Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld was born in Gary, Indiana in January 1925. He graduated from high school in Gary. Times during the Great Depression were difficult for his father and the family. His father was laid off as a policemen and had to work for the WPA [Annotator's Note: Works Progress Administration]. Lichtenfeld has a younger brother and sister. He was listening to a football game when the announcement was made about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He knew things were going to change. His feeling of patriotism and the desire for revenge overwhelmed him. He was in ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] and things became very interesting. He graduated and enlisted in the Army in April [Annotator's Note: 1943].

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld was sent to basic training anticipating that he would join the Air Corps. Instead he volunteered for the 88th Airborne which included paratroopers and glider infantry. He had no problems with the training because of his ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] experience. He was given advancements because of his background. He made his paratrooper jumps and was trained in glider landings. The gliders were very flimsy aircraft. Lichtenfeld then applied and was accepted for pilot training in the Air Corps. That was stymied by the heavy infantry losses in the D-Day invasion [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. Those in college at Galesburg, Illinois in preparation for flight training had to report back to infantry units. Lichtenfeld reported to Camp Shelby, Mississippi and the 65th Infantry Division. He became a gunner on a 105mm howitzer. The victim of anti-Semitism, he elected to volunteer for overseas duty and joined the 106th Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division]. They subsequently shipped out of New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] for Glasgow, Scotland. The ship was crowded to the point that he constantly had to stay in the chow line. Food was not good. Upon arrival at Glasgow, there were Red Cross ladies with donuts and coffee. It was very nice. After arriving, the troops went to a place in central England called Stow-on-the-Wold. Their training there continued into October 1944. The troops were shipped to Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England] where they were loaded on landing craft infantry vessels.

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld had a horrible experience in the English Channel. He, along with many other troops, got very seasick. He landed in Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] and witnessed the damage in the harbor. He had seen the buzz bombs [Annotator's Note: V-1 pulse jet flying bomb, German name: Vengeance Weapon 1; Allied names: buzz bomb, doodlebug] in London [Annotator's Note: London, England] previously. The London locals were very stoic when the bombs flew in but were warry when the engine stopped. In France, Lichtenfeld disembarked in rain and pitched his tent in mud. It was the middle of November [Annotator's Note: November 1944]. He rode in a convoy across France, Luxembourg and into Belgium. His father had crossed some of the same territory during World War 1. As a result, Lichtenfeld provided hints to his folks and knew and they could tell where he was during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He was with the 106th Infantry Division [Annotator's Note: Company I, 3rd Battalion, 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division] from Camp Atterbury [Annotator's Note: Camp Atterbury, Indiana] onward. The convoy from Le Havre was long and did not stop during the three day journey to the division's assigned area in Saint Vith, Belgium. Lichtenfeld's truck skidded off the road when they reached the destination. Luckily, no one was hurt. The 106th was destined to replace the 2nd Infantry Division on the front. They occupied the foxholes and bunkers established by their predecessors. The newcomers were told that nothing was happening at their new posting. That relieved Lichtenfeld. The 106th began their own reconnaissance and patrols in the first few days. It was very cold and wet. Men were manning foxholes on the outlying area. Men rotated on outpost duty such that the foxholes were constantly manned. It was a deep foxhole with a Thompson submachine gun [Annotator's Note: .45 caliber Thompson submachine gun] in it plus the M1 [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic rifle, also known as the M1 Garand] carried by the individual sentry. A telephone was in the hole to allow for the guard to report anything out of the ordinary going on. When Lichtenfeld heard snow crunching in front of him, he got on the phone and reported the noise. He feared it was a German patrol so when he was given the authorization to fire, he used the submachine gun and swept the field in front of him. It was discovered the next morning that he had blasted a deer. The joke was on him, but the men enjoyed the venison from the action. [Annotator's Note: Lichtenfeld laughs.] On outpost duty, a man was in the foxhole by himself for his two hour rotation. After being on patrol on 15 December [Annotator's Note: 15 December 1944], he returned to his dugout for some sleep. In the early hours of the next morning, a continuous German shelling occurred that had everyone startled. Lichtenfeld wanted to climb inside his helmet. The shelling was intense. [Annotator's Note: This was the opening round of the Battle of the Bulge.]

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld anticipated an attack after the artillery stopped. [Annotator's Note: Lichtenfeld was an infantryman in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division when it was attacked by the Germans during the opening round of the Battle of the Bulge. The battle erupted on the morning of 16 December 1944.] Everyone rushed to their foxholes but the enemy tanks were seen in the distance. They were monsters. It turned out that the Americans were being encircled on the first day of the battle. Visibility was limited in the dense forest where the men were positioned. They each tried to maintain contact with the man in the adjacent foxhole on each side. The troops were pulled back to form a defensive perimeter. Artillery fire was sporadic. No one was told what was happening. The 422nd Infantry Regiment was to prepare for a breakout by fighting their way through the rear of their lines toward Schoenberg [Annotator's Note: Schoenberg, Belgium]. The 7th Armored Division was supposedly on the way to rescue the regiment. The men of the 422nd Regiment knew they were in trouble when they discovered that. Men from various companies began to be separated from the main units and told to hold the line. Lichtenfeld was with them. He learned latter that they were to be the expendable rear guard for the main body of troops. On the 19th [Annotator's Note: 19 December 1944], there was little action but artillery could be heard behind them. Lichtenfeld assumed Schoenberg was being attack by the rest of the regiment and the division. Rumors spread that the regiment had surrendered. Lichtenfeld and the others never anticipated that would happen. Later that night, the Germans made a bayonet charge on their defensive perimeter. Hand grenades were being thrown in the American foxholes. The surrounded troops had no food and were hungry. They had little ammunition. Lichtenfeld and his foxhole mate only had a dozen rounds between them. After expending those few cartridges and seeing hand grenades being flung into foxholes, the two men decided to evacuate their hole. Outside the foxhole, Lichtenfeld saw a German rushing at him with a bayonet. The enemy soldier shouted "raus mit der hands" [Annotator's Note: German for "out with your hands"]. Lichtenfeld was frozen with fear as the German lunged at him and sliced his shoulder with the bayonet. At that point, Lichtenfeld raised his hands and became a prisoner instead of a combat infantryman. The German stripped him of his valuables. Just prior to that, Lichtenfeld had disposed of a German stickpin he had taken off a prisoner as well as his dog tags. His dog tags had "H" on it to indicate his faith, Hebrew. He knew then the seriousness of what was happening in Germany and the potential threat to himself after being captured. He had taken off his dog tags in the foxhole and ground them into the dirt at the bottom. Lichtenfeld took little note of the German soldier, only that he had a bit better uniform for the weather conditions. He was more concerned with surviving than examining the enemy. Lichtenfeld knows that his foxhole mate did survive the war but cannot remember his name. That bothers him considerably.

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld was stripped of his valuables after he was taken prisoner of war. [Annotator's Note: Lichtenfeld was an infantryman in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division and was captured by the Germans on 19 December 1944 during the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge.] The Americans were rounded up and moved down the hill where they had been positioned. A German gave Lichtenfeld a sharp shove with his rifle butt, forcing him downhill. Lichtenfeld grabbed on to another GI [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier], Al Harnish [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling]. The two men would become fast friends and mutual supporters during their time as POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war]. The prisoners were forced to walk off the road in the wet fields. Luckily, Lichtenfeld had saved a dry pair of socks for his feet. That kept his feet from being frozen. He also had managed to save some purification tablets that he used in dirty water to provide drinking water for him and a couple buddies. Lichtenfeld felt they would be rescued at any time until he saw the German equipment going to the front. That was especially true when he observed the King Tiger tank [Annotator's Note: German Tiger II heavy tank]. In the rear echelons, he saw some of the horse drawn wagons and coal burning trucks the Germans were relegated to use. The POWs kept moving to the east through reinforcing German troops. When they were marched through Prum [Annotator's Note: Prüm, Germany], the locals jeered them. In Gerolstein [Annotator's Note: Gerolstein, Germany], they were bedded down in a cemetery with the cold wind blowing. Several buddies and Lichtenfeld clung to a headstone and each other to stay warm. The men had not eaten for four or five days at that point. The next morning, the Americans were marched to a railroad station. He remembers a large wall there where he anticipated being shot. Years later, he observed that the wall was quite short. He did managed to get some soda crackers while at the wall. When the boxcars arrived, the POWs were jammed inside. Many were wounded much worse than Lichtenfeld who had received a bayonet wound to his shoulder during his capture. The boxcar would be his home for the next seven days. After three or four days, the boxcar stopped on 24 December [Annotator's Note: 24 December 1944] at the railyard near Stalag XII-A [Annotator's Note: Limburg, Germany]. The RAF [Annotator's Note: Britain's Royal Air Force] bombed the railyard and the train that night. Cars near Lichtenfeld had many casualties. The Germans fled and the Americans were released by other POWs to seek safety. Some of the prisoners went to the fields and indicated "POW" for the bombers above. The bombings ceased after that. The POWs were densely jammed into fewer cars. They had to take those who died and stack them like cordwood in the corner of the car. They tried to keep up with their relative locations as best they could. They were on the journey for seven days.

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld and his fellow prisoners reached Mühlberg [Annotator's Note: Mühlberg, Germany] and Stalag IV-B. After marching in the extreme cold from the rail station, the Americans were housed in a barracks with New Zealand troops who had been captured at Tobruk [Annotator's Note: Tobruk, Libya]. They showed the new arrivals about Stalag [Annotator's Note: prison camp] life. Lichtenfeld was given German letter-forms by the New Zealanders. He wrote two letters home. One arrived during his incarceration and reassured his parents of his survival. The other letter arrived after Lichtenfeld was already home and the war was over. Lichtenfeld's POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] buddy, Al Harnish [Annotator's Note: unsure of spelling], never had any of his letters reach home. Lichtenfeld had been given a battlefield promotion to sergeant but the records were lost. Nevertheless, he went to an NCO, non-commissioned officer, camp instead of one for enlisted men. He was interrogated by a Wehrmacht [Annotator's Note: German Armed Forces from 1935 to 1945] officer who knew quite a bit about the Lichtenfeld's regimental history [Annotator's Note: at the time of his capture, Lichtenfeld was an infantryman in Company I, 3rd Battalion, 422nd Infantry Regiment, 106th Infantry Division]. He even knew that Lichtenfeld was Jewish but did not segregate him. While imprisoned, Lichtenfeld shared some Red Cross parcels with nutritious food in it. He was next transported over a three or four day period to an NCO POW camp. The boxcar was less crowded and there was some food provided. He shared the soup with his buddy Al Harnish. Their friendship was solidified.

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld reached Stalag III-A at Frankfurt an der Oder [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt an der Oder, Germany]. It was the middle of January 1945. The barracks facilities and food at III-A were an improvement from Lichtenfeld's previous Stalag experiences. Latrine facilities were even better. At the end of January, the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] had to pack up because of the Russian advances toward Germany. Lichtenfeld had no boots at this stage of his imprisonment. A buddy cut off part of his coat and made booties for Lichtenfeld's feet. That was how he traveled as he marched 110 miles in temperatures never exceeding zero degrees for ten or 11 days. No food was provided on the march. The local population would harass the POWs. If the prisoners tried to protect themselves, they would be shot or bayoneted. The harsh guards were wounded SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel; German paramilitary organization] from the Eastern Front. Wehrmacht [Annotator's Note: the German Armed Forces from 1935 to 1945] guards were easier to deal with compared to the SS. The 5,000 POWs had little chance to sleep under cover during the march. The Americans would sneak off at night to find food at the local farms where the farmers had stored supplies for the winter. Many of the marchers could not bear the conditions. Bodies laid alongside the road. There were no ambulances following the marchers.

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld arrived at Stalag III-B [Annotator's Note: near Fürstenberg, Germany] about 30 miles south of Berlin [Annotator's Note: Berlin, Germany]. There were multinational prisoners of war held in the camp. It was the middle of February 1945. It was thought that the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] would possibly be used as bargaining chips in the final days of the war. The POWs were billeted in circus tents. About 500 prisoners were in each tent. The non-commissioned officers really started organizing themselves at this point. Rations were hot water in the morning that was supposedly coffee. At lunch, hot water with small portions of turnips and rutabagas and some wild boar particles was served. At night, barrels of hot water, that was supposedly ersatz tea, was delivered. Red Cross packages were available but had to be shared by five men. There was milk in the parcel. The tins were repurposed into multiple items for the POWs. There was a bit of jam and a small can of Spam and wedges of cheese. Cigarettes in the parcel became the currency of the camp. Notes in the packages indicated where the parcel was prepared. Every three days, a one pound loaf of black bread was provided. It was half grain and half sawdust. It was subdivided very judiciously. Any cats, rats or snakes were consumed as food. Lichtenfeld lost about 65 pounds during the five months he was in III-B. The non-coms never had to work. Lichtenfeld would walk the wire with two friends and talk of food. Some of the Signal Corps troops developed crystal sets [Annotator's Note: basic rudimentary radio set]. The parts were obtained from German guards. Lichtenfeld became the trader for his group. He would go to the wire and deal for various items. The wire was established in several rings including a deadly no man's land. Lichtenfeld got caught during an air raid in the wrong position and was nearly machine gunned. He dove into the circus tent for safety and escaped death. The POWs could tell the war was ending when the Americans crossed the Rhine River and the Russian artillery was heard in the distance. The air war and volume of Allied aircraft convinced the POWs that they had to dig slit trenches. The POWs wanted the Americans to reach them but had no idea that the Potsdam Conference stopped their advance at the Elbe River. The danger was that they could be bombed or killed. One day in April, the POWs were called out for rollcall. The Germans demanded that all Jews step forward. Lichtenfeld stayed within the group. As the Germans became angrier and threatened to shoot them all, everyone stepped forward. The Germans grew even angrier but no one was shot. A bit later, the men were ordered out again while several German officers were arguing. Later, Lichtenfeld found out that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had ordered all POWs to be killed. The Stalag commander had refused to comply with the order. After that, the prisoners were anxious. They knew the end was near. They heard the rumble of a tank. It had a big red star on it and was manned by a Russian crew.

Seymour "Sy" Lichtenfeld was liberated by Russian soldiers [Annotator's Note: he was a prisoner of war in Stalag III-B in Fürstenberg, Germany until 22 April 1945 when the camp was liberated by Russians forces]. The front line troops passed through and the rear echelon Russians did not bother to help the prisoners so things became chaotic. Ultimately, the POWs [Annotator's Note: prisoners of war] organized themselves and the Russians even armed them so they could make their way to the Elbe River where the American forces were standing fast. En route, Lichtenfeld could hear the screams of German women and drunken Russians. He knew what was happening. The freed prisoners gathered food from the farms they encountered on the way to the safety of the American lines. The liberated POWs made their way through the Russian lines and then the German lines. They encountered no German forces until near Magdeburg [Annotator's Note: Magdeburg, Germany]. A German officer with his patrol confronted them and asked that Lichtenfeld accept their surrender. The enemy soldiers followed the former POWs until they reached the Americans at Magdeburg. The POWs were mistakenly fired upon by Americans. No one was hurt. Lichtenfeld had to tell the sentry his high school in Gary, Indiana before they were allowed to cross into the friendly lines. It was 8 May [Annotator's Note: 8 May 1945, Victory in Europe or V-E Day]. The former prisoners were well taken care of their fellow Americans. Although Lichtenfeld had been through so many months of captivity, he was in good shape and that helped him to survive his ordeal. Some men that he thought were stronger actually gave up and died during their imprisonment. As more and more POWs arrived, the Americans established collection points. Individuals from the east were accepted as American soldiers or airmen if they showed their dog tags. Lichtenfeld had no tags but his friends accompanying him would not enter the site until he was verified and accepted [Annotator's Note: Lichtenfeld threw away his dog tags just prior to the Germans capturing him because the tag had an "H" on it for his faith which is Hebrew]. On the way home, he separated from his best friend in the POW camps but he found a hometown friend. They met Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] who promised to help them get back home. Whether he did or not is questionable but Lichtenfeld finally headed home. He sailed on the SS Margarita to reach the United States. They saw the Statue of Liberty as they arrived in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] harbor to a celebration. He was discharged and returned home where his mother grabbed his hands with a big smile on her face. She had feared that since a chaplain had written a letter home for him that he had lost his hands. He had no adjustment issues in returning to civilian life. He used the G.I. Bill and graduated from Purdue [Annotator's Note: Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana] with a mechanical engineering degree. All his college classmates were veterans. Lichtenfeld feels The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is an asset to educate future generations concerning the greatest generation saving freedom.