Arts Ss Entertai • Gift. Baskets • Sweet Trays °- Muffins • Soups • Cookies COMPANY A 4 . 11- ment At The Movies Everything Made Fresh Daily Freedom Fighters Documentary film to tell story of Jewish German and Austrian-born refugees who served as U.S. soldiers during World War II. AD RIANA GARDELLA Special to the Jewish News alter Goldschmidt recalls how quickly his tiny German village of Beibesheim was trans- formed after Hitler's rise to power. Printed notices from the government warned villagers not to do business with Jews. Schoolmates who had been Goldschmidt's friends now wore Nazi Youth uniforms, and refused to speak to him. Like Jewish children all over Germany, Goldschmidt, could no longer. attend school. "It became very apparent, very early, that [Germany] was not the place to be," recalls Goldschmidt, now 80 and living in Glencoe, Ill. In the middle of one night in 1936, the Goldschmidts left their home, their friends, most of their possessions — the only life they had known — and began a journey that would eventually take them to Hyde Park in Chicago. A few years later, at 21, Goldschmidt was drafted into the U.S. ArmY and assigned eventually to duty in Germany. As an interpreter with the military gov- ernment stationed there, Goldschmidt eventually wound up back in his former village, where his old neighbors — their fates now in Allied hands rolled out the red carpet. News of his arrival spread quickly through Beibesheim, and soon the town's windows filled with vaguely familiar faces, waving to the young man they had last seen as a 14-year-old boy. Goldschmidt was not inter- ested in socializing, but when he visited the family that had helped hide him on his last night in Beibesheim, the townspeople flocked to see him. The show of enthusiasm did not impress the young sol- dier. 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OFF Any 8-piece Chicken Dinner or Full Slab Rib Dinner coupons may not by ro,med, exp 12131102 I l i i i _7- C0UPONSGOOti AT BOTH LOCATIONS • DELIVERY AVAILABLE HOURS OF OPERATION: Mon-Sat: 7am - 8pm 8 Sun: 3 8pm (Farmington Hills Only) - www.detroitiewishnews.com 11/8 2002 88 Find out before your mother! . Goldschmidt's story, and those of hundreds of other German and Austrian Jewish refugees who fought as Allied soldiers during World War II, are now being told thanks to the efforts of a young filmmaker named Steven Karras. Over the past few years, Karras has tracked down Jewish refugee soldiers from around the country, gathering their recollections on videotape. His documentary, About Face, is still being edited — and still looking for a distributor — but based on a 20-minute pre- view of the film and on interviews with several Jewish refugee soldiers, it's clear that Karras has tapped into a remarkable story from World War II that has been largely untold. Karras, 31, took a circular route in arriving at this project. As a Jewish kid growing up in Northbrook, Ill., he thrilled to his father's tales of Jewish courage throughout history. Later he went searching for stories of Nazi-era survivors who refused to wear the cloak of the victim," he says. While quick to point out that the Holocaust was certain- " ly the worst thing to happen during that time period, Karras laments that victimization seems to have become a "major cultural identifier for Jews." In 1999, Karras searched for books and films about Jewish soldiers who fought the Nazis. Despite the prevailing World War II mania, he found the subject largely ignored. As a dot-commer with an unfulfilling sales job, Karras had time to spare — and a languishing film degree. An acquaintance of Karras' mentioned she knew someone con- nected with the 104th Division. Out of curiosity, Karras visited a Web site for veterans of the division, and asked if anyone knew of any Jewish refugees who had fought in World War II. One day Karras returned to his apartment to find his answering machine flooded with messages from across the country. Men named Klaus, Sigmund, Gunther and Hans were eager to tell their stories of service in can-ipaigns from Dieppe to D-Day. Listening to their messages, says Karras, "I knew my life was going to be completely changed." The Makings Of A Film His first meeting was with a Chicago veteran named Harold Weinberg. Karras, who had envisioned a documentary, took his camera to the interview. Weinberg greeted him in his Army uniform, and when he had finished telling his story, Karras realized he did indeed have the makings of a com- pelling film. Ultimately he left his day job and part- nered with Julia Rath, a research think tank veteran, to cre- ate Beach. Street Educational Films Foundation. In addition to producing About Face, the foundation is establishing a visual history archive to record these veterans' stories for educational and historical purposes. It is not known how many Jewish refugees from Germany or Austria fought for the United States during World War II (a total of 550,000 Jewish soldiers served in the American armed forces during the war, according to the National Museum of Jewish Military History). But Karras managed to locate more than 200 veteran refugee soldiers who, in German-accented English, told their stories. These men served as combat infantrymen, paratroopers, interrogators, counterintelligence officers and members of the occupation armies stationed in their homelands. Their understanding of the German mindset and language made them particularly effective soldiers. As German nationals — officially classified "enemy aliens" — they were unable to enlist in the U.S. Army. Yet they were not exempt from the draft. Once cleared by the FBI, their choice was to join the Army or go to jail. For most the decision was easy. The majority of refugee soldiers went through an acceler- ated citizenship process, often at mass naturalization cere- monies. There was a practical point in becoming American: Without the benefit of U.S. citizenship, the new soldiers