Les Ritchie Boys

"The Ritchie Boys" were a group of young refugees from Hitler's Europe pressed into service because of their language skills by U.S. Army intelligence. Unless you knew one of them (I knew at least two), it's unlikely you would be aware of the critical contribution this operation made to the American war effort. Indeed, if the documentary film is accurate, the Battle of the Bulge -- Hitler's last desperate effort to break through Allied encirclement == could have been foiled before it began, because the Ritchie Boys had collected intelligence about the massing of German troops prior to the offensive.

All of the Ritchie Boys interviewed for this film were Jews. Each had a personal stake in the war. And each had the personal satisfaction of interrogating enemy soldiers in their own language and extracting information through techniques learned at Camp Ritchie, MD, which contributed important, often crucial intelligence about the actions and plans of the foe.

The interviews were conducted roughly 60 years after the fact, and the reliability of memories may be questionable. Film clips, many documenting events not quite related to the narrative, comprise the rest of the film. Missing entirely is any real overview of the Camp Ritchie enterprise. Nevertheless, the individuals interviewed have compelling personal stories to tell -- both why and how they came to the U.S. and what they did during the war.

It's a fascinating group of people in or approaching their 80's: professors, an American diplomat, a distinguished psychologist, an artist, a successful businessman, reliving their experiences for the camera, acknowledging both the pain of separation from their childhood homes and their satisfaction at having given something extremely useful back to the country which had taken them in. Unlikely soldiers to be sure but youngsters with precious knowledge that the United States put to effective use. One would have liked to know more about how it came to be organized and what happened to all the other Ritchie Boys who weren't "available" to be interviewed because they died on the field of battle.