(Jewish Group) GI Jews Didnt Just Fight Nazis They Battled Anti-Semitism In The Ranks Too
(THIS IS THE JEWISH GROUP! RESPECT!!)
GI Jews: Jewish Americans in World War II begins as many Holocaust documentaries do, with a history of the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany mixed with what is now standard archival footage of Brownshirts and Kristallnacht. Throw in interviews with some Jewish celebrities in this case, Carl Reiner and his friend Mel Brooks wearing his old Army jacket and it has all the workings of a typical PBS documentary.
But the film, which premieres April 11, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, quickly takes an unexpected turn. Jewish-American soldiers, the viewer learns, werent only fighting Nazis during the war they had to battle the anti-Semitic prejudice of many of their fellow soldiers.
All told, some 550,000 Jews served in World War II. A few had experienced anti-Semitism at home already in the form of Gentiles Only signs, for example, which were found at some public facilities across the country.
Mimi Rivkin, one of the 10,000 Jewish women who enlisted, a future member of the Womens Army Corps, recalled a more personal incident in public school: Suddenly kids werent playing with me. I asked one why and she said, The teacher told us youre a Jew and were not supposed to play with you.
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