DuringWorld War II , the U.S. Army enroll and condition a confidential US Army of virtually 20,000 intelligence ship’s officer at a situation called Camp Ritchie in rural Maryland . The " Ritchie Boys , " as they ’re jazz today , were n’t your average American soldiers — they represented 70 different nationalities and spoke many unlike oral communication .
The best - known Ritchie Boys were 2,800 Judaic refugees from Germany and Austria who flee the Holocaust , then heroically returned to Europe as American soldier to defeatHitler . Their noteworthy story has been chronicle by " 60 Minutes " and in a 2005German documentary film . But there were also Black Ritchie Boys , Japanese American Ritchie Boys and distaff " Ritchie Girls , " all of whom play a vital and mostly unrecognized role in the Allied victory in WWII .
What Was Camp Ritchie?
When war broke out in Europe in 1941 , the U.S. war machine lag far behind the British when it come to news capabilities . The Americans knew that if they were going to conjoin the conflict , they could n’t make headway without soldiers coach in the latest inquiry techniques , counterintelligence ( spying ) and psychological warfare .
In April 1942 , the U.S. Army converted a Maryland National Guard website into Camp Ritchie , a dedicated military intelligence training midpoint . From the start , the Army sought out recruits with alien language skills , particularly the languages of their enemies .
" you could teach anybody how to fire a rifle in just a few weeks , but you ca n’t learn them fluent German , Nipponese or Italian , " say Landon Grove , director of the shortly - to - openRitchie History Museum .
Of the nearly 20,000 trainees who pass through Camp Ritchie , about 60 percent were American - born ( including Native Americans ) , and the rest included refugee classified as " opposition extraterrestrial being " ( Germans and Austrians ) and immigrants from Morocco , Azerbaijan , Iceland , India and more .
What Were the Ritchie Boys Trained to Do?
For eight weeks , Camp Ritchie recruits learned how to extract entropy from appropriate POWs , compose propaganda pamphlets to deteriorate behind foe lines , take apart reconnaissance photos and kill the enemy in hand - to - hand armed combat , if necessary .
" You name it , they did it , " says Beverley Eddy , author of " Ritchie Boy Secrets : How a Force of Immigrants and Refugees Helped bring home the bacon WWII . "
To complete their preparation , Ritchie Boys were shipped off to England to learn advance tidings techniques . It ’s there , Eddy believes , that the Americans garner the cognomen " Ritchie Boys " from their more experienced British instructors .
The Ritchie Boys in Action
As freshly mint intelligence officers , Ritchie Boys were embedded in every American military ramification and unit of measurement , and they fought in every major WWII battle from the D - Day invasion of Normandy to the Battle of the Bulge to Iwo Jima .
In fighting the Nazis , one of the Ritchie Boys ' most important contributions was something called " The Order of Battle of the German Army " aka the " Red Book . " Using captured German papers , the Ritchie Boys tack a unceasingly updated master list of every Nazi unit of measurement in Europe — its leadership social organization , its troop numbers , its engagement history , etc .
" The ' decree of Battle ' was all important for interrogation purposes , and for the Allies to have sex exactly what they were up against , " says Eddy .
The Ritchie Boys behave tens of thousands of interrogations of both enemy soldier and civilians . Fluent in the nomenclature and culture of their captive , the Ritchie Boys did n’t postulate to resort to vehemence to get information . Instead , enunciate Grove , they would tender a friendly cigarette and commiserate over local sport rivalries .
" Then they ’d set in motion into this spiel , " say Grove . " ' Is n’t the war awful ? You and I are n’t really that unlike . We ’re all just sick of defend and want to go home . It ’ll all be over a tidy sum sooner if you tell me where the minefield is . ' And if a Nazi military officer was really tight - lipped , they might threaten to hand them over to the ' Russians ' " — played convincingly by a Ritchie Boy in a Russian officer ’s uniform .
According to a U.S. Army report published in 1946 , the Ritchie Boys were creditworthy for gathering60 per centum of all actionable field of honor intelligencein WWII . ( Eddy thinks that number should probably be low , since the Americans who wrote the story did n’t make love the full extent of the secret British computer programme that crack the Enigma code . )
Victims of Nazi Terror Sought Justice
Some of the most inspiring stories about the Ritchie Boys concerned Judaic refugees who fled Nazi atrocities in Europe , but courageously returned to fight for the family extremity and communities they ’d lost to Hitler ’s genocide .
" This was their warfare , perhaps more than anyone else ’s , " say Grove .
Eddy cites examples likeErnst Cramer , a German Jew who at 18 years former was imprisoned at the notorious Buchenwald concentration ingroup . Cramer was one of the prosperous few to get an affidavit for release to America . The minute he stepped on U.S. soil , Cramer enlist in the Army and was send to Camp Ritchie to school in psychological war .
During the warfare , Cramer save folder urging German soldiers to give up , and when the warfare was in conclusion over , Cramer help establish self-governing newspaper in destroyed German cities .
" He was singular , " enunciate Eddy . " He was one of the very few German - born Jews who was determined to stay in Germany after the warfare and employment for rapprochement . "
In 1937 , Albert Rosenberg was a university student in Göttingen , Germany , when he was viciously attacked by an antisemitic mob . He escape to America , joined the Army and became the leader of a Ritchie Boy interrogation team responsible for for extract information from high-pitched - value Nazi targets .
Like Cramer , Rosenberg lost his total menage in Hitler ’s death camp , and he was dictated to see Nazi warfare criminals brought to justice .
" At the goal of the war , Rosenberg and his squad were assigned by General Eisenhower to investigate Buchenwald , " say Eddy . " They interviewed prisoners to learn exactly how the camp was organize and who was in charge . Those materials were used at the Nuremberg trials . "
Other Ritchie Boys (and Girls) Overcame Prejudice at Home
Black soldiers in the U.S. Army faced " Jim Crow - dash " separatism in many parts of the armed forces , says Eddy . At Camp Ritchie , Black trainees calibrate with impressive credentials but had to navigate a military civilization that treated them as second - class soldier .
Daniel Skinner , a professor at a Black college , hail to Camp Ritchie with a Harvard degree and smoothness in French , German , Italian and Spanish .
" At Camp Ritchie , Daniel Skinner was as undecomposed or secure than any of the other trainees , " say Eddy , " but when he was put up afield , he could n’t serve over snowy soldier . What they did was make him thedriverof the enquiry squad , so he could still participate as a translator and interrogator . "
David Akira Itami was bear in America , but he was jug along with his Japanese American house in a " resettlement inner circle " after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor . A twelvemonth later , Itami volunteer for the Army . As Itami ’s daughterwrote , " [ The U.S. government ] would not discern your citizenship right , but they would have you offer to serve the same country who had deprived you of those rights . " Itami train at Camp Ritchie and after serve as the lead translator at the Nipponese war crimes trial in Tokyo .
Around 200 " Ritchie Girls " school or worked at Camp Ritchie , including 22 female teacher . The Women ’s Auxiliary Corps ( WAC ) was an fighting - duty branch of the Army for cleaning woman , but " WACs " often struggled to earn the deference of the male - dominated armed forces .
Two in high spirits - visibility Ritchie Girls were Sally Davis , who train in the " Order of Battle " and served with General MacArthur in Australia , and Lillian Tombacher in Europe , who serve as General Eisenhower ’s personal Polish interpreter and received the Bronze Star .
Long-overdue Recognition Comes to the Ritchie Boys
Of the nearly 20,000 Ritchie Boys who served in WWII , around140 were killed in activeness , including at the costly landings at Normandy and Iwo Jima . Ritchie Boys earned more than 65 Silver Star Medals and countless Bronze Star Medals for their heroic service .
In 2022 , the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum present the Ritchie Boys with its highest honor , theElie Wiesel Award . And legislating has been resign in Congress to award the Ritchie Boys theCongressional Gold Medal . Eddy and Grove figure that between 100 and 200 Ritchie Boys are still alive .
