WHEN the topic of WW II comes up among a group of Jews, many immediately think of the concentration camps, of Jews as victims, as survivors, but not fighters. In fact, more than 550,000 Jewish men and women signed up for duty following the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Boulder resident Tom Ruzicka was not far behind.
But unlike many of his Jewish brothers and sisters, when Ruzicka enlisted, he was not yet a US citizen.
Born in Prague, Rusicka’s family fled across Europe to avoid the Nazis — first to Germany, then occupied France, then Spain.
“From there,” he recalls, “we got on a freighter that had 18 cabins and 1,200 refugees. Three days from Havana (his destination), we ran out of water.” Not everyone survived the voyage.
Ruzicka and his family waited in Havana for their visas to the US. “We arrived in New York Nov. 30, 1941; one week before Pearl Harbor.”
Two years into America’s involvement in the war, Ruzicka was old enough to enlist.
After basic training at Fort Mead, and only 90 days after enlisting, Ruzicka was sworn in as a US citizen, allowing him to wear the uniform and represent his newly adopted country.
But the story only starts here.
LIKE many Jewish immigrants who came from Europe, Ruzicka spoke fluent German, a valuable asset to the American army. As a result, he and other Jewish-born, German-speaking immigrants were sent to Camp Ritchie, Maryland, for additional training to become interrogators of prisoners of war, or IPWs.
“By the time we graduated from that training,” says Ruzicka, “we learned more about the German army than the US army.
“We had to learn the makeup of every German corps, battalion, the number of weapons in each unit, where they were stationed and when. And we had to learn it all by rote. Camp Ritchie,” he says, “was basically German officer training school.”
The Maryland National Guard founded Camp Ritchie in 1942. The army took it over 20 years later and turned it into the Military Intelligence Training Center. (Today, it is the Camp Ritchie Historic District.)
“I don’t have an illustrious military career,” Ruzicka tells an audience of several dozen people at the Boulder JCC. In his mind, perhaps. But his stories, at least the ones he’s chosen to share, are compelling and poignant, offering a glimpse into his past that defines him in the present.
“I was a staff sergeant with the first US Ranger Battalion. We landed in Casablanca, Morocco, Tunis. I was assigned to a lieutenant, but my lieutenant was injured so I was reassigned to Colonel Darby of the Darby Rangers,” he said.
“I had to go in behind enemy lines to do the interrogations because those rangers, they didn’t like to bring them back alive.”
Three months later Ruzicka contracted hepatitis and was sent to the hospital until he recovered. He was then reassigned to Rome and was one of the first soldiers in the recaptured city.
For the most part, the interrogators were the ones who drove the jeeps. “I was never allowed to leave the Jeep by myself. So there I was, right in front of the Vatican and I thought: I gotta go see it because I may never get back here.
“So I took the jeep and drove it right up the steps of the Vatican. Well, I was quickly surrounded by the Swiss Guard and escorted back to the road.”
That day was cause for celebration — not only for recapturing Rome. It was also Ruzicka’s 20th birthday. And yet, he recalls the day with a tinge of anger.
“All the headlines went to the victory in Germany.” It was June 6, 1944; D-Day.
Ruzicka’s story differs from that of other, quickly anointed citizens trained at Camp Ritchie in that he was allowed to carry a weapon. Because most of the IPWs (interrogators of prisoners of war) were born in Europe, they were considered security risks, despite their allegiance to the US, and were not entrusted with a weapon.
“I was on the front lines, armed, and ready to shoot,” says Ruzicka. “I was happy to be able to confront the Germans.”
But rather than shoot to kill, Ruzicka aimed for the knees. “That required three to four Germans to carry the injured guy off the battlefield. I got rid of more Germans that way.”
One of his biggest accomplishments in helping fight the Axis was when he was interrogating a POW while eating a hot meal.
“I asked him if he ever got warm food. He said, ‘yes, every two weeks we get it. All 300 of us line up at the field kitchen for a hot meal.’”
Ruzicka continued the conversation and was able to find out where the field kitchen would next be located. “I relayed the information and later, when we went through that area, I saw about 300 Germans dead on the ground.”
RUZICKA says his Judaism was not a factor in the war.
He did not experience any prejudice by his comrades while serving alonside them. Nor did he join the army because he was a Jew and wanted to fight Hitler.
Rather, he joined the army because his country was taken over by the Nazis and they killed four close family members: two aunts and two uncles.
He was discharged in early 1946 and pursued a career as a graphic designer. He and his wife have lived in Boulder for the last 25 years and Ruzicka says he hadn’t thought about camp Ritchie until about a year ago. That’s when his daughter gave him a DVD of a documentary entitled, Ritchie Boys.
A copy of that DVD is in the Boulder JCC library.
So this Memorial Day, when the nation recognizes members of the military — past and present — we can thank the Jewish warriors for their part in preserving our rights and liberties . . . from before WW II through the present day.