by Cieslafdn | Nov 9, 2017 | Spy
By Sam Roberts, New York Times
Irv Refkin, an impromptu but daring spy who served the United States and Britain as a saboteur, assassin and courier behind enemy lines in Europe during World War II, died on Thursday at his home in San Diego. He was 96.
His death was confirmed by a friend, Vera Davis.
Dispatched from England, Mr. Refkin, a scrappy 5-foot-6 Wisconsin native, was said to have smuggled explosives to the French Resistance in Paris, infiltrated Nazi Germany to kill specific targets integral to the Nazi war machine, and sabotaged train tracks to slow the deployment of German tanks to Normandy before the Allied invasion on D-Day.
On his clandestine missions inside Germany, he would disguise himself in a Wehrmacht corporal’s uniform.
“No one,” he explained, “has ever noticed a corporal.”
He also carried out assignments in Italy, the Soviet Union and South Africa.
Mr. Refkin, who was discharged as a master sergeant after the war, was awarded the Bronze Star. In 2014, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Office of Strategic Services Society, an association of alumni from the wartime intelligence predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
“O.S.S. founder General William Donovan described O.S.S. personnel as ‘glorious amateurs’ who performed ‘some of the bravest acts of the war,’ ” said Charles Pinck, president of the society, in an email. “That’s a perfect description of Irv Refkin.”
Last year, when legislation was pending to award the Congressional Gold Medal to World War II spies who served behind enemy lines, Mr. Refkin lobbied for speedy adoption, arguing that the ranks of those former spies were dwindling.
“We’re all in our mid-90s,” he said. “We’re not going to be here that long.”
President Barack Obama signed the legislation in December 2016, but the medals have not yet been formally conferred.
Isadore Irving Refkin was born on June 7, 1921, in Milwaukee to Samuel and Anna Refkin, Jewish immigrants from Russia.
According to his account, his parents were killed in an auto accident when he was 3 or 4, and for the next 10 years he was raised in a German Lutheran orphanage. Then, he said, with $3.26 in his pocket, he fended for himself.
After completing high school he attended Marquette University in Milwaukee for two years, then enlisted in the Army in 1940 when he was 19 to avail himself of the proverbial “three hots and a cot” — a place to eat and sleep. After basic training, he was sent to Canada for instruction in explosives.
According to his account, he had a run-in with a senior officer there who extracted revenge by putting him on a plane to Britain without notice. By the time the authorities there realized he was not Canadian, and before the United States Army learned he was missing, he had parachuted into occupied France to apply his skills as a demolition expert and a speaker of German.
“If they catch you they’re going to kill you for being Jewish,” an officer warned him, Mr. Refkin recalled in an interview for the strategic services society this year.
“If they catch me for being a spy, is it going to be any easier?” he asked.
When the officer replied no, Mr. Refkin said, he delivered a typically practical response.
“One way or another,” he said, “I can’t let them catch me.”
He said he carried out three successful missions for the British. Once the United States entered the war he performed special assignments for the Americans, according to the society.
Read full article here
by Cieslafdn | Nov 1, 2017 | Uncategorized
Joc Pederson of the Los Angeles Dodgers has set a new home run record for Jewish players in one World Series.
Pederson, a lefty-swinging outfielder, blasted a homer in the seventh inning of his club’s 3-1 win over the visiting Houston Astros in Game 6. The shot, to left field, was his third of the Series and moved Pederson past Hall of Famer Hank Greenberg, the Detroit Tigers’ slugger who had two homers in the 1934 Fall Classic.
Greenberg still holds the mark for most runs batted in by a Jewish player in one World Series — at least for now, since there’s another game left — with seven. Pederson has five, as does Alex Bregman, the Astros’ Jewish third baseman, along with two home runs.
Written by Ron Kaplan.
Link to full article
by Cieslafdn | Jun 23, 2017 | Uncategorized
National Geographic’s 10-episode first season of “Genius” was a fascinating series on Albert Einstein’s life, based on Walter Isaacson’s book Einstein: His Life and Universe. The show aired its finale on June 20th and includes scenes with Berg’s dangerous assignment in the OSS during World War II.
Episode nine opens with Berg receiving a gun and cyanide pill with instructions to listen to Heisenberg’s lecture at the Zurich Polytechnic Institute in Switzerland. He’s told specifically to listen for words and phrases like, “heavy water, plutonium and fast fission.” “If anything he says leads you to believe he’s developing an atomic bomb,” Berg’s told, “Kill him!”
Later, Einstein is listening to a broadcast of a Red Sox game at Fenway Park in 1939 and Moe Berg is referred to as “Einstein in knickers” because he’s the most intelligent of all the baseball players.
Berg’s final scene is in December 1944, as he listens to Heisenberg’s lecture and walks with the German physicist afterwards over cobblestone streets.
While not portrayed in the “Genius” series, Berg did meet Einstein after the war. In Nicholas Dawidoff’s book, The Catcher was a Spy the meeting is described: “Mr. Berg, exclaimed the scientist, “you teach me baseball, and I’ll teach you mathematics.” He paused a moment and added, “But let’s forget it. I’m sure you’d learn mathematics faster than I’d learn baseball.”
by Cieslafdn | Jun 21, 2017 | Uncategorized
Program Cover for the OSS 75th Anniversary Celebration
The OSS was created in 1942 by President Roosevelt and was the World War II predecessor to the CIA, US Special Operations Command and the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The celebration was held at the site of the first OSS and CIA headquarters on Navy Hill, which was recently added to the National Register of Historic places.
Moe Berg served as a spy for the OSS during World War II and was recruited by OSS Director General William (Wild Bill) Donovan.
Read more about the ceremony here. You can link to the OSS society website here.
by Cieslafdn | Jun 14, 2017 | Uncategorized
Award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner will be taking part in a revealing discussion about Washington’s history of Jewish ballplayers. She will be sitting down with sports attorney and former Washington Senator’s broadcaster Philip Hochberg and author Frederic J. Frommer (You Gotta Have Heart: A History of Washington Baseball from 1859 to the 2012 National League East Champions) at Eldavitch DCJCC as they will cover names such as Moe Berg (catcher, scholar, spy); the subject of Kempner’s new film, Elliott Maddox (the only Black Jew to play in the Major Leagues); and Jason Marquis (the first observant Jew to play for the Nats). Tickets are available here.
Recent Comments