Hello,

My father was a member of the 643^rd Tank Destroyer Battalion, Company C. His name was Murray M. Itzkowitz. How can I add his photograph to this listing?

Please advise.

Thank you,

Eric Martin (his son)

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Hi Ben,

Greetings from New York City! Thank you so very much for your quick response. Unfortunately, I don’t recall hearing Mr. Goldman’s name mentioned by my mom or dad.  

My dad passed away this past August, he was 92. You DO have a picture of very good friends of his, Mr. Paul Gilrain, as well as a picture of Mr. Ben Holowitz, whose names I do recall hearing many times. He and Mr. Gilrain had a $1.00 bet as to where they were being shipped overseas. Mr. Gilrain said Africa, my dad said France. Somewhere there exists a $1.00 bill given to my father from Mr. Gilrain with the handwritten inscription, “It wasn’t Africa.” Do you know if Mr. Gilrain or Holowitz are still with us?

 I just scrolled further down the page of names and photographs, and you DO have a picture of my father. After the war he changed his name from Murray M. (Martin) Itzkowitz to Murray I. MARTIN. His serial number is correct as listed, 32640074. I assume you pulled his photograph from the WWII Memorial Website, which is where I posted it many years ago. 

From the stories I remember, he entered the war as a bazooka operator immediately after the Battle of the Bulge. I know he was in France, Belgium, and ultimately Germany. At some point while in Germany he and a number of his comrades were captured by the Germans, and they were placed in a POW camp. He was in the camp for approximately 30 days. The Army Air Corp. was bombing the area surrounding or near the camp one day, and my father and a couple of other men used that opportunity to escape, and make it back to the Allied lines.  

I looked at the picture you added, but my dad is not one of the pictured soldiers.

Thank you again for your attention to this, and your willingness to write about him.  

Warmest regards,

Eric

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It's absolutely fine if you add his original birth name in the "remarks" column. He had two other brothers who also served, an older brother Julius Itzkowitz, who I believe remained stateside, due to poor eyesight, and a younger brother George, who served in Italy and was wounded in action. His parents were Simon and Lena Itzkowitz.