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The Ritchie Boys

To all our friends in the United Kingdom and The Commonwealth, Sandy and I would like to express our sadness over the passing of your Queen. She was a great lady and left quite a legacy. The best words we can use to describe her are “strength” and “dignity.” We don’t know anyone in America who would say otherwise.


For those of you who read our recent blog, Blonde Poison (click here to read the blog), you may remember the last image I inserted. It was a picture of a group of men known as the “Ritchie Boys.” One of the men was an author I profiled in the recommended reading section of the blog. Well, one of our readers contacted me with some interesting comments regarding the Ritchie Boys and I thought, “This might make a good blog topic.” So, here you have it.


Did You Know?

Did you know that not all German citizens supported Hitler and the Nazis? While they were in the vast minority, many of them became active resisters. A Berlin couple, Max and Malwine Schindler (1890−1948 and 1887−1973, respectively and no relation to Oscar Schindler), formed an underground network in Berlin disguised as an English-language tutoring service. The purpose of the network was to get Jewish families and political dissidents out of Nazi Germany. The amazing part of the story is that it wasn’t discovered until 2019 when letters and photographs were found in a gardening shed in Australia. Under the cover as English language tutors and coaches, Max and other members visited Jewish families in their apartments. They established ties to liberal British organizations that could provide people to guarantee financial support to the refugees thus allowing the Jews and others to escape to England. These activities occurred during the 1930s as well as after the Nazis began to forcibly remove Jews from Berlin beginning in 1941. At that point, it was impossible to send people to England, so the Schindlers began to hide Jews in their large apartment at Pariser Straße 54.

Despite the testimonies of seven people after the war, the anti-Nazi activities of the Schindlers’ and others like them were quickly forgotten. It was only when the daughter of a former conversation coach who worked with the Schindlers found the cache of letters that documented Max and Malwine’s efforts.

Malwine is buried in an unmarked grave in the Wilmersdorf cemetery while Max’s final resting place is unknown. These are clearly two people who should have been recognized by Vad Yashem as “The Righteous Among the Nations.”

Malwine and Max Schindler after the end of the war. Photo by Frances Newell (c. 1947). Frances Newell/Supplied.
Malwine and Max Schindler after the end of the war. Photo by Frances Newell (c. 1947). Frances Newell/Supplied.

Camp Ritchie 

Somewhere nestled in the Blue Ridge mountains in Maryland is the former army post known as Fort Ritchie. Closed in 1998, the post once held German and Italian POWs between 1942 and 1945. However, it is now widely recognized as the top-secret location for the Military Intelligence Training Center (MITC) that was activated on 19 June 1942. The mission of the MITC was to train servicemen in espionage, counterintelligence, and frontline interrogation. It became America’s first centralized school for intelligence and psychological warfare. The MITC was nicknamed “Camp Ritchie” and almost twenty thousand men were recruited and trained at Camp Ritchie during the three years of its wartime existence. (About two hundred women were recruited.) They became known as the “Ritchie Boys.” Read More The Ritchie Boys

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“Jacques & the Normandy Beaches”

When given the opportunity, I always like to recommend hiring a private tour guide when traveling. Whether you cruise to distant lands, hoof it on your own using the trains, or grab a car and take in the sites at sixty miles per hour, a private guide is always worth it and frankly, not that much more expensive than the cost of those cruise excursions. Everyone has a different interest but trust me, there is a guide available for each and every one of us and our particular passion. Sandy and I travel for history so naturally, we focus on finding guides who are experts in tours which focus on the historical subjects we want to dig into. Some folks are foodies and depending on the city you’re in, there are guides who can accommodate your tastes (pun intended). If you’re into fashion or shopping, I guarantee there are guides in Paris who specialize in those areas. The good guides will take you to offbeat places and get you into buildings and rooms no one is allowed in (I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about some of our exploits with Raphaëlle in Versailles and Paris).

So, today I’d like to tell you the story of Jacques and the day we spent with him in Normandy France many years ago.


Did You Know?

Did you know that clocks and watches use the Roman numeral IIII rather than IV? It’s a classic design but look at the four on your watch dial (assuming it uses the Roman design). We were all taught to use “IV” to denote the Roman numeral four (if you weren’t paying attention in school, I’m confident you at least learned this by watching the annual NFL Superbowl games). I know this question has been keeping you up at night even in the modern era of “Googling.” Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not because of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. The original Roman way to represent four was using IIII while the number nine was represented by VIIII. The “modern” version of four began to be used in Rome as part of the sundials and yes, even pocket sundials. By the thirteenth century, technology had advanced with mechanical clocks displacing sundials. Medieval clock makers decided to retain the Roman numerals but since the majority of people had no education, including rudimentary arithmetic, they decided to use IIII. The symbol IV required basic math skills – namely, subtraction – and that was considered too complex. So, we may ask, why was IX used since it presented the same obstacle? Actually, there are several theories to explain why IIII is used but I see my time is running out and I only have IIII more minutes to finish this blog. By the way, Big Ben uses IV ⏤ the English have always had a dry sense of humor.


Our Trip to Paris 

Sandy had business in Hamburg, Germany and she suggested I fly from Nashville (we had just moved there from Southern California) and meet her in Paris at the tail end of her trip. Starting to sound like the beginning to a Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan movie? So, I flew over in early September and we stayed in a wonderful small hotel on Rue Cambon next to Coco Chanel’s original retail store and her apartment (refer to blog Coco Chanel: Nazi Collaborator or Spy? [click  here to read]). We were there a week and I planned a day trip to the Normandy beaches since Sandy had never been there. My last visit to Normandy and Paris was thirty-four years earlier in the summer of 1973 when I backpacked through Europe with a high school friend.

Caen
Exterior wall of Château de Caen, William the Conqueror’s Castle. Photo by Sandy Ross (2007).

One of the decisions I made was to hire a private guide to take us around Normandy and highlight the D-Day sites we could realistically see in one day. I actually found Jacques through American Express Travel. Sandy and I took the afternoon train from Paris to Caen and stayed at the Hotel Ibis Caen Centre. We were in the middle of the city and it was quite convenient for walking to the castle. The next morning, our guide was to pick us up in front of the hotel. Read More “Jacques & the Normandy Beaches”