The Ritchie Boys, for those who may not know who they are, were a special collection of soldiers, primarily German-Austrian units, of Military Intelligence Service officers and enlisted men of World War II who were trained at Camp Ritchie in Washington County, Maryland. Many of them were German-speaking immigrants to the United States, often Jews who fled Nazi persecution. They were used primarily for interrogation of prisoners on the front lines and counter-intelligence in Europe because of their knowledge of the German language and culture. They were also involved in the Nuremberg trials as prosecutors and translators. Of the approximately 20,000 Ritchie Boys, about 2,000 are known to be Jewish.

On Monday, October 31st 2022, Congressman David Trone held at press conference at Fort Ritchie (formerly Camp Ritchie), announcing that he and Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., are introducing legislation this week (tomorrow, November 3 2022) in their respective chambers to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the Ritchie Boys. He said Monday that they're recruiting bipartisan support to get the legislation passed. It is not expected to pass in this Congress, however they plan to reintroduce it in the New Year.

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/story/news/local/2022/11/01/wwii-secret-heroes-proposed-for-congressional-gold-medal-ritchie-boys-cascade-maryland/69606571007/

There has been at least one prior post on JewishGen about the Ritchie Boys.

The un"official" Ritchie Boys website can be found at https://www.theritchieboys.com/ which includes a list of the names of the approximately 20k Ritchie Boys along with some other information. All of the information there was compiled by the unofficial Ritchie Boy historian Dan Gross, who has made it his life mission to research and compile information on the Ritchie Boys. He has a form to contact him on his website.

Full disclosure: I help run the Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page. We are always looking for family members to contact us to provide military documents, photos, stories and anything information about any Ritchie Boy. Anyone who has a relative who was a Ritchie Boy, please feel free to reach out to us. We are in close contact with Dan as well. We also work in conjunction with the Ritchie Museum who are in the process of getting funding for a brand new museum and are actively looking for donations, both monetary and of physical items of Ritchie Boys and others who also served and were stationed at Camp/Fort Ritchie for the duration it was open.

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Josh Freeling
North Carolina

Thank you Josh.  I didn't know that there were as many as 20,000 Ritchie Boys.  I can't stop remembering the wonderful film about them, and that focused on about six Ritchie Boys.  It was very informative and humorous at times (yes it was).  My father-in-law, who immigrated to the US in the 30's was drafted and was in the infantry.  He was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge, and after recovering was sent to Nice to join military intelligence in interrogating German prisoners.  I always said that he would have enjoyed seeing the film (unfortunately he passed away at 68).

I'd say the medal is a bit overdue, eh?

David Cherson

Absolutely overdue, in my opinion.

If anyone is interested in reading the text by Congressman Trone, it can be viewed at https://trone.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/TRONE_061_xml.pdf


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Josh Freeling
North Carolina

Like many others I have seen the movie and read the book.  What I was surprised to learn in Josh's writeup above was a) how many Richie Boys there were and b) that the vast majority were not Jewish.  I had always presumed that it was practically an all-Jewish unit.  Live and learn.  
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Herschel Sheiness
San Antonio, Tx
jsheines@...

I made a typo in my original post. I said "about 2000" when I should have said "about 2600" according to the information I have. My mistake. I have seen estimates that say 1/5 were Jewish, but that number seems to apply to just those who completed the 8 week course, where the figure is around 20% who are Jewish, but those numbers do not tell the whole story. Some did not finish, due to grades and the like. Others however may not have graduated because the Army urgently needed them, so they pulled them from the course. According to the research by Dan Gross, from 7/27/1942 to 9/20/1945, there were 19,669 who graduated any course at Camp Ritchie. Approximately 3800 did not graduate.

Just over 2100 Jewish Ritchie Boys were sent overseas. Just over 220 were known not to have been sent overseas.

The three largest birth place among Jewish Ritchie Boys were:
America: 781
Germany: 1103
Austria: 339
Those three countries alone account for 2223 Jewish Ritchie Boys

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Josh Freeling
North Carolina

I thought my reply was posted..if so, forgive the repeat. I just discovered that my relative, Erick Liebenstein was a Ritchie boy. Also, he was a hero as I read that he and two others captured a group of armed German soldiers. Erick's father has his own wonderful story, he managed to escape from a concentration camp. I am trying to connect with Erick's son, Howard, who lives in Florida. I am so proud of my family!
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Marla J. Schreffler- Rhode Island
mschreffler21@...

My mother's cousin, a German-Jewish refugee, was also one of the Ritchie Boys.

Like many others here, I based my "knowledge" of the Ritchie Boys on the film, which actually portrayed only one, relatively small (but important) aspect of the work done at the Ritchie Camp.

I'm in the middle of a book that I highly recommend for anyone wanting a fuller picture of the activities at the Ritchie Camp.  It is called "Ritchie Boy Secrets:  How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped Win world War II".  The author is Beverley Driver Eddy.
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Fredel Fruhman
Brooklyn, New York, USA

I think that my first exposure to the Ritchie Boys caused me to read Sons and Soldiers. The book is about the Jewish Ritchie Boys. It includes names and stories. That led me to discover that my father’s cousin was one of the instructors. I was particularly moved by the stories of those who left the danger of being a Jew in Germany only to go back again to save lives. 

Shelley Mitchell, NYC

 

Thanks very much, Josh, for your post. My father who lived with us for the last 13 years of his life, passed away in Sept. 2018 at the age of 98+. As the family historian, I had 'interviewed' him on numerous occasions and thought that I knew every aspect of his military service. He spoke of his having been sent to Boston University to "brush up" on his German (that he took at the University of Michigan as an undergraduate student), being a POW interrogator assigned to the 9th Armored Division, and fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. In 2013 he received the French Legion of Honor medal at a ceremony we all attended at a local Jewish War Veterans/VFW hall.  It was only after his passing, did I learn that he was, in fact, a Ritchie Boy. I found his name in an on-line list of identified Ritchie Boys, and later secured specific information about his 'class number' and the dates of his training. After the service, he earned a Ph.D. in psychology. His adherence to secrecy and confidentiality was never compromised, as evidenced by his non-disclosure of his Ritchie Boy status! Despite my following in his professional footsteps, my dear father ("Benny") never shared this aspect of his military career with me. He retired from the Army reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1965. Your interest in disseminating this information is very much appreciated. Please pass along any additional information regarding ongoing projects and/or interest groups associated with the Ritchie Boys. Thanks, again, Josh!

Rob Shumaker, Ph.D.
Boca Raton, Florida
rgsphd@...

Yes! I am currently reading the book X Troop by Leah Garret about them. Fascinating account of a group that I never knew about and gets little attention.
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Binyamin Kerman
Baltimore MD

Researching:
KERMAN Pinsk 
SPIELER Lodz, Zloczew, Belchatow
SEGALL, SCHWARTZ Piatra Neamt

On Fri, Nov 4, 2022 at 06:54 AM, Alan Cohen wrote:

We should remember that the American Ritchie Boys were based on the British X-Troop founded by Churchill two years earlier in 1942 and composed of mainly German-speaking Jewish refugees who could infiltrate behind the German lines to carry out commando warfare. They were so well trained that one who was captured was even interrogated by Rommel who didn't realise he was a Jew.

Unfortunately it was the Americans who got all the kudos.

 

Alan Cohen

 There was a recent book on the X Troop. What troubled me was decision by UK govt to avoid use of these heroes Jewish names at their gravesites, ostensibly to respect their chosen new identities in the UK. The fact that they were Jews who fought back proudly and deserve to be allowed to use their Jewish names at their graves was thus diminished.  Feigie Teichman

Write to your legislators indicating your support. Feigie Teichman

That was surprising to me too but it seems it was actually the wish of some of the soldiers themselves. I get the impression that many of them were driven by a desire to prove their "Englishness" after all the distrust they went through even if their main drive was a more personal vendetta against the Nazis. It makes sense that some would choose to really leave their identities behind and preserve the ones they formed and were proud of. I might not agree with that but I can understand it.
There was mention in the book of one soldier who intended to return to the grave of a fallen comrade and replace the cross with a Jewish marker. At the time a Jewish grave would have compromised the identity of their special unit.
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Binyamin Kerman
Baltimore MD

Researching:
KERMAN Pinsk 
SPIELER Lodz, Zloczew, Belchatow
SEGALL, SCHWARTZ Piatra Neamt

In case you missed my post, a few years ago, I recommend The Enemy I Knew, by Steven Karas (Zenith Press, 2009) about German Jews in the Allied Military in World War II. It contains excellent stories about 27 American soldiers, and while it's likely that some were Ritchie boys, the book does not contain an index (!) so it's difficult  to check for this.

Susan J. Gordon
New York
BIALAZURKER - Zbarazh
LEMPERT - Lvov, Skalat
SCHOENHAUT - Skalat

On Tue, Nov 8, 2022 at 01:57 PM, Susan J. Gordon wrote:

In case you missed my post, a few years ago, I recommend The Enemy I Knew, by Steven Karas (Zenith Press, 2009) about German Jews in the Allied Military in World War II. It contains excellent stories about 27 American soldiers, and while it's likely that some were Ritchie boys, the book does not contain an index (!) so it's difficult  to check for this.

Actually the front of the book shows the names. https://prnt.sc/9YivqqP5GHfX

William Katzenstein, Karl Goldsmith (Goldschmidt), Ralph Baer, Walter Reed, Manfred Steinfeld, Fred Fields, John Brunswick and Kurt Klein listed in the book are Ritchie Boys.

The book is available to view online at archive.org when you have an account and signed in. You can borrow it to read it.
https://archive.org/details/enemyiknewgerman00karr_0
 
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Josh Freeling
North Carolina