On May 8, 1945, the world erupted in celebrations. With the acceptance of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender by the Allies, the fighting in Europe was finally over. In commemoration of the 70th anniversary of victory in Europe, I decided to speak to a few Ritchie Boys and ask them to remember where they were on that day 70 years ago.
Surviving Ritchie Boys are now in their 90s and many are no longer in good health, so I am very grateful for those gentlemen who made the effort to get back to me when I posed the question to them via an e-mail blast.
In 1945, Wolf Lehmann was in Italy. For the members of the 88th Infantry Division, the war had already ended four days before, at noon on May 2nd when all the German forces in Italy surrendered. “It was a surprise to us, including our division commander, a two-star major general”, Wolf wrote me. “In fact, the initial word was conveyed by two German officers dispatched by German headquarters in Bolzano to make sure everybody understood what had taken place.”
On May 6th, Wolf’s unit was moved to German headquarters to carry out the transfer of power from the German forces at the southern front near the Brenner Pass on the Austrian/Italian border. They began moving everybody—German military, civilian employees, and all Nazi SS units—into POW camps in Italy.
Guy Stern remembers that on the morning of May 8th, his commanding officer told them to continue their work as interrogat
ors until an official order was received. Finally, in the early afternoon, the notice of the Armistice reached them in Hersfeld, Germany. ”We stopped our work and were hoisted on the shoulders of our trustees (POWs who had worked for us),” Stern wrote. The photo used on the cover of the DVD of the Ritchie Boy documentary was taken on V-E Day, which explains the elated smiles on the faces of the three men in the picture. (Guy Stern on the far left.)
On the official day of victory, my uncle Herman Lang had just been assigned to the POW camp in Regensburg. In one of my first taped interviews with him, he told me about that day. “There were 40,000 SS men in my camp and only one company of GIs guarding them, 24 hours a day. We had no food. We had nothing. They were in an open field and it rained day and night. Just barbed wire around and GIs who were nervous and very happy the war was over. They were firing their rifles in the air, and the Germans thought they were about to be killed.”
Luckily the situation remained fairly calm, and two days later, Herman interrogated the SS officer, Richard Schulz. This episode is an important turning point in the novel, Immigrant Soldier.
21 year old Felix Warburg was still at the Camp Ritchie training center on V-E Day, 1945. He was about to graduate when word arrived of victory in Europe. The men of his class were given 7 days leave, then told to report to New York’s West Side docks where they boarded the Queen Elizabeth passenger liner for transport overseas. Their language skills would continue to be needed for interrogation and translation during the long months of US Army administration of occupied Germany.
Because he doesn’t do email, I telephoned Burton Hastings at his home and asked him if he remembered where he was on May 8th, 1945.
“I was in Freising, Germany,” he said. He had already been assigned to the Army Historical Section as any serious fighting had been pretty much over for several weeks. “We were interviewing high-ranking German officers,” Hastings told me, “and we just kept on with our work.” He didn’t remember celebrating. “No big deal. No firing of sidearms,” he said. “We had been alerted to be ready for a transfer to Japan, so we were aware the war wasn’t really over—not for us, anyway.” He remembers not wanting to be sent to Japan because he didn’t speak Japanese, but the officers told him he could still be useful with skills like map analysis that had been taught at Camp Ritchie.
Luckily the Pacific war ended before he was transferred there. In August, when Japan surrendered, Burton was on a much deserved first furlough in Switzerland, surrounded by the majestic Alps.
V-E Day in 1945 was a special day of rejoicing in Britain where it marked the end of six years of misery and bombing. Thousands gathered in Piccadilly Circus and in front of Buckingham Palace to dance and sing and cheer. Massive celebrations were also held in the United States, notably in Times Square New York, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles. But for the United States the real celebrating occurred three months later, when the final surrender of Japan was announced. These days, veteran’s groups and their supporters observe Victory Day on the second Monday of August, rather than in early May, but I think both days are worth commemorating.
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