Sidney "Sid" Birns was born in Manhattan[Annotator's Note: Manhattan is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] in August 1925 and grew up an only child in Brooklyn [Annotator's Note: Brooklyn is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. He loved his childhood. He had lots of great friends and lived near his grandmother. There was a lot of activity in his neighborhood. Neighbors were very welcoming, and the kids played stick ball. There was a conglomerate of ethnicity in his neighborhood, including Italian, Greek, Spanish, Syrian, and Hebrew and everyone got along. Birns played a lot of baseball and was picked up by a Brooklyn scout for the Dodgers [Annotator's Note: now the Los Angeles Dodgers, American baseball team]. He tried out but was not selected. He was 16 at the time. Birns parents owned a beauty shop in the neighborhood, and both worked there six days a week. As a kid, he learned to be self-sufficient. He was taught how to sew and cook by his mother and grandparents. The Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States] did not impact his family or his neighborhood. Despite his Jewish background, he knew virtually nothing of the subjugation of Jews in Germany during the rise of the Nazism in the 1930s. He listened to the radio often but did not hear of any news of world events. One Sunday morning, he had plans with friends to play touch football. When he went to meet a friend at his house, his friend asked him if he heard the news that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Birns became very aware of world affairs and vowed revenge. He wanted to enlist but was too young. Many of his older friends began to disappear from the neighborhood as they were drafted into the military. When Birns was of age for service, he enlisted in the Army. Prior to enlisting, the biggest impact on him from the war was the rationing. Food and gasoline were rationed. Birns did not know much about the military and that's why he just chose the Army. He enlisted in the Army in October 1943 when he was 17 with his parents' permission, however he had to complete his last semester of high school before going to training. He reported to Camp Grant [Annotator's Note: in Rockford, Illinois] for basic training. Birns wished he would have expressed his interest of aviation when he enlisted into the Army, instead, he followed what everyone else was doing. Since Birns was a Boy Scout [Annotator's Note: Boy Scouts of America, scouting and youth organization founded in 1910], it prepared him for military life. He did not fight the system like many others did. Basic training was not difficult for him because he was in great physical shape. His company commander, Captain Webber [Annotator's Note: phonetic spelling], had to reprimand him during a field exercise because Birns was acting like it was a game when he should have been treating it like military training. He did the infiltration course where he had to crawl on his hands and knees with bullets firing over him. He was at basic training when he first witnessed anti-Semitism. One of his superior officers called a trainee a "kike" [Annotator's Note: derogatory term for a Jewish person] and the trainee said that he was not Jewish, but Catholic. Later, Birns wanted to have it out with his sergeant because he was using anti-Semitic language.

When he completed basic training [Annotator's Note: at Camp Grant in Rockford, Illinois], Sidney "Sid" Birns was sent to a replacement depot in Pennsylvania. While he waited for about three weeks, he played a lot of sports. When his name came up on the bulletin board, the Army personnel realized that they had his serial number recorded incorrectly. They decided not to ship him out and he went back to his camp and continued to play sports while he awaited his assignment. A week later, Birns was assigned to the 3112th Signal Service Battalion and sent overseas to Europe in January 1944. He was chosen for his assignment because he knew how to type. He boarded a Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] with 2,000 other men and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 14 days. The ship landed in Scotland. He then boarded a train that was blacked out with all the windows covered. He stopped in a marshaling area and began training for the Normandy Invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] from January to May 1944. He went on several marches and performed a variety of combat exercises. He was then sent to another marshaling yard in the south of England in May and into June 1944. At the time of D-Day his battalion was not activated. After the initial days of D-Day, his battalion boarded a landing craft [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] out of Southampton [Annotator's Note: Southampton, England] and moved into the Channel [Annotator's Note: the English Channel] where they remained for a few days. Everyone got seasick and all the lights were turned off so no one could see anything. Another landing craft crashed into his ship and broke a stanchion pinning his company lieutenant against a wall. He broke a leg, was sent to the hospital and never made the invasion. After three days on the ship, Birns went ashore at Omaha Beach [Annotator's Note: in Normandy, France] on 21 June 1944. Everyone was so happy to be on land. After the battalion was formed up, they began to march off the beach. He saw a billboard warning against a lack of military discipline and decorum by the incoming troops and thought it ridiculous. On the first night of bivouac [Annotator's Note: a bivouac is a temporary campsite], everyone was tense. All a sudden, guns began firing. They later found out that they killed a cow that was near the camp. Upon advancing inland, they came upon a downed glider. Birns was given orders to check it out and clear the area. As he entered the area, he realized he was in a minefield [Annotator's Note: field strewn with stationary explosive devices triggered by physical contact]. He told everyone with him to turn around and go back. At another time during their trek inland, he witnessed a man killed when he attempted to take a fountain pen from the body of a dead German. The first town they passed through was Sainte-Mère-Église [Annotator's Note: Sainte-Mère-Église, France] and then proceeded to Carrington [Annotator's Note: Carrington, France]. From there they headed to Saint-Lô [Annotator's Note: Saint-Lô, France]. Birns was responsible for drawing maps detailing where every signal team and other unit in the battalion was located. He carried a carbine [Annotator's Note: .30 caliber M1 semi-automatic carbine] and attached an additional clip on it, so he could shoot 30 rounds without long a pause. His battalion was divided up into teams of five and they would be issued out to combat units to oversee the unit's communications. Birns' team was assigned to the headquarters unit.

As Sidney "Sid" Birns and his unit [Annotator's Note: 3112th Signal Service Battalion] travelled east, they had hopes to stop in Paris [Annotator's Note: Paris, France], but to Birns dismay, they diverted passed the city and kept on going to Rheims, France. The weather began to cool at this time because it was around November [Annotator's Note: November 1944]. They had settled in the city for a long time because word came from General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] to find shelter due to the harsh weather. His unit found a house in the town. Every room in the house had a fireplace, which was the only way to keep the house warm. As Thanksgiving [Annotator's Note: 23 November 1944] arrived, it began raining all the time. They were living on K-rations [Annotator's Note: individual daily combat food ration consisting of three boxed meals], but during Thanksgiving they received a hot meal from a mobile kitchen. When they passed out the food, it was raining hard. For their feast, they received turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, ice cream, and peaches soaked in syrup, Unfortunately, the food got wet from the rain. Birns stilled enjoyed all the food. When they first got into Normandy [Annotator's Note: Normandy, France] they had a piss call [Annotator's Note: slang for bathroom break], and everyone emptied out of the trucks to relieve themselves. As they were peeing, they heard several French civilians about a quarter mile up of ahead cheering at them and waving flags. On another instance when he was relieving himself, a French family passed him coming from church and told him hello. Birns was not used to the European people's lack of modesty. Some of the bathrooms were set up to where everyone can see everyone. His unit eventually moved into Belgium after staying in Rheims over Thanksgiving. He was stationed in Dinant, Belgium, near Namur, Belgium. Birns was housed in a Jesuit college. On 17 December [Annotator's Note: 17 December 1944], a USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Inc.] show performed for his unit. Upon the conclusion of the show, they were given orders to move out because the British were going to blow out the bridge. They were also told that the Germans broke through Bastogne, Belgium [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Birns was shocked by the news. He volunteered with five other men to stay one more night in Dinant to protect the equipment. The next day, they set out to find headquarters in a barn. The weather was so cold and there was snow everywhere. When he was stationed in Belgium, he set up an unauthorized photo processing center to assist other units in processing the many reconnaissance photos coming in. He saw some of the first pictures taken inside concentration camps with bodies stacked up like crushed cars. It took a long time to realize what he was looking at in the photographs. He did not know until later that these bodies were primarily Jewish civilians. There was no indication. It was just bodies.

When the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] began, Sidney "Sid" Birns [Annotator's Note: with the 3112th Signal Service Battalion] was reassigned to 15th Army Headquarters and stationed inside King Leopold's [Annotator's Note: Leopold III, King of the Belgians] summer castle [Annotator's Note: Ciergnon Castle, Belgium]. When he arrived, he was still in his uniform loaded with all his equipment. He knocked on the door and was greeted by the warrant officer who told him he needed a bath. Birns had not showered in six months. The warrant officer, to Birns surprise, showed him to his own room with a large bed. This was a very luxurious place to be stationed. The unit had 49 men and supervised by a master sergeant. They all were sharp and did good work. He served as an aerial reconnaissance photographer for the outfit through the remainder of the war and flew over the bombed cities of Aachen [Annotator's Note: Aachen, Germany] and Cologne [Annotator's Note: Cologne, Germany]. He was subsequently stationed at Bad Neuenahr [Annotator's Note: Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germany] and Bad Nauheim [Annotator's Note: Bad Nauheim, Germany], where he was at war's end. Back when he was at the replacement depot, he volunteered for the 82nd Airborne [Annotator's Note: 82nd Airborne Division] to get some extra pay, but he was denied and assigned to the 15th Army Headquarters. As a member of the occupation force, Birns was instructed not to fraternize with the citizenry, particularly German children as they could potentially be rigged with explosives. As relations cooled during the occupation, Birns and many other enlisted men enjoyed giving food and candy to the children. Birns had an encounter with Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. The military allowed men with enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to be discharged from the Army, continue their work as a civilian and receive civilian pay for the same position they had while in service. Birns only had 61 points and did not qualify. On a Sunday morning in Bad Nauheim during occupation, he was sitting with three other men and General Patton walked in. Everyone stood to attention except one man, who was now a civilian. Patton asked him why he was not standing at attention. The man replied, "I don't have to do that shit anymore General, I am a civilian." Patton responded to the man that he still should have stood up as a respect to Patton's age, and then the general walked off. Birns does not recall what he was doing during VE-Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945]. He returned the United States in February 1946 and was discharged with the rank of corporal. On the 60th anniversary of D-Day [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], he returned to Europe with his wife revisiting all the stops he made during the war. Everything had changed and been modernized, and there was only a little bit of remnants from World War 2. His return home from the war was uneventful. He was welcomed by his mother and friend. He attended the New York Institute of Photography [Annotator's Note: in New York City, New York] on the GI 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] and began a career as a staff photographer for United Press [Annotator's Note: United Press International]. He enjoyed every minute of his career. He met presidents of the United States, congressmen, senators, and celebrities. His very first assignment was with Harry Truman [Annotator's Note: Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States].

Sidney "Sid" Birns most memorable experience of World War 2 is his experience during the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. He was transferred from his unit to a replacement depot and then assigned to the 15th Army Headquarters under General Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. He fought because he wanted to defend his country. Germany could not do what they did and get away with it. The war did not change his life. He learned how to adapt quickly. He did what he had to do and never looked at it as a hardship. He got along with the upper echelon and played the game. Unfortunately, he knew others that were not the same way and they suffered. He is proud of his service but wonders if his generation fought in vain because of the events that are happening today. He worries that America has not gained anything from World War 2. The younger Americans have no idea or appreciation for the sacrifice of their older generations and because of that they are turning the country into a divided country. He believes that Americans have learned nothing. The education has failed, government systems have failed, and there is so much hatred amongst each other. He believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and they should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations because the younger generation needs to know what sacrifices of the older generation so that they could have freedom. When he wears his veteran's hat, many people come up to him and thank him for his service.