100-year-old Veteran Kept Jewish Prayer Book Over His Heart as He Confronted the Holocaust [View all]

This Reflection was written by Jesse Schraub, who turns 101 this month, with the help of his three daughters, Alice Kinsler, Ellen Gang, and Laura Siegel.

In 1943, I was drafted into the military at age 18, having never before been away from Brooklyn, New York. When asked which branch of service I preferred to join, I chose the Army; I wasn’t a swimmer, and I figured the Navy or Marines would surely mean drowning.

In the 1940s, there were concentration camps in Europe and overt anti-Semitism in the United States. I had heard on the news that innocent people were being slaughtered in Europe just because they were Jews. Despite my anger and horror, I knew I had to control my feelings if I was going to be effective in fighting the Nazis.

Though an observant Orthodox Jew, I decided not to bring my tallis (prayer shawl) when I entered the Army. I was worried that sacred items could be intentionally desecrated or accidentally damaged in warfare. The pocket-sized prayerbook provided to Jews in the Armed Forces stayed in my breast pocket, over my heart.

I was to be stationed overseas for nine months, arriving after the Allies liberated France on June 6, 1944. On October 18, a week after leaving Boston Harbor, my ship docked in Liverpool, England, then we traveled by train all day to rainy Southampton.

I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to follow a kosher diet during my tour, but couldn’t bring myself to eat pork sausage. So I bought two cans of sardines, all that the ship’s PX had. I ate one, and the other I saved “for a rainy day,” which fortunately never came. (To this day, I love sardines.)

https://thewarhorse.org/jewish-veteran-experience-wwii/