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On land, sea and air: Jewish men share their WW II stories
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BY: ARLENE FINE Senior Staff Reporter
In honor of Veterans Day and as a follow-up to Ken Burns’s seven-part documentary “The War,” the CJN asked members of the Jewish community who had served in WW II to share their stories.
The response was overwhelming. This is the first of a three-part series as former vets describe their war experiences.
Was a POW in Germany
My worst memory of the war was being a POW. I was on my 48th of 50 missions as tail gunner in the U.S. Air Force when my plane was shot down. I used my parachute and landed safely. Fortunately, I had been warned by another Jewish soldier to tear off my dog tags if I was in danger of being captured. A Jewish soldier who had been captured by the Nazis kept his dog tags on, and he was shot.
When I hit the ground, I was met by Nazi soldiers who took me to a prisoner of war camp. They put me in a dark dungeon and slipped horrible rations in through the bottom of my cell, including bread made mostly out of sawdust.
After a while, I was moved to another camp. The Germans lined us up and made us walk for many miles. If anybody tried to escape, he was shot. It was winter, and we had very little clothing so we suffered from frostbite. We were treated like animals and not allowed to use the toilet, so we had to do our business in our pants. As we walked, groups of Germans, including children, spit at us and called us names.
We eventually went to another camp called Stalag Luft #1. If you put your head out of the window of your cell to get some air, it would be shot off. There were vicious dogs all around ready to tear you to pieces.
Eventually, we were freed by the Russians.
I still suffer from injuries I got in the war.
Albert Harris, 84
Pepper Pike
Army air traffic controller in the “Mighty Eighth”
I was an air-traffic controller in the “Mighty Eighth” Air Force division for 2-1/2 years. Our B-17 and B-24 bombers targeted Germany from airfields in England from 1942 until war’s end in 1945.
Mine was a dangerous position because the Germans liked to target and destroy control towers, and I had to take a “dive” more than once. Sometimes we operated out of a caravan of trucks at the end of the runways. One night, the Germans followed our pilots back to England as our men were trying frantically to land.
When our men were on a mission, we had to send planes up every 30 seconds. They would often come back on the runway all shot up. Many times when we rushed up to the planes, we found badly wounded or dead men inside.
In the 8th Air Force, 26,000 guys died and 34,000 had to bail out; a lot were killed coming down. Many hit the ground and were captured by the Nazis who put them into concentration camps as bad as Auschwitz.
People ask why didn’t we bomb the railroad tracks leading to the concentration camps. Our orders were to hit targets. But we did hit marshalling yards where the trains gathered. My outfit alone hit 54 marshalling units.
It is very hard to hit railroad tracks directly from 33,000 feet, especially when only one in six bombs hits its target. We did not hit the tracks near the camps because we might have missed and killed everybody in the camp. Also, if we focused on the tracks, the Germans would have repaired them in 24 hours. The theory was to end the war as soon as possible and to use all our efforts to make that happen.
Lou Freiberg, 84
Beachwood
Served as aerial gunner in South Pacific bombing runs
After returning to the South Pacific for my second tour with Torpedo Squadron 22, we were attached to the USS Cowpens and along with carriers USS Wasp, Hornet, Belleau Wood, the cruisers Canberra, Boston, Wichita and ten destroyers, we cruised toward Palau for the invasion set for Sept. 15, 1944.
We bombed the islands twice a day n on Sept. 8 and 9 n and we met with little return fire. Since there seemed to be such light opposition, the rest of the flights were cancelled, and the force headed west for the first strikes against the Philippines.
Our first flights were bombing raids on Mindanao, the southernmost of the islands. It was my first time flying over a large body of enemy-held territory. I was used to small atolls and a confined bombing target, while this flight across large green mountains and numerous harbors was a sightseer’s delight.
When we arrived at the airfield near Digos, the anti-aircraft fire began exploding at 10,000 feet and followed us down in our dive. A large burst near our plane threw us off course momentarily, but the pilot corrected quickly, and we dropped our bombs directly at the intersection of two runways.
After we returned, we counted 18 holes in the plane. A piece of flak had cut through some radio cables and exited through my turret, tearing away the wind screen. One fragment shattered the Plexiglas where the radioman was stationed.
Sherwin Goodman, 82
South Euclid
Served in Iraq for three years
I served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. I was stationed in Iraq for three-and-a-half years. Our mission was to convoy trucks loaded with war materiel for 1,000 miles through deserts, mountains and camel roads to the Russian border close to Siberia. It was a horrendous task, with 24-hour soup kitchens and relief stations every 50 miles.
The intense heat of 130 degrees, together with giant flies and mosquitoes, lead to heat exhaustion and dysentery.
Advancing 50 miles a day was considered excellent progress. At one station, I met some Jewish Russian soldiers who informed me that Vitebsk, where I was born, was in the direct path of the Nazis, who killed most of the Jews there.
After 18 months in the desert, I got a dream assignment to run a radio station in Baghdad. There were 100,000 Jews living in Baghdad at the time.
David Genshaft, 91
Beachwood
His ship sunk by kamikaze pilot, he swam to safety
I was in the Navy and served as a quartermaster on a destroyer with the 11th fleet in Alaska, where I participated in the battle for the Aleutian Islands. A small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska. This battle was important because control of the Aleutians would prevent a possible U.S. attack across the Northern Pacific.
While on patrol outside of Kiska, our destroyer was hit by a mine, and 85 feet of the ship was blown off. I was standing on the bridge at that time. Over 105 men were lost or injured that day.
We came back to the U.S., and our destroyer was repaired.
I then served with the 7th Fleet, and we went through the New Guinea campaign. Following that, we were sent to the Philippines, and I was in the Japanese invasion of those islands in Nov. 1944. We were sunk by a kamikaze pilot. During a battle, when my ship was hit, I didn’t have time to be scared. I had my life jacket on and swam to the nearest ship.
When I got back to the States, I served with the industrial incentive division for 30 days, making speeches in war plants about the war. I would write my speech and then it was carefully censored because it was still wartime, and you could not say anything that would hurt our war effort. Then I went back to the West Coast and finished up on Treasure Island Naval Base in San Francisco. As a survivor of three battles, I did not have to go back overseas.
Phil Levine
University Heights
Taught officers how to handle bombsight
I was sent to Bombsight School in Denver, where I learned about the bombsight, an instrument on a bomber that determines when to drop a bomb in order to strike a target. After graduating, I was sent to West Texas and in time I taught young officers how to handle the bombsight in flight and combat. When one of my officers returned, he stopped at the school and thanked me for the lessons that he said were most helpful.
What a reward!
Robert Zober, 90
Beachwood
Four stars in the window
This picture was taken in our family home on E. 113 St. in 1945 when my brothers returned from the service.
Evelyn Wold Skolnik
Beachwood
The response was overwhelming. This is the first of a three-part series as former vets describe their war experiences.
Was a POW in Germany
My worst memory of the war was being a POW. I was on my 48th of 50 missions as tail gunner in the U.S. Air Force when my plane was shot down. I used my parachute and landed safely. Fortunately, I had been warned by another Jewish soldier to tear off my dog tags if I was in danger of being captured. A Jewish soldier who had been captured by the Nazis kept his dog tags on, and he was shot.
When I hit the ground, I was met by Nazi soldiers who took me to a prisoner of war camp. They put me in a dark dungeon and slipped horrible rations in through the bottom of my cell, including bread made mostly out of sawdust.
After a while, I was moved to another camp. The Germans lined us up and made us walk for many miles. If anybody tried to escape, he was shot. It was winter, and we had very little clothing so we suffered from frostbite. We were treated like animals and not allowed to use the toilet, so we had to do our business in our pants. As we walked, groups of Germans, including children, spit at us and called us names.
We eventually went to another camp called Stalag Luft #1. If you put your head out of the window of your cell to get some air, it would be shot off. There were vicious dogs all around ready to tear you to pieces.
Eventually, we were freed by the Russians.
I still suffer from injuries I got in the war.
Albert Harris, 84
Pepper Pike
Army air traffic controller in the “Mighty Eighth”
I was an air-traffic controller in the “Mighty Eighth” Air Force division for 2-1/2 years. Our B-17 and B-24 bombers targeted Germany from airfields in England from 1942 until war’s end in 1945.
Mine was a dangerous position because the Germans liked to target and destroy control towers, and I had to take a “dive” more than once. Sometimes we operated out of a caravan of trucks at the end of the runways. One night, the Germans followed our pilots back to England as our men were trying frantically to land.
When our men were on a mission, we had to send planes up every 30 seconds. They would often come back on the runway all shot up. Many times when we rushed up to the planes, we found badly wounded or dead men inside.
In the 8th Air Force, 26,000 guys died and 34,000 had to bail out; a lot were killed coming down. Many hit the ground and were captured by the Nazis who put them into concentration camps as bad as Auschwitz.
People ask why didn’t we bomb the railroad tracks leading to the concentration camps. Our orders were to hit targets. But we did hit marshalling yards where the trains gathered. My outfit alone hit 54 marshalling units.
It is very hard to hit railroad tracks directly from 33,000 feet, especially when only one in six bombs hits its target. We did not hit the tracks near the camps because we might have missed and killed everybody in the camp. Also, if we focused on the tracks, the Germans would have repaired them in 24 hours. The theory was to end the war as soon as possible and to use all our efforts to make that happen.
Lou Freiberg, 84
Beachwood
Served as aerial gunner in South Pacific bombing runs
After returning to the South Pacific for my second tour with Torpedo Squadron 22, we were attached to the USS Cowpens and along with carriers USS Wasp, Hornet, Belleau Wood, the cruisers Canberra, Boston, Wichita and ten destroyers, we cruised toward Palau for the invasion set for Sept. 15, 1944.
We bombed the islands twice a day n on Sept. 8 and 9 n and we met with little return fire. Since there seemed to be such light opposition, the rest of the flights were cancelled, and the force headed west for the first strikes against the Philippines.
Our first flights were bombing raids on Mindanao, the southernmost of the islands. It was my first time flying over a large body of enemy-held territory. I was used to small atolls and a confined bombing target, while this flight across large green mountains and numerous harbors was a sightseer’s delight.
When we arrived at the airfield near Digos, the anti-aircraft fire began exploding at 10,000 feet and followed us down in our dive. A large burst near our plane threw us off course momentarily, but the pilot corrected quickly, and we dropped our bombs directly at the intersection of two runways.
After we returned, we counted 18 holes in the plane. A piece of flak had cut through some radio cables and exited through my turret, tearing away the wind screen. One fragment shattered the Plexiglas where the radioman was stationed.
Sherwin Goodman, 82
South Euclid
Served in Iraq for three years
I served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps. I was stationed in Iraq for three-and-a-half years. Our mission was to convoy trucks loaded with war materiel for 1,000 miles through deserts, mountains and camel roads to the Russian border close to Siberia. It was a horrendous task, with 24-hour soup kitchens and relief stations every 50 miles.
The intense heat of 130 degrees, together with giant flies and mosquitoes, lead to heat exhaustion and dysentery.
Advancing 50 miles a day was considered excellent progress. At one station, I met some Jewish Russian soldiers who informed me that Vitebsk, where I was born, was in the direct path of the Nazis, who killed most of the Jews there.
After 18 months in the desert, I got a dream assignment to run a radio station in Baghdad. There were 100,000 Jews living in Baghdad at the time.
David Genshaft, 91
Beachwood
His ship sunk by kamikaze pilot, he swam to safety
I was in the Navy and served as a quartermaster on a destroyer with the 11th fleet in Alaska, where I participated in the battle for the Aleutian Islands. A small Japanese force occupied the islands of Attu and Kiska. This battle was important because control of the Aleutians would prevent a possible U.S. attack across the Northern Pacific.
While on patrol outside of Kiska, our destroyer was hit by a mine, and 85 feet of the ship was blown off. I was standing on the bridge at that time. Over 105 men were lost or injured that day.
We came back to the U.S., and our destroyer was repaired.
I then served with the 7th Fleet, and we went through the New Guinea campaign. Following that, we were sent to the Philippines, and I was in the Japanese invasion of those islands in Nov. 1944. We were sunk by a kamikaze pilot. During a battle, when my ship was hit, I didn’t have time to be scared. I had my life jacket on and swam to the nearest ship.
When I got back to the States, I served with the industrial incentive division for 30 days, making speeches in war plants about the war. I would write my speech and then it was carefully censored because it was still wartime, and you could not say anything that would hurt our war effort. Then I went back to the West Coast and finished up on Treasure Island Naval Base in San Francisco. As a survivor of three battles, I did not have to go back overseas.
Phil Levine
University Heights
Taught officers how to handle bombsight
I was sent to Bombsight School in Denver, where I learned about the bombsight, an instrument on a bomber that determines when to drop a bomb in order to strike a target. After graduating, I was sent to West Texas and in time I taught young officers how to handle the bombsight in flight and combat. When one of my officers returned, he stopped at the school and thanked me for the lessons that he said were most helpful.
What a reward!
Robert Zober, 90
Beachwood
Four stars in the window
This picture was taken in our family home on E. 113 St. in 1945 when my brothers returned from the service.
Evelyn Wold Skolnik
Beachwood
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