The Ritchie Boys
The Jews Who Escaped the Nazis and Returned to Fight Hitler
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- 8,99 €
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- 8,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
‘The last great, untold story of WWII… highly compelling’ Daily Mail
Fleeing Nazi persecution for America in the 1930s, the young German-born Jews who would come to be known as The Ritchie Boys were labelled ‘enemy aliens’ when war broke out. Although of the age to be inducted into the U.S. military, their German accents made them distrusted. Until one day in 1942, when the Pentagon woke up to the incredible asset they had in their ranks, and sent these young recruits to a secret military intelligence training centre at Camp Ritchie, Maryland.
These men knew the language, culture and psychology of the enemy better than anyone, and had the greatest motivation to fight Hitler’s anti-Semitic regime. And so they were trained and sent back into the belly of the beast, Jews returning to the frontlines of battlefields across Nazi-occupied Europe to defeat the enemy that persecuted them and their families. In an epic story of heroism, courage, and patriotism, bestselling author Bruce Henderson draws on personal interviews with many surviving veterans and extensive archival research to finally bring this never-before-told chapter of the Second World War to light.
Previously published as Sons and Soldiers
Reviews
‘The last great, untold story of WWII… highly compelling’ Daily Mail
‘Gripping. … A story of courage and determination, revenge and redemption. … Opens a window into a much-ignored aspect of the war. … A magnificent story, one crying out to be told, and one that is told very well’ Boston Globe
‘[A] highly readable, often thrilling narrative… A gripping addition to the literature of the period and an overdue tribute to these unique Americans’ Kirkus (Starred Review)
‘An inspiring story’ Library Journal
‘Henderson is a wonderful storyteller who has written a never-before-told chapter of the Second World War. The Ritchie Boys is a must-read’ Jewish Book Council
‘The Ritchie Boys tells the remarkable story of how 2,000 German-born Jews were able to get the crucial intelligence that saved American lives and helped win World War II. … The message of their courage and patriotism should not be lost in today’s war on terrorism’ Leon Panetta, Former Director of the CIA and Former Secretary of Defense
About the author
Bruce Henderson is the author or coauthor of more than twenty nonfiction books, including the #1 New York Times bestseller And The Sea Will Tell, which was made into a highly-rated TV miniseries. General Colin Powell has called the Los Baños raid "a textbook operation for all ages and all armies." An award-winning journalist and author, Henderson is a member of the Authors Guild and the American Society of Journalists and Authors. He has taught reporting and writing courses at USC School of Journalism and Stanford University.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Military historian Henderson (Rescue at Los Ba os) shares the story of eight of the 1,985 young German and Austrian Jewish men who escaped the Nazis, emigrated to America, joined the U.S. Army, and returned to Europe to interrogate German POWs, largely during the last year of WWII. Called the Ritchie Boys after the military camp where they underwent eight weeks of intensive training, this group of young men proved highly effective in their work because of their accent-free German and knowledge of the nuances of German culture. Yet their activities were also risky because they were Jewish. For example, in December 1944 two Ritchie Boys, Kurt Jacobs and Murray Zappler, were captured in the Ardennes while fighting alongside other American soldiers and were separated from their comrades and shot. Henderson does well to humanize the story of the boys, although he occasionally gets bogged down in the details of particular battles. He also opens the book by overstating the number of victims of the November 1938 German national pogrom known as Kristallnacht. Despite these shortcomings, this is an ably researched and written account of a previously unknown facet of the American-Jewish dimension of WWII.
