Marvin Sussman was born in Chicago, Illinois in August 1923. Other than one trip to see his grandparents in New York, he had never been out of Chicago until he joined the Army at 19 years old. His father was a barber with two rents to pay during the years of the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. Times were very hard economically for the family of five. He and his older sister still bend down to pick up loose change on the ground today. Sussman saw Charles Lindbergh [Annotator's Note: Charles Augustus Lindbergh, American aviator] fly over Chicago in 1928. Local Democratic leader Jack Garvey [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling] was a staunch supporter of Franklin Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. Many of Sussman's friends were Italians. Because of high unemployment during his childhood, the unemployed adults played football and baseball in the parks and fields around the neighborhood, the teenagers played in the streets, and he and the other children played ball in the alleyways around Chicago. The iceman would come up the alley and put an ice block in his icebox. His job was to empty the pan of the water in the icebox. The rise to power of Adolf Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] was especially concerning in Sussman's Jewish neighborhood. He paid specific attention to the rise of Nazism by way of radio news broadcasts the local newspapers. When the Spanish Civil War [Annotator's Note: Spanish Civil War, 1936 to 1939] erupted, Sussman knew war was coming and America would be involved. In 1938, he joined his high school's ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] program and took part in some preliminary military training. [Annotator's Note: Sussman gives background on his father's immigration to the United States and describes him as a self-taught intellectual with a large, at-home library of nearly 3,000 books.] As a child, Sussman was often sickly and quarantined to the family home where he read many of his father's books on various subjects, namely philosophy. Because his family was poor, the idea of going to college did not exist. He did have a scholarship for Normal College in Bloomington, Illinois but did not have any way to support himself. Sussman was aware of other theaters of war around the world prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], but he did not consider Japan capable of an attack on the United Stated. While working in a catalog house, filling orders for the Christmas season, Sussman was told by a coworker of the attack. Everything changed for him; all his plans for a future were over. He knew he was going to war. Rather than wait around to be drafted, Sussman volunteered for service.

In October 1942, Marvin Sussman chose to join the cavalry with thoughts of World War 1 in mind and hoped that the cavalry would prevent him from experiencing that same style of warfare. Sussman had some knowledge and experience in horseback riding from his childhood. However, once he arrived for training, horses were being phased out in favor of jeeps and armored vehicles. For basic training, Sussman was sent to Fort Meade, South Dakota where he was assigned to the 4th Cavalry Regiment [Annotator's Note: 4th Cavalry Regiment]. It was a regular Army outfit with an all-volunteer complement of men. The biggest adjustment for Sussman was the culture clash that existed among the men who were from all walks of life and locales around the country. Many Polish immigrants who could not speak English were in this regiment, along with boys from North Carolina, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. About 80 percent of the boys were raised on farms. The city boys could not do anything. His sergeant informed him and the other urbanites in the squad that they were "as useless as tits on a bull." Sussman became useful when it was discovered he was fluent in French and German. He was exposed to the music of Hank Williams [Annotator's Note: Hiram "Hank" Williams; American singer, songwriter, and musician] while in training and became a fan of the country music played each night by the country boys in the outfit. In high school, Sussman jogged four miles each day to school and back again. He believed he was in great physical shape until he was forced to run in a full-combat pack. All the original officers in the 4th Cavalry were graduates of either West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York] or VMI [Annotator's Note: Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia]. During his campaign overseas, his regiment lost 25 percent of men he trained with. After an unremarkable journey overseas, Sussman found himself stationed in Southern Sussex, England. If he wanted to get a beer, he had to walk eight miles to the city and back, which he did. The training consisted of learning to work a point, the process by which a ten-man cavalry squadron would learn to travel by road and avoid being ambushed. He was trained to understand that the cavalry was the eyes and ears of the Army. They were always looking for the enemy. The squad consisted of two jeeps and an M7 armored car [Annotator's Note: M8 Greyhound light armored car; six by six armored reconnaissance vehicle]. The M7 was armed with a 37mm cannon [Annotator's Note: M6 37mm anti-tank gun] and two machine guns, while the jeeps were each armed with a pair of machine guns of their own. Each man carried a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine]. One jeep would race to the far end of a bend in the road, firing all of its gun while the two other vehicles waited at the other end of bend, ready to deliver support fire if necessary. When it was determined safe, the three vehicles continued forward in this fashion. They were better armed than the average infantryman in combat. The jeeps had two radios, ten days of rations, spare gas and water, bedrolls, combat packs, and other miscellaneous equipment. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Sussman when he knew that he would be invading Europe.] He knew as far back as his days of training in the Mojave Desert of California and in West Texas. At that time, it was assumed they were preparing to invade North Africa, but when they arrived in England, they knew the invasion would be taking place somewhere in France [Annotator's Note: the 4th Cavalry Regiment was split at this time and Sussman became part of Troop A, 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron]. Before leaving for overseas, he received a two-week furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time], so he went home and hung out with his friend.

In preparation for the invasion of Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], Marvin Sussman and the other cavalrymen [Annotator's Note: of Troop A, 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron] worked to waterproof their vehicles and were given a brief introduction to amphibious landings. He was fond of the mild English winter and the different women he met there. The men were put aboard ship without their vehicles in early June 1944. They were briefed that their mission would be to capture a fortified island six kilometers off Utah Beach [Annotator's Note: Utah Beach in Normandy, France]. Intelligence told them the islands had been evacuated, but someone had to capture them, nevertheless. At 4:30 in the morning on D-Day, Sussman and the other men landed on Saint-Marcouf Island [Annotator's Note: Îles Saint-Marcouf, Normandy, France] and found it completely unmanned. Troop A lost one man, John Onken [Annotator's Note: Army Sergeant John C. F. Onken], on D-Day to a land mine. Sussman and Onken had become friends while in training through their shared facility with the German language. Onken's death was a blow to the morale of Troop A. The day was spent hugging the shoreline, watching the parade of ships head towards Utah Beach. Late in the night, after midnight, a ship picked up Sussman and the others and put them ashore on Utah Beach where they spent ten days on guard duty, kitchen patrol, and messenger services for the Army's VII Corps Headquarters. After ten days, their jeeps arrived, and they began readying them for combat. Going into combat, they were attached directly to 7th Army HQ [Annotator's Note: 7th Army Headquarters] under the direction of General J. Lawton Collins [Annotator's Note: US Army General Joseph Lawton Collins]. In the early days of combat, Troop A was assigned missions screening the flanks of the 4th [Annotator's Note: 4th Infantry Division] and 9th Infantry Division.

Marvin Sussman's first combat experience took place in the village of Rocheville [Annotator's Note: Rocheville, France]. Having seen newsreel footage of Russian troops riding into combat atop their tanks, Sussman's captain wanted his men to do the same thing. The squad [Annotator's Note: of Troop A, 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron] rode atop their armored vehicle into the town where they encountered enemy fire and quickly dismounted, looking for cover. A few men were wounded, and one was killed in this skirmish and the captain never again ordered the men to ride on the M7 [Annotator's Note: M8 Greyhound armored car; light reconnaissance vehicle] again. The squad crossed the Cherbourg Peninsula [Annotator's Note: Cotentin Peninsula, also called Cherbourg Peninsula, Normandy, France] without a great deal of resistance. They used two jeeps and an armored car as they reached the Atlantic Coast. His unit was given two weeks of R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation]. The men shaved their heads, drank wheat beer, and enjoyed their period of rest in honor of the 15 men they had lost since D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. After the breakthrough [Annotator's Note: Operation Cobra, Saint-Lô, France, 25 to 31 July 1944], the infantry led the way into Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France] with the cavalry following behind. Sussman and A Troop were assigned to scout the bridge at Chateau-Thierry [Annotator's Note: Château-Thierry, France] and capture it. They found the bridge guarded and engaged the enemy before retreating. These periods of conflict were highlighted by a sense of excitement and motion and of following orders as they were issued. Shortly after the bridge incident, the infantry ran out of resistance and the cavalry led all the way to Malmedy, Belgium. As they rushed across Northern France, Sussman and his troops were often the first Allied soldiers seen by villagers after many years of German occupation. As such, they were greeted with kisses, champagne, and jubilation. It was pandemonium and, although he enjoyed the kisses, he often had mixed emotions. The joy of the French citizenry conflicted with Sussman's own experiences of combat and the past and future deaths of men he fought alongside. He sometimes liberated four villages a day and although he quickly got used to it, the French never did. In September 1944, at Malmedy, they encountered stiff German mortar and submachine gun fire and stepped aside to let the infantry take care of it. The cavalry squadrons were assigned to reconnaissance patrols to gauge enemy strength. By October, they had moved forward into the Hurtgen Forest [Annotator's Note: Battle of Hürtgen Forest, 19 September 1944 to 10 February 1945, Hürtgen, Staatsforst or state forest, Germany] where they conducted extensive scouting missions. The infantry cleared a fortified pillbox [Annotator's Note: type of blockhouse, or concrete, reinforced, dug-in guard post, normally equipped with slits for firing guns] which Sussman and his squad took up residence in. They executed patrols throughout November and into December [Annotator's Note: November to December 1944].

In December 1944, Marvin Sussman [Annotator's Note: with Troop A, 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron] was on the right flank of the 106th Infantry Division who would be attacked and overrun on 16 December [Annotator's Note: 16 December 1944] by the surprise German offensive [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. [Annotator's Note: Digging can be heard in the background and the video breaks at 0:52:52.000.] The 4th Cavalry was spared a direct attack in mid-December and were ordered to take Bogheim [Annotator's Note: Bogheim, Germany] and clear German artillery off of a ridge to control a crucial road that, if captured, would allow the Germans easy access to Antwerp [Annotator's Note: Antwerp, Belgium]. Sussman experienced the heaviest combat of his military career in Bogheim, made evident by the Presidential Unit Citation issued to the 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron. It was a mission more suited for an infantry outfit, and, as a result, many troopers were killed in Bogheim. The first day of fighting consisted of street-by-street urban fighting as they cleared the town of the enemy. Sussman had no urban combat training but says the Americans could throw hand grenades through the windows of occupied buildings at 50 yards, something the Germans were incapable of. On day two, the troopers, using all their firepower, which Sussman says amounted to having their own artillery, took the fortified ridge. Nothing could stand in their way, he says, but the capture of the ridge came with a heavy cost. Several troop commanders were killed along with other officers, sergeants, and enlisted men. Sussman hoped to make it through the war without experiencing combat such as this. Bogheim amounted to Sussman's "worst days" in combat. After this, they were pulled from the front and given two weeks of rehabilitation in Huy, Belgium at the farm of the LaMontagne family. The family consisted of three girls and the parents. The two older girls were engaged and were not allowed to talk to the troops. Sussman recalled that he played with the youngest. She taught him songs in French. At this point, Sussman is reminded of something that occurred earlier in the war, while in Normandy. As his squadron entered the small village of Milly, France, Sussman entered a grocery store and questioned the workers on the location of the Germans. A boy named Louis emerged from the back of the store and spoke perfect English to Sussman and told them the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: German Geheime Staatspolizei or Secret State Police; abbreviated Gestapo] had executed seven of his schoolmates the day before. Motivated by the death of his friends, Louis asked, and Sussman accepted his offer, to join the squadron as an interpreter. Louis rode with Sussman for 50 days until they reached the German border. Because he was French, Louis was able to get better information from many of the locals than was Sussman. He would send a postcard to his parents, so they knew where he was. Years later, Sussman met his family, but never saw Louis again after he left them at the German border. Once the Battle of the Bulge was over, the squadron quickly pushed across Germany as the war ended. Sussman conversed with German locals as they liberated towns. They also picked up souvenirs like jack knives. He was in the Harz Mountains when the war in Europe ended [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. His squadron stayed in a chateau.

Following VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], Marvin Sussman was stationed in the town of Sprendlingen, Germany, near Frankfurt [Annotator's Note: Frankfurt, Germany]. There were no German men in the village, only the elderly, women, and children. Because of the policy of anti-fraternization, Sussman often spoke to the children of the town and asked them where their fathers were. They often replied that their fathers were killed in the war. Sussman says this was a time of introspection for him as he often looked into the eyes of the children and wondered if he had perhaps killed their fathers. He says he felt they looked at him the same way. As the policy of non-fraternization was loosened, Sussman says many of the German women became friendly with him and the others. This time was spent preparing their vehicles for transport to Japan for the coming invasion there. The news of the atomic bombing [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] ended all of that. Sussman was confronted with thoughts of freedom and what to do with it. "What is peace?" he asked himself at the time. He often wondered what kind of future waited for him, unknown prospects. He was then sent to Leipzig [Annotator's Note: Leipzig, Germany] for a short period of time before being trucked to Marseilles [Annotator's Note: Marseilles, France] to await transport back to the United States. The journey was a single, long, drunken, poker game. He disembarked in New York [Annotator's Note: New York, New York] then was sent to Fort Sheridan, Illinois and discharged with the rank of corporal in December 1945. Sussman reflects on a friend named Casey, who was from New York, who shot himself in the hand during Normandy [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. They were very similar in personality, very sophisticated. Before they shipped off to Europe, Sussman met up with Casey in a bar in New York. Casey left for a minute and when he returned, he came back with a lieutenant. This lieutenant took them all over town. Sussman enjoyed every minute of it, but noticed the lieutenant was trying to get rid of him. Sussman promised Casey he would stay with him the whole night, so he did. He initially planned to use 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 attend Northwestern University [Annotator's Note: in Evanston, Illinois], but was denied after learning there was a "Jewish quota" at the university at the time. Sussman says most private institutions did not want to be known as "Jewish schools." He was then admitted to Roosevelt College [Annotator's Note: now Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois] where he studied various foreign languages for two years. Sussman says Roosevelt College was funded by Eleanor Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady and Wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] under the mission of admitting African-American and White students. Sussman recalls a story from Normandy involving his facility in foreign languages and high-test scores. He says he was pulled out of a foxhole and brought before a colonel who informed him, he was the only man in the entire 4th Cavalry [Annotator's Note: Sussman was a member of Troop A, 4th Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron] who qualified for a position at West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy in West Point, New York]. Sussman was dismayed when the colonel told him he was to leave for West Point at once, but begrudgingly pulled out his glasses to sign a form approving his dismissal. When the colonel realized Sussman wore glasses to see, he angrily disqualified him and sent him back to his foxhole. After two years in college, Marvin Sussman became involved with the French language. He had a very high aptitude and could easily imitate the French sounds. He married a French woman and lived in France from time to time.

Marvin Sussman struggled with readjusting to civilian life and had trouble making plans for his future. He attended college for two years and studied several languages. He began to become very interested in politics at a time when the whole world was in turmoil. This turmoil and prospect for another war greatly concerned Sussman and prevented him from planning for his future because he was unsure if there would be a future for anyone. He eventually went back to school in the late 1940s and graduated in 1952 with a degree in electrical engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology [Annotator's Note: in Chicago, Illinois]. He earned a degree in mathematics in 1959 and began a career in industrial engineering. He met a French woman in 1954. Her mother was living in Chicago and decided to visit her. Sussman met her in a Spanish class she was taking because she wanted to go to Mexico. They went to Mexico together for a few months. When they returned to the United States, they got married. They had four sons, and four grandchildren.

Marvin Sussman says no single incident stands out to him as the most memorable except for living with the loss of friends and living in danger. He had been a city boy and met and learned about other people because he joined the military. He is in favor of the draft so people from around the country can get together. He fought because he did not want to die. The idea of war was self-defense. During the first half of 1942, it looked like the United States might lose the war, so that motivated men to join the military. World War 2 opened the world for him. He had no idea what Europe was like. He enjoyed going into France and Germany and conversing with the local populations. He enjoyed getting to know others from different area of the United States. There is a cartoon that makes a "joke" of a character being injured 200 yards from the front line. Sussman takes that joke as the reality of war. The distance from the line determines your life situation. It determines if you have hot food or cold food, or if you are within rifle range or not. The men at the front know they are taking it all, while the rear has no understanding of sacrifice. Sussman believes that no one understands what it is like to be on the front. He is glad he came out with only a minor scratch from mortar fire. He has pride for his service in the military. Young Americans look at World War 2 today, the same as how he looks at the Revolutionary War [Annotator's Note: American Revolutionary War, or, American War of Independence, 19 April 1775 to 3 September 1783]. Glad we won, but do not think very much about it. His interest is now in economics. He likes to look to the future. Sussman believes it is important to have institutions like The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] and we should continue to teach about World War 2 to future generations. There is so much to learn in history. It is not only a big part of Sussman's life, but for Germany and the rest of Europe. World War 2 also brought on the realities of Asia today. Modern life began at the end of World War 2.