War
izen Soldiers
veterans teach future generations about the cause of freedom.
BILL CAIU-ZOLL
al to the Jewish News
was the most exhilarating religious experience of
Sherwin Vine's life — Yom Kippur Eve, 1943.
He was aboard a crowded troop train heading from
training in California's Mojave Desert to New York for
possible deployment to Africa during the bleak days of World
War II. Suddenly, the train stopped. Was it mechanical trouble?
Or maybe even some type of sabotage?
Vine, 86, of Birmingham doesn't remember what state they
were in ... just that it was cold and getting dark. But he was
pleasantly surprised. The train had stopped to allow the Jewish
soldiers on board to conduct High Holiday services. There was-
n't enough room to do so on the cramped train, so the small
group of Jews gathered alongside the tracks. One of them
stepped forth and led the services, making an attempt to chant
Kol Nidre. Then they climbed back on board -- and headed
for the war!
"We all knew the dangers that lie ahead, and we did some
serious praying," Vine recalled. It was very inspirational. The
war was really our fight as Jews; we had heard that Hider was
killing our people, so we had to go fight him. That service by
the railroad tracks took us back to our Jewish roots."
,
'Vines war story i is among a collection of memoirs from 82
members of the Senior Men's Club of Birmingham in a book
describing their experiences in World War II and the Korean
War. The book, titled The Wars Of Our Generation, was com-
piled and edited by club members and published by the club
itself. Now, only 50 books were left out of 1,150 printed ($15,
at many local bookstores). Club President Dick Harper of
Birmingham said the club is considering adding some more
stories and printing additional books.
Guilford "Skip" Forbes of Bingham Farms and Alvie Smith
of Birmingham, both bombardiers on planes that raided
Europe, headed the project. They say they were motivated by
the increasing mortality rate of World War II veterans, who are
now dying at the rate of close to 1,100 a day, according to
Veterans Affairs Department estimates. More than 400,000
American military men and women were killed in the conflict
(1941-1945) that resulted in about 17 million military deaths
throughout the world.
Explains Forbes: "We took a look at the many veterans in
our club who are now between ages 75-90 and we said, 'Here
they are! It's getting late; now is the time for them to tell their
stories.'"
Each of their war tales is described vividly in the book,
which, in itself, is rare and unusually candid because World
War II veterans historically have been reluctant to talk about
their war exploits, out of deference to their fallen comrades.
The stories, including three non-combat experiences by
women, cover the Atlantic and Pacific theaters of World War II
and Korea in 86 sections. The vets, who call themselves "citizen
soldiers," point out its important that their children and grand-
children understand their contributions to the cause of freedom
in the world — and the terrible costs and futility of war.
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5/28
2004
52
Joe Who?
Vine, a graduate of Detroit's Northern High School and later
Wayne University's Law School, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in
a cruise ship converted to a troop carrier, with destroyer
escorts dropping depth charges along the way to discourage
Nazi submarines. Part of General George Patton's Third
Army, he found himself in Bastogne, Belgium, during the
famous Battle of the Bulge in 1944. He avoided frostbite in
below-zero temperatures by wrapping his feet in blanket strips
under his galoshes.
"I saw American and German bodies frozen in grotesque
configurations," he said. "The enemy was all around us in
captured GI uniforms, trying to trick us by talking English to
lure us out into the open. If they couldn't answer basic ques-
tions, like who is Joe DiMaggio, we shot first. We were never
at rest. In fact, we were often in a state of semi-consciousness.
I would have been run over by a tank if a guy behind me
hadn't pushed me out of the way."
A squad from Vine's 11th Armored Division was the first to
liberate the German-run Mauthausen concentration camp in
Austria. Vine, although not in the squad that entered the
camp, said, "It felt great to free all of those people because, of
course, many of them were fellow Jews."
He later was wounded by a grenade and received the Purple
Heart, Bronze Star and three battle stars.
He says his mother, Bessie Vine, was "really the person who
kept me going by sending me letters with pictures, and boxes
with cookies and socks."
Miraculously, the mail got through to many soldiers in the
thick of battle. "My mother was my only link to civilization,"
he recalls.
Vine, a 25-year Birmingham resident, later spent 10 years
as an assistant state attorney general, retiring 15 years ago. His
wife, Goldie, to whom he was married for 56 years, died last
year.
Box Cars, Bodies
Another club member, Benjamin Ewing, 79, of Bloomfield
Township was in the 103rd Infantry Division that was among
the first to liberate the Dachau concentration camp near
Munich and the nearby Allach labor camp. "Our men were
so overcome by the horror of what they saw," he recalls, "that
they immediately started a firelight with the Nazi SS guards.
They really shot up the place.
"As we approached the camp, there was a terrible stench,
then we saw 40 box cars filled with about 3,000 emaciated
.bodies. The Nazis brought the people there from other camps
in the path of the allies to try and hide them, but then just
left them to die and fled. We found only one survivor.
those who claim there never was a Holocaust and that the
Jewish people just made it all up. I wish some of those deniers
had been with us that day at Dachau to see the horror we
experienced. We went on to the Allach camp and saw starv-
ing, slave laborers digging into a potato hill and stuffing dirty,
raw vegetables into their mouths." Ewing retired in 1988
from an auto parts manufacturer.