Resident Harry Goodman: ‘The Luckiest Guy in the World’

When The Commons in Lincoln asked residents to share photos and materials for a Veterans Day display, Harry Goodman initially declined.

“That is ancient history,” said the 94-year-old. For Harry, fighting in World War II was just one in a long series of adventures and hardships that began when he was a boy in pre-war Germany.

In 1938, as the persecution of Jews intensified, 12-year-old Heinz Gutmann was told he had to leave his family and his native Munich for the United States. He was put on a boat and sent to New York, where he was to be met by a woman from an agency who would help him.

Alone in America

“There were thousands of people in a hangar-like building,” Harry recalled. Unsure of what to do, he sat on a bench and waited. “Slowly the place emptied out.” Eventually, the woman arrived and took Heinz to a hotel to spend the night.

“It was very scary,” Harry said of the trip. “I was alone.”

During the night, he needed to use the bathroom, so he left his room in search of the facilities. The door locked behind him and he wandered down to the front desk in his pajamas. A staff member took him back to his room, unlocked the door and showed him where the bathroom was.

“That was my beginning in America,” he said.

The next day, he boarded a train to meet a family in Nashville. A conductor helped him get food along the way, though all Harry could say was “bread and butter.”

The boy did not realize that when the train stopped in Chattanooga, he had to switch to another line. “If it wasn’t for the conductor, I’d be living in Chattanooga,” Harry said.

Back in Germany, his family would write to him in Nashville, but one day, a letter he sent home went unanswered. Harry knew what that meant. “I knew they had to be gone,” he said.

Much later, he returned to Germany and learned the truth. His family had been taken by train from Munich on November 20, 1941, to Kaunas, Lithuania. They were shot and killed with approximately 1,000 other Jews from Munich on November 25, 1941. Harry will never forget the date, as it was his mother’s 50th birthday on November 20.

Joining the Military

At 16, Harry ran away from his foster family in Nashville, though he did finish high school. He attempted to enlist in the military, but his German heritage made him an “enemy alien.”

He struggled to find work, as nobody wanted to hire a healthy 18-year-old who was likely to be drafted.

“It was absurd,” he recalled. A few months later, his status was changed and he was able to reapply. After a hearing, the draft board determined that he was no longer an enemy alien.

Harry signed up as a sheet metal apprentice and was scheduled to go to Pearl Harbor in 1944. However, he was instead inducted into the Army as a machine gunner and sent to Northern France during the Battle of the Bulge. His division’s mission was to close the pocket and push Nazi soldiers back into Germany.

On the way to the battle, a ship in their fleet hit a mine and sank. Most of the crew survived and Harry ended up in Marseille, setting up a camp for soldiers heading to the Pacific.

“The bad luck of the sinking of the ship was good luck for the rest of us,” he said.

From there, Harry went to Salzburg, Austria.

“It was like being sent to heaven. It was beautiful,” he said. While stationed there, he learned to play bridge and traveled around the country as part of the Army ping pong team.

A Successful Life and Career

After serving two years in the Army, Harry went to college. However, he felt unprepared due to his technical high school education. He took a job in St. Louis but later moved to New York. After several years working in positions with “quite a bit of responsibility but little money,” he joined an electronics company and eventually became one of the owners.

Along the way, he met his wife, Dorothy. They have been married for 68 years and have four daughters and four grandchildren. Two of their daughters live in the Boston area, which made The Commons a convenient place to live an active life. They have been part of the community for 10 years.

When Harry reflects on his life, he focuses on the good times with his wife and children, as well as his wife’s brother’s three daughters and four granddaughters. He proudly points to a large photobook on his coffee table, documenting a family reunion that brought relatives from both coasts to Colorado.

“It was wonderful,” he said, smiling as he repeated what he had said in a previous interview. “I’m the luckiest guy in the world.”