Passover
in Goebbels’ Castle by Corporal Sidney Talmud
In the middle of March, 1945, I was approached by Lt. Shubow,
our Jewish chaplain.
He planned to conduct Passover services, and since I was the
only Jewish cook in the battalion, would I supervise the food
arrangements.
The next two weeks were
hectic.
We had been moving through Germany and finally stopped at
München Gladbach (60 miles/97 kilometers northeast of
Noorbeek, the Netherlands).
I solicited all canned goods from our Jewish soldiers and they
responded generously.
Since army kitchens worked primarily with frozen, canned, and
dehydrated foods, I passed the word to our scroungers that I
needed fresh potatoes. I soon had a truckload.
Erev Pesach (Eve of
Passover) came and our chaplain directed our convoy several
miles to an imposing building called “Schloss Reydt.” This was
Goebbels’ castle.
Directly off the
veranda, where I set up two gasoline camp-stoves, was a
gigantic banquet room that would easily accommodate the 300
GIs I would feed.
On one wall was a picture of Hitler and one of my buddies had
scrawled “Kaput” across it.
For the next two or three hours I was too busy to deal with
emotions. They came later.
While I was frying latkes a fellow came by and inquired what I
was doing. I offered him some pancakes while I explained our
presence. Evidently the latkes agreed with him. He kept eating
them and asking me lots of questions and that night his story
flew across the Atlantic cable, and my parents were
interviewed by Time
and the papers, and WEVD, and they planted trees for me in
Israel, and my mother, rest her soul, discovered that I had
lied to her. I wasn’t having a great time in Paris after all.
However, as mothers will, she forgave me.
When all the latkes
were fried and eaten, I joined my comrades in the Passover
songs.
We had seen the atrocities and now we were savoring some small
measure of vengeance and victory.
The Associated Press story
that Talmud references above was picked up by
many
newspapers in both Yiddish and English. It quoted
Chaplain Joseph Shubow: “This is indeed retribution. When this
little monkey Goebbels decreed the burning of the synagogues
seven years ago he little imagined that we would one day eat
potato pancakes in his own home.”
Talmud summed up his feelings this way:
“…there wasn’t a seder [since] I recall when I
didn’t for an ephemeral moment envision Hitler’s portrait with
‘Kaput’ scrawled across it and a tray of sizzling latkes just
removed from the hot oil.
And when the youngest
completes his Four Questions and the company responds ‘Avadim
Hayenu,’ (we were slaves) I still
get the sense of having been there.”
The service is mentioned
in the 38th's unofficial history
: The
Summing Up: A short history of Company A, 38th Signal Light
Construction Battalion and 38th Signal Construction Battalion
(PDF page 21)
A Purim celebration was
held at Schloss Reydt three weeks earlier with other units:
Purim
and Passover in Goebbels’ Castle by Michael Rugel, March 19,
2019
Click
on image for larger format

Chaplain Poliakoff
assisted by Pfc. Armolda [Arnold] Reich and Cpl. Martin Willen
This photo has been
identified as the March 8, 1945 Purim service or another
Jewish service from March 3rd or March 18, 1945
This is an edit of the
original article
Purim
and Passover in Goebbels’ Castle by Michael Rugel
Used by permission. 
The
National Museum
of American Jewish Military History. All rights
reserved.