Grandpa Sam was in the infantry in WWII. He was Jewish in a company full of Christians, some of which were antisemitic.

Once, he heard two men in his company talking about rumors that the Germans were killing all the Jews, and laughing about how they thought they had the right idea. Your Grandpa Sam said that was one of the only times he seriously contemplated murdering in cold blood and he could have gotten away with it considering the amount of action his unit was seeing every day. Grandpas entire family that had not emigrated prior to WWII was killed by the Nazis. He helped liberate a concentration camp and prayed that he did not find any family. Then he cried when he didnt. Grandpa picked up a full-grown, 6 foot tall man in his arms and carried him like a baby to the hospital when the Army liberated the camp the man weighed maybe 90 pounds. Grandpa was 54 and weighed maybe 135 pounds. He had no trouble carrying the man. He never knew whether he lived or not. Many did not the soldiers fed the starving prisoners, but they hadnt had food for so long that many died from the food they ate. They learned to give them water only or small bits of bread no matter how they pleaded for food. Grandpa Sams entire division was nearly wiped out in the Battle of the Bulge Grandpa missed it because he was called to Paris to be a court reporter for a rape case. He was not sorry to hear that the two men that were so anti-Jew in his company were killed he said it was justice for the hate in their hearts. Grandpa once had an entire German town surrender to him and his driver. He was on a reconnaissance mission, and got lost. He had terrible navigational skills why the Army thought he should do reconnaissance was a mystery. Anyway, he and the driver of the Jeep entered a German town to get directions, and everyone hung white sheets out their windows they thought they were the advance for the American Army coming in! Germans always preferred to surrender to the Americans rather than the Russians the American Army was more merciful and less prone to rape and pillage. Grandpa Sam was not even a U.S. citizen when he served he did not get citizenship until 1962. He felt a lot of gratitude to the U.S. for letting him immigrate and felt that it saved his life. Grandpa Sam was beaten up on almost a daily basis growing up by kids who were prejudiced against Jews and immigrants. When he got here, he spoke no English and there were no ESL classes. He had to learn English on his own, but everyone in his family graduated at the top of their class in High School.