fifteen-second intervals, each of us roared down the runway lifting off and circling in a pattern to cut off the aircraft upon whose wing we would fly.  We were in the number five spot, flying the right wing of the slot lead, and directly under the Squadron leader’s right wingman.  The 569th was flying “B” Squadron, placing our 12 aircraft flight to the right, slightly higher and ever-so-slightly behind the Group Leader or “A” flight.  “C” flight, the 568th, was slightly below the leader and the same distance behind as we were.  All 36 aircraft of the 390th sported the tail insignia of a black “J” in a white square.  We then joined the square “D” 100th and the square “B” 95th Bomb Groups thus forming the 13th Combat Wing of the 3rd Air Division of the 8th Air Force.  This mission would have a total of 841 bombers in the battle fleet.  I have been told that when the 8th Air Force put up a maximum effort this would amount to 1250 to 1300 bombers.  When all were in battle line the bomber column covered a distance of 75 miles from lead aircraft to “tail-end charlie” and stretched 25 miles in width.  Awesome, simply awesome.

The flight had been routine as briefed.  We flew across the channel to Holland.  We then turned right over occupied territory and headed generally towards Berlin.  It was still a piece of cake, a “milk run”.  Approximately 15 minutes short of the IP, the point we would turn onto the bombing run, the alarm came, “Bandits at 9 o’clock”.  This was a group of about 75 Folke Wolff 190s and they engaged our friendly fighter escort who immediately dropped their tip tanks to engage in a great aerial dogfight.  The enemy soon broke off and our fighters turned for home because without the extra gas, jettisoned in the tip tanks to improve their maneuverability, they could not stay with us until our next fighter escort arrived.  Our fears turned to reality when we saw the second enemy wave attack our “C” Squadron whose leader had lost his turbo supercharger.  They were now about 2000 feet below and to the rear of flights “A” and “B”.  The eight or nine aircraft still in their formation were all quickly shot down.  We watched helplessly as each left the sky and counted parachutes as best we could.  “B” Flight was attacked by about 40 Me 109’s, coming in from the 4 o’clock position.  We were now on the bomb run flying straight and level, no evasive action, so as not to interfere with the bombardier’s accuracy.  I looked out the co-pilot’s window to see the silhouette of an Me 109 and could see what appeared to be a flashing light in the nose spinner.  This meant only one thing, we were his target and we were seeing the muzzle flashes of each round of 20 mm cannon exiting the barrel of his gun.  Those projectiles were headed straight for our ship.  “God, they were attempting to shoot me down too.”  The sequence of the ammo was: tracer-armor piercing, incendiary, then explosive, and this line fingered its way through the sky towards us.  Then it hit.  We could hear the rattle of the shrapnel bouncing around inside the plane like so much hail on the roof, and the chatter of our own 50 caliber machine guns firing in short bursts as he bore in on us.  We then smelt the acrid smell of fire, something we dreaded most, coming from the aft section.  An Me 109 passed about 150 yards below us where he exploded in a ball of fire.  Our Ball Turret Gunner, Joe Lawless, had scored a hit (a confirmed kill).  A second Me 109 crossed behind us trailing black smoke.  We saw the German pilot bail out.  This second kill was credited to our Tail Gunner, Jimmy Stewart.  They also shared a “probable” during that terrible ten minutes.

As sudden and furious as it came, and though it seemed at the moment to be an eternity, the Germans abandoned their attack and turned north.  They apparently saw a flight of P-51 Mustangs high on our left.  Sergeant Vince Johnson, Radio Operator, early during the battle had called on the intercom to tell me that there were wounded in the rear, in the waist compartment.  When the unmistakable lurch came from the release of our bomb load, I sent our Bombardier, Frank Zier, to the rear to assist and report concerning the damage and wounded.  He soon returned with the news that all in the radio and aft section was under control.  The following article by our gallant Radio Operator, Vince Johnson, provides his recollections of what was going on back in the radio room and waist section while we were on the bomb run.

We would learn later that an armor piercing shell had ricocheted off Sergeant Phillipson’s gun barrel nearly severing his right arm.  The force knocked him to the floor of the waist section where Vince found him and re-connected his oxygen line.  The same shell had cut the center support for the ball turret completely through requiring the Ball Turret Gunner, Joe Lawless, to evacuate that bubble.  An incendiary had started the radio on fire, and an explosive had gone off in back and below Vince knocking him off his seat.  He still, to this day, has pieces of shrapnel in his body.  A parachute was popped to provide cover for Sgt. Phillipson after Lt. Zier had given him two vials of morphine for his pain.  We did not know Sgt. Johnson was wounded until we were nearly home.

After we became stabilized in good steady formation, and the danger of attack remote, I turned the controls over to the Copilot and went aft to follow up on Lt. Zier’s report.  I was satisfied that all had been done that could be until we were on the ground.  It wasn’t until much later, in the barracks after de-briefing, that we discovered that Lt. Zier had received a sliver of shrapnel in a most unglamorous location of the derriere while he was seated over his Norden bomb-sight on the bomb run.  His bloody shorts told the tale.  We whisked him to the Dispensary for its removal while we laughed how he would tell his grandchildren where he was wounded.

The long flight home was eased somewhat by the fact that we had fighter escort, saw no flak nor enemy fighters.  Upon our arrival near home base we were allowed to peel off from the formation for a straight-in approach.  We fired our Very pistol red-red flares to indicate wounded aboard.  This alerted the tower and ambulances.  The propellers were still windmilling as the medics climbed in through the waist door to attach plasma bottles to Phil and Vince.  This was the first we knew of the extent of injury suffered by our Radio Operator, a real gutsy guy.  The stretchers were loaded into the ambulances and as they rolled off towards a nearby field hospital the remainder of the crew prayed not only for them but for ourselves as well, because if this had been a milk run we sure as hell did not want to be on a rough one.

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“Group Mission #243 — Derben Germany”

Vincent K.  Johnson, Radio Operator, 569th Bomb Squadron

“It wasn’t long before they detected I had been wounded
and only the “Good Lord” knows the element of pain in those ensuing hours.”

I was a youngster of nineteen and now about to “lift off in the Wild Blue Yonder” with the “family,” known as the crew, that I had trained with to qualify for this difficult task.  The assembly of all the crews and the dispatching of the individual crafts were enough to make this youngster agog of the “might” of this Air Force that he was a part of.  What a scene to see all those crafts taking off and then assembling in their respective places within the formation before then pointing toward the given target.

Being the Radio Operator I had certain responsibilities, even in the face of all this mass movement, to convey communications to the pilot, navigator, or whatever communications dealt with our little “family”.  Now that this was the “real” thing the communications were primarily directed to the pilot or pilot to radio operator if he needed information.  I mention these responsibilities because it seemed like the things that happened within the plane were the priority items.  Happenings outside the plane were another world.

Before reaching the target on 14 January 1945, radio silence was declared and, therefore, I, at my radio seat, was gazing into “that other world” on the outside of the plane.  We were still approaching the target when little-by-little the “flak” and the enemy fighters became more prominent in that outside world.  Even then in one’s young mind he doesn’t comprehend the dangers on the outside, as long as “our family” was OK inside the plane.

Suddenly, and one cannot describe it in terms of time, that outside world was inside our plane, “our home”.  While at my radio chair and turned toward the table, my body just exploded, stunned, and in pain.  I found myself on my hands and knees in the radio room, my oxygen mask off and the radio chair still facing the table.  The mission was at about 29,000 feet so the first instinct was to replenish my system with oxygen.  Then I realized we had another member of our family and He was the Man way upstairs.  I say this because something told me to check visibly before calling in, and sure enough in the waist was Phil, one of “the family”, bloody and laying on his back with no oxygen.  After some shifting and adjusting I was able to get him oxygenized so that he was back in the real world.  We got back to the radio room and I then originated a call to the pilot that we had a wounded person aboard.  Why I wasn’t able to admit that I had also been hit must have been fear that maybe I didn’t do the job and I would lose my place in “the family”.  It wasn’t long before they detected I had been wounded and only the “Good Lord” knows the element of pain in those ensuing hours.  Certainly the crew was aware of it and majestically tried everything to comfort Phil and I on the flight home.

During one year and two days, and many, many operations, in the hospital, I frequently told hospital personnel and other patients about our “little family”.  Certainly it was a structure and an adventure in one’s life.  Of those that served in World War II, the ones who had the privilege of being part of the crew of a mighty B-17 had to be the lucky guys.  I always felt close to those who were part of our little unit and I think we were all so very proud to say “our plane”.

Based on the 390th Memorial Museum database, the Galceran crew flew aboard B-17G 43-38663, CC * M / The Great McGinty” on this mission.  According to B-17 Flying Fortress.de, the aircraft survived the war and was returned to the United States on June 30, 1945.  It was sold for scrap metal, and presumably reduced to pots and pans, aluminum siding, etc., on December 8 of that year.  

This image of the Galceran crew is via the 390th Memorial Museum.  Crewmens’ names are listed below the photo.

Standing, left to right

Flight Engineer – Kidwell, Gordon W.
Radio Operator – Johnson, Vincent K. (3/15/25-11/15/95)
Gunner (Waist) – Phillipson, Emmett D.
Gunner (Ball Turret) – Lawless, Joseph P.
Gunner (Waist) – Kunz, M.
Gunner (Tail) – Stewart, James H.

Crouching, left to right

Pilot – Galceran, Rafael Hipple, Jr. (5/21/21-11/3/92)
Co-Pilot – Barritt, Robert E.
Navigator – Wooten, John D.
Bombardier – Zier, Frank M., Jr. (9/15/19-7/10/05?)

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References, to Keep You Busy (and Happily Distracted!?)

Books

Astor, Gerald, The Mighty Eighth: The Air War in Europe as Told by the Men Who Fought It, Dell Publishing, New York, N.Y., 1997

Freeman, Roger A., The Mighty Eighth – A History of the U.S. 8th Army Air Force, Doubleday and Company, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1970

Freeman, Roger A., The B-17 Flying Fortress Story – Design – Production – History, Arms & Armour Press, London, England, 1998

Milliken, Albert E. (editor), The Story of the 390th Bombardment Group (H), N.Y., 1947

Richarz, Wilbert H., Perry, Richard H., and Robinson, William J., The 390th Bomb Group Anthology – Volume I, 390th Memorial Museum Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 15087, Tuscon, Az., 1983

Richarz, Wilbert H., Perry, Richard H., and Robinson, William J., The 390th Bomb Group Anthology – Volume II, 390th Memorial Museum Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 15087, Tuscon, Az., 1985

Websites

Wayne’s Journal – A life of a B-25 tail gunner with the 42nd Bombardment Group in the South Pacific – January 14, 1945

WW2Aircraft.net – Details of air battles over the West on January 14, 1945 (Primary emphasis on encounter between fighter aircraft of Eighth Air Force and Luftwaffe)

WW II Aircraft Performance – Encounter Reports of P-51 Mustang Pilots (Includes reports for January 14, 1945)

Tempest V Performance – Combat Reports (Includes four Reports for January 14, 1945)

390th Memorial Museum Foundation – Database (390th Memorial Museum’s Research Portal)

-and-

390th Bomb Group Works Cited

The Story of the 390th Bombardment Group (Paducah: Turner Publishing Company, 1947), 65-66.
“390th Bomb Group: History of Aircraft Assigned.”  Unpublished manuscript. 390th Memorial Museum. Joseph A. Moller Library.
“390th Bomb Group Tower Log: November 22, 1944 – June 27, 1945.”  Unpublished manuscript. 390th Memorial Museum. Joseph A. Moller Library.
“Mission – No. 243, Target – Derben, Germany, Date – 14 January 1945.” Mission Reports Part I, MISSION_REPORTS_03, file no. 1266-1267. Digital Repositories. 390th Memorial Museum. Joseph A. Moller Library.

Documents on the Move: Memorabilia of the 462nd General Transport Company

It’s time to return to the subject of the earliest posts at this blog: The loss of over 130 soldiers of the 462nd General Transport Company, a British military unit comprised of Jewish soldiers from the Yishuv.  This tragic event occurred when the transport ship S.S. Erinpura was sunk by Luftwaffe aircraft of Kampfgeschwader 26 (KG 26) north of the Libyan coast, on May 1, 1943.  This event and its aftermath were covered in these nine posts, which include lists of the Jewish and African soldiers lost that day:

I: Introduction
II: What Was Known, Then – What Is Known, Now
III: The Sky Above / The Sea Below
IV: The Fallen – Soldiers of the 462nd General Transport Company – I
IV: The Fallen – Soldiers of the 462nd General Transport Company – II (Biographical Information)
V: The Fallen – Basotho Soldiers
VI: The Fallen – Merchant Navy and Indian Merchant Navy Sailors
VII: The Survivors: How many?  Who?
VIII: Thoughts
IX: References

This recent post presents photographs and biographical information a soldier of the 462nd, about whom little was previously known:

Private Victor Chaim Hananel

“This” new post – the one you’re viewing right now! – presents information about the 462nd General Transport Company from a very different angle: The focus is less on individuals than it is information.  That is, four documents pertaining to the history and service of the 462nd.  I recently discovered these items while randomly searching “to and fro” for information about the 462nd in particular, and Jewish soldiers from the Yishuv, in general.  In this, I fortuitously (and luckily, too!) chanced upon the Kedem Auctions Judaica and Israeliana Auction House, which features among its abundant holdings memorabilia pertaining to Jewish military service, from the diaspora, the Yishuv, and the re-established nation-state of Israel.  Kedem’s website is simple and pleasing to the eye, very well designed, and easy to use, and typically features images of items-for-auction in high resolution, accompanied by pithy descriptions.  (This isn’t a plug on Kedem’s behalf – it’s true.)  

Anyway.  Kedem’s website features four items about the 462nd General Transport Company, three of which have been sold, and one of which is awaiting a purchaser. Kedem’s images of these items (edited a bit in Photoshop) follow below, accompanied by descriptive text from their website.  Taken together, they lend a fuller dimension to the history of the 462nd General Transport Company, revealing that despite the disaster of the first of May in 1943, the unit persevered and continued.  This, I think, was the best way to honor and remember its fallen soldiers. 

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First… Booklet Issued by the 462nd Hebrew Transport Company, Marking the Anniversary of the Sinking of SS Erinpura – May, 1944

A booklet (mimeographed typescript) marking the anniversary of the sinking of SS Erinpura which carried hundreds of soldiers of the 462nd Transport Company of the British Army.  Published by the 462nd Transport Company, May 1, 1944.  A booklet commemorating the soldiers of the 462nd Transport Company, volunteers of the Jewish Yishuv in the British Army, who perished with the sinking of the SS Erinpura on their way to Malta, before the invasion of the Allies to Sicily.  The booklet was printed by the surviving members of the company to mark the anniversary of the sinking of the ship.  It contains a list of the members of the company who perished at sea, alongside testimony by one of the survivors, a short tribute by company commander Major Harry Yoffe, and additional texts.  Enclosed are three leaves of the newspaper “A Missive to the Male and Female Soldiers” issued by the executive committee of the Histadrut Labor Federation (June 1943 / May 1944), which contain articles about the 462nd Transport Company and the sinking disaster.  One of the articles covers a memorial service the company held on the anniversary of the sinking of the Erinpura, noting that “the company published a special booklet in their memory that was distributed among the participants” (presumably, referring to the booklet before us). – Booklet: 13 leaves, in a transparent nylon cover (new), 16.5X22 cm.  Good condition.  Stains.  Worming.  Closed and open tears to edges, most of them restored.  Enclosed leaves: 25 cm.  Numerous stains.  Small tears, holes and filing holes.  Not in NLI.  [National Library of Israel]  Provenance:  The Rimon Family Collection.

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Second… Collection of Booklets and Journals – The Jewish Brigade and Jewish Units in the British Army – 1940s

Collection of booklets and journals of Jewish units in the British army.  The first half of the 1940s.  Approx. 40 booklets and journals (mostly mimeographed typescripts), printed for various Jewish units in the British army, including the Jewish Brigade and transport companies.  The journals provide much information about the activity of the units, the battles and the lives of the Jewish soldiers in Europe.  Some of them are accompanied by illustrations.  Included: • “Basha’ar” (At the Gate), internal booklet no. 3, 1941 – a booklet encouraging students to enlist in the British army. • Journals of No. 5 Water Tank Coy. R.A.S.C; 462 General Transport Coy. R.A.S.C; company 553, R.A.O.C; 178 General Transport Coy. R.A.S.C; and other companies.  • Issue no. 3 of the journal of the 1st Palestinian Light Anti-Aircraft Battery. Merchavya, 1943.  One of the articles in the issue deals with the need to enlist and fight for the Jewish Yishuv in face of the news about the destruction of European Jewry. • Issues 4-5 of “Bama’avak” (In the Struggle), the journal of the Jewish Brigade. Belgium, 1945. • A volume compiling various journals and leaflets; most of them of the Jewish transport companies. • and more.  – A total of approx. 40 items (some of them bound together). Size and condition vary.  Provenance: The Rimon Family Collection.

The vehicle illustrated on the cover of the booklet is a Bedford QL, a truck “manufactured by Bedford [over 52,000 built] for use by the British Armed Forces in the Second World War.”

This Bedford QLC (fire engine, signals vehicle, or petrol tanker), from The Shopland Collection, was manufactured in 1943 and restored in the 1990s.

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Third… Jewish Transportation Unit 462 – Italy, 1945

Passover haggadah. Y.A.L. [Jewish Transportation Unit] 462, Royal Services Corps, Italy, 1945.

Non-traditional haggadah, printed for the use of the Jewish soldiers serving in Transportation Unit 462 of the British Army in Italy during World War II.

Before the meal, under the title “On This Festive Occasion” and before “The Commander’s Blessing”, the following text appears [Hebrew]: “On this night of vigil, when we sit down for the Seder of 1945, in Italy – in a foreign land, and we ourselves are wearing military uniforms, we feel the absence of our friends, seated together with us at this time last year.  We are pained by the loss of Jewish communities in Europe, that are no longer, exterminated by a cruel and evil hand.  We have some flashes of light: the fighting Jewish brigade, that carries the flag of Israel and is in the right place, and the first arrival of the few survivors and the children we have trained. Our longing is strong, and tonight, our hearts yearn for our home – our country”. – [15] leaves (back cover missing), 16.5 x 20.5 cm. Fair-good condition. Front cover detached and torn on margins. Stains (mostly to cover and leaf margins). The inscription “illustrations by Stiger” and the emblem of the Jewish Transportation Unit, both printed on the inner side of the front cover, are heavily blurred. – Not in the book by Aviram Paz, “The Exodus from Egypt, Then and Now, Collection of Rare Passover Haggadahs from the 1940s, from the Author’s Collection” (Kibbutz Dalia, 2015).

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Fourth… Collection of Issues of the Newspaper “HaHayil” – Soldiers of the Jewish Brigade in Europe, 1946 / Invitation to a Hanukkah party in Tobruk, Libya, 1942

HaHayil, daily newspaper for Jewish soldiers. “Western Europe” [probably Brussels], January to June, 1946.  Issue Nos. 519-21, 523, 540, 547-48, 550, 557, 563, 570, 582, 594, 605, 625, 640. Hebrew.

First image…  16 issues of the newspaper “HaHayil.”  The newspaper was first published in Italy under the title “LaHayal…” [“To the Soldier, Daily Newsmagazine for Jewish Soldiers in Continental Europe”], but following the surrender of Nazi Germany, the soldiers of the Jewish Brigade were transferred to the Low Countries, the newspaper’s editorial board moved to Brussels, and the paper then began to appear under its new title.  The issues printed during the newspaper’s second incarnation, in Brussels, document the defeat of Germany and the lives of Jewish soldiers in postwar Europe, containing a wealth of information regarding Palestine and the Jewish Yishuv there, in addition to dealing with the Holocaust and its survivors, and the Jewish Brigade and it soldiers.

Newspaper issues 34 cm; invitation sheet 29 cm. Condition varies.

This issue of HaHayil, number 570, published March 8, 1946, can be viewed in full at the National Library of Israel.  

Second image…  Enclosed: A one-page invitation to a Hanukkah party in December 1942 in Tobruk, Libya, extended to the soldiers of the 5th and 11th RASC (water supply) Companies, and the 462nd, 178th, and 179th RASC (general) Companies.  

The units listed in the invitation can be seen just below the title, in the first and second lines of text.