L IFESTYLE /C ULTURE
‘Camp Confi dential’ Asks If Ends Justify Means
T E L EVISION
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
WHEN ARNO MAYER joined
the Army in 1944 aft er fl eeing
France from Nazi clutches, he
expected to exact revenge on the
regime later responsible for the
genocide of his Jewish family.

Riding on a bus with other
trepidation-fi lled young Jewish
soldiers, Mayer braced himself
to arrive at an airfi eld, to be
shipped to Europe to fi ght
battles against the Nazis in the
waning war.

Instead, Mayer, with a
select group of other German-
speaking soldiers, were taken
to a place their superiors called
“nothing”: a place hidden from
sight and from the world.

“Nothing” was really
a clearing in the woods, a
military base masquerading as a
summer camp, complete with a
swimming pool and ping-pong
table. It was known as
PO Box 1142.

Shortly aft er the arrival of
Mayer and his peers, a group
of German offi cers, many with
Nazi affi liations and including
the ranks of rocket scientist
Wernher von Braun, arrived as
prisoners of war. Th e soldiers
were instructed fi rst to interro-
gate, but then to simply keep the
Th ird Reich soldiers happy; they
would serve an important role in
the World War II victory.

Nearly all camp archives were
destroyed along with its campus
in 1946, but the oral histories of
the participating soldiers were
preserved and are now available
to discover in the quasi-an-
imated documentary short
“Camp Confi dential: America’s
Secret Nazis,” now streaming on
Netfl ix.

Israel-based fi lmmaker Mor
Loushy remembers hearing
the 2006 National Park Service
archival tapes from PO Box
1142 offi cers for the fi rst time in
2019 when she was approached
by producers Benjamin and
Jono Bergmann to help direct
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM the documentary with partner
Daniel Sivan.

“It was pretty chilling,”
Loushy said.

Loushy recounts one of the
fi rst tapes she heard, which is
featured in the fi lm: Around
Christmastime, the soldiers were
asked by superiors to take the
German offi cers to a department
store to buy holiday presents for
their families in Germany.

Th e offi cers almost unani-
mously decided to buy skimpy
undergarments for their wives
with their $1,000 budget.

But beyond their roles of
glorifi ed babysitters, the “morale
offi cers” at PO Box 1142 had
an even more sinister task.

Th eir spoiling of the German
offi cers was a gentle prodding
for valuable information on the
country’s V-2 rocket production.

“Th ey were already preparing
for the Cold War, even before
the world understood it,” Loushy
said. In exchange for their intel, the
German offi cers were promised
naturalization for them and
their families and immunity
from war crime charges.

“Camp Confi dential” asks
the audience less to make a
judgment call on whether the
young Jewish soldiers made the
right decision in succumbing
to help in the furtive military
agenda and more to question if
PO Box 1142 was a justifi able
operation in the fi rst place.

“It goes back to the question
of whether you can do bad things
to achieve good ends,” said Peter
Weiss, another Jewish soldier, in
the fi lm. “And I would say that
if you do that, then the end that
you achieve is not worthwhile.”
Mayer and Weiss aside, many
morale offi cers took the classi-
fi ed information of PO Box 1142
to their graves. Mayer and Weiss
were even hesitant to share their
experiences on fi lm, nearly 75
years aft er their time at the
camp. “Most of them didn’t tell the
[experience in PO Box 1142]
to their wives, their kids, their
families,” Loushy said. “Th ey
kept it a secret. It was very diffi -
cult for them.”
The documentary, which
began production pre-pan-
demic in 2019, was released at
an opportune time, Loushy said.

Th ough PO Box 1142 was opera-
tional three-fourths of a century
ago, its newly-learned existence
prompts the fi lm’s audience to
question what is happening in
their own countries; what secrets
are still being kept?
Loushy believed “Camp
Confi dential” is deeply relevant.

“Th is message was really
universal,” Loushy said. “Even
today, I think, you know, the U.S.

and so many other countries are
cooperating with dark regimes.

To what extent are you willing
to cooperate and to do unethical
Arno Mayer, a Jewish Holocaust refugee, joined the Army in 1944,
expecting to exact revenge on Nazi forces.

Courtesy of Netfl ix
and immoral things in order to
achieve good things?”
“Camp Confi dential” adds
to the conversation about what
“Never Again” truly means.

If valuable information
about WWII, the Holocaust and
American Jews’ role in the war
is still being unveiled, how will
we choose to respond “in order
to make a better society and
to not repeat the crimes that
happened in history, to learn
something from our history?”
Loushy wondered. ●
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
BUSINESS DIRECTORY
BOOKEEPING SERVICES
Overwhelmed with the
thought of moving?
Quickbooks Experience
THINKING OF A
RETIREMENT COMMUNITY?
Can I afford it?
What if I need care?
What will I do with all of my stuff?
These and the rest of your questions will
be answered by the senior living experts
at S3Living.

Real Estate Brokerage for Seniors
Looking to Thrive
Point Your Phone’s Camera below
to learn more
610-715-3637 COMMERCIAL
LOANS CALL
EVAN SEGAL
nmls 
$)LQDQFLDO3ODQQLQJ7RRO 215-259-5225 (o)
215-870-7362 (c)
JEWISH EXPONENT
610-828-7060 www.segalfinancial.com
SJHorrow.com See recent success stories on SJHorrow@gmail.com
our www.segalfinancial.com
Facebook page
0LFKDHO)ULHGPDQ Broker of Record
Personalized Tax Preparation
and Accounting For Individuals
and Businesses.

215-704-2080 evan@segalfinancial.com
evan@segalfinancial.com 5HYHUVH0RUWJDJH
www.segalfinancial.com See recent success
stories on our
5HYHUVH3XUFKDVH 6HUYLQJ3$ )/
Facebook page
Call David L. Reibstein
JEFFREY HORROW
$6DIHW\1HW)RU 6HQLRUV2OGHU$GXOWV
 
LQIR#UHYHUVLQJPWJFRP ZZZUHYHUVLQJPWJFRP
MEET YOUR MATCH
My name is George, I am 94 years old
and I would like to. "Meet My Match"! I
enjoy playing tennis and the piano and
I enjoy the grounds at Valley Green in
Chestnut Hill. I attend High Holidays at
Or Ami Synagogue and some Friday
night services. I am hoping to find a
nice woman between 70-90 accom-
pany me to the Opera, Philadelphia Or-
chestra and/or Theatre.

Please reply to Box GW1
NOVEMBER 11, 2021
19