A 46-year-old German-Jewish refugee now serving with the United States forces in Italy is credited with saving the life of his commanding officer and the remnants of his unit by an impassioned appeal to a German machinegun squad to surrender, according to a front-line dispatch appearing in the Herald-Tribune today.
The soldier, Pfc Richard Stern of New York- who served with the German Army for four years during World War I- is attached to a unit of combat engineers which was ordered to assist the infantry in taking a well-defended German height. Their initial advance thrown back by a powerful German attack, Stern’s squad was forced to retreat down the mountain. While retreating their commanding officer walked smack into a German machine-gun emplacement and was wounded. Had the Nazis followed up their advantage they could have wiped out the entire squad, but Stern, speaking in rapid-fire German, warned them to surrender “if they wished some day to return to the Fatherland.” Believing that they were outnumbered, the machine-gunners surrendered and the squad and wounded officer were saved.
Stern, who was awarded the German Iron Cross, and also a decoration by Hitler before it was realised he was Jewish, came to the United States in 1939, and was active in civilian defense groups before joining the Army. He was offered an honorable discharge from the Army when the age limit was reduced from 44 to 38, but refused it.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
