Sydney Goodman papers

Sydney Goodman (1917-2005) was a Jewish American soldier born in Detroit, Michigan where he owned a body shop. In 1940 he married Grace Goldberg and they had three daughters, Karen (b. 1941), Judith, and Barbara. In November 1943 Sydney enlisted into the U.S. Army and was deployed to Germany in August 1944 with the 110th Infantry Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division. During the Battle of the Bulge on 17 December 1944, Sydney was captured by German forces in Luxenberg and was sent to Stalag IX B, a German prisoner-of-war camp, in Bad Orb, Germany. He was one of 350 American soldiers sent to the forced labor camp Berga an der Elster, a sub-camp of Buchenwald concentration camp. During his time as a POW, Sydney wrote on the back of family photographs he had with him documenting his experiences as well as keeping a list of those who were killed. After the POWs were liberated by American troops in 1945, Sydney spent several months in a hospital in England before returning home to Michigan. The Sydney Goodman papers include a diary, correspondence, subject files, and photographs relating to Sydney’s experiences as a Jewish American soldier who was captured as a POW during the Battle of the Bulge and sent to Stalag IX B and Berga an der Elster as a forced laborer. Sydney began his diary shortly before he was captured in 1944 and continued writing until liberation in 1945. He wrote on the back of 36 family photographs about his experiences as a POW at Stalga IXB and Berga and kept a list of those who died. Correspondence includes telegrams and letters from the War Department to Grace Goodman notifying her that Sydney was missing in action, a POW, and of his return to the United States as well as Sydney’s correspondence with the War Department regarding the list of names he kept while a POW and information regarding his honorable discharge from the Army. This series also includes correspondence with Charles Vogel, an attorney building a case against two Berga commanders, as well as miscellaneous correspondence with others about their POW experiences and search for answers. Subject files include testimonies from survivors of Berga, including Sydney Goodman, restitution files for Sydney seeking reparations for his time as a POW, and wartime and postwar newspaper clipping and articles relating to American soldiers imprisonment in Berga, the trial against German commanders at Berga, and articles about Sydney and his experiences. Photographs include a photograph of Sydney with his daughter, Karen, prior to the war and a photograph of Sydney on a visit back to Berga.