Brooks graduated high school in 1944, with plans to go to college and study psychology, but then decided to enlist in the US Army. As he described his decision: “I enlisted to go to college, not to be in, you know, foxholes and shot at. But listen, that’s what happens in a war. Being a kid of seventeen, eighteen, I was a peacenik, I was against war, but I knew what Hitler was doing to Jews. So, I really did feel this was a proper and just war, and a war that should be fought. My mother had four stars in her window. I think the limit was three if you had children in the army – that is, I think I could have gotten out of it, but I was gung ho at being a soldier“.
Like many American Jews, Brooks was extra fired up to fight the Nazis, but was also well aware of the extra risks faced by Jews if captured by the enemy. As he put it: “My brother Lenny was an engineer gunner in a B-17, and in his 35th or 36th mission, his Flying Fortress B-17 was hit, and they all bailed out, and they landed in Austria. He knew he had an ‘H’ [on his dog tags, for ‘Hebrew’] and he had heard rumors that the Germans were taking Jewish troops and sending them to concentration camps. So in his way down, while still in his parachute, he ripped [his dog tags] off. ”
Mel Brooks served as a corporal in the 1104 Engineer Combat Battalion, 78th Infantry Division as a combat engineer. One of his tasks during the war was to defuse land mines, and he also fought in the Battle of the Bulge. It has been reported that when the Germans played propaganda recordings over loudspeakers, Brooks responded by setting up his own sound system and played music by Al Jolson, a Jewish musician.
The 1104th had been activated in March 1943 and landed in Normandy on 11 June 1944. It advanced with the Allied forces through France, Belgium, and the Netherlands and entered Germany. The unit constructed the first bridge over the Roer River and built similar structures over the Rhine and Weser rivers and the Lippe and Aur-Oker canals. It also destroyed pillboxes and cleared roads.
On at least five occasions, Brooks’ unit had to down their tools and pick up rifles to fight as infantrymen, and took casualties while doing so.
https://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veterans-mel-brooks.html
https://historycollection.com/many-dont-know-mel-brooks-was-a-wwii-warrior/3/
https://www.military.com/veteran-jobs/career-advice/military-transition/famous-veterans-mel-brooks.html
https://historycollection.com/many-dont-know-mel-brooks-was-a-wwii-warrior/3/
And he spent the rest of his career making fun of Hitler! I had no idea that he was a combat vet.
ReplyDeleteCan't blame good old Mel Brooks for having an axe to grind, in regards to the Nazis, and I'm pleased to read (although not too surprised) that he did his part being an Antifa soldier. Still, soldiers of Jewish faith in the Western Allied Forces (US, England, France) apparently weren't subject to worse treatment than their fellow POWs. But of course in the midst of the war, and the Nazis' well known persecution of Jews from the 1930s on, they had no reason not to fear the worst.
ReplyDeletehttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0964663920946468
Good story involving Mel Brooks by Mike Rowe.
ReplyDeletehttp://thewayiheardit.rsvmedia.com/episode-6-this-isnt-funny
thank you! I dig Mike's books, stories, and tv show!
DeleteI believe this is in Mike's book, The Way I heard It
DeleteThanks again!
As I recall, in his book “Rules for Radicals,” Saul Alinsky makes the point that “ridicule” is the most potent weapon one has against an adversary. Mel Brooks was well ahead of Alinsky, and his postwar work suggests he was keenly aware of the potency of ridicule. Mel was one of the early writers for the very successful television program Show of Shows staring Sid Ceaser. One of the frequent skit characters portrayed by Sid was that of a German military general, and I suspect each of those skits were written by Brooks (two were for certain). But in each case the generals, notwithstanding their braids and medals, were reduced to bumbling idiots. Just like the real ones. Brooks had to have had a particular sense of satisfaction putting these buffoons on display for the whole world to see.
ReplyDeleteyour comments are part info, part history, and all over great. I look forward to them!
DeleteEvery time they make a Robin Hood movie, they burn our village down!”
ReplyDeleteLeave us alone Mel Brooks!