Jewish soldiers who fought in WWII.
At the exhibit there was a video with Jewish soldiers discussing their
experiences as they were getting ready to go over to the European theater.
One of the people interviewed was a Mr. Bentley Kassal and he said something
amazing that I include at the end of this email. I found this was very
moving.
By the way if you go to Wikipedia you will see that Bentley was a NY state
judge and a so called 'secular' Jew who was very progressive and left
leaning. I think this makes it even more special.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Paraphrasing from the video:
"THE DAY BEFORE WE WERE TO HEAD OVER TO EUROPE OUR COMMANDER TOLD US THAT WE
SHOULD NOT CARRY THE H (HEBREW) DOG TAGS, AS SOMETIMES WHEN THE GERMANS
CAPTURE SOLDIERS IF SOMEONE HAS AN H DOG TAG THEY ARE SEPARATED AND KILLED
ON THE SPOT. WE SHOULD CARRY EITHER A P (PROTESTANT) OR C (CATHOLIC) OR NO
DOG TAG AT ALL. THAT NIGHT BENTLEY SAID "I COULD NOT SLEEP I IMAGINED MYSELF
DYING IN BATTLE AND LAYING FOREVER UNDER A CROSS SOMEWHERE IN EUROPE." THE
NEXT DAY I TOLD MY COMMANDER I AM KEEPING MY DOG TAG WITH AN H AND I AM
TAKING IT WITH ME WHEREVER I GO!"
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