Bruce H. Wolk - Jewish Aviators in World War II: Personal Narratives of American Men and Women

Foreword by Sheldon A. Goldberg

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2355-9

2016 Bruce H. Wolk. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover photograph of P-47 fighter plane 2016 DenGuy/iStock

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

In Memory

Staff Sergeant Laurence Wolk, 8th Air Force,
467th Bombardment Group, 791st Squadron

First Lieutenant John Wilson Roberts III, H Troop,
17th Cavalry, 198th Infantry Brigade, Americal Division

It would have been impossible to write this book without the kindness and support of the American-Jewish World War II veterans who were interviewed. They became first my teachers, then my friends.

My heartfelt appreciation and deepest gratitude to Lt. Col. Sheldon Goldberg, Ph.D., USAF (Ret.), docent and historian at the National Museum of American-Jewish Military History. Dr. Goldberg is a 30-year veteran of the USAF, and the recipient of two Distinguished Flying Crosses for valor as an F-4 weapons systems officer during the war in Southeast Asia. Dr. Goldberg provided me with invaluable editing assistance and critical historical review.

I would like to thank the Jewish War Veterans of America, specifically former national executive director Col. Herbert Rosenbleeth, USA (Ret.), and Cheryl Waldman, former national programs/public relations coordinator.

I would like to acknowledge Kimberly L. Johnson, coordinator of special collections, and Sarah K. Whittington, library assistant, of the Texas Womans University; Renee Corcoran, director of the Nebraska Jewish Historical Society; Dr. Vivian Rogers-Price, research center director, and Jean Prescott, reference specialist, of the Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum; Herbert Weber, Willi Wachholz and Monika Wachholz of Flieger-Lynchmorde; TheIntermountain Jewish News; Aaron Elson, Linda Dewey and Duane Giesler of the Kassel Mission Historical Society; Dennis West of the 483rd Bomb Group Association; Andy Wilkinson of the 467th Bomb Group Association; and Larry Grauerholz of the Armed Forces Escape and Evasion Society (AFEES).

Many individuals went out of their way to provide assistance for this book: Marcia Allen; Maurice Ashkinaz; CJ Backus; Norman Cohen; Mickey Corn; Philip Elbaum, LCSW; Michael Fuenfer, M.D.; Jack Latkin; Jonathan Newmark, M.D.; Lynne Riedesel; Allen Sabol; Rabbi Rafael Sonnenfeld; Morris Spector; William Wagner; and the family of Laurence Wolk.

Finally, to Jannette, who has always had faith in my humble journey.

After the first mission, I figured were never going to make 35. So I had an attitude, This is it. It never bothered me too muchI figured Id never get back. The most anyone in our crew had was a couple pieces of flak that hit the nose of the bomber and some frostbite. So we were lucky. But remember, we had three Jewish guys watching over everyone else! On every mission I said the Shema Yisrael,* you know, to myself. I was in my own world down in that turret. At 18, you dont have a wife and kids to worry about.

SSGT Morton Israel, ball turret gunner.
For a period his bomber, most improbably,
had three Jewish crewmembers.

*A sacred Jewish prayer: Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One.

From before the time our country was the United States, Jewish men and women have participated in its defense. In 1654, beginning with the small Jewish community under the leadership of Asher Levy, Jews won the right to stand guard on the walls of New Amsterdam. Jews have served in every branch of the U.S. armed forces and fought in every war since this nations founding.

Yet just as there are Holocaust deniers, so too are there those who have repeatedly claimed over the years that Jews never served, or if they served, never fought in Americas wars.

Even Mark Twain, having learned the truth about Jewish participation in the Civil War, retracted his 1897 Harpers article in which he wrote, [The Jew] is a frequent and faithful and capable officer in the civil service, but he is charged with an unpatriotic disinclination to stand by the flag as a soldierlike the Christian Quaker.

This book is the retelling of the personal narratives of Jewish men and women aviators who wore the uniform of the U.S. Army Air Forces, Navy, Marines or the Women Airforce Service Pilots. It is a testament to the service of American Jews who fought and died in our greatest national undertakingWorld War II. It is a chronicle of heroism and honor that has not been told before, in many cases not even to the families of those who served.

Bruce Wolks dedication and persistence in finding these Jewish members of Americas Greatest Generation, most of whom have since passed on, is a remarkable effort that opens an unknown chapter of Jewish and World War II history and to the literature of that time.

Sheldon Goldberg, Ph.D., is docent and historian of the National Museum of American-Jewish Military History.

This book chronicles the participation of American-Jewish airmen and women in World War II. When Jewish airmen entered the service, more often than not they were subjected to antiSemitism. The discrimination could range from taunts and fistfights to instructors intentionally failing them in training to not receiving commendations for heroism in combat. In training and on active duty, some were questioned as to their loyalty to America, their courage under fire or whether they had the mechanical and engineering skills to pilot an aircraft or work on an engine.

When those Jews who were shot down and captured as POWs were placed into German Stalag Luft camps, antiSemitism from their fellow airmen often followed them into the barracks. Toward the end of the war, depending on the camp, they could be segregated from the other airmen for the intended purpose of being shipped to concentration camps and executednot as Allied airmen but as Jews. When the war was over, one of the prevailing attitudes some Americans had was that Jews had done the easy jobs in the service or that they had altogether avoided combat.

There has never been a book exploring the topic of the Jewish airmen in terms of their dual battle to be recognized and accepted within the ranks and to prove themselves in combat. In writing this book, I sought out as many Jewish World War II airmen and women as possible and conducted first-person interviews. I became interested in the topic not long after the death of my uncle, a childhood hero of mine, who was a ball turret gunner on a B-24 bomber with the 8th Air Force, 467th Bomb Group.

The interviewees relate service and combat experiences in all theaters of the war and stories of internment as prisoners of war in German camps. Included are accounts of how some airmen first came to suspect the Holocaust was raging below and how, in their own ways, they tried to exact revenge. The final chapter is devoted to the lives of the veterans after they returned from the war.