David Frey is a professor of history and director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The SS controlled the German police forces and concentration camps and directed the so-called "Final Solution" to kill all European Jews. Immigrant Soldier, The Story of Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. They took their name from the place they trained - Camp Ritchie, Maryland a secret American military intelligence center during the war. Although Ritchie Boy. Two Ritchie Boys were identified as German-language interrogators working for the Americans after they were captured in a Nazi counterattack; revealed to be Jewish, the men were summarily executed. Guy Stern: Yes, even last night. 'Ritchie Boys' Aided Army's Efforts to Defeat Germany And there's nothing that forges unity better than having a common enemy.This is Guy Stern 80 years ago. Download our app to find events, locations and programs near you. I was the only one to get out. And when their identity was discovered, they were summarily executed by the Germans that had captured them. They took their name from the place they trained - Camp Ritchie, Maryland a secret American military intelligence center during the war. In a different way, the contributions made by a small team or by a large group of individuals may also save lives and deserve to be called heroic. All had experienced harrowing escapes from Europe and dangerous but productive returns. Max Lerner: He spent several days in my jail. David Frey: There are a whole variety of prominent Ritchie Boys. One of the ways they identified subjects wanted for interrogation was by consulting a book - the Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects which listed enemy nationals suspected of committing tens of thousands of war crimes in Europe everyone from low ranking members of the armed forces to top Nazi officials. Other Ritchie Boys were able to express their motivation and accomplishments in memoirs with titles such as I Must Be a Part of This War and A Few Who Made a Difference. Victor Brombert: Yes of course. Established in 2011, the Elie Wiesel Award recognizes individuals whose actions embody the Museums vision of a world where people confront hate, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. The case of, stands out in my mind as the essence of the reason why the Ritchie Boys were able to use their intelligence (and motivation) to make an enormous difference. Jon Wertheim: So there's all sorts of impact years and years and years after the war from this this camp in Maryland? Another unusual sight: towering over recruits, Frank Leavitt, a World War I veteran and pro wrestling star at the time, was among the instructors. Ritchie Boys Honored for WWII Service, Valor | AUSA David Frey is a professor of history and director of the Center for Holocaust Studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Because Eisenhower had signed it and the Germans had an incredibly nave approach to everything that was signed and sealed. But there were the odd grace notes among the wreckage of a continent. Salinger, author of the classic book The Catcher in the Rye.. Jon Wertheim: So physical combat training as well as intelligence? And arrived in the United States penniless. Given their foreign accents, they were in particular danger of being mistaken for the enemy by their own troops, who instituted passwords at checkpoints. It was an impact on war crimes. The Ritchie Boys trained for war against these fake Germans with fake German tanks made out of wood. A nonpartisan, federal educational institution, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is Americas national memorial to the victims of the Holocaust dedicated to ensuring the permanence of Holocaust memory, understanding, and relevance. Jon Wertheim: Do you consider yourself a hero? Mothers Day.. Victor Brombert: It was very, very hard, very difficult and very rare to have a German denounce another German at that point. Web4.73K subscribers The Ritchie Boys of World War Two were more than 15,000 servicemen who fled Nazi Germany and Austria, becoming instrumental in the allied war effort with Investment banker David Rockefeller and civil rights activistWilliam Sloane Coffin were among the Ritchie Boys, who were assigned to every Army and Marines unitand to the Office of Strategic Services and the Counter Intelligence Corps. Not all the boys were immigrantsfuture banker David Rockefeller and writer J.D. I can look anybody straight in their eye and say I think I've earned the right to be an American. The Ritchie Boys | The Story It was his service in the military during World War II. In civilian life, he became a noted sculpture and fine arts teacher and rose to the presidency for the Center for Creative Studies at Detroits College of Art and Design. Your average commander in the field might not. The Ritchie Boys connected with prisoners on subjects as varied as food and soccer rivalries but they weren't above using deception on difficult targets. 70 ratings17 reviews. You playacted. Amid the chaos of war, Guy Stern and the other Ritchie Boys had a job to do. Did it give you any satisfaction? Max Lerner: It gave me a great deal of satisfaction. Divisions that liberated concentration camps included hundreds of Ritchie Boys, who interviewed survivors. Now is it because they were afraid that the Nazis might come back, that it's not over? Jon Wertheim: Is that when you first realize I'm I'm in a war here? Many of them about 14% were Jewish refugees like Kantor. Then shaping the cold war era, they really played a significant role. After the war, Frey says, a survey of battalion commanders concluded that intelligence gathered by graduates of Camp Ritchie was responsible for at least 60 percent of actionable intelligence for the Western Front Theater.. By the summer of 1944, German troops in Normandy were outnumbered and overpowered. It was Sunday, May 13, 1945, Henderson marvels. Jon Wertheim: Was it your knowledge of the language or your knowledge of the psychology and the German culture? Ritchie Boys were heroes who used their innate skills to gather information from all sources As part of denazification, photos of Nazi atrocities were posted in German shop windows and Ritchie Boys led the country's citizens on tours of the concentration camps to educate the local population about the evil Hitler had perpetrated. They spoke the same German as the Wehrmacht soldiers they were up against, they shared experiences, education and culture with them, explains Henderson. They knew the psychology and the served as the Intelligence Officer for the Second Ranger Battalion and was among those who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Divided into 6-man teams the Ritchie Boys were attached to different Army units. Jon Wertheim: That's the kind of thing you would know. Among them were the Ritchie Boys, some 15,200 men who attended the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Ritchie, Md. To Allied investigators it became a sort of Nazi hunter's bible. David Frey teaches history to cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. A few days later, Stern returned to the place of his birth, hoping to reunite with his family. David Frey: They were in fact. David Frey: But they also did terrain analysis, they also did photo analysis, and aerial reconnaissance analysis. Established by Hitler and led by Heinrich Himmler, the SS was responsible for security and intelligence collection in Germany. Another was Private First Class Leonard C. Brostrom, a member of the Mormon faith, who was awarded the prestigious Medal of Honor posthumously for his heroic actions in the Battle of the Philippines. Guy Stern: They were killed either in Warsaw or in Auschwitz. Many of the Ritchie Boys went on to have successful civilian careers, including J.D.