The GI's rabbi

"David Max Eichhorn, a Jewish chaplain in the U.S. Army's XV Corps, saw action across France and into Germany until VE-Day and beyond. He was there at the Battle of the Bulge, participated in the liberation of Dachau, and became embroiled in the behind the scenes controversy that led to the execution of Private Eddie Slovik. Through it all, he faithfully sent letters back to his wife and family in the United States." "The GI's Rabbi is filled with stories and insights as Eichhorn tells about combat experiences, relations with Christian chaplains, encounters with Jewish refugees, and impressions of the defeated Germans. Once he was ordered to hold a Yom Kuppur service in a beleaguered French town that just hours before had been held by the Nazis and was still under attack. Yet that experience paled before the liberation of Dachau, where he organized the first Shabbat service for the survivors, or the fall of Nuremberg, where he and a handful of Jews held a ceremony of thanksgiving at the site of Hitler's infamous rallies." "Eichhorn also writes of French villagers hiding Jews, of the dangers faced by chaplains, of the place of Jews in U.S. Army ranks, and of General Patton's well-known displays of anger. Throughout he conveys the experience of war and how it altered forever a small-town rabbi - a man of faith and courage who never fired a gun in combat."--Jacket.