Steven Karras

by The Enemy I Knew: German Jews in the Allied Military

  In the Saar Basin we liberated some slave laborers who were working in coal mines. They were like skeletons. When I talked to one of the Polish workers who spoke German, I told him how terrible it was how the Nazis had treated him. He replied, “This is nothing. You should see what they’ve done to the Jews.” Until that moment, I had absolutely no idea what was going on, and it was the first time I found out about the Holocaust.

  Eventually, we were taken up to the Saar River and were going to make a crossing in assault boats. I knew then that we wouldn’t survive that, especially if we were going to be in the first wave. The fortifications were such that we couldn’t stand a chance, so we were pulled back for a few days until Patton’s Third Army surrounded the Saar River Basin. On March 18, we were finally able to cross the river without a shot being fired and we took Saarbrucken. When we got there, a German came out, and the battalion commander asked my company commander, “You got anyone who speaks German in your company?”

  When my commander said, “Yeah, we have a kid who speaks German,” the battalion commander said, “Well, forget about him; he’s now in 3rd Battalion Headquarters Company.”

  Then we marched about five miles into the first German town before we got to Kaiserslautern, When we saw all of the white flags and white bed sheets hanging outside the windows, I was proud as heck. It was the first night I slept in a bed for about one hundred days.

  The war was over on May 8, and we were moved to Dietz, near the Rhine, for occupation duty. One of our jobs was to get the slave laborers back to their countries. I went to Fulda to talk to the railroad people about getting the French slave laborers back to France. My town was not far from there, so I decided to go back. Since I had to ask my captain for permission, I promised to get him five hundred fresh eggs, which was easy because I knew many of the farmers in all of the villages around there. I ended up coming back with one thousand eggs.

  When I went back to Roth, the first thing I did was go to the cemetery where my father and grandparents were buried. It was in terrible shape. The stones were knocked down, and they had made a corn field out of it. For them, that was okay because no more Jews were going to be buried there. I saw the mayor, who I happened to know before the war, and said, “I want the cemetery cleaned up.” When he gave me some excuse about not having enough men in the town to do the job, I said, “If it’s not done by the time I come back, you’ll do it personally while I point a rifle at you.” Needless to say, by the time I did eventually return, the cemetery was in good shape, as it is to this day.

  Otto Stern was a salesman for Shoe Repair Supplies in Chicago for nearly thirty-five years and retired in 1990. On September 16, 2004, his grandson, 1st Lt. Andrew K. Stern, platoon commander of the Third Platoon, B Company, 1st Tank Battalion, 1st Marine Division, was killed in action in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. Andy is buried at Arlington National Cemetery section 60, site 7999.

  Chapter 25

  KURT KLEIN

  WALLDORF, GERMANY

  5th Infantry Division

  Kurt Klein immigrated without his parents to the United States in 1937 to join his sister in who had fled Germany one year earlier. His brother arrived in 1938. Klein was inducted into the U.S. Army in 1942 and eventually became an intelligence officer in the 5th Infantry Division. He is pictured above in France, 1944.

  I was born in 1920 in the town of Walldorf, which is a small town outside of Heidelberg. I grew up, of course, during the turbulent time between the two great world wars. I saw what the weak economy lead to in Germany and how, step by step, the Nazis gained more power until it culminated in 1933 with Hitler becoming chancellor of Germany.

  World War I was always present in my life. I read a great deal, not only in books, but in current magazines. Sometimes my father would tell me some stories about it, and there were pictures around the house as well. He did not particularly delude himself about the aims of that war, but he played his part. I must admit that to me, it seemed like ancient times, but while I was growing up it was ever-present and collective feelings of frustration remained, which Hitler very cleverly used to manipulate the German psyche.

  I always sensed that there would be another war even then, because there were so many people who were frustrated by the outcome of World War I and wanted to remake history. During the postwar depression, my father was hard hit economically. He had a hops and tobacco brokerage business and it was very difficult to keep it going during the inflationary period, which added to the lot of his problems. Many businesses suffered because whatever they sold at a certain price that day had no meaning by the time the customer would pay them. It was a constant struggle during that period to keep businesses afloat.

  THE JEWS IN GERMANY were more patriotic than possibly in any other country. They felt themselves totally a part of that society. Some would try to be more German than some Germans. I myself grew up before Hitler thinking that things would remain exactly the same as always, and I simply grew up German. I never knew that anybody would make the distinction between being Jewish and German.

  Also, unlike in America, the Jews lived anywhere in any given city, not just one area. Even today in the United States, you find certain sections of any city that are predominately Jewish. You would not have found this in Germany before the war. There was an easy interchange with the German population back then. We had many non-Jewish friends and didn’t make any distinction between each other.

  By and large in our town, we felt it made no difference what religion we were; we simply celebrated different holidays. Sometimes we would share those holidays with our Christian friends. They would invite us around for Christmastime or Easter and we would invite them for our Hanukkah celebrations. We did not observe anything they did and vice versa, but this seemingly made very little difference and there was a free and easy interchange. We were in each other’s homes and sat at each other’s tables, which was why it was such a blow to see that these very same people turned away from us. Some of my erstwhile friends with whom I had been very chummy were the very ones who, when I was already in the United States, invaded my parents’ home on Kristallnacht and smashed all of their furniture. One of my very best friends was the ringleader.

  I know of one friend who fought the propaganda that the Nazis was spreading. After Kristallnacht and at great risk to himself, he spoke to my parents on the street after I had already left the country. Another time he came on the train to their house, which was extremely risky in those days, especially in a small town where everybody knew everybody else, and expressed his indignation at what was going on.

  WHEN HITLER CAME INTO POWER, the Jews noticed the change immediately. When I came home from school one day, I found Stormtroopers guarding the door to our home and didn’t know what to expect, but they let me pass because they obviously knew me. Early on, there was a boycott of Jewish homes and stores. The Nazis wanted to point out to the German population that they ought not to conduct business with Jews or be friendly with them in any way. And it had side effects.

  It became very obvious, if not in 1933, then in 1935 when the Nuremburg Laws were passed. These laws disenfranchised Jews and deprived them of their official decisions in schools, hospitals, and government. They also deprived Jews of citizenship. It was quite clear that there was no future in Germany, especially for young people. That’s when we made our first moves to see if we could get out. My sister was fortunate enough to be in nurses training at the time, which would help toward her emigration. Also, in 1936, we had relatives in Buffalo, New York, who sent the necessary affidavits that were required. So she was able to leave in 1936 and, in turn, made it possible for me to follow in 1937.

  There were, of course, other people on that ship who were fleeing the Nazis. I met a young non-Jewish American man who had just finished his studies in Heidelberg and with whom I became quite friendly and engaged in a correspondence after I came to the United States. Although he liked his experience in Heidelberg, he predicted that Germany would have to pay a ste
ep price for some of the things it was doing. He believed that the regime was far too militaristic and that the outrages against the Jews would have dire consequences.

  I LANDED IN NEW YORK, and members of my family who had also lived in my hometown came to the pier to get me. I spent my first night with them in Brooklyn. They had gone to the States two years beforehand because their brother had been in the States since the mid 1920s, so they had an anchor there and were able to leave fairly early.

  From the day I came to the United States I had the urge to become a mainstream American and wanted to become as Americanized as I possibly could. I did everything I could to follow. I soon developed friendships with American boys and others who had come from Europe, learned English, and acclimated. I would say that I could do all the things my American friends could do. It was a process that went on a great many years and has never really stopped.

  I had seen New York City in films and photos, but I could hardly believe that I was there. Of course, to a young boy, the whole experience was an adventure not only because of the perils imposed on me and my family in Germany, but also because traveling to a place like that seemed immensely exciting to me. It meant that much more to me to see New York and discover all it could offer, but I didn’t have all that much time to explore. Even a subway ride was exciting. I changed my mind in later years, as I was somewhat less enthusiastic about subway rides when I visited again. For quite a while, I persisted in seeing something I hadn’t had in my former life and I found it exciting.

  Naturally I rejoiced, for I now could lead a life of freedom. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter was that we had come at the tail end of the Depression in the United States, so it was not that easy to find jobs. When we did have a job, it was a menial one that paid very little. So the first couple of years were a struggle.

  I knew, of course, that I was removed from the danger, but it weighed heavily on my mind that my parents were still in Germany. We sent papers several times and each time the events overtook us—some new catastrophe or disaster developed and we had to start from scratch. The first papers we were able to send them that would help them get out, the man who vouched for them died shortly thereafter, negating the papers, so we had to start from square one.

  Then we had to look around for other relatives and when we found them, my parents were deported with an hour’s notice to the south of France. Of course, that changed the situation entirely and we were up against new problems. France was still neutral, so we could have gotten them out by way of Lisbon or North Africa, but there was nothing but red tape.

  Additionally, the prevailing attitude in the U.S. State Department was to let in as few Jewish immigrants as possible. At every turn, obstacles were put in the way of completing our papers, and we had to get additional papers and endless papers and had to find people who would vouch that my parents had not been active politically, which was absurd. Also, the ages of my parents (my father was sixty-two) presented another obstacle and were used as a reason to delay their getting a visa.

  I had hoped that, once the war started in Europe, America would get involved because I saw it as the only way to stop that tremendous evil. All of the political developments were absolutely predictable to someone who knew the conditions in Germany and the brutality of the Nazis. So I did expect war to break out, although I didn’t know when that would be. It was a great frustration for me to stand by and see all of these developments that I knew were going to happen without being able to do anything or help my parents more. So it came as a great relief when America entered the war, for as tragic and dramatic as that was for its people, it had to be done. Instead of being a powerless bystander, I found that now I could actually play a small role in the defeat of this monster.

  I could not volunteer for the army, however, because I was considered an Enemy Alien. I registered with my draft board anyway and eventually it said that I qualified for induction into the army. By November 1942 I reported to the army.

  The induction center for Buffalo was Fort Niagara, which was not far from Niagara Falls on Lake Ontario. I stayed there for a rather long time because no one knew what to do with me. I was called in to the intelligence officer, who tried to test my loyalty to America by saying things like he had in mind to send me as a paratrooper behind enemy lines; how did I feel about that? I said anything he saw fit for me to do I would be prepared to do it. I convinced him that I was, in fact, loyal, and from there he sent me to South Carolina to Camp Croft to start my basic training. Being in the army came as a tremendous relief to me because I appreciated that America had given me the opportunity to serve as a soldier and possibly defeat evil. It was the first time that I felt good that I could help.

  I didn’t find that anyone discriminated against me or inquired too much into my background. Those who did didn’t seem to have any feelings in particular against me for having come from Germany. I never found any overt signs of anti-Semitism wherever I was in the army, then or even later. A group of German Jews that included me, and was attached to various units, received some puzzlement from some of the troops who had never seen a Jew in their lives, perhaps because they lived in remote areas. I never found any feeling of hostility, however. They did inquire, and it was quite obvious that I was from Germany. Some of the German Jews had a stronger accent and some had less of one, but either way no one I knew ever found it to be a problem. I have heard stories from other GIs that they ran into anti-Semitism, but I personally never did.

  I went to basic training in Camp Croft, and I was absolutely enthusiastic. I didn’t find it a great hardship, for I expected worse after the stories I heard about basic training. Frankly, I was in good physical condition, though somewhat short at the time. For me, it was just part of the adventure and I was perfectly willing to see it through all the way.

  After four weeks of basic training, I was called in by the commanding officer. He told me that since I spoke German I would be sent to the military intelligence center at Camp Ritchie, which turned out to be in Maryland, not far from where Camp David is today. This was in January 1943.

  Obviously, my background was considered in my being sent to Ritchie. I was among the initial classes (the third class) they had for the courses in military intelligence, and the camp was still not perfectly in place. I remember we had to wade through mud in the winter because there were no roads yet between the barracks, but we had some extremely interesting courses. We learned everything to do with military intelligence, the makeup of battle, and everything about the German army that would be of value to us. We actually knew as much about the German army as we did about the American army at the time. The classes were between fifteen and twenty people of all ranks. A private could be sitting next to a major, because we were pulled in from all over, as we had some capabilities that were appropriate for military intelligence.

  I suspect that a lot of it came through the British Army. It had a very good intelligence service. Although as an ordinary person, I wasn’t aware of what intelligence gathering had gone on, I think for a long time it had compiled a lot of material on the German army, having been engaged with that army so much earlier than America. Whatever the British could find out was passed on to us. We also learned about the British army and its ranks and customs.

  It gave us a certain sense of importance and satisfaction that such privileged information was accessible to us and to learn it all. Also, the rules were a lot more relaxed than they were in basic training, even if the conditions were a bit primitive while I was there. On the other hand, we would playfully refer to it as a country club because military protocol was not strictly observed and we had certain freedoms that others in an army camp didn’t have. We had discipline, but in certain areas it was certainly more lax than others.

  We went out on these maneuvers and had training both in the field and in classrooms. As a matter of fact, the program tried to make it realistic by having members of my team dress up in German uniforms with German equipment and speak in German
. We taught the troops how to take apart a German machine gun and put it together again, along with what other kinds of weapons they could expect to find and how to deal with them. We learned quite a bit about German weaponry. They had some really effective guns, such as the 88s. I became quite adept at taking apart some of their weapons. We found that their rifles seemed to be inferior to our M1 rifles, but some of their other equipment was really better than what we had at the time.

  I FORMED SOME GOOD FRIENDSHIPS there that still persist today. There were also notable people at Ritchie. There were some who had worked in Hollywood, which was extremely interesting to us. For example, my brother had Klaus Mann in his class, who was the son of Thomas Mann and was a writer like his father. There was also another well-known German writer, Hans Habe, who was there when I was. He organized something that was extremely fascinating to me at the time. We had a movie theater, and one day we were called to assemble in there. We found it decked out with all the paraphernalia that the Nazis had used for one of their party congresses in Nuremburg, including huge banners with swastikas. He gave a speech just as Hitler would have delivered. Everything was simulated to the highest degree that it could be.

  Aside from that, we would go on field problems where some of us would dress up as German soldiers, and we had to capture and then interrogate them to show what we had learned in the courses. They would only respond to certain questions that were pertinent and had been pre-programmed. If we hit on the right combination, they would answer, otherwise they would refuse. That would prove we had learned our lessons in class. I had assumed a certain authority through my training and often thought it was the fulfillment of a dream to find myself in that position. Certainly it was a position in the army that I never expected to have, so I was very happy I could be in that place in that capacity.