GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II

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GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II key artwork. Courtesy of Turquoise Films/PBS.
GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II spotlights the little-known story of the 550,000 Jewish Americans who served the United States. It was rather appropriate that the documentary received its broadcast premiere on Yom HaShoah in 2018.
For Jewish Americans, this wasn’t just a fight against the fascists. It was a fight to save their brethren, the Jews of Europe. After all, the 1935 Nuremberg laws had stripped Jews of their citizenship. There were plenty of rumors spreading in the Jewish community about the state of affairs in Europe and things were only getting worse. As GI Jews later notes, news of the Final Solution became public in 1942. For many of the 550,000 Jews who enlisted, a number of them still had family living in Europe in the 1930s. As pogroms worsened, many Jews started fleeing Europe but America more or less began closing its doors in the 1920s.
Half of America’s 4 million Jews lived in New York City during the 1930s. A number of Jewish Americans serving in World War II were either immigrants or the children of immigrants. And yet, this didn’t stop them from serving their country. The war transformed these GI Jews as they came off feeling more powerfully American and deeply Jewish. A number of GI Jews would continue their fight for democracy after the war, enlisting in the battle for Civil Rights.
One of the immigrants who left Germany was former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. His family immigrated to America in 1938. Besides Kissinger, multi-hyphenates Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner are easily the most prominent veterans interviewed in GI Jews. Brooks mentioned rumors in the Jewish community about Jews being slaughtered. Reiner describes his experience of facing antisemitism during basic training. A soldier from Louisiana wanted to know if he knew a Jew named Goldfarb.
Historian Deborah Dash Moore speaks to the Jewish experience during this time. Many Jews suffered from antisemitism, especially at school.
“That was a very antisemitic period,” Mimi Rivkin said of her childhood.
Following Kristallnacht, thousands of Jews fled Germany. Si Lewen was among them. He later returned as part of the U.S. infantry, later visiting Buchenwald following its liberation.
Most Americans were not in favor of intervention until after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. There are plenty of documentaries and books that discuss this, most recently America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H.W. Brands.
Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg was the first to enlist in the armed forces, spending 47 months in service. He was never the same ballplayer after the war as he was serving the country during his prime.
The Jews who enlisted were from every kind of background. Some had military history in their family going back to the Civil War, if not earlier wars. However, it wasn’t uncommon for them to deal with antisemitism during their military service. It’s something of a running them during GI Jews. Jack Pathman never spoke to his roommate in the barracks after being asked if he was Jewish. Some Jews chose not to advertise that they were Jewish for this reason.
Max Fuchs had come from an Orthodox background. He talks about receiving matzah and gefilte fish during Pesach. Jews had access to Shabbos candles and siddurim during their military service. Fuchs volunteered to sing at the first Jewish prayer service broadcast from Aachen after America started liberating Germany. A Yizkor service was also included to remember all the fallen GIs. “That’s when it really hit me, what was happening in Europe,” Fuchs said. He had come from Poland, but when looking out at the other GIs, he knew he wasn’t alone in losing family during the Holocaust. Fuchs became a cantor after the war.
The U.S. military had a history of segregation. But when it came to World War II, they had to run a campaign to promote religious cooperation. GI Jews notes that Rabbi David Max Eichorn was the first rabbi to serve as a chaplain during the War. His grandson, attorney Mark S. Zaid, talks about his chaplaincy during the war.
Following D-Day, chaplains held services to mourn the dead. Albert Horowitz describes his brother has being a proud Jew and proud to have fought for his country. Not long after D-Day, Americans played a pivotal role in liberating Paris from the Nazis. Maurice Paper saw a Jew in France and had a conversation. Within a week, he knew which family members were alive or dead.
Americans began hearing rumors that the Nazis were murdering Jewish prisoners of war. Both the Allied powers and the Nazis would soon face off in the Battle of the Bulge. Americans suffered 19,000 casualties and another 15,000 were taken prisoner. Jews had been told to throw away their dog tags so as to not be identified by the Nazis as Jewish. According to Lester Tanner, Jews were lined up at the stalag along with soldiers lined up to join them as a way of showing solidarity. “We are all Jews.” This was an act of courage by Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds and saved more than 200 Jews that day.
American forces blew up the large swastika after entering Nuremberg. Rabbi Eichorn had brought a Torah with him and a small ark so that they could pray at the podium where Hitler was delivered his speeches. Later, servicemen arrived at the camps, horrified by what they saw. They discuss their experience upon meeting with survivors upon liberating the camps. Kissinger was there when a subcamp of Bergen-Belson was liberated–he later discovered his grandmother had died on a death march three days before the end of war. Dozens of family members had perished.
Hitler was all but successful in killing off and erasing 1000 years of Jewish life and culture in Europe. He never saw the end of the war, having killed himself before V-E Day. J.D. Salinger, a 26-year-old sergeant and grandson of a rabbi from Lithuania, had survived D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and liberated camps. He actively wrote during his military service and spent V-E Day alone, later to be diagnosed with battle fatigue.
As mentioned earlier, GI Jews got involved with the battle for civil rights after the war. Sid Shanken, who became a rabbi after the war, went on freedom rides and walked with Dr. King. The battle for civil rights was an extension of the war.
Norman Mailer wrote a novel based on his service in the Pacific Theater. It climbed up the bestselling charts and his own fame skyrocketed in the process. Salinger also published The Catcher in the Rye, which became a classic American novel. Herman Wouk, Leon Uris, and Joseph Heller all published bestselling books offering a Jewish perspective in the years that followed. Si Lewen incorporated his memories into his drawings, earning praise from Albert Einstein.
More than being a Jewish story, GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II is an equally American story.
DIRECTOR: Lisa Ades
SCREENWRITER: Maia Harris
NARRATOR: Mark Zeisler
FEATURING: Mel Brooks, Henry Kissinger, Carl Reiner, Bea Cohen, Max Fuchs, Harold Baumgarten, Morton Brooks, Paul Cohen, Harry Corre, Leonard Fisher, Leah Garrett, Eliot Hermon, Albert Horowitz, Dahlia “Pobie” Johnston, Sam Kessler, Mildred Landis, Si Lewen, Deborah Dash Moore, Robert M. Morgenthau, Alan Moskin, Ellan Levitsky Orkin, Maurice Paper, Jack Pathman, Mimi Rivkin, Elihu Rose, Michael Rugel, Jonathan D. Sarna, Peter Selz, Sid Shanken, Art Sherman, Irvin Stovroff, Lester Tanner, Mark S. Zaid
PBS aired GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II on April 11, 2018. Grade: /5Please subscribe to Solzy on Buttondown and visit Dugout Dirt.