Of all the stories emerging out of WWII this must be one of my favourites. A tale of giving the proverbial 2 fingers and an up yours gesture. Undoubtedly the Service held did not lose any of its religious sense or relevance but I am sure there must have been a few smiling faces afterwards.
The picture above is of a Jewish Service held in Schloss Rheydt the home of Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister. I would have loved so much to have seen his face after finding out about the event in his dining room.
Pfc. Abraham Mirmelstein of Newport News, Virginia, holds the Holy Scroll as Capt. Manuel M. Poliakoff, and Cpl. Martin Willen, of Baltimore, Maryland, conduct services in Schloss Rheydt, former residence of Dr. Joseph Paul Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister, in Münchengladbach, Germany on March 18, 1945. They were the first Jewish services held east of the Rur River and were offered in memory of soldiers of the faith who were lost by the 29th Division, U.S. 9th Army.
I came across this newsletter, I am not sure if this is about the same service. I am not sure since the celebrants mentioned in it had different names and the date is 10 days later. So it appears there had been at least a second service, making revenge twice as sweet.

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I wonder how Joseph Goebbels would feel if he could know he would become [without the accompanying recognition] the Godfather, the Guru, the North Star, the beacon, for 21st Century political propaganda in the US, for 21st Century journalism, and for 21st Century communication techniques for both major US political parties. I think he might consider it a tribute.
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Reblogged this on History of Sorts.
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