Civilians Post-war Era Interviews

Meet the Ritchie Boys

What: Secret Heroes: The Ritchie Boys
Where: Holocaust Memorial Center, 28123 Orchard Lake Rd., north of 12 Mile in Farmington Hills
When: Open 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; and 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Closed Saturday and on Jewish holidays.
Info: Call (248) 553-2400 or visit www.holocaustcenter.org
Exhibit sponsors: American House Senior Living Communities, The Detroit Jewish News and Ernest Wachtel (Ritchie Boy) and family (daughters Mindy Silverberg, Cheryl Friedman and Terry Lebewohl).

"Greetings from Camp Ritchie" postcards show a picturesque, almost resort-like campus certainly no member of the army would be formed.

But it was not just any military or a woman. It was a place for soldiers with specific characteristics and skills that would be crucial in the fight against World War II.

Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Maryland, Camp Ritchie - named after the Maryland Governor Albert Ritchie, who served 1920-1935 - was a camp where intelligence tactics of psychological warfare were taught.

Those who have received special training has become known as the Ritchie Boys were selected to learn the German language, culture and the German mentality. Most of them were Jewish boys who had immigrated to the United States, including Guy Stern, who came to the United States from Hildensheim, Germany, when he was 15.

Soldiers have taken courses in the German army organization, Morse code, has studied the order of battle of the German army and more.

Stern said the book was invaluable.

"We could look at the commanders, calls the signal, so we could burden them with our knowledge," he said.

They have field exercises, role playing, training, close combat and reading the document.

Their new skills, knowledge and tactics of their weapons has become fierce.

"Everyone at Camp Ritchie said it was their war," said Stern. "And they had to be a part of it."

They knew they would be deployed.

Some were shipped to Africa, Italy and some others in England.

Stern remembers arriving at Lygon Arms in Broadway, England. The headquarters of the Army was in a British boarding school, where plans were made for the invasion.

"I was very scared," said Stern, who was 21 at the time. "All of us were afraid. I was a former German National Jewish."

Stern unit quickly found itself on a landing craft loaded, made its way across the English Channel at St. Mere Eglise in Normandy, France.

US: Enact Law to Protect Civilians from Cluster Munitions | Human ...

Far-reaching legislation introduced on February 14 to protect civilians from the deadly effects of cluster munitions deserves strong support, Human Rights Watch said today. The Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act, sponsored by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Patrick Leahy, would prohibit the use of cluster munitions in populated areas and prohibit the use and transfer of cluster munitions with submunitions that have a failure rate of 1 percent or more.

The bill was introduced a week before the launch of an international process to create a treaty banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable humanitarian harm.

“This landmark legislation would put the US at the forefront of global efforts to eliminate weapons that have killed and maimed thousands of civilians,” said Steve Goose, director of the arms division at Human Rights Watch. “At the moment, the US is best known as one of the most prolific users, producers, exporters and stockpilers of the weapon.”

Cluster munitions, containing dozens or hundreds of small explosive submunitions, are typically dropped from aircraft or fired from artillery or rocket systems. They are particularly objectionable weapons because they pose a double danger to civilians: there is an immediate danger during attacks due to their inaccuracy and wide dispersal pattern, and a long-term danger after conflict, because so many duds are left lying around that, like landmines, can explode years later.

The US has a stockpile of millions of cluster munitions that contain between 720 million and 1 billion submunitions. Only around 30,000 of those submunitions have safety features that might bring the failure rate below 1 percent. The acknowledged failure rate for some of the others is more than 20 percent.

“The US has a staggering number of submunitions in its arsenal – perhaps 1 billion – that are highly unreliable and should never be used,” said Goose.

Under existing US policy, which was approved in 2001 and took effect in fiscal year 2005, all newly produced submunitions must have a failure rate of less than 1 percent. But there is no restriction on the use, sale or transfer of the existing stock of dangerous, outdated weapons.

“The US should have the same standard for its old submunitions as it does for its new ones,” said Goose. “The current double standard amounts to an unconscionable acceptance of excessive and avoidable civilian casualties.

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Democratic Civilian Control of Armed Forces in the Post-Cold War Era

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