A local article recalls the story of then-Army Lieutenant Henry Levine, a B-17 navigator who was shot down over Nazi Germany and captured in February 1944. While in Stalag Luft 1,

he led secret Jewish religious services for fellow POWs, right under the noses of their Nazi captors.

“Many people risk their lives to pray to their god,” his son Ron Levine, of Cedar Rapids, says. “He was one of them.”

The article reveals the Nazis technically permitted “Jewish church” for appearances, though actual Jewish rites weren’t permitted. As a result, with the assistance of non-Jewish POWs, Levine led real services in secret:

Bernie Levine recalled the worship, held in a different barracks for each session. POWs entered two at a time to avoid detection, and non-Jewish POWs stood watch, to alert them if guards were coming. There were about 300 Jewish POWs in the camp of more than 10,000 prisoners.

For Passover, an Anglican chaplain who had received hundreds of communion wafers from the Red Cross donated them to the Jewsih POWs, so they could have unleavened bread.

Read more of the fascinating story here.

Photo: Courtesy Levine family via the Gazette.

Repeated at the Stars and Stripes..

ADVERTISEMENT