Jesse Schraub was transferred to an infantry unit when the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] was dissolved in April 1944. Not long after arriving, he was transferred to Camp Swift in Austin, Texas to join a chemical warfare unit. He received a furlough in June 1944 and went to New York City [Annotator’s Note: New York City, New York] to visit his family. In October 1944, he was shipped to Massachusetts and a few days later boarded a transport ship to take him across the Atlantic. His ship docked in Liverpool, England. He boarded a train that took him to Southampton, England. He then boarded a small ship and crossed the English Channel. The ship served sausage for dinner and Schraub did not eat it because he was Jewish. He purchased two cans of sardines to keep if he was ever in a pinch of finding food he could eat in the future. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer adjusts microphone on interviewee at 0:23:41.000.] The ship reached Normandy [Annotator’s Note: Normandy, France] and Schraub disembarked onto a landing craft and walked up the beach. He visited the cemetery where the soldiers who died during the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] were buried. Antisemitism did exist within the Army, and he experienced some it. He was shunned by his unit, along with a soldier who was a born-again Christian.

Jesse Schraub was born in Brooklyn, New York [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] in August 1924. He grew up with three younger sisters. His father owned a shoe store during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. His mother died when he was six years old, so he was raised by his grandmother and then stepmother. He attended school in Brooklyn and had a desire to be an accountant when he grew up. One day he attended a demonstration of chemicals and began to have an interest in chemistry as well. He took courses in chemistry in high school and scored the highest marks in class. He decided to transfer to a science high school and major in chemistry. In January 1941, he graduated from high school and registered for the city college to study chemical engineering. Schraub grew up in a Jewish household and spoke Yiddish, and he also understood French. After two years of college, he was inducted into the Army in June 1943. He chose the Army because he did not want to die in water. He told the recruiter that he was a chemical engineer, so he was assigned to train in chemical warfare. Two weeks later, he reported to Camp Upton [Annotator’s Note: Camp Upton, New York], and then shipped down to Camp Sibert, Alabama for three months of basic training in chemical warfare. He volunteered to go to Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland for an experimental chemical program. He soon learned that he was not going to do experiments, but was the experiment himself. The chemist put a drop of pure mustard gas on his arms and then tried to find ways to treat the blistering. He was also put in gas chambers to test gas masks. In the fall of 1943, he was assigned to the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers]. He did a lot of physical activities and became very strong. He also took college classes. While in the program, he met a friend who had his pilot’s license. His friend took Schraub up in the air and flew around Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi. In April 1944, the Army dissolved the ASTP, and all the recruits were dispersed into infantry divisions.

Jesse Schraub served in the Army as a mortarman in Company A of the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion and took part in combat operations in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. Schraub and his outfit were sent to Sainte-Mère-Église [Annotator’s Note: Sainte-Mère-Église, France] for a mission. He spoke French fluently, and one day he came across a Frenchman who invited him into his home for a cup of coffee and buttered bread. He talked to the Frenchmen and his wife. He felt so blessed to be able to wash his hands and face. The couple tried to give him more food, but Schraub did not feel it was right to take their food because they had so little. He did bring back a loaf of bread to his outfit as they headed towards Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France]. The landscape of the area was very rough and there were many restrictions on civilians.

Jesse Schraub served in the Army as a mortarman in Company A of the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion and took part in combat operations in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. His outfit was in Paris [Annotator’s Note: Paris, France] and he was able to watch the Allied parade on the Champs-Élysées. Schraub was impressed by the parade and all the military men walking down the street. His outfit shot high explosive shells out of mortars [Annotator's Note: a short smoothbore gun which fires explosive shells at high angles]. His role was to drop the shell into the barrel. There were three parts of a mortar: the base, the tripod, and the barrel. The weather was so cold in the winter of 1944, and planes could not fly to support the infantry. His outfit came to a fork, and when they went down one path, they realized they chose the wrong way. They turned around and found the men that they were looking for. He remembers one man sitting on a jeep crying for his mother.

Jesse Schraub served in the Army as a mortar man in Company A of the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion and took part in combat operations in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 1:01:20.000.] The weather was cold and he wore every single piece of clothing he had. Many of the men in his unit were contracting dysentery. They soon realized that the water they were consuming was from a creek where cows walked through. Schraub began collecting snow and drank it instead. He remembered when the Army brought in portable showers, and he was able to get new socks and underwear. Soon his unit crossed the Rhine River over a pontoon bridge. Schraub came across a group of dead Americans. He went through one of the soldier’s pockets and found photos of his family.

Jesse Schraub served in the Army as a mortar man in Company A of the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion and took part in combat operations in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. In March 1945, Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] decided to move the tanks into Germany and leave the infantry. Schraub’s commanding officer assigned him as liaison between his outfit and the local population as they went through the towns. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewer adjusts microphone on interviewee at 1:16:49.000.] Schraub met a Jewish man who had been living in hiding to escape the Nazis. The man was later liberated by the Americans. Being a Jew himself, Schraub felt connected to this man. One day, he saw Patton drive by in a jeep and saluted him. Schraub then met a liberated Jewish doctor that was planning to meet his wife back home when the war was over. The Jewish doctor shared a kosher wine with Schraub. This was the most memorable moment of the war for him.

Jesse Schraub served in the Army as a mortar man in Company A of the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion and took part in combat operations in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. His outfit went town to town cleaning up the pockets of resistance when the war in Germany were declared over. [Annotator’s Note: Interviewee pulls out pictures to show the interviewer and camera at 1:36:33.000.] His unit found a mass grave of Jewish people. They brought the local Germans to the site and made them inter the dead in coffins. Schraub had a very scary moment trying to drive a jeep, and he did not drive a vehicle again until automatic transmissions were invented. He traded a pistol for a camera. After they discovered the pile of dead bodies, Schraub took pictures with his camera. Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] came in and told everyone to take pictures because one day people would deny the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also called the Shoah; the genocide of European Jews during World War 2]. Schraub stressed that America is the best country in the world and there are people trying to ruin it.

Jesse Schraub served in the Army as a mortarman in Company A of the 91st Chemical Mortar Battalion and took part in combat operations in the Ardennes, Rhineland, and Central European campaigns. Schraub describes how he felt when his unit came across a mass grave of Jewish people. In July 1945, Schraub had enough points to go back to the United Stated [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] after the war in Europe ended [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. He was given a steak dinner and was shipped to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey]. He was given a 30-day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] before having to report for training in preparation for the invasion of mainland Japan. However, after the United States dropped the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945], his mission to the Pacific was cancelled. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 1:55:45.000.] He reported to Fort Dix after his furlough and was then sent to Camp Swift in Austin, Texas. He was able to visit with his cousin’s family during Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. Following the Japanese surrender, he was assigned to a military base in Cleveland, Ohio as an MP [Annotator’s Note: military police] and remained there until January 1946 when he was discharged from the Army at Camp Atterbury, Indiana with the rank of private first class.

Jesse Schraub remained in the Army until January 1946 when he was discharged at Camp Atterbury, Indiana with the rank of private first class. He did not want to re-enlist because he wanted to go back to school. Before the war, he had been majoring in chemical engineering, but decided instead to study accounting. He talks about the discrimination against Jews in American universities. [Annotator’s Note: Video break at 2:13:28.000.] Schraub used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to go back to school. He told off a professor because he was a war monger. If someone told him that the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also called the Shoah; the genocide of European Jews during World War 2] did not happen, he would tell him that he saw it with his own eyes.

The war changed Jesse Schraub’s life. He changed his career path from chemical engineering to accounting. He also became interested in the Jewish homeland. He discusses the hate against Jewish people around the world which is why his people need their own country. There was one guy in his outfit that was anti-Semitic. He married his wife after the war because their fathers knew each other. Schraub had several family members in the Holocaust [Annotator's Note: also called the Shoah; the genocide of European Jews during World War 2]. He met his wife at his father’s shoe store.