Learning Modesty From 99-Year-Old World War II and U.S. Army Veteran, Ed Wasserman
Ed Wasserman, 99, of Boynton Beach, FL, shared a story of leaving Germany at age 10 to flee Nazi Germany and seven-years later returning to fight the Nazi's with the U.S. Army.
Here is my story on Ed Wasserman, 99, Boynton Beach, published by Florida Weekly - Palm Beach (newspaper) - https://palmbeach.floridaweekly.com/articles/a-humble-hero/ I’m a freelance writer for hire. Here is my unedited version -
A Humble Hero Who Left Nazi Rule in Germany as a Boy and Returned with the U.S. Army Defeat Hitler in World War II, Reminisces About the Last Century and Greatest Generation in Boynton Beach
In 1935, at the age of 10, Boynton Beach resident Ed Wasserman boarded an ocean liner in Germany bound for the U.S. with his brother Herb, 11, to embark on a new life in the U.S. away from Adolf Hitler and his run to power. The Jewish brothers stayed for six months in a Chicago orphanage and for seven-years at his Aunt Sofie’s home in the Bronx. The brothers initially spoke German but learned to speak English quickly. After graduating high school, Ed and Herb joined the U.S. Army, fought to defeat the Nazi’s and Hitler, eventually liberating their hometown and birthplace of Recklinghausen, Germany, they left a decade earlier.
“There was a Jewish publication that my parents subscribed. My mother found a group in the United States that was sponsoring German Jewish children to relocate in the United States,” Ed Wasserman says.
Ed Wasserman’s story may have ever been told had it hadn’t been for a chance encounter between Jupiter resident Doug Glenn and Herb during a Southeast Florida Honor Flight meeting. According to Southeast Florida Honor Flight, the group is a 100 percent volunteer organization based in Stuart dedicated to honoring veterans. Herb told Doug his brother was in the war with him and that Ed should go on an honor flight. A short time later, Ed and Doug took off on a Southeast Florida Honor Flight to visit Washington D.C.
“At the World War II Memorial there’s a relief (art sculpture) of different things and we were just walking along and he said… That’s a mortar! That’s like the mortar unit that I was in!” Glenn says.
Glenn has been amplifying Ed Wasserman’s story and other veteran’s stories since.
“The Southeast Florida Honor Flight I had with Ed taking him to Washington D.C. was great. It was one of the greatest days of my life! It was beautiful.”
Wasserman pulls out a picture of him and Glenn in 2013 next to the Cherry Blossom Trees in Washington D.C. while talking at his home in Boynton Beach just a couple of months shy of his 100th Birthday. Wasserman, shows picture after picture looking back at his life while being humble as a man could be. “You’re the epitome of the greatest traits of the greatest generation, the humility the integrity,” Glenn says.
“I got out of the Army as staff sergeant. Once I got home, I was done with war and done with the Army. I never saved anything until this young fellow (Doug Glenn) came along and made me aware (that I was part of the team who defeated Hitler and Nazi Germany). I have always been a lucky guy. I got lucky to get out of Germany. I was lucky to get in the Army. I got through it without a scratch. I got home. I got a job. I got married and had a wonderful wife and life,” Wasserman says.
American filmmaker Steven Spielberg made an award-winning documentary, “The Last Days” intertwining similar soldier stories as well as interviewing Herb and talking with Ed while making the film. Ed recently watched the DVD and flipped through a century’s worth of his pictures, keepsakes that tell an almost improbable, hard to believe story of luck and triumph.
“I was born June 26th, 1925 in Recklinghausen, Germany. I even have a picture here of the house I was born in. This is a picture after the war and the whole front of the house was rebuilt. A cousin of mine was there and took these pictures. I never had a desire to go back to Germany. Same with the Army... I have no souvenirs. Once I was through with the Army I was through. I did my thing and that was it,” Wasserman says.
Wasserman excitedly shows picture after picture to Glenn during a beautiful, crisp Spring morning at his home in Boynton Beach.
“Do you see the picture of my brother and me with the lederhosen?” That’s my mother and father (in the photo). Who the heck is this? This is my mother and one of my… oh yeah with the frown that’s me,” Wasserman laughs.
“My parents had a business. Our business was fabrics. Mönchengladbach Fabrics. Mönchengladbach was town that made fabrics and these were fabric remnants that (my parents) sold. A lot of people made their clothes. There was very little off the rack. That was our business.”
Wasserman’s mother read a lot including publications informing Jewish people in Germany of Hitler’s plans. She came up with a plan that saved the majority of her immediate family. It saved Wasserman’s brother, father, mother and kid brother, his father’s brother and wife, two of his sons, plus a cousin.
“If my mother hadn’t of done this when she did it would have never happened. We would have been wiped out.“
In Germany, the Wasserman boys went to a Catholic kindergarten, a Lutheran school but when Hitler came to power Jewish people couldn’t go to German schools or universities anymore.
“We were put in a Jewish school with eight grades in one room led by a senile teacher. My parents saw right away that we weren’t going to get an education and without an education you’re not going to get anywhere,” Wasserman says.
A year after the Ed and Herb Wasserman made it to the U.S., their father joined them in New York City followed a year later by their mother and their kid brother, Fred.
“Here’s a photo of the whole family after they came here. It was just before we went into the Army. That’s my younger brother Fred, that’s my mother. Here’s a picture of us in the orphanage in Chicago (near the University). That’s me and that’s my older brother. He’s (Herb) the guy that won the silver star.”
At age 18, just after graduating high school Ed signed up for the U.S. Army. He was sent to Fort Benning, GA, for basic training, granted U.S. citizenship at a Federal Court in Atlanta and sent to Army Specialized Training Program (ASTP) at Georgia Tech. He even signed up for Army flight school and was accepted and then denied because he wasn’t a citizen for 10-years. He spoke English and German fluently with a smattering of French and Spanish. Ed was sent on to Fort Bragg, SC, to fill the ranks of the 100th Infantry and was ordered to specialize in chemical warfare but showed his prowess as an excellent gunner.
“I wanted to go to war. I was never afraid. I have never been afraid of anything.”
Ed and his 94th Chemical Mortar battalion were shipped to England and participated in missions as part of the 3rd Army under General George S. Patton during the invasion. His battalion crisscrossed France, the mountains and into Germany. Ed specialized in high explosives and in administering white phosphorous smoke if ordered.
“While we were driving through Germany, I was sitting in my Jeep and we came into an area and I had Deja-vu. I said to the guy next to me in the Jeep when we come to the next intersection 15 kilometers to the right is the town I came from and sure enough to the right a sign appeared – Recklinghausen 15 KM. I couldn’t stop because we were on a mission.”
The U.S. Army staffed with brave soldiers like Ed liberated Europe and Germany from Hitler and Nazi rule. Ed and his battalion were shipped back to the U.S. to prep us for the invasion of Japan. While he was serving the atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki ending World War II. Hitler and the Nazi Party were gone, collapsed and Japan surrendered.
“There’s so few of us left (World War II Veterans). A lot of kids have no idea about concentration camps or about the second world war. Kids today know next to nothing. They’re entitled,” Wasserman says.
“The important thing is to look what happened with Hitler and the Nazi’s. No (Jewish people) who stayed in my hometown remained alive. Just think about it. We were all refugees or children of refugees and today President Trump doesn’t want any refugees. He doesn’t want any immigrants. Well… This country was made of immigrants. We certainly paid our dues.”
After the war, Ed went into the clothing business in Albany, NY. “I started a business with nothing. I wasn’t afraid to start.” He met his first wife who was working in a women’s apparel store he bought. “My first wife looked like the actress Doris Day.” Ed got married to his first wife who had a 13-year-old daughter, Jeanie, who he still talks with every day. He perks up excitedly when telling stories or talking about his daughter.
Recently, Ed and Doug Glenn were having lunch in Bagels & in Boynton Beach and Doug stood up and said “ladies and gentleman you are in the company of a national treasure. This is Ed Wasserman, he’s a combat veteran from World War II, he’s 99-year’s old.”
“The place started applauding. One lady came up and hugged him. Another guy came by and shook his hand. A lady cried. The reaction to this story is very good,” Glenn says.
Bagels & is dear to Wasserman’s heart. He met his second wife Polly at Bagels & for their first date. “After the date, I dropped Polly off at her home, walked her to the front door and said goodbye. I went to my car and left and then pulled back in her driveway, walked back up to her door and told her that she looked like she needed a hug. From that point on we’ve been together. It’s been a wonderful, lucky marriage. It’s a great love story. We’re inseparable.,” Wasserman said.
Ed always says that that he’s the luckiest guy in the world. “He’s proud to be an American,” Polly says.
