Father had powdered eggs in the Pacific theater. He said they would have killed for spam. 
I love creamed beef over toast. Thank you for reminding me to add it to my ‘things to eat’ vacation list.
I guess they couldn’t use Yiddish curse-words as an impenetrible code, like the Native American code-talkers in the Pacific Theatre. 
Not in Europe, but it might have worked in Japan See Japanese Rabbi joke.
Now I have a picture in my head: "Admiral Yamamoto, we have intercepted a priority message from the striken American aircraft carrier … but what is the meaning of “Oy Gevalt geshreeyeh”? 
Yeah, the IDF has even gone so far as to create special all-male units to accomodate Ultra-Orthodox males who object to the “secular” aspects of the IDF; like men & women serving together or female commanders. Women can get a complete exemption from the draft just by convincing a government rabbi that they’re to religiously observant to serve in the IDF with males; they don’t have to bother with yeshiva study. Marriage (even without pregnancy) get’s them off the hook too.
Off the top of my head I can think of at least 2 Orthodox Jews who served in the ETO. One, my old neighbor, was a German immigrant. He was often assigned to go behind German lines dressed in German uniform.
My Orthodox cousin also served in Korea. The only special dispensations he received were wearing a yarmulke in the mess hall and being allowed to attend Friday night services.
American Jewish POWs were sorted out by the Germans (by physical appearance, circumcision, “H” for Hebrew on their dogtags) and sent to Berga concentration camp to be worked to death as slave labor.
IS this like the Chinese guy and Jewish guy playing chess, discussing who’s culture is older?
“Oh yeah? What did you eat?”
Is that what you gentlemen in the officer’s mess called shit on a shingle?
All of my uncles were Orthodox Jews (not Ultra-Orthodox though), and all fought in WWII, in Europe. One was captured by the Germans and sent to one of the camps. He somehow survived. I remember, at a very early age, asking about the number tattooed on his arm.
By the way: a great Kosher version of shit on a shingle uses chopped hardboiled egg instead of chipped beef, and sour cream in the white sauce. Army cooks called it “goldenrod.”
Dad made that out of roast remains.
Thank G-d we didn’t have powered eggs.
I am pretty sure there are pikuakh nefesh exceptions to military service in time of war.
Non-kosher food may be eaten under the following circumstances:
If no kosher food is available to the person, and failure to eat the non-kosher food may result in starvation…An exception in which killing another person is permitted is the case of a rodef (aggressor), who may be killed in order to save the life of oneself or another. This permits self-defense and wartime killings in Judaism.
What is your definition of “An awful lot”?
Can you provide a cite that indicates that “an awful lot of G.I.s in Europe were Jewish”? Numbers and percentages, if possible. Despite every movie made of the Normandy Cemetary showing the required Star of David in the sea of Crosses to prove that a few Jews were killed in Europe, I have NEVER heard the phrase “an awful lot”. I’ve never even heard the phrase “a lot”.
I would also like to know how many Jews volunteered for service in WWII vs. How many were drafted? This would be an interesting exercise if these numbers could be compared to the number of non-Jewish Americans volunteered for service in WWII vs. how many were drafted.
I know a lot of Americans joined the services voluntarily in the wake of Pearl Harbor. What percentage of them were Jewish?
Why?
Why?
Why do you wonder those things?
Do you wonder that about Catholic Americans, Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans, Puerto Ricans, or Irish-Americand?
If not, why about Jewish Americans but not other ethnic and religious minorities?
Do you think that Jewish Americans volunteered in substantially fewer numbers than other groups?
And if so, what conclusion it is suggest that one should draw from that?
Or is it JAQ’ing about, what, Jewish patriotism/bravery/[insert term here]?
Oh, and before the crazies start swinging from the lights, “killed in Europe” was in reference to their military service with the US Armed forces, NOT a swipe at the atrocities happening to the Jews all over Europe by the Germans during the War.
I quoted you all. And I lumped it together, because it deserves to be.
When someone like TOMNDEBB throw a around a phrase like “an awful lot”, I believe it to be misleading, and not an accurate reflection of reality. Yet, no one ever calls these things into question, for fear of being labeled. As soon as that happens, everyone tries to explain why they aren’t anti-Jewish and the question and point gets lost.
Did they participate? Yes. No question.
Why would it be interesting to see the numbers who volunteered vs drafted? Honestly, you wouldn’t find the answer to this question interesting? Seriously? As a people or culture or race or whatever of people were being obliterated from the face of the earth, and it isn’t a valid question to ask what percentage of those living free in America gave up their freedom to fight the Germans willingly vs. Those that were drafted?
Tell you what. Let TOMNDEBB or whoever answer the simple question of what “an awful lot” is, and we can deal with any embarrassment of cultural cowardice later. I think I can safely assume that more jews fought in WWII than Amish, but maybe someone will surprise me,