(Jewish Group) GI Jews Didnt Just Fight Nazis They Battled Anti-Semitism In The Ranks Too

[Behind the Aegis]

(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)

GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II” begins as many Holocaust documentaries do, with a history of the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany mixed with what is now standard archival footage of Brownshirts and Kristallnacht. Throw in interviews with some Jewish celebrities — in this case, Carl Reiner and his friend Mel Brooks wearing his old Army jacket — and it has all the workings of a typical PBS documentary.

But the film, which premieres April 11, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, quickly takes an unexpected turn. Jewish-American soldiers, the viewer learns, weren’t only fighting Nazis during the war — they had to battle the anti-Semitic prejudice of many of their fellow soldiers.

All told, some 550,000 Jews served in World War II. A few had experienced anti-Semitism at home already in the form of “Gentiles Only” signs, for example, which were found at some public facilities across the country.

Mimi Rivkin, one of the 10,000 Jewish women who enlisted, a future member of the Women’s Army Corps, recalled a more personal incident in public school: “Suddenly kids weren’t playing with me. I asked one why and she said, ‘The teacher told us you’re a Jew and we’re not supposed to play with you.’”


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[MosheFeingold]

1. This is true

To some degree. People in my unit were tighter than brothers, and we came from about as disparate circumstances as men come. War does that.

The only problems I faced were on liberty -- someone started stuff but then 10 (gentile) guys from my unit would step up and all claim to be Jewish and whatever dickhead was up to something had to come through them.

I got more heat from being an MP (and thus sometimes tasked with arresting my fellow soldiers) than for being Jewish.