Someday You Will Understand; My Father's Private World War II
Isabella Pia Ayoub (Author photograph) New York: Arcade Publishing [an imprint of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.], 2014. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xiv, [2], 285, [1] pages. Frontis illustration Illustrations. Appendix. Notes. Related ephemera laid in. At the age of 19, German-born Mr. Wolff was drafted by Uncle Sam and later found himself en route back to Europe as part of a special unit known as The Ritchie Boys. It was comprised of many refugees like himself whose language skills and inside knowledge of Germany and Axis countries made them ideal U.S. intelligence officers and operatives. We learn through his letters that Mr. Wolff’s Army journey included training at Camp Ritchie in Maryland, where he became an interpreter and found his calling as an intelligence officer. He was among nearly 16,000 fellow Jewish and European refugees who were fluent in German, French, Italian, Polish, and other languages — and who could understand the culture and psyche of military enemies. They became known for their interrogation and psychological warfare efforts in Europe, contributing to the Allies’ victory. Many in this covert strategic unit continued to serve post-war as translators and interrogators, including Mr. Wolff. After Germany’s unconditional surrender, he served at several POW camps registering and interviewing prisoners, and ferreting out high-ranking Nazis who were sent to trial in Nuremberg. Wolff was also one of a few from his unit selected to classify and translate Mussolini’s documents following the dictator’s death. The letters sent home at this time painted a picture of war-ravaged Europe through the eyes of one who was spared. The letters constitute both a war journal and a means by which Ms. Feld gained great insights into her father. Walter Wolff was the son of a Jewish merchant family that fled their German home when the Nazis came to power and took refuge in Brussels, Belgium. On the eve of the German invasion, in May 1940, the family began its second escape. Their sixteen-month odyssey took them through the chaos of battle in France and the dangers of living clandestinely as Jews in occupied territory, before they finally boarded the notorious freighter SS Navemar in Cadiz, Spain, to be among the last Jewish refugees admitted to the United States before Pearl Harbor. Within two years of his arrival in the States, Walter was ready to take the fight back to the Nazis as a soldier in the U.S. Army. Trained for the Intelligence Corps at Camp Ritchie, he was sent first to Italy and then to Germany and Austria, where he interrogated POWs for potential prosecution as war criminals at Nuremburg. At the same time, on his travels in Europe he returned to the confiscated properties of his extended family, throwing out the occupiers and reclaiming ownership. Telling the rousing story of a Jewish boy who fled persecution and returned to prosecute the Nazi oppressors, Walter Wolff's daughter Nina has reconstructed these events from family lore and her father's own cache of more than 700 wartime letters and 200 photographs, which he revealed to her shortly before he died. Condition: Very good / Very good, with some sticker residue on the back.
Keywords: Camp Ritchie, Counterintelligence, Prisoners of War, Interrogation, Translation, Dwight School, War Criminals, Displaced Persons, Jews, Émigrés, Refugee, WWII, Second World War, Intelligence Corps, Ritchie Boys
ISBN: 9781628723779
[Book #85461]
Price: $75.00