My mother served as a nurse in the Army before, during, and after World War II. She was in the midst of some of the most horrific killing of the war, in New Guinea, at Buna, where she narrowly escaped death and earned her first bronze battle star. She would go on to earn two additional battle stars in New Guinea at battles that, unfortunately, are by too many all but forgotten. After the war, she had to raise me as a single mom. She would come home exhausted from work, but she still found the time and energy for the American Legion. My mother was elected chaplain, and later commander, of her Legion post, the only all nurses all female American Legion post in the country. Besides going to post meetings, she would attend memorial services, conducted by the American Legion, roughly every two months for the World War II dead. There were services for Memorial Day and Armistice/Veterans Day, Pearl Harbor Day, VE and VJ Day, and, last but not least, Four Chaplains Day.
Starting from the age of 6, when she figured I was old enough to sit still for a few hours, until the age of 12, my mom would drag me to all of these memorial services. Back then, in the 1950's, when I was a little boy, the American Legion lobbied Congress, unsuccessfully, to make February 3rd, Four Chaplains Day, a national holiday. So I figure I heard the story of the Four Chaplains seven years in a row, and I thought I would share it with you, after which I will add a Jewish prespective to their sacrifice. As three of the four chaplains were Christians, feel free to add a Christian perspective in your comments.
The first chaplain was George Fox. Rev. Fox was born in 1900 in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. In 1917 he lied about his age to enlist in the Army to serve in World War I. Rev. Fox was trained as a medic in the ambulance corps - he served in combat in France, where he was wounded, and was awarded the silver star, a purple heart, and, on behalf of the French Army, le croix de guerre. After his discharge at the end of the war, he returned to Altoona, Pennsylvania, completed high school, and, after graduating from Moody Bible Institute, and after subsequent degrees at Illinois Weselyan University and then Boston University School of Theology, and after getting married, he was ordained a Methodist minister in 1934. He served as the minister for two churches in Vermont, and in 1942, enlisted in the Army as a chaplain, the same day his son enlisted in the Marines - father and son enlisted together.
The second chaplain was Clark Poling. Rev. Poling was born in 1910 in Columbus, Ohio, and was the son of a Baptist minister. Poling attended Yale University's Divinity school, graduated in 1936, was ordained by the Reformed Church, and served as the minister of churches in New London, Conneticut and then Schenectady, New York, where he was married. After Pearl Harbor, he wanted to enlist as a private because he said he should face the same danger as all others, but his dad, who had been a chaplain in the First World War, convinced him to enlist as a chaplain, telling his son that chaplains too faced danger.
The third chaplain was John Washington, who was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1908. He attended Seton Hall, graduated in 1933, and entered a Roman Catholic seminiary and was ordained a priest in 1935. Prior to the war, he served congregations in Elizabeth and Arlington, New Jersey. Like the others, he enlisted in the Army in 1942.
Last but not least was Rabbi Alexander Goode. Rabbi Goode was born in Brooklyn in 1911, the son of an Orthodox rabbi. Alexander Goode decided to follow in his dad's footsteps, but only partially, as he entered the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati - the seminary for Reform Judaism. After graduating from Hebrew Union College in 1937, he attended Johns Hopkins University, from which he received his PHD in 1940. Rabbi Goode served as an assistant rabbi to Washington Hebrew Congregation. Rabbi Goode attempted to enlist as a Navy chaplain in January of 1941, almost a year before Pearl Harbor, but was rejected. Like the others, he became an Army chaplain in 1942.
On January 23, 1943, Rev. Fox, Rev. Poling, Father Washington, and Rabbi Goode boarded the U.S.S. Dorchester to take them and 900 men to England. From its launch in 1926 until Pearl Harbor, it had carried passengers between Florida and New York City. It was built to carry 314 passengers and a crew of 90. After Pearl Harbor, the Army seized the ship and converted it to a troop carrier. By knocking out bulkheads between the lower class cabins, capacity was increased to carry 900 GI's across the Atlantic.
On January 23, 1943, the Dorchester left New York, escorted by three Coast Guard cutters. On the evening of February 2nd, one of the cutters detected a German U-boat by sonar and warned the captain of the Dorchester, who got on the ship's intercom and ordered all 904 men aboard to sleep with their life jackets on. Many ignored the order because the life jackets were too uncomfortable to sleep in.
At 12:55 a.m., in the wee hours of February 3rd, 1943, off the coast of Newfoundland, the Dorchester was torpedoed by a Nazi sub. The explosion knocked out the ship's electrical system, plunging the ship into darkness, and trapping the enlisted men below decks. The four chaplains left their officer's stateroom that they shared and tried to calm the men, and to help the wounded into the lifeboats. Many of the soldiers who groped their way topside had disregarded the order to sleep in their life jackets, and in the pitch darkness in the holds they had no choice but to leave their life jackets below. As a result, the supply of life jackets ran out. Each of the four chaplains removed his life jacket and gave it to one of the soldiers. They continued to help the men into the lifeboats, but declined to climb in, lest they take a space for another man.
As the Dorchester sank, the men in the lifeboats looked at the sinking ship, and saw the four chaplains, their arms linked, going down with the ship. Some reported that they could hear Rabbi Goode praying in Hebrew (probably the Shema ) and Father Washington praying in Latin, and the two Protestant chaplains singing a Protestant hymn.
230 of the 904 men aboard the Dorchester survived. Most died of hypothermia in the frigid 34 degree water, with the air temperature of 36 degrees - in the pitch darkness. Hundreds of bodies were found floating on the water, kept afloat by the life jackets.
In the Talmud, Bava Metzia 62a, Rabbi Yohanan cited the verse of Leviticus, 25:36, "do not exact from your brother advanced or accrued interest, but fear your God, and let him live by your side as your kinsman." Rabbi Yohanan asked, What do the words "let him live by your side as your kinsman" add to the verse prohibiting interest. Rabbi Yohanan explained that two people were walking on a journey in a desert, and in the hand of one of them was a flask of water. If both of them drink, they both die, but if one of them drinks all the water, that person reaches civilization and lives. Rabbi Ben Petora said, "it is better that both of them drink and die, and let not one of them see the death of the other." Until Rabbi Akiva came and taught from the verse in Leviticus, "let him live by your side as your kinsman." Your life takes precedence over the other person's life. In other words, whoever holds the flask of water should not share it but drink it himself so he will live.
The four chaplains could have climbed into a lifeboat and survived and no one would have criticized them. We can imagine each of the chaplains surviving the torpedoing of the Dorchester, being rescued, surviving the war, returning to their respective churches or temple to have a distinguished career. Perhaps a few years ago we might have read about one of their deaths in our local newspaper, in obituaries that might have mentioned his rescue in the Atlantic.
But there is another counter point in Jewish values. Elsewhere in the Talmud, Shabbat 61b to be exact, we read of the death of Rabbi Akiva. Rabbi Akiva was arrested and thrown into prison. . . . When Rabbi Akiva was taken out for execution, it was the hour for the recital of the Shema, and while they combed his flesh with iron combs, he was accepting upon himself the Kingship of Heaven. His disciples said to him, "Our teacher, [you are reciting the Shema] even at this point?" He said to them: "All my days I have been troubled by the verse [of the Shema] 'with all my soul', which I interpret 'even if God takes my soul.' I thought 'When shall I have the opportunity of fulfilling this? Now that I have the opportunity, shall I not fulfill it?" And he prolonged the word Echad until he died while saying this word. And a Heavenly Voice went forth and proclaimed, "Happy are you, Akiva, that your soul has departed with the word Echad!" The ministering angels said before the Holy One, Blessed be He, "Such Torah, and such a reward? He should have died 'from them that die by your hand, O Lord'" [Psalms 17:14]. The Divine Voice went forth and proclaimed: "Happy are you, Rabbi Akiva, that you are destined for the life of the world to come."
On the morning of February 3, 1943, Reverand George Fox, Rev. Clark Poling, Father John Washington, and Rabbi Alexander Goode, like Rabbi Akiva before them, died for the sanctification of the Divine Name. In sacrificing their lives so that four others would live, they fulfilled the commandment of the Shema to love the Lord their God while God was taking their souls.