About Face: Jewish Refugees in the Armed Forces, a 2020 documentary, is now streaming on Amazon. The film documents the thought-provoking WWII story of young Jewish men and women who escaped certain death at the hands of the Nazis and then returned to fight with the Allies against them in Europe and North Africa. The story is voiced through first-hand testimony and memories of these brave individuals highlighting their journey from Nazi victim, to isolated refugee and ultimately, to elite Allied soldier.
The film was created and directed by Steven Karras. In 2009, Karras completed a ten-year project to conduct over 2,000 hours of video and audio oral histories amassing a substantial collection of unpublished personal memoirs, photographs, newspaper articles, family memorabilia about these Jewish war veterans, along with individual war records. Michael Berenbaum who also co-produced the film is a Professor of Jewish Studies at the American Jewish University. He personally interviewed many of the refugees and survivors for the film.
About Face begins by describing how onerous and challenging life was for the Jewish population under the Nazi regime. The film puts the viewer right in the eyewitness’s chair enabling you to visualize and understand just what Jewish life was like before, during and immediately after the Holocaust. The film provides the stark context and discusses just how Jewish life quickly changed in Germany from 1933 through the end of the war. The film makes the clear point that the number of Jewish dead prior to and through the war, though over 6 million, should not only be memorialized, but each of those who were murdered, young and old, were all individuals with emotions, feelings and an intense sense of connections to their families and to their Jewish culture. “About Face” makes the critical point and demonstrates clearly how state sponsored terrorism and its insidious propaganda can and was used to divide and ultimately split a country apart.
As proof of what occurred to Jewish refugees, About Face leverages principal first-hand source documents including interviews with refugee service members, recorded speeches from Holocaust survivors, as well as discussions with Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum, making the film a solid educational resource.
Once the Allies declared war on Germany in 1939 and 1941, refugees, many of them Jewish, were allowed to enlist. They had an axe to grind and looked forward to going into combat against the Nazis, to avenge the killing of their parents and family, gain fast tracked citizenship, and prove their dedication to their new home countries.
Now as enlisted soldiers who knew the language and psychology of the German enemy better than any of their non-refugee comrades, they struck back at the Nazis with new-found pride against the rampant injustice that had annihilated their families, destroyed their future prospects, and subjected many of them to the worst forms of physical abuse, both random and premediated.
An important question is asked in About Face – why didn’t the European Jews collectively fight back?
Historian Berenbaum states, “in view of the circumstances—even now, who would conclude that the question is not why all the Jews did NOT fight, but how many of them DID. Tormented, beaten, starved, where did the ones who chose to fight back find the strength–spiritual and physical–to resist?”
“The fact is that over 10,000 German Jews—34 percent of the refugee population between the ages of 18 and 40—fought in the allied armies of World War II.”
The film’s first-had interviews with these Jewish soldiers share their deeply felt convictions. The scenes take viewers directly into the minds of these unique and heroic individuals. Their similar and collective cultural experience of being both German or Austrian native Jews enable all of us to understand how these heroes chose to fight the Nazis on their terms.
Joining the Allied military, however, did not free Jewish service members from anti-Semitism. Jews often were placed in certain jobs and received criticism when they tried to place themselves away from the so-called “Jewish Army.”
Jewish refugee service members made good use of their knowledge of the local languages, often providing invaluable information as translators, interrogators, and spies. Many refugee Allied service members were even required to change their European identities to prevent additional harm or death if captured, especially if they were going to be dressed as Germans and sent behind enemy lines into their native countries.
About Face also recounts the amphibious invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, in which heroic Jewish refugee service members fought alongside non-Jews, with many Jews dying on the Omaha beaches on their way to liberate their homelands.
Lastly, the film explores the liberation of the concentration camps by the British and American armed forces. Holocaust survivor Gerda Weissman Klein recounts the beautiful moment that unfolded between her and her liberator. “Instinctively, she informed her rescuer that she was Jewish, expecting some form of hostility in return. To her surprise, he paused to collect his thoughts, then said “I am too.” Over time their relationship built and they eventually were married.
These anecdotes, first-hand accounts and pictures perfectly relay the crucial role Jewish refugee service members played during World War II. This documentary can be enjoyed by any WWII buff, and would also serve as a good resource for educators to use to explore the impact of Jewish refugee service members on the war effort.
A word of caution: About Face does not shy away from death, it shows the corpses in concentration camps, and an example of the systemic execution of Jews along with soldiers falling on the battlefields of Europe. These scenes are something for Jewish Holocaust educators to keep in mind when showing this film to their students. Because of content and scenes of violence in the film, this movie is for audiences 13 and above.
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Jeffery Giesener, former CEO of SourceMob, has both public and private company experience. Today, retired and enjoying life in San Diego, he’s a freelance writer who has a passion for both cinema and baking his Mom’s (OBM) European recipes.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World