John was placed on a ship bound for the United States.
The year was 1939. John was 16 years old. He spoke German, Russian, and English. He knew some Yiddish, but only enough to converse with his parents and grandparents.
He was travelling alone because his Jewish parents could not afford the fare for more than one transit. They had decided that John would be given the opportunity to grow up in freedom in New York City. A cousin was to greet John when he disembarked a week later.
Their goodbyes were kept short because they all were aware they might never see one another again. His mother, Marion, had baked some of his favorite cookies and brownies for his journey. His father, Jacob, remained stoic, but when he walked away his eyes were moist.
John had two suitcases with all his worldly possessions inside. He had to leave his fishing equipment, swimming trophies, and other things, but he did not mind. He was leaving on a grand adventure with the future unknown. Life called to him to “Be brave and full of courage.” He had his prayer themes in his left pocket.
John did not find the journey too tiresome, or difficult. He was gregarious and loved to converse with those he met on board. Where are you from, he would ask. Where are you going? Are you afraid? What is your favorite food? He learned to play table tennis on board and began to learn to play Canasta cards.
The next two years passed quickly and John was set to graduate from one of Manhattan’s finest high schools. He thought he would pursue a college degree, but the events of December 11, 1941 changed everything. After the German declaration of war against the United States, the Ritchie Boys became important and vital for the Allies.
John, with his language skills and native intelligence, became one of them. In a classified postwar report by the U.S. Army it was found that nearly 60% of the credible intelligence gathered in Europe came from the Ritchie Boys.
The Ritchie Boys were a special German-Austrian unit of Military Intelligence Service officers and enlisted men of World War II who were trained at Camp Ritchie in northern Maryland. Many of them were German-speaking immigrants to the United States, often Jews, who fled Nazi persecution. They were used for interrogation of prisoners on the front lines and counter-intelligence in Europe because of their knowledge of the German language and culture.
There were 15,200 servicemen who were trained for this at the secret Camp Ritchie training facility. They received specific training in methods of intelligence, counterintelligence, interrogation, investigation, and psychological warfare.
Of this number 2,200 were Jewish refugees. They were to analyze German forces and plans, to study and demoralize the enemy. Many of them would serve as translators and interrogators, some during the Nuremberg Trials.
John interrogated POWs and defectors to obtain information about German force levels, troop movements and the physical and psychological state of the Germans. He was successful.
Following the cessation of the war, John returned to New York City, finished a college degree and raised a family. He attended the first reunion of the Ritchie Boys July 23-25, 2011 at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills, Mich.
His life, well-lived, ended on a warm autumn afternoon in September 2017. He was buried with ceremony and military pageantry and was peacefully laid to rest.