US Army unit at Camp Ritchie

Otto Perl poses with his US Army unit at Camp Ritchie, Maryland, circa 1945. Born in Austria, Perl served in the Austrian Army until March 1938, when he was dismissed because he was Jewish. With the help of a friend, Perl was able to obtain a US visa. He reached New York in 1940.

Several thousand of the soldiers who trained at Camp Ritchie were Jewish refugees who had immigrated to the United States to escape Nazi persecution.