Jewish airmen in WWII

[G. Warrener]

"I would say it is the other side which increases the conflict, and it is mostly 'imported' people."


Franek


Presuming that you may just be a Polish Catholic - this is what your top managment in Rome expect you to follow (sorry that it's in English)

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/relations-jews-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19820306_jews-judaism_en.html

whereas the 'imports' are thinking this (in Polish !) - though of course it is a team effort and so possibly confusing - maybe even provocative?

http://www.jcrelations.net/en/?id=1983

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But the man on the street rarely listens to the wise....

Graham

[Franek Grabowski]

The problem is that all the RC have a managment in Rome. Jewes do not have any such managment and any Rabbi may draw his own conclusions and nobody is at power to verify them.

[jhor99]

I am Jewish, during my service I knew just a few Jewish pilots ,but I ran into many who were navigators.

At wars end I was in the right place and the right time to get a job as an airline pilot. However, I had the wrong name, I spite of having approx 900 hours of 4 engine time, plus a qualified navigator rating

Jules Horowitz

[Franek Grabowski]

Hello Jules
Nice to hear you. A question to you is what was approximate number Jewish pilots and crewmembers that you have met? Do you have any idea, why there were more Jewish navigators rather than pilots?
Concerning post-war time, it was generally a not very good time for qualified pilots - plenty of them were demobbed, many of them found their first civilian job during the Berlin Airlift.
By the way, have you been flying any sorties to Southern Poland? I mean such places like Auschwitz, Blechhammer or Odertal.
Best wishes

[jhor99]

Originally Posted by Franek Grabowski

Hello Jules
Nice to hear you. A question to you is what was approximate number Jewish pilots and crewmembers that you have met? Do you have any idea, why there were more Jewish navigators rather than pilots?
Concerning post-war time, it was generally a not very good time for qualified pilots - plenty of them were demobbed, many of them found their first civilian job during the Berlin Airlift.
By the way, have you been flying any sorties to Southern Poland? I mean such places like Auschwitz, Blechhammer or Odertal.
Best wishes

When I applied for an airline job, the war wasn't over yet. At that time I was offered a job with each airline,but I couldn't accept. After I was separated from the service, andapplied 2 short months later (March 1945) I was told that they would let me know. Leaving very dejectedly, I met an ailine captain thet I knew, he advised me to change my name. They would then hire me since I had about 900 hours 4 engine time, also a navigator rating. I felt that I didn'twant to live a lie.

No, I flew out of N.Africa, my last 13flights were from Italy. My group flew to Poland later on.

[Franek Grabowski]

Sorry, I did not notice your reply earlier. Thank you for your explanations!

[Franz von Werra]

Originally Posted by Graham Boak

I did notice recently that the list of the nationality of BoB pilots included one Israeli. An interesting concept, that.

You might be interested in knowing that I discussed this issue many years ago with some ex-RAF penfriends.
One of them stated that the Israeli Prime Minister (the name escaped him, but now I know it is the late Ezer Weizmann - sigh!) served in the wartime RAF, but was not sure about the BoB period.
Another provided me with more in-depth information and identified the pilot as GEORGE GOODMAN. I am not sure as to whether he was of Jewish religion, however, he was born in Palestine in 1915 to a railway engineer. He joined the RAF and took part to the BoB with 1 Squadron (JX) flying Hawker Hurricanes.
He later moved to N. Africa and was killed in 1941. He is buried in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma (Libya).

[Brian]

Hi Franz

May I correct one or two statements - Ezer Weizmann was a former president of Israel. He did not serve in the Battle of Britain but towards the end of the war, as did Aaron Remez, the first commander of the Israeli Air Force, and many others from those early days. As for George Goodman, he was born in Palestine, as it was then, so strictly-speaking was Palestinian.

Cheers
Brian

[Franz von Werra]

Originally Posted by Brian

Hi Franz

May I correct one or two statements - Ezer Weizmann was a former president of Israel. He did not serve in the Battle of Britain but towards the end of the war, as did Aaron Remez, the first commander of the Israeli Air Force, and many others from those early days. As for George Goodman, he was born in Palestine, as it was then, so strictly-speaking was Palestinian.

Cheers
Brian

Many thanks!!

[drgondog]

At least one fighter pilot in 358Fs/355FG was jewish, was shot down in March 1944 and survived Buchewald..