Guide to the Records of the Memoirs of American Jewish Soldiers RG 110

Processed by Rachel S. Harrison as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
Email: archives@yivo.cjh.org
URL: http://www.yivo.org

©2008 YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. All rights reserved.

Electronic finding aid was encoded in EAD 2002 by Rachel S. Harrison in December 2008. Description is in English.

Collection Overview

Title: Guide to the Records of the Memoirs of American Jewish Soldiers RG 110

ID: RG 110 FA

Extent: 0.8 Linear Feet

Arrangement: The materials are arranged in one series.

Languages: English, Yiddish, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Dutch;Flemish

Abstract

This collection contains mainly contest submissions from the 1945-1946 YIVO essay contest for Jewish soldiers and veterans of World War II as well as additional materials sent in by the contestants and administrative information about the contest compiled by YIVO staff members.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The collection consists of essay submissions, autobiographical sketches submitted by the contestants, index cards in Yiddish summarizing some of the essays, a notebook with the pseudonyms and numbers of each contestant, newspaper clippings, photographs, correspondence between YIVO and some of the contestants, personal correspondence submitted by the entrants, administrative information about the contest and the entrants including demographic information, main themes of the essays, entrant addresses and real names, official announcements of the contest in Yiddish and English, and an invitation to the awards ceremony. Most of the essays are about the soldiers’ experiences in Western Europe and the Pacific theater. The main themes are interacting with Jews in other lands, Judaism and anti-Semitism in the army, interacting with Jews who had been in concentration camps or had hidden and were now Displaced Persons, and how the soldiers’ lives, thoughts and Judaism have changed because of the war and their time in the army. There are some particularly rich essays about the Jewish communities of India and the Philippines as well as Germany and one about Palestine. There is one submission from a woman detailing her experience being Jewish in the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

The folders are labeled with the contestant’s number, determined by YIVO staff, and the contestant’s real name, when known. Some entrants have two contestant numbers and thus two folders, either because they submitted two essays or because they sent essays and supplementary materials in separate packages. Some essays and materials were not given contestant numbers, perhaps because they arrived after the contest deadline or they did not meet the contest criteria. All of the essays are undated but were all submitted in 1946. The additional materials date from 1944-1946.

Historical Note

In 1945-1946 YIVO held an essay contest for Jewish soldiers and veterans on the subject of “My Experiences and Observations as a Jew in World War II.” In addition to over 50 official submissions, YIVO received autobiographical information about the contestants, photographs, journals, private correspondence, and newspaper clippings. The contestants labeled their essays with pseudonyms and also sent their real names in a sealed envelope to be opened after the judging. YIVO reserved the right to keep all materials and to publish any of the essays, not only the winning submissions. The winning contestants received prizes ranging from $25 to $150.

Subject/Index Terms

Clippings - Newspaper clippings, Documents - Correspondence, Documents - Manuscripts, Documents - Official documents, Europe, Jewish soldiers, Pacific Area, Photographs, Southeast Asia, World War II biographies, YIVO Archives

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions: Open to researchers with permission of the chief archivist.

Use Restrictions: There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011 email: archives@yivo.cjh.org

Acquisition Method: Essays and supplementary submission materials were sent directly from the contestant to YIVO in 1946. The administrative information was created by YIVO staff members in 1946.

Related Materials: The YIVO Library has several books on the experiences of Jewish soldiers in wartime. Some of these include Birnbaum, Meyer. Lieutenant Birnbaum: A Soldier's Story; Fredman, J. George. Jews in American Wars; and Kligsberg, Moshe. American Jewish Soldiers on Jews and Judaism : (A Report of a Contest). This article, originally printed in YIVO Bleter 31-32 (1948) and republished in English in the YIVO Annual (1950), summarizes the main topics of the contest entries and breaks down the contestants and their experiences into psychological categories.

Preferred Citation: Published citations should take the following form:Identification of item, date (if known); Memoirs of American Jewish Soldiers; RG 110; box number; folder number; YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.


Box and Folder Listing


Series 1: Memoirs of American Jewish Soldiers
1944-1946
Box 1
Folder 1: Contestant 1-Solly Landau
1944-1946
Folder 2: Contestant 2-Seymour S. Weisman
1944-1946
Folder 3: Contestant 3-Jessard A. Wisch
1944-1946
Folder 4: Contestant 4-Ben Magdovitz
1944-1946
Folder 5: Contestant 5-Samuel H. Sherman
1944-1946
Folder 6: Contestant 6-Emanuel Schaffer
1944-1946
Folder 7: Contestant 7-Harold U. Ribalow
1944-1946
Folder 8: Contestant 8-William Charney
1944-1946
Folder 9: Contestant 9-Eliot Blin
1944-1946
Folder 10: Contestant 10-David A. Levine
1944-1946
Folder 11: Contestant 11-David Moscow
1944-1946
Folder 12: Contestant 12-Beatrice Gibbs
1944-1946
Folder 13: Contestant 13-Herbert Cohen
1944-1946
Folder 14: Contestant 14-David Daly
1944-1946
Folder 15: Contestant 15-Robert T. Howard
1944-1946
Folder 16: Contestant 16-Bernard Zaritsky
1944-1946
Folder 17: Contestant 17-E. Max
1944-1946
Folder 18: Contestant 18-Joseph J. Berkowitz
1944-1946
Folder 19: Contestant 19-Isadore A. Rosen
1944-1946
Folder 20: Contestant 20-Louis Sherman
1944-1946
Folder 21: Contestant 21-Morris Rubin
1944-1946
Folder 22: Contestant 22-Mordecai L. Brill
1944-1946
Folder 23: Contestant 23-Nathan Hurvitz (I)
1944-1946
Folder 24: Contestant 24-Irving Goldberg
1944-1946
Folder 25: Contestant 25-Dov Ben-Abba
1944-1946
Folder 26: Contestant 26-Jack L. Schaffer
1944-1946
Folder 27: Contestant 27-Eric Ellenbogen
1944-1946
Folder 28: Contestant 28-Marshall Wolke
1944-1946
Folder 29: Contestant 29-Ernest Stock
1944-1946
Folder 30: Contestant 30-Shmuel N. Citrinovsky
1944-1946
Box 2
Folder 31: Contestant 31-H. Ziglin
1944-1946
Folder 32: Contestant 32-Abraham Bohenek (I)
1944-1946
Folder 33: Contestant 33-Jack Solomon
1944-1946
Folder 34: Contestant 34-Alexander Shatton
1944-1946
Folder 35: Contestant 35-Leo Molow
1944-1946
Folder 36: Contestant 36-Gerald Selbst
1944-1946
Folder 37: Contestant 37-Sholom Bloom
1944-1946
Folder 38: Contestant 38-Herbert Weiner
1944-1946
Folder 39: Contestant 39-Herman Denmark
1944-1946
Folder 40: Contestant 40-Abraham Bohenek (II)
1944-1946
Folder 41: Contestant 41-Henry Simon (I)
1944-1946
Folder 42: Contestant 42-Unknown
1944-1946
Folder 43: Contestant 43-Sidney Shafner
1944-1946
Folder 44: Contestant 44-Norman T. Roffa
1944-1946
Folder 45: Contestant 45-Nathan Hurvitz (II)
1944-1946
Folder 46: Contestant 46-Harold Hoffman
1944-1946
Folder 47: Contestant 47-Samuel Krasner
1944-1946
Folder 48: Contestant 48-Harold Heifetz
1944-1946
Folder 49: Contestant 49-S.L. Birulin
1944-1946
Folder 50: Contestant 50-Henry Simon (II)
1944-1946
Folder 51: Contestant 51-Howard Preston Goodman
1944-1946
Folder 52: Contestant 52-Julian Scheineson
1944-1946
Folder 53: Additional Contest Entries and Materials
1944-1946
Folder 54: David Rothbart Journals
1944-1946
Folder 55: Abe Blinderman Correspondence
1944-1946
Folder 56: Administrative Materials
1944-1946
Notebook of Pseudonyms and Numbers
1944-1946
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