When the Battle of the Bulge—one of the bloodiest battles of World War II
When the Battle of the Bulge—one of the bloodiest battles of World War II—began On This Day in 1944, Stephan H. Lewy was on the front lines.
After escaping Berlin as a child, Stephan returned to Europe as a member of the US Army to help defeat Nazi Germany.
Stephan, who was considered Jewish under Nazi racial laws because his mother was Protestant and his father was Jewish, faced rising antisemitism after the Nazis took power in 1933.
He had to enroll in a Jewish school and remembers being beaten up by members of the Hitler Youth. In July 1939, his father, Arthur, decided to send him on a Kindertransport to safety in France.
When the German Army invaded and occupied the northern part of France the next year, Stephan found himself in danger once again.
After learning that his father and stepmother had made it to the United States, he managed to immigrate to America in June 1942.
Shortly after Stephan's 18th birthday in 1943, he joined the US Army and was sent to Camp Ritchie, where he trained as an intelligence officer along with some 2,000 other Jewish refugees.
At the Battle of the Bulge, Stephan served alongside American and British troops in freezing conditions. He survived the battle and went on to help liberate the Buchenwald concentration camp.
Photo: USHMM, courtesy of Stephan H. Lewy
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