We were the fall guys that had to draw the enemy fire.
Well, they didn't teach Stern - he was pretty green.
At that time, he didn't know you don't stop and look around, like that
because that's when they'll zero in on you and kill you.
Upon Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933,
the mood in central Europe began to grow increasingly grim, especially for the Jewish people.
Deemed by the Fuhrer to be an undesirable race, Jews were persecuted,
isolated from civil society, and eventually forced into walled-in ghettos
where they were starved and completely cut off from the outside world.
As war broke out in Europe and Nazism spread like a fire,
the plight of the Jews would only grow worse.
For 17 year old Robert Sabetay, known to his friends as "Bud",
being of Jewish decent in the United States came with its share of antisemitism,
though not nearly as severe as what was being dealt in Europe,
and not enough to discourage Bud from joining the Army Air Corps.
I loved the Air Corps.
I wanted to join it.
And when he interviewed me, he claims I stuttered.
I don't remember stuttering, but he claims I stuttered and I couldn't go into the Air Corps.
He said that I wouldn't be equipped to talk under emergencies.
And I never stuttered in my life, and I don't recall stuttering.
But shortly after Bud's rejection from the Air Corps, the United States Army came calling.
They drafted me when I turned 18.
I wasn't in a hurry to get in because I just turned 18 and I was having a wonderful time.
So, I got drafted.
In the late Spring of 1944, along with the rest of the 90th Infantry,
Bud was making his way across the Atlantic, towards Europe.
The American Jewish soldier was headed into battle against an enemy
whose hands were stained with the blood of so many people like Bud.
I knew about all the antisemitism, but I thought, "I'll judge them on my own."
We rushed through Normandy, and we ended up in Metz - I think it was -
bombarding Metz.
The 90th Infantry made swift progress across France, until December of 1944
when Hitler rallied all of his available forces for a massive surprise counteroffensive.
The Battle of the Bulge brought the Allies' progress to a halt.
They needed replacements for the Battle of the Bulge.
They dropped us off and we went out
not even a hundred yards, and already we were in combat.
And the one officer said, "We're in three firefights!"
I said to him, "How can you tell?
It seems like one big firefight."
Three firefights?
I don't know how he came up with that.
Sergeant Reams says, "Sabetay, you gotta go down this valley,
because there's a sniper in the valley."
We were the fall guys that had to draw the enemy fire.
So, Stern was in charge, and he had to lead us down the valley to draw the fire.
Well, they didn't teach Stern, he was pretty green.
At that time, he didn't know you don't stop and look around like that,
because that when they'll zero in on you and kill you.
All of the sudden, everything's quiet.
And I'm waiting, and I'm waiting, and I'm waiting.
I don't know what happened.
And finally, one of the scouts came back and said, "Stern is dead."
A sniper got him right between the eyes.
Well, they got the sniper, but the sniper got him.
So, that's what happened.
My platoon retired to an empty warehouse on the side of a hill.
And we sat around in a big circle around the perimeter, eating our K rations.
And just about that time, a mortar shell came through the center of the roof and exploded.
This guy got critically wounded, this guy got critically wounded,
I didn't get a scratch.
Bud ran down the hill to an aid station to retrieve litter bearers for the wounded men.
On his way back, the German mortar barrage opened up once again,
and Bud saw his friend, Silk, making his way down the hill.
Silk was coming down to see what was taking me so long.
All of a sudden, I heard this voice,
"Bud, do something!
Silk's in danger!"
And I'm trying to figure this out.
So, I'm thinking, "Well, I gotta think of something."
So, he's running down and I'm running up,
and when he got about where you are, I tackled him.
As we went down, a mortar shell fell right beside us.
We didn't get a scratch.
As the Battle of the Bulge dragged on, frigid temperatures, supply shortages,
and the feeling of being isolated from reinforcements and surrounded by the enemy
began to take its toll on many of the battle-worn soldiers.
We were shoving off on an attack and we were at the bottom of a hill,
and James was in a very melancholy mood.
He really was down.
And I said, "James, why are you so down?"
He said, "I had a dream."
He dreamed that he got killed.
I said, "That's just a dream. Ignore it."
Maybe an hour later, James got shot through the heart.
And he says, "Oh my God, I'm dying!"
And he died.
By the final week of January, the Allies had successfully broken the German lines,
and the Battle of the Bulge was finally over.
Germany was in retreat, and the Allies were once again on the offensive.
As the Allies continued to pursue their enemy back toward Berlin,
Bud would find himself, again and again, in increasingly close proximity
to the German forces and the German people.
I ran into some real antisemitism one time.
I was with an interpreter and we were walking through the city,
and all of the sudden, this 16 year old girl comes running up to me and is hitting me.
I'm carrying a rifle.
I'm fully armed.
"Juden, Juden, Juden!"
Which means, "Jew, Jew, Jew!"
I said to myself, "What do I do with a kid?
Especially a woman?"
I shoved her away and walked on.
There were a group of Germans.
They had a white flag.
Supposedly, they're going to surrender.
And there was a lone G.I. coming up, and we shouted at him, "Don't do that!"
We knew what was going to happen, but he couldn't hear us.
And when they got about where you are sitting from me, they lowered the flag and killed him.
On both sides, I've seen things like that.
Cause some of our guys weren't so good.
There was a small town we had to take.
Sergeant Reams and me were
behind this one house that overlooked all the critical streets in the city.
He said, "Sabetay, throw a grenade in that basement window."
It's an incendiary grenade.
It's a horrible thing.
I tried to pull the pin.
I'm pulling on the pin, I'm pulling on the pin.
I pulled with all my might.
I can't pull the pin out.
So, I can't throw it through the basement window.
And he said, "Hell, let's get out of here."
So, we went on.
And now I'm operating a radio in another house, and Reams comes in.
He said, "Sabetay, remember when I told you to throw that grenade in the basement?"
And I said, "Yes."
He said, "I just found out, all the women and children in the whole city were in that basement."
God.
I didn't have that on my conscience.
With the end of the war in Europe drawing near,
one day as Bud was searching yet another residence for enemy soldiers in hiding,
he was surprised to find a German family seated at the dinner table.
They were sitting there, drinking.
And they offered me a glass of wine.
So, I said, "Sure, I'll take a glass of wine.
Hell with it!"
He gave me another glass of wine, and everybody was laughing by then.
And I left.
What I found - the young Germans - they taught them to hate Jewish people.
But, there was a lot of German people that protected the Jewish people
and put their life on the line.
So, I had a reserved opinion.
I decided, "I'm going to find out for myself."
So I didn't pre-judge anybody.
And I went in with that attitude when I went into Germany.
And I found, most of the Germans were nice people.
And they were so happy the Americans were there, you have no idea.