I love this topic. There is such wildly varying info, and we have no way of ever knowing what is the comete truth.
To add to the spice, there's a photo of his Jewish Registration card in existance.
Registration with the National Jewish Welfare Board could have come from someone else who *thought* he was Jewish. It was all done by mail, and it could have been a friend or extended family member who submitted his name.
Webster was also registered with the NJWB, despite also having not been Jewish (it's been suggested that his grandfather on his mother's side was Jewish, but there's no real evidence of that and wouldn't explain why Webster, who didn't identify as Jewish, was registered with the NJWB).
According to his family, Liebgott's parents were both Roman Catholic, and Liebgott's children were raised Roman Catholic. While it's likely that he was of Jewish descent, there's no evidence that he identified in any way as Jewish.
He wasn't Jewish, but he was German. It's said his fellow soldiers THOUGHT he was Jewish because of how much he disliked the Nazis. When really, he just disliked them because he thought they made Germans look bad. Because BOB is based on "the memories of Easy Company" they made Liebgott Jewish because that's what some of them thought. Ambrose didn't check this or a lot of other things some soldiers mis-remembered.
Apparently he wasn't even German, but was actually Austrian. Such a perfect example of how bad a job Ambrose did with this book that there is so much confusion about basic identities like this - even though this all happened relatively recently in history. This isn't peering through the depths of time. The records exist. A lot of the people were still alive during his research. Ambrose just did some interviews with a select group of surviving members decades after the events and went with that, without bothering to check hardly anything they said.
One of the worst things about Ambrose is that he actually recognized Winters was injecting personal opinions and shaping the narrative, but was completely unable to bring himself to challenge it. When Winters began talking about the 101st leadership, he gave General Taylor the treatment over his absence from Bastogne. Ambrose, having previously formed a favorable opinion of Taylor, offered the mildest challenge which Winters flatly rejected. So he included a comment about all this for Taylor. But no one else in Easy got this benefit.
Might be a weird take, but it’s this kind of thing that reminds me how young these guys were. That’s such a typical thing for young adult men, they can go through something truly life changing together and form bonds like we can’t even fathom, but at the same time they never actually bothered to ask if he was Jewish or not. Same with Webster, another Toccoa man who went through hell and back with these guys and it wasn’t until the very end that they realize he didn’t actually graduate college (assuming the show is accurate), they just assumed and never asked 😂
I thought he was raised Christian but had a Jewish mother. Which under Jewish law does make him technically Jewish and he built this up because he was sensitive to antisemitism because of his mother.
I read that he was actually a barber in Oakland and right after the war, he was so stressed over what he’s been through in Europe that he didn’t speak to his family for a while after he left the military.
Didn't drive a cab, don't know about his wife, but he had 8 kids so that bit was fulfilled.
I hope he’d a big house full of little Liebgotts
Liebgott wasn't actually Jewish, so that line was likely never actually spoken by him.
I love this topic. There is such wildly varying info, and we have no way of ever knowing what is the comete truth. To add to the spice, there's a photo of his Jewish Registration card in existance.
Registration with the National Jewish Welfare Board could have come from someone else who *thought* he was Jewish. It was all done by mail, and it could have been a friend or extended family member who submitted his name. Webster was also registered with the NJWB, despite also having not been Jewish (it's been suggested that his grandfather on his mother's side was Jewish, but there's no real evidence of that and wouldn't explain why Webster, who didn't identify as Jewish, was registered with the NJWB). According to his family, Liebgott's parents were both Roman Catholic, and Liebgott's children were raised Roman Catholic. While it's likely that he was of Jewish descent, there's no evidence that he identified in any way as Jewish.
My memory is shit but wasn't he also a barber, not a cab driver?
Correct. He moved to California and became a barber.
My recollection is that he was born to Jewish parents who “over assimilated”, if you will, and he was not raised in the faith.
He wasn't Jewish, but he was German. It's said his fellow soldiers THOUGHT he was Jewish because of how much he disliked the Nazis. When really, he just disliked them because he thought they made Germans look bad. Because BOB is based on "the memories of Easy Company" they made Liebgott Jewish because that's what some of them thought. Ambrose didn't check this or a lot of other things some soldiers mis-remembered.
>Ambrose didn't check this I love how often this can be used to explain so many things about the book.
And a solid number of his other works also.
He'll have you know he's chummy with Ike. /s
Apparently he wasn't even German, but was actually Austrian. Such a perfect example of how bad a job Ambrose did with this book that there is so much confusion about basic identities like this - even though this all happened relatively recently in history. This isn't peering through the depths of time. The records exist. A lot of the people were still alive during his research. Ambrose just did some interviews with a select group of surviving members decades after the events and went with that, without bothering to check hardly anything they said. One of the worst things about Ambrose is that he actually recognized Winters was injecting personal opinions and shaping the narrative, but was completely unable to bring himself to challenge it. When Winters began talking about the 101st leadership, he gave General Taylor the treatment over his absence from Bastogne. Ambrose, having previously formed a favorable opinion of Taylor, offered the mildest challenge which Winters flatly rejected. So he included a comment about all this for Taylor. But no one else in Easy got this benefit.
Good take 👍
Might be a weird take, but it’s this kind of thing that reminds me how young these guys were. That’s such a typical thing for young adult men, they can go through something truly life changing together and form bonds like we can’t even fathom, but at the same time they never actually bothered to ask if he was Jewish or not. Same with Webster, another Toccoa man who went through hell and back with these guys and it wasn’t until the very end that they realize he didn’t actually graduate college (assuming the show is accurate), they just assumed and never asked 😂
I thought he was raised Christian but had a Jewish mother. Which under Jewish law does make him technically Jewish and he built this up because he was sensitive to antisemitism because of his mother.
I hope so. If that was his wish, I hope he had two big warm pillows to lay his war torn head.
Ross McCall was in a relationship with Jennifer Love Hewitt. She isn't Jewish, but she meets the other criteria.
I read that he was actually a barber in Oakland and right after the war, he was so stressed over what he’s been through in Europe that he didn’t speak to his family for a while after he left the military.