AT THE AMERICAN EMBARKATION CENTER
When I knew for certain that I was to remain in France I asked for my
two weeks' leave and departed for the Riviera via Paris. It was my
fourth visit to the metropolis, a city which grows only more wonderful
at every view. Its boulevards and parks, public buildings and shops were
always attractive; in addition, the art treasures were now beginning to
come back to their places, and the crowds were taking on the gaiety of
peace time in the brilliantly lighted streets, so different from the
sober groups and dismal streets during the war. This trip carried me
beyond to a land of myriad attractions and surpassing loveliness. The
mediaeval monuments of Avignon, the Roman antiquities of Arles and Nimes,
the splendid modern city of Marseilles, Toulon with its quaint streets
and charming harbor, Hyeres of the palm trees, and on to Cannes, to
Nice, that greater Atlantic City, Grasse with its flowers and perfumes,
and Monte Carlo, garden spot of the whole--all blended in a mosaic whose
brilliant colors can never fade. Overhanging mountains and sub-tropical
sea together unite all the types of attraction of all beautiful lands
the world over. The palms and flowers never seemed quite real to me,
while one was quite bewildered by the works of man--ancient monuments,
mediaeval art, and the most modern trappings of contemporary play and
luxury.
At Cannes I met Captain Limburger, in charge of the Motor Transportation
Corps there, who helped me to reach the officers' convalescent hospital
at Hyeres to search for a friend. The trip of eighty-five miles by
side-car was the bright particular spot in the whole gorgeous festival
of the Coast of Azure, up the heights of the Maritime Alps into the
clouds and down again to the edge of the blue inland sea, past ruined
castles of the Roman time and through the quaint southern villages of
nowadays; ending finally at the hospital, which turned out to be the San
Salvador, one of the most splendid winter hotels on the Mediterranean. I
even heard Francis Macmillan, a captain in the intelligence corps, give
a violin concert for the officers during my one evening there.
Nice and the surrounding territory were crowded by Americans, as it was
the most popular leave area for the American army. The great casino on
the pier was the Y. M. C. A. for enlisted men, while the officers had
their club on the square. In fact, all the arrangements by the "Y" in
the various leave areas were magnificent. This, probably its most
successful single piece of work, has hardly received the attention it
deserves. I found the same to be true of every leave area I visited,
including Grenoble, where I stopped for a day among the Alps on my
return trip. Altogether the brief fourteen days were one of those
unforgettable experiences which linger in the memory. One of the fine
achievements of the army was that it was able to give an experience such
as this to many thousands of officers and enlisted men, for their own
elevation and their greater knowledge of France.
I should like to emphasize, if I could, the importance of the leave
areas for the morale of the troops and their better appreciation of
France. During actual hostilities men were willing to give up their
leave, especially Americans who could not visit their homes but wanted
only a change. After the war, however, military discipline became
constantly more irksome to the soldiers, and the week or two without
orders, in a real hotel with sheets and tablecloths, sight-seeing or
merely resting, was the one thing necessary to bring them back to their
units content to work and wait till their turn came to go back home. It
was also a rare opportunity to see the best side of France and the
French, when they had seen only the worst. No soldier admired the France
of the war zone, with its ruined villages, its waste stretches, and its
shell holes. Neither did he care for the France of the rest areas, where
he knew only the smallest villages, with the least attractive people to
a young progressive from the western world. Now he was able to enjoy the
beauty and luxury of that older and more sophisticated civilization
which always considered him either an amiable savage or a spoiled child.
The trip back to Paris and Le Mans was an experience in itself. I met
three young and congenial medical officers on the train, with whom I
traveled the rest of the way, stopping off for a half day at the little
known town of Digne in the Basse Alps, where we saw the ancient church
with its crypt, the art gallery with its painters of local prominence,
and the old Roman sulphur baths, still used to-day. Another day at
Grenoble brought us into the heart of the French Alps. We reveled in the
city with the snow-caps about. I felt the usual thrill at the tomb of
the Chevalier Bayard, and more than ordinary pleasure in the beauty of
the city itself.
I now settled down at Le Mans for the work of the Embarkation Center. Le
Mans is too well known to Americans who have recently been in France to
require much description. It is a city of about 75,000 people, with the
customary narrow streets in the heart of the town, the fine parks and
boulevards of every French city, and the very interesting cathedral
overlooking the whole. There are fragments of the old Roman walls of the
third century, and as an ironic contrast a fine street running through a
tunnel which is named after Wilbur Wright, whose decisive experiments in
aerial navigation were carried on nearby. My billet was a pleasant home
opposite the very lovely park, the English Gardens, and my landlady a
tiny old gentlewoman, who used to bring me a French breakfast and a
French newspaper every morning, and indulge in the most formal
compliments, reminding me of a romance of the Third Empire. And for some
time Le Mans was the center of 200,000 American troops on their way
home!
Instead of one division to cover, I now had from three to six, varying
as units came from their old locations and departed on their way to
America. And if it had been impossible to cover one division thoroughly,
in a great area such as this a chaplain could do only day labor. I
traveled from one point to another, had a schedule of services almost
every night of the week in a different camp, visited the transient
divisions as they came in, and thus came into the intimate contact with
the men by which alone I could be of use to them. The territory was an
immense one, though much of the time I did not have to cover it alone.
The 77th and 26th Divisions had Jewish chaplains while they were with
us; Chaplain James G. Heller was associated with me until he was
transferred to the Second Army (in fact, he was in Le Mans while I was
still with the 27th), and after his departure Rabbi Reuben Kaufman of
the J. W. B. was assigned to religious work under my direction. But even
so the task was staggering. So many regiments and companies scattered
over an area eighty miles long and sixty miles wide was no feasible
proposition, even with the best of cars and a sergeant to drive it for
me.
In addition to the billeting accommodations in every village, the area
contained several large camps of importance. The Classification Camp,
within the city, was an old French barracks turned over to our use,
which housed a constantly changing stream of casuals and replacements,
flowing from hospitals, camps and schools toward their various units.
The Spur Camp held a large group of construction units, engineers and
bakers. The Forwarding Camp was a replica of a training camp at home,
and contained a division at a time, at first in training, later in
transit toward the ports. The Belgian Camp, originally built for Belgian
refugees, now had long rows of wooden barracks for soldiers, a huge and
always busy rifle range, and special camps of various types, including
one for venereal patients, who underwent a mixture of medical treatment
and discipline.
The purpose of the Embarkation Center was to provide a stopping place on
the way to the busy ports of Brest and St. Nazaire, where the men might
be deloused, have fresh clothing and equipment issued to them, undergo
thorough inspections of every kind, and in all ways be divested of the
effects of war and prepared to return to America. This task usually took
a month or more, but sometimes a division had been partially equipped in
its former area and if the ships happened to be ready it might stay in
our area less than a week. On the other hand, it might not pass the
various inspections at once, or at the time the transportation home
might be lacking, and hence its departure would be delayed time and
again. This uncertainty of tenure made all work very difficult,
especially work such as the chaplains' which depended entirely on
personal contact.
The problem of these divisions, as of the 27th, was chiefly to preserve
the splendid morale of the front while the men were in the dreary tedium
of waiting. This was done by cutting down the drill to an hour a day,
which made enough work in addition to the delousing, inspecting and
other necessary activities. The rest of the time was devoted to
athletics, an educational program, and a great amount of entertainment,
all three under the Welfare Officer appointed by the commanding general
of the Embarkation Area, while all the welfare agencies contributed to
these various ends under his general supervision. My work, of course,
was directly under the Senior Chaplain, according to army regulation.
And as the various units moved toward their goal more rapidly and more
steadily, the need for special efforts to keep up morale grew less. Men
keep up their own morale when they really know they are going home; the
difficulties had been largely caused by the complete uncertainty and
endless delays.
Such success as I had was due very largely to the excellent cooeperation
of the Jewish Welfare Board. Sergeant Charles Rivitz, who had charge of
the work in the area, was deeply interested in the welfare of the boys
and shared the resources of the organization freely with me in my work.
I had always found this same attitude; the J. W. B. furnished me a car,
an allowance for welfare work, an office in its building, and offered
its rooms for services in the various camps. Where it had no huts, I was
accorded the same privilege by the Y. M. C. A. Whenever its aid fell
short, it was because it had no more to give. By this time Le Mans had a
large and active group of J. W. B. workers, both men and girls, with
their center in the city and huts in many surrounding points. I found
the workers' mess the most friendly and pleasant in the city, quite as
congenial as the one at the Junior Officers' Club, which I often
frequented.
Even in the stress and turmoil of the Le Mans area ("the madhouse," as
the boys called it) striking or humorous personalities appeared from
time to time. There was Abie, the wandering musician, a little Jew who
had a gift for rag-time but no great intelligence, military or
otherwise. Abie had gone to France with a replacement unit, was located
near Le Mans and spent his spare time playing for the Y. M. C. A. and
the officers' dances. When his unit moved toward the front to be
incorporated in some fighting division, he stayed behind, not as a
deserter, but to play the piano for the "outfits" that followed. He
managed even to live at the local hotel by the tips they gave him. After
that time he reported, giving his full story in detail, to every
commanding officer who entered the village, always to be given enough to
eat, but never accepted into any unit as he had no transfer from his
original one. At last his story got abroad, he was brought in by the
Criminal Investigation Department and investigated, only to prove the
truth of his every word. So Abie, happy once more, was stationed in the
Classification Camp and detailed to the Jewish Welfare Board as a
pianist, improvising his rag-time adaptations of serious music and
getting many privileges and a steady income for doing the work he
enjoyed best.
A different sort of man was the soldier in a famous fighting division,
who sought a private interview with me. It seems that in the advance on
the St. Mihiel sector he had rescued a Torah, a scroll of the Law, from
a burning synagogue. Throwing away the contents of his pack, he had
wrapped the scroll up in the pack carrier instead, and carried it "over
the top" three times since. Now he wanted permission to take it home to
give to an orphan asylum in which his father was active. A soldier was
not ordinarily allowed to take anything with him besides the regulation
equipment and such small souvenirs as might occupy little room, but in
this case a kindly colonel became interested and the Torah went to
America with the company records.
The great event of my service in Le Mans was our Passover celebration on
April 14th, 15th and 16th, 1919. The general order for Passover
furloughs read:
"Where it will not interfere with the public service, members of
the Jewish faith serving with the American Expeditionary Forces
will be excused from all duty from noon, April 14th, to midnight,
April 16th, 1919, and, where deemed practicable, granted passes to
enable them to observe the Passover in their customary manner."
Among the central points designated for Passover leaves was Le Mans, and
the Jewish Welfare Board and I labored to arrange a full celebration for
the thousand Jewish soldiers who came in from four different divisions.
Quarters were provided in the Classification Camp for all the men who
did not have the money or the previous arrangements for hotel rooms, as
well as full accommodations for the Passover feast, the Seder. The
Jewish Welfare Board obtained full supplies of Matzoth, unleavened
bread, as well as Haggadoth, or special prayer books for the Seder.
The spirit was as strong a contrast as possible to that of my other
great service at the fall holydays. Among our congregation were two men
from the isolated post of military police at St. Calais, fifty miles to
the east, and five from among the students at the University of Rennes,
a hundred miles west. We had a number of officers among us, while five
French families, several Jews in the horizon blue of the French army,
and two in the Russian uniform--labor battalions, since Russia had
withdrawn from the war--worshiped beside us. And when the crowd began to
assemble, the first men I saw were a group of engineers whom I had not
seen since Atonement Day, seven months before. They were on the way home
now, their presence emphasizing more strongly than anything else the
change that had come to us and the world in the intervening time. Again
there were the meetings of friends and brothers, but without the pang of
parting afterward. One of the most touching features of the Seder was
the large number of requests that I should inquire whether Sergeant Levi
or Private Isaacs was present. Then how the whole gathering would be
electrified when a voice cried out, "Here," and cousins or comrades who
had not known even of each other's safety were able to exchange festal
greetings and rejoice together.
For the two and a half days' leave the Jewish Welfare Board and I tried
to keep the men busy, with something for every taste. The full program
included a Seder, four services, a literary program, a vaudeville show,
a boxing exhibition, two dances and a movie. All were well patronized,
for the soldier had a cultivated taste in diversion, especially after
the armistice. But certainly the most popular of all was the Seder. The
soup with matzah balls, the fish, in fact the entire menu made them
think of home. We held the dinner in an army mess hall, standing at the
breast-high tables. The altar with two candles and the symbols of the
feast was at the center of the low-roofed unwalled structure. Toward
evening the rain, so typical of winter in western France, ceased; the
sun came out, and its last level rays shone directly upon Rabbi Kaufman
and his little altar. It was a scene never to be forgotten, a feast of
deepest joy mingled with solemnity. Afterward we adjourned to the
Theatre Municipale for a full religious service with a sermon. Two of
the shows of the festival leave were too big for the hall of the Jewish
Welfare Board, so we were offered the Y. D. Hut, the great auditorium of
the Y. M. C. A., which had been named after the famous 26th Division.
One of these entertainments was the last performance in France of the
"Liberty Players" of the 77th Division, who were about to leave for the
States that very week.
Finally my work in France drew to a close. On the first of May, 1919, I
received the orders for which I had been hoping so long. I was to be
relieved and sent home to America. Rabbis in the uniform of the Jewish
Welfare Board were now at hand, the number of men in France was
decreasing, and my request to be relieved could at last be granted. A
final two days in Paris for a conference with the heads of the J. W. B.,
Chaplain Voorsanger and Colonel Harry Cutler, another day at Le Mans to
turn my records and office over to Rabbis Kaufman and Leonard Rothstein,
and then I was off to Brest. I had the special good fortune of being
held in that busy and rather uninviting place for only four days and
then finding passage assigned me on the slow but comfortable _Noordam_,
of the Holland-American Line. My last duty in Brest was to conduct a
funeral, in the absence of the post chaplain, of four sailors drowned in
an accident just outside the harbor. We had a guard of honor, a bugler,
all naval, and I had the rare experience of an army chaplain conducting
a navy funeral, as well as of a rabbi burying four Christian boys.
We were at sea twelve days altogether, being delayed by a gale of three
days and also by a call for aid, which took us a hundred miles out of
our course without finding the sender of the message. We entered New
York harbor late one evening, and anchored off Staten Island for the
night. There was little sleep that night; the officers danced with the
cabin passengers, while the men sang on the decks below. The next
morning early every one was at the rail as we steamed in past the Statue
of Liberty, which stood for so much to us now, for which we had longed
so often, and which some of our company had never expected to see again.
After the customary half day of formalities at the dock, we were
directed to different camps for discharge according to our branches of
the service. I reported at Camp Dix, New Jersey, where I was mustered
out of service, receiving my honorable discharge on May 26th, 1919,
eleven months from the date of my commission, nine of which were spent
with the American Expeditionary Forces.