Film: "The Ritchie Boys"

On Monday, July 9, 2007, Meretz USA screened The Ritchie Boys at its offices Beit Shalom.  The film followed the stories of several Ritchie Boys: European Jews who had fled to American following the Nazi’s rise to power, joined the US military, and were sent to Camp Ritchie in Maryland because of their fluency in German.  After leaving Camp Ritchie, many were sent to Europe to act has interrogators of prisoners of war. 

The screening was attended by two Ritchie Boys, Fred Howard and Peter Weiss, who had been invited to speak, as well as a surprise third, Arthur Stern.  We enjoyed talks from each of them. 

Prior to the film, Fred Howard, who joined the U.S. military after leaving Germany and moving first to Shanghai and then to the U.S., gave an explanation of how the idea for the documentary had first developed.  Arthur Stern also briefly gave his own biography: he came to the United States and joined the military after leaving his family, who could only get one visa, behind in Austria. 

Following the screening, Peter Weiss spoke about his time in the military.  After training at Camp Ritchie, he was sent to a secretive post in West Fairfax, Virginia, called PO Box 1142.  It ended up being a prisoner’s camp.

The program concluded with a question and answer period, which generated an interesting discussion about interrogation techniques used in the past versus those used in the past.