Ben Schneider
Ben Schneider lived in Omaha, Nebraska, where he graduated from Omaha Technical High School in 1938. Anticipating being drafted following the U.S. entry into World War II, he voluntarily enlisted in the U.S. Army, hoping to serve in communications. As a Jewish man, he was deeply troubled by the Nazi regime’s persecution of Jews, which strengthened his determination to fight against Nazi Germany. Ben served with the U.S. Fifth Signal Center Team assembled in late summer 1943. This small, specialized unit consisted of eighteen soldiers and three officers and was created specifically to ensure secure communication between the troops. American French-speaking personnel also collaborated to oversee translation and encryption of messages between the French and American armies during the liberation. In addition to their numerous experiences after the unit was deployed to Europe in April 1944, they interacted in Yiddish with survivors from the Feldafing Displaced Persons Camp near Starnberg, Germany, at the end of the war. These Jewish survivors had likely been interned at Dachau concentration camp. A full account of Ben's service can be found in the Ben Schneider StoryMap.