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This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star. and the American people coming to you from the city where the West begins. Fort Worth, Texas. Henry G. Plitt returned from World War II a hero.
not just to everyday Americans, but especially to Jewish Americans. He had been one of the first soldiers on the ground in Holland during Operation Market Gordon and in Normandy as a parachuting pathfinder. and he later captured Julius Stryker, the founder of the anti-Semitic newspaper Der Sturme, who had been advocating for the extermination of Jews as early as 1933. Here's the late brigadier general with the story of his service. And we'd like to credit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection for preserving and publishing this audio.
Let's get into the story. Sure. I was in law school. in St. Lawrence University, Brooklyn.
And at this time, I was getting close to 1940, it was in 38 and 39. And my family managed through an organization called HIAS, to bring into this country some of my relatives who were in the German occupied areas. And when I When I heard their story, I just made up my mind that all this was one man was responsible for all this. and his name was Hitler, and somehow or other I wanted to Kill him.
Now that sounds terrible in the light of today's world. But at that time when you heard those horror stories You couldn't do anything but want to destroy this person who was responsible for it.
So I switched my allegiance in the army to parachute troops. Because at that time Parachute troops were trained To blow up bridges, blow up planes, drop behind the lines, assassinate, execute, and all this kind of thing. But during our period of training it was very strange. Many, many people came into parachute troops. and before the training was over, we suddenly had ourselves Uh a regiment of men.
And now the tactics were not going to be the same. The regiment incidentally grew into divisions, and by the time we jumped in Normandy there were three divisions that went in.
So you can see that the idea of jumping behind the lines and killing Hitler was a long way. from potential fruition. It just couldn't happen that way. Yeah. But the only reason the only reason that I ended up with the first group to jump in Normandy.
is the man that we had selected As our pathfinder, The day before, during the period Eisenhower delayed for 24 hours. we had a chance to go up and see what he had done. and we were very dissatisfied with it. And my colonel said to me on the way back, Playta I want you to go in, take the Pathfinder detachment in. and I'll meet you on the ground and put a DSC on your neck.
So I uh didn't have any choice anyway. But the point is that that put me among Uh that we had three airplane loads going in. The Pathfinders. a total of 18 people per plane for a total of fifty four people.
Now the actual flight itself over England was nothing, but when we got to the English Channel, We went down on the deck and there were some very exciting moments. When the ships at sea were flashing the V for Victory sign to us. Right overhead. And then when we got to Cherbourg, We pulled up to 500 feet. Imagine up to 500 feet.
and we went along the line the road that we had all been briefed so carefully on and studied so long, Running from Montbourg to Boulogne, from Cherbourg to Montburg to Ballone, on down to St. Mary, Gleason, Carrington, and so on. And when we got over, I dropped some. Boom, there it is.
Now, if you want to know what went through my mind, I was just as scared as any human being could be. Here I was jumping into Festun Europa. which was a Nazi dominated France, German soldiers At that time the army Put your religion on your dog tags. And they did it only so that if you need last rights or what have you, they know what you are and what you aren't. and they only had three categories.
There was P for Protestant, C for Catholic, and H for Hebrew or Jewish. And I had an H on my dog tag. And so there I was all alone. In France, German occupied, But I was able to pick up 101 men, strangely enough, we were the hundred and first to have one. I picked up one hundred and one men and we attacked the gun position.
which was the division mission.
Now the reason we did that is that we were supposed to be on the ground for thirty minutes. And after that, hearing our own planes come in, we would put the lights on, That's what we jump for, the pathfinders. Put the lights on and guide the rest of the units in. For a long time it got to be very thin and tight, and for a long time I thought Maybe Eisenhower is cancelled again. In which case we gotta stay here for twenty four more hours and sweat it out.
Four. And before the oar really had a chance to take hold, we could hear the drone. of airplanes coming over.
Well, I hold the first part of the mission, the Pathfinder mission, was worthless. because these were new pilots who had never flown in combat before. And when the anti-aircraft started coming up at them, they broke from formation. They dropped troops in the channel. They dropped them all the way north of Cherbourg and all the way south of Carrintan.
And so that part of the mission, it just wasn't. And you've been listening to Henry G. Plip tell one heck of a story about his service to his country. And also, as a Jewish man, a unique perspective. And imagine having on your dog tag.
The H-letter as you're parachuted into Nazi Germany. Knowing what he knew from his German relatives, it's why he left law school and wanted to, as he put it, Kill Hitler. and he was not alone. Lots of Jews and non-Jews alike. We're at that task and at that effort, including, by the way, my mother's brother, her only brother.
who had parachuted into France as well. and didn't make it. He is buried in Saint Laurent Cemetery. in France. When we come back, more of this remarkable soldier's story, the soldier who captured Germany's most anti-Semitic writer.
continues here on Our American Stories. Lee Habib here. As we approach our nation's 250th anniversary, I'd like to remind you that all the history stories you hear on this show are brought to you by the great folks at Hillsdale College. And Hillsdale isn't just a great school for your kids or grandkids to attend, but for you as well. Go to Hillsdale.edu to find out about their terrific free online courses.
Their series on communism is one of the finest I've ever seen. Again, go to hillsdale.edu and sign up for their free and terrific online courses. Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean. Where did that story come from? Book?
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Train anywhere, explore everywhere. And we return to Our American Stories with Brigadier General Henry G. Plitt's story. and we learned that the early airborne units were designed to operate behind enemy lines, conducting the kinds of special ops that drew men like him to the parachute infantry in the first place. It was truly dangerous work.
While the tactics evolved, he would still get his chance to capture Nazis as the war progressed, including one of Germany's leading anti-Semites. Julia Stryker. Let's return to the story. Maybe ten days before the 8th of May, I saw people walking on the road Wearing a pajama-looking thing with a blue and a gray. And I said, What the hell is this?
They got another army here we don't know about? But I had never seen that before. And how and why they were out I can't tell you. But they were out there. And not with a guard, 'cause the guard would have been determined we'd have shot him.
Had no idea. As you got into areas like Munich and what have you, I knew of the horror things that had happened. through the cousins of mine that came back from there, in nineteen forty and thirty nine. But they didn't describe concentration camps. They didn't know anything about that.
What they could describe was how a stall window would be broken, a person would be taken off the street, if you were a doctor you couldn't practice, if you were a teacher, you couldn't teach, if you wrote a book, it wouldn't be published. Those things I knew. But I didn't know anything about these camps. As we got in there, it was a horrible sight. Everything was horrible.
Uh the the huts they lived in The uh uh furnaces that they were uh burned in And as we got there, moving up into this area. One of the men I was with said Look at those crematoriums and another officer standing next to him, said no, it's crematoria. That's the plural for crematoriums. I'll never forget that because that whole Moment. was just unbelievable.
These people were sitting on stoops and porches and on the ground, Their bodies were totally emaciated. Their legs were swollen, It was an unbelievable time. It changed my life dramatically right then. Because I wanted to capture as many of these bastards as I possibly could.
Now how to go about it? We had an arrangement. With the uh burgomeisters of the various cities, that if they had any known what would later become termed as war criminals. in their area they were to notify us. If they intended to hold their job as burgomaster, they better do it.
And so we got a call one night. I don't know who was on the Board. got a call from uh a burgermeister telling us about this man that was living in a certain building. We went to the building and He was in bed. And the minute we came in the door he reached for a pill on his night table.
One of my boys knocked it out of his hand. And then he said he didn't know why. we were bothering him. He was a a professor, a teacher. His name was Desselbrugge.
And he claimed to have he never was a Nazi, knew nothing about Nazism and so on.
Now I have to take you back for a moment. When V E Day came round, which was may the eighth, My particular unit of the hundred and first airborne. was in an area occupied by thirteen thousand SS troops.
Now there we were, 2,000.
now in charge of these people had surrendered. And When May 8 came around, My commanding officer, full colonel, My commanding officer told me I couldn't use any of our men. to go out on patrol. And the reason, he said, was the war is over now. And I can't write a letter to somebody's mother and father.
Telling them their son was killed on the 10th, the 11th, the 12th of May. I just can't do it. The war's over for us here. They get killed, it'd have to be in a traffic accident.
So he said, but I don't object to your continuing to do your scouting and patrolling, if you will. but you're going to have to do it with the SS troops that we have under our command.
So there I was. Driving through the Alps. Narrow little roads, in a Volkswagen instead of an American Jeep, And I got a German driver. Essays. And in those days, to make it even more precarious than the height and what have you, The rumor among the assets was they're all going to be uh executed for being in the SS.
So they really had very little stake. and just turning the wheel a little bit and off the Alps we went. But in my headquarters There was a full kernel Naji. And when I walked in, With Desselbrugge, He clicked his heels, popped to attention and said, How?
Now how in the hell can a school teacher have a full kernel do this?
So I called division headquarters and I said, I'm sending this guy up to you. And I did, and he turned out to be Robert Lay. The Minister of Labour. During these trips with the SS, I managed to get the President of Vienna His name was Delbrue. I got uh I found Jules Olberg, who was the butcher of Paris, roaming around in a Twentieth armoured stockade, In an enlisted man's Coat and suit.
We just spent days and days and days looking for these people. But Strifher that was a a more solitary role 'cause I got in by myself. We gi got a tip. that there was a high ranking Nazi living in the town of Wydring, In Austria. His name we didn't know.
I thought it was Heinr Himmler from the description. But I uh Didn't have a Jeep of my own. I didn't have an interpreter of my own at the time.
So I borrowed another guy's Jeep. And his driver The three of us went up the hill to this house, chalet, chateau, whatever you want to call it. and I entered with my forty five in hand, and I went upstairs, There was a man sitting on a chair. With an easel To his right, painting the opposite out. And I asked him his name, and he reached right and back, and he pulled out an identification paper and made out to the name.
of Joseph Sela, Now it didn't hit me quite that fast that this was Julius Stryker. And I began asking him things about Himmler, because I thought I had the wrong guy. Um He said he knew nothing about politics. He was a painter. He knew nothing about anything that had to do with what I was interested in.
And then I don't know why I said, and what about Julia Stryker? And he said, Yeah, dare Binnish.
Now I got that only from the JS. on his work papers. Joseph Saylor Was Julius Stryker. Yeah, der Benisch, which, when translated into English, means, yeah, that's who I am. In the car, in the Jeep.
I had my gun right in his ribs, so nothing was going to happen there. He was going to jump out or. commit suicide or anything. I said to him, This is the only interrogation he got from me. I said to him, Since see there strife here by spark gagin denewden, which when translated means Are you the striker who was against the Jews?
And he very calmly said, Ya der beneh. Which meant yeah, that's who I am. But he might just as well have said, so what? I mean he was arrogant to the very end. When we got to Birchesgaden, As he was getting out of the Jeep, I booted him a little bit, So that accelerate his departure.
And the place was loaded with reporters, and this, that, and the other. And one reporter came up to me. And he said, You know, you just killed the greatest story of the war. I said how? He said, Can you imagine if a guy named Cohn or Goldberg or Levy had captured this arch anti Semite?
What a great story it would be. I said, why? He said, because a Jew would be doing this. And I told him I'm Jewish. And that's when the microphones came into my face and the camera started clicking away and things started to happen that changed the rest of my life.
With Lay I just felt it was a part of my job. With Stryker there was a very personal feeling about the whole thing. I uh contained myself. and not killing him from time to time when he had the opportunity. but I had two other people in the Jeep.
And uh War or not war, you just don't kill people who surrendered.
So That's the story of Julius Glagner. War or not, You don't kill people. who surrendered. The story of the Jewish soldier who captured Germany's most anti-Semitic writer. The story of Brigadier General Henry G.
Plitt here. on Our American Stories. It's just this. Shh! You won't believe what my new friend just told me about dinosaurs!
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But don't wait, this Black Friday seasonal offer won't be here for long. Go to Washington Post dot com slash iHeart and grab this deal before it's gone. That's Washington Post dot com slash iHeart. This holiday season, give the gift of incredible sound with Vizio's full soundbar lineup available at Walmart. Transform any living room into a home theater with rich, immersive audio that brings every movie, show, and song to life.
Whether you're gifting a loved one or upgrading your own setup, Vizio soundbars deliver powerful, crystal-clear sound that turns ordinary watching into extraordinary experiences. Stream your favorite holiday playlist with the iHeartRadio app and discover how good your music can truly sound. Head to Walmart.com and find your perfect Vizio soundbar today. The only thing between you and your best self is a start button. This Cyber Monday, explore the world with Nordic Track.
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