The GI's Rabbi; World War II Letters of David Max Eichhorn

Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2004. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. ix, [3], 260 pages. Includes Preface by Greg Palmer; Acknowledgments; Introduction by Doris L. Bergen; The Letters; Epilogue by Mark S. Zaid; Appendix; Glossary; and Index. A Photo Section of Twenty Six black and white photographs follows pages 222 to 223. Eichhorn's letters show us a devoutly religious man trying to cope with the perils of combat and the needs of his fellow soldiers. Because he was just one generation removed from being German himself, the letters also show how he came to terms with his own loyalties and hatreds while witnessing Nazi atrocities against European Jews. This book is filled with amazing stories and poignant insights as Eichhorn tells about combat experiences, relations with Christian chaplains, encounters with Jewish refugees, and impressions of the defeated Germans. Once he was ordered to hold a Yom Kippur service in a beleaguered French town that just hours before had been held by the Nazis and was still under attack. It was a tough assignment, but after 350 battle-grimed Jewish soldiers showed up he wrote, "I tell you unashamedly that, for the first time since I have been in France, I broke down and cried." Yet that experience paled before the liberation of Dachau, where he organized the first Shabbat service for the survivors, or the fall of Nuremberg, where he and a handful of Jews held a ceremony of thanksgiving at the site of Hitler's infamous rallies. Throughout, he vividly conveys the experience of war and how it altered forever a small-town rabbi--a man of faith and courage who never fired a gun in combat. He was the soldier in the jeep with the big Star of David, driving from foxhole to foxhole, sometimes under fire, bringing faith and friendship to fighting men. David Max Eichhorn, a Jewish chaplain in the U.S. Army's XV Corps, saw action across France and into Germany until VE-Day and beyond. He was there at the Battle of the Bulge, participated in the liberation of Dachau, and became embroiled in the behind-the-scenes controversy that led to the execution of Private Eddie Slovik. David Max Eichhorn (January 6, 1906 - July 16, 1986) was an American rabbi of Reform Judaism, a director for Hillel, a chaplain in the Army, an author, and an authority within Reform Judaism on the subjects of interfaith marriage and religious conversion. In 1941, Eichhorn enlisted in the Army as a chaplain. In July 1942, Eichhorn was stationed at Camp Croft in Spartanburg County, SC and evidently assisted the local Jewish congregation, which was then without a rabbi. Throughout World War II, Eichhorn was assigned to serve in combat units in France and Germany, and was among the troops that liberated Dachau. After returning from the war in 1945, Eichhorn retained his active military status in the United States Army Reserve. He worked for the Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities (known later as the Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy) of the National Jewish Welfare Board as Director of Field Operations of the federal chaplaincy program. The Board is authorized by the Government to serve the religious needs of Jewish military personnel. He was also the president of the Association of Jewish Chaplains of the Armed Forces from 1953-1955. He retired from the military with the rank of lieutenant colonel in 1968. Greg Palmer is a Peabody Award-winning screenwriter whose credits include the PBS documentary The Perilous Fight: Americas World War II in Color (in which Eichhorn appears) and Death: The Trip of a Lifetime. Mark S. Zaid, a grandson of David Max Eichhorn, is an attorney in Washington D.C., with a practice focused on national security law, free speech constitutional claims, and government accountability. In 1998 he founded the James Madison Project, an organization dedicated to reducing government secrecy.