I had written that my next book would be some fiction, but this thing has been on my shelf for a while. I have read every other Walter Isaacson biography (Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Ben Franklin, Leonardo Da Vinci, Jennifer Doudna, and Albert Einstein) , except this one. They are all very entertaining and informative reads, I figured this would be no different.
Kissinger was born in Fürth, Germany, in 1923. I was not aware of this, but antisemitism already had a pretty strong footing in Germany well before Hitler declared war on the world. Kissinger, who was brought up in a Jewish family, lived with this fact for the majority of his childhood. Jewish children could only attend Jewish schools and were generally treated as second-class citizens with restrictions that the rest of the general public was not subject to. Kissinger, for example, loved soccer as a child, but as a Jew, was barred from attending matches. He occasionally snuck in, pretending not to be Jewish, but was discovered and publicly beaten for doing so. Like most Jews living in Germany during the 1930’s, they hoped and expected the anti-Jewish sentiment to abate over time. As history has shown, it did not. Kissinger’s father lost his teaching position because he was Jewish. Longtime, non-Jewish family friends began to distance themselves from Kissinger’s family. The writing was on the wall for the Kissinger family. They needed to start a life somewhere else. That somewhere else was New York. At 15, Kissinger and his family, speaking very little English and with very few belongings, journeyed to their new life. Without this move, the Kissinger story would likely have ended before the end of World War II as most of Kissinger’s Jewish family and friends that remained in country did not survive, once they were forced into concentration camps.
Initially, young Henry had difficulty adapting to his new surroundings. He was used to keeping on high alert as he walked in public in anticipation of a random beating for being Jewish. Over time, he was quite elated to discover that this level of heightened awareness was no longer necessary in his new country.
Shortly after Henry reached draft age, the United States entered World War II. As Henry entered service in the US Army, he and other immigrants pulled into service, earned their US citizenship during boot camp. It was a proud moment for Henry. Having done very well on standardized testing, he initially was sent to Lafayette college after boot camp. The military had a program to train draftees for technical roles. At this point, Henry realized that he excelled academically, and very much enjoyed college life. This program was abandoned a year later as the military got to the point that it needed warm bodies to fight. Just seven years removed from the constant harassment he endured from the Nazis as a Jew living in Germany, Henry was now going back as an American to fight them. He participated in the Battle of the Bulge. This was a turning point for the war and also its bloodiest battle. German forces were largely effective, but suffered losses that depleted their forces by estimates as high as 100,000 casualties and left them much less effective going forward.
Having shown himself to be very intelligent, and also being fluent in German, gave Henry a very unique opportunity to be in charge of the de-Nazification of large sections of Germany. He reportedly did this role in a very professional manner. He was tasked with ensuring Nazi leaders were rounded up and that any attempt by them to regain control was quashed. Mayors of the towns he presided over were to report to him. He did not carry out his role in a vengeful manner as many might be temped to do in a similar situation where a person is now in control of his former oppressors. Kissinger stated that it was often easy to identify former Nazi leaders in the German population as they were the ones that appeared well-fed. He was only 23 when he served in this role.
At the completion of his military service, Kissinger remained in Germany as a civilian, working for the US government in largely the same role as he last held in the the Army, but at a much higher pay rate. Upon returning home, he wished to continue his education. Fortunately for him, Harvard was giving former servicemen preferential entry. Kissinger took full advantage and flourished as a student of History.
…to be continued