My Parents' Connections to WWII

Dialogue with my mom:

Me: Did Poppi enlist to fight in WWII?

Mom: After graduating from college at age 17, dad decided to sign up for the navy. He was quickly recognized as a potential officer for the navy.

Me: What does being an officer mean?

Mom: I don’t know exactly, but it meant that he wasn’t going to fight. He was further tested and determined to have a very high IQ. He was brought into a special ‘think tank’ where he was involved in breaking codes and breaking strategy.

Me: Did he ever tell you about it?

Mom: Throughout his life, he was most reluctant to discuss the details of his experience, which he said was because his involvement was ‘classified.’ I also know that dad met mom immediately after he enlisted and they were married two weeks later, only days before he went into service.

Me: Do you know any of the codes he helped break?

Mom: Not really. I know he was involved with breaking the Japanese code. He was also involved with interpreting encrypted correspondence between Nazi allies. He never learned to operate a gun, he was a navy brain.

Dialogue with my Dad:

Dad: My dad was a doctor. His name was Milton. He was an eye surgeon. He was an officer in WWII, he was called a flight surgeon. He was stationed in Massachusetts, I’m not sure of the town but somewhere in Massachusetts. So he enlisted as a doctor.

Me: Did he tell you any stories about it?

Dad: He never spoke about it with me. Also my uncle, your great aunts husband, Arthur Roth, was a pediatrician in the army. But they were all based in the US, they were not in the European theater of operations.

Me: What is the European theater?

Dad: It referred to the battlegrounds in Europe.

Me: Anyone else?

Dad: I think my uncle— your great, great uncle— was an attorney for the US army in New York City, His name was Hyman Chipkin.

Me: Do you think it was especially important for your family to be involved in WWII because they were Jewish?

Dad: Oh yes. They were Americans fighting for freedom. This was a war against oppression. This was a righteous war. This was not like any other war that we have ever had. WWII was fighting against a force that wanted to dominate the entire world. The Fascist government of Germany was trying to subdue every country including our own. Because my family were American Jews they felt doubly responsible to help the war effort.

Me: Because they could?

Dad: Yes because here, in America they could. I know so many people whose grandparents were in concentration camps. Nazis were snuffing out the innocent just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s just unbelievable.

Me: Do you know anyone in our direct family that perished in the holocaust?

Dad: No one in my direct family was lost. They immigrated from Austria before the war. They were smart. I never talked to my grand parents about what happened with their parents.