Thread by @pptsapper

A lot of people are familiar with this fantastic gif of the Nuremberg swastika being blown up by US Army engineers in '45

What I DIDN'T know until today was that just before this, Rabbi Eichhorn & 5 other GI Jews held a prayer of Thanksgiving, on the spot Hitler once railed from

https://twitter.com/MarkSZaidEsq/status/760188112744157184

Eichhorn was a chaplain in the 45th Infantry Division & has really amazing stories. Like just before Yom Kippur in '44, when the CG asked Eichhman where the nearest town was with a synagogue, for the service. Luneville, said Eichhman, but it was still held by the Germans

The CG, Haislip, told him he'd have Yom Kippur services there and put out the announcement that any Jewish GIs in the division who wanted to attend, could. In Luneville. Which the 45th promptly then took. Mostly. The town was still disputed when Eichhorn entered it

*Typos in PT

The synagogue had been utterly vandalized by the Nazis, most of the prayer books destroyed. But Eichhorn and some French villagers went to work, amidst sniper fire and artillery rounds, and soon there was a good space for a Yom Kippur service...in no-man's-land

Eichhorn couldn't believe anyone would show up: "But General Haislip's hunch was right and mine wrong. At sundown on Tuesday the men came into Lunéville from all along the line, on foot, by jeep and by truck. 350 battle-grimed Jewish fighters came to the synagogue for Kol Nidre"

"Their places in the line were taken by Gentile comrades so that they might have an opportunity to worship. In they came, their faces coated with dirt--grim, brave, fighting sons of Judah. I tell you...for the first time since I have been in France, I broke down & cried"

"The noises of war raged around us as together we intoned our traditional prayers. The men kept on their full battle-dress and their guns were at the ready. Together we prayed that mankind might be spared another such Yom Kippur."

Eichhorn would last the war, driving around in his jeep emblazoned with the Star of David. Even into the death camp at Dachau. You can read his remarkable letters here:
kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-135…

Sorry, Haislip was commander of XV Army Corps, not the 45th ID. Got my commanders and units mixed up