War Heroes, Relatively Speaking
My uncle Irving Heymont, retired U.S. Army colonel, WWII hero, and stern patriarch with a sense of humor you needed special genes to locate, passed away last Tuesday evening at the age of 90. I mentioned him when I replied to Mary’s post the other week about her ancestor, Major General Lord Blayney.
Irving Heymont, with my husband Scott and me, at the celebration of Irving's 90th birthday. Taken April 6, 2008 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC
Irving Heymont, with my husband Scott and me, at the celebration of Irving's 90th birthday. Taken April 6, 2008 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in NYC
We write about war (and other) heroes and heroines and how character shapes their actions and actions shape their character. What I learned from even the briefest research on my uncle is that this was very much the truth. And yet, sometimes it isn't until someone passes away and the mourners take a trip down Memory Lane and revisit the life and achievements of the deceased, that long-held myths are exploded. As a child I always thought he was “very Jewish”—as in more strictly religious than the rest of the family. And yet, I was wrong in some ways, in that he wasn’t always that way.
Among my uncle's many accomplishments is his stewardship of a Germany postwar displacement camp for Holocaust survivors. Rather than distill events and reminisces from this time in Irving Heymont’s life, I will let the witnesses and survivors speak for themselves.
Even professional Jewish soldiers recognized how powerfully the revelations of the camps influenced their own behavior. Irving Heymont of the Third US Army was placed in charge of the Landsberg displaced persons camp in September 1945. In his first speech before the inmates, the 27-year-old major articulated his identification with the Jews forced to live there. “As I speak to you tonight, I can also be called a sort of DP,” he told his audience. “We know what you suffered in the Nazi concentration camps—and not just through newspaper reports. My Regiment liberated a concentration camp.” Many years later Heymont concluded that “the few months I spent at Landsberg had a greater impact on my outlook on life than any other experience in my career, including infantry combat in both World War II and the Korean War.” Though he was unaware of it at the time, Heymont subsequently reflected that “Landsberg made me a conscious Jew again--not a religious Jew, seeking the ways of the Lord—but an affirmed member of the Jewish people.” [From an article titled: “When Jews Were GIs: World War II and the Remaking of American Jewry.”
At http://www.fathom.com/course/21701756/session4.html.]
Below are excerpts from two condolence letters from Survivors sent to Irving’s daughter, my cousin Laurie:
I could not have been happier than when I was with him and we spoke of Landsberg and the world into which I was born. His letters to your mother, of blessed memory, will have an enduring effect on the history of the Jewish Displaced Persons' camps and that period of Jewish history.
But it was more than the letters, it was your father's sense of justice and the fact that he believed that the Holocaust survivors needed to take their future into their own hands, to reestablish identities that had been taken away from them during the Holocaust years.
His few months in the Landsberg DP camp were, I believe, a turning point in Jewish history. It allowed the survivors in Landsberg, which became the spiritual and intellectual center of the concept of the “Survivng Remnant,” as they called themselves, to develop a philosophy and a vision that has finally been realized, I think, with the impact of the Holocaust on our nation and our world.
But, of course, Dad was not satisfied to sit back and accept such accolades. He then turned his attention to the generation of Germans that inherited the terrible crimes of their parents and grandparents. Dad did not judge, did not condemn, instead he asked the children and grandchildren of Landsberg to accept the responsibility of uncovering the truth of the what had happened in their town during the Holocaust years, and what they could do to make certain that it would not happen again.
Imagine, your father influenced a generation of German teachers and students to say and do “Never Again.” He was a beloved figure in Landsberg and had the respect and admiration of all.
As you know, there is a street in the former Jewish DP camp named for your father. I walked in the camp, now a vibrant apartment community . . . Your dad would not have recognized the place, except for the headquarters building where he had his office. That is still very much the same building and I know his spirit will remain a part of it.
My parents . . . arrived in Landsberg on August 22, 1945. Your dad arrived there a few weeks later. My parents remembered your father well. Because Dad was a “by the book” soldier, he sought to run the camp with a firm but fair hand. One of his beliefs was that it would be difficult to maintain control if the survivors knew he was Jewish. So he never let it be known that he was.
My father remembered your father as the “non-Jewish officer with a Jewish heart.” And it was that Jewish heart that identified your Dad and will forever be a part of his legacy.
Abraham J. Peck
Director, Academic Council for Post-Holocaust Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies; University of Southern Maine
And:
. . . Your father . . .played such an important part in of our destiny after our liberation by the US forces at the end of World War Two. We were children of the Holocaust who were told by the Nazis that we were sub human vermin. Our self esteem as Jews was non existant. Then we met your father who was in charge of our camp in Landsberg. He was the first Jewish American officer [it was not until a speech my uncle made to some of the Landsberg camp survivors decades later that he admitted his Judaism] and we thought of him as someone who came down from Olympus. Especially of what the Nazis kept telling us how worthless we are.
Your father's appearance lifted us out from the abyss of Nazi hell and began restoring our lost dignity as human beings and Jews. Besides taking care of our material needs in the camp, he gave us a spiritual lift up that we will remember as long as we live. During the post war years and later in Israel we reestablished contact with him and met several times here in Israel and in Washington DC. He became such a good friend not only because he was such a “Mensch,” but because we always remembered him as the symbol of the Jewish men and women who served in the allied armies to defeat the “fiend-Hitler.”
We remember him at Landsberg tall, impeccably dressed in an American army officer's uniform. He held an emotional address [years later] which brought tears to our eyes. “As I speak to you tonight, I can also be called a sort of DP.,Landsberg made me a conscious Jew again—not a religious Jew, seeking the ways of the Lord—but an affirmed member of the Jewish people,.” he said.
Most of us DP’s left Landsberg for Israel where we fought in the War of Independence restoring not only our dignity but our ancient homeland, and helped building it up from a pauper state to what it is today, a proud strong state. We achieved what no other country ever achieved. From a tiny country without any natural resources, with barely 600,000 inhabitants we managed to absorb millions of penniless Jewish refugees from around the world and build up the country to what it is today and that despite five brutal wars in which the combined Arab armies tried to destroy us. We, Holocaust survivors formed an important part of that restoration and we, our children and grand children are part of the back bone of the country.
It was your father who showed us the way and we thank him for it. We shall never forget him.
Solly Ganor
Uncle Irving would be both shocked and pleased that alibris is selling a copy of his Among the Survivors of the Holocaust, 1945: the Landsberg DP Camp Letters of Major Irving Heymont, for $300! I have to confess that I’ve never read them, but my understanding is that they contain numerous letters to my aunt Joan, Irving’s wife—and in many ways the letters tell a love story between the two of them as much as they illustrate the glimmer of light at the end of one of history’s darkest tunnels.
Who are your personal heroes among your ancestors or nearer relations? Who among them has caused you to look deeper at and/or be prouder of your identity? Whose innate character and/or actions have influenced or catalyzed your own?
Even professional Jewish soldiers recognized how powerfully the revelations of the camps influenced their own behavior. Irving Heymont of the Third US Army was placed in charge of the Landsberg displaced persons camp in September 1945. In his first speech before the inmates, the 27-year-old major articulated his identification with the Jews forced to live there. “As I speak to you tonight, I can also be called a sort of DP,” he told his audience. “We know what you suffered in the Nazi concentration camps—and not just through newspaper reports. My Regiment liberated a concentration camp.” Many years later Heymont concluded that “the few months I spent at Landsberg had a greater impact on my outlook on life than any other experience in my career, including infantry combat in both World War II and the Korean War.” Though he was unaware of it at the time, Heymont subsequently reflected that “Landsberg made me a conscious Jew again--not a religious Jew, seeking the ways of the Lord—but an affirmed member of the Jewish people.” [From an article titled: “When Jews Were GIs: World War II and the Remaking of American Jewry.”
At http://www.fathom.com/course/21701756/session4.html.]
Below are excerpts from two condolence letters from Survivors sent to Irving’s daughter, my cousin Laurie:
I could not have been happier than when I was with him and we spoke of Landsberg and the world into which I was born. His letters to your mother, of blessed memory, will have an enduring effect on the history of the Jewish Displaced Persons' camps and that period of Jewish history.
But it was more than the letters, it was your father's sense of justice and the fact that he believed that the Holocaust survivors needed to take their future into their own hands, to reestablish identities that had been taken away from them during the Holocaust years.
His few months in the Landsberg DP camp were, I believe, a turning point in Jewish history. It allowed the survivors in Landsberg, which became the spiritual and intellectual center of the concept of the “Survivng Remnant,” as they called themselves, to develop a philosophy and a vision that has finally been realized, I think, with the impact of the Holocaust on our nation and our world.
But, of course, Dad was not satisfied to sit back and accept such accolades. He then turned his attention to the generation of Germans that inherited the terrible crimes of their parents and grandparents. Dad did not judge, did not condemn, instead he asked the children and grandchildren of Landsberg to accept the responsibility of uncovering the truth of the what had happened in their town during the Holocaust years, and what they could do to make certain that it would not happen again.
Imagine, your father influenced a generation of German teachers and students to say and do “Never Again.” He was a beloved figure in Landsberg and had the respect and admiration of all.
As you know, there is a street in the former Jewish DP camp named for your father. I walked in the camp, now a vibrant apartment community . . . Your dad would not have recognized the place, except for the headquarters building where he had his office. That is still very much the same building and I know his spirit will remain a part of it.
My parents . . . arrived in Landsberg on August 22, 1945. Your dad arrived there a few weeks later. My parents remembered your father well. Because Dad was a “by the book” soldier, he sought to run the camp with a firm but fair hand. One of his beliefs was that it would be difficult to maintain control if the survivors knew he was Jewish. So he never let it be known that he was.
My father remembered your father as the “non-Jewish officer with a Jewish heart.” And it was that Jewish heart that identified your Dad and will forever be a part of his legacy.
Abraham J. Peck
Director, Academic Council for Post-Holocaust Christian, Jewish and Islamic Studies; University of Southern Maine
And:
. . . Your father . . .played such an important part in of our destiny after our liberation by the US forces at the end of World War Two. We were children of the Holocaust who were told by the Nazis that we were sub human vermin. Our self esteem as Jews was non existant. Then we met your father who was in charge of our camp in Landsberg. He was the first Jewish American officer [it was not until a speech my uncle made to some of the Landsberg camp survivors decades later that he admitted his Judaism] and we thought of him as someone who came down from Olympus. Especially of what the Nazis kept telling us how worthless we are.
Your father's appearance lifted us out from the abyss of Nazi hell and began restoring our lost dignity as human beings and Jews. Besides taking care of our material needs in the camp, he gave us a spiritual lift up that we will remember as long as we live. During the post war years and later in Israel we reestablished contact with him and met several times here in Israel and in Washington DC. He became such a good friend not only because he was such a “Mensch,” but because we always remembered him as the symbol of the Jewish men and women who served in the allied armies to defeat the “fiend-Hitler.”
We remember him at Landsberg tall, impeccably dressed in an American army officer's uniform. He held an emotional address [years later] which brought tears to our eyes. “As I speak to you tonight, I can also be called a sort of DP.,Landsberg made me a conscious Jew again—not a religious Jew, seeking the ways of the Lord—but an affirmed member of the Jewish people,.” he said.
Most of us DP’s left Landsberg for Israel where we fought in the War of Independence restoring not only our dignity but our ancient homeland, and helped building it up from a pauper state to what it is today, a proud strong state. We achieved what no other country ever achieved. From a tiny country without any natural resources, with barely 600,000 inhabitants we managed to absorb millions of penniless Jewish refugees from around the world and build up the country to what it is today and that despite five brutal wars in which the combined Arab armies tried to destroy us. We, Holocaust survivors formed an important part of that restoration and we, our children and grand children are part of the back bone of the country.
It was your father who showed us the way and we thank him for it. We shall never forget him.
Solly Ganor
Uncle Irving would be both shocked and pleased that alibris is selling a copy of his Among the Survivors of the Holocaust, 1945: the Landsberg DP Camp Letters of Major Irving Heymont, for $300! I have to confess that I’ve never read them, but my understanding is that they contain numerous letters to my aunt Joan, Irving’s wife—and in many ways the letters tell a love story between the two of them as much as they illustrate the glimmer of light at the end of one of history’s darkest tunnels.
Who are your personal heroes among your ancestors or nearer relations? Who among them has caused you to look deeper at and/or be prouder of your identity? Whose innate character and/or actions have influenced or catalyzed your own?
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