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| Sidney Shachnow | |
|---|---|
| Born 1934 | |
 Maj. Gen. Sidney Shachnow, USA |
|
| Place of birth | Kaunas, Lithuania |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Service/branch | United States Army |
| Years of service | 1955-1994 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands held | U.S. Army Berlin John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School |
| Battles/wars | Vietnam War |
| Awards | Combat Infantryman Badge Silver Star Purple Heart Bronze Star |
"Major General Sidney Shachnow" Major General Sidney Shachnow is a Holocaust Survivor who retired from the United States Army in 1994, after 40 years of active service.
Sid Shachnow was born in Kaunas, Lithuania. At the age of seven, Shachnow was imprisoned in the brutal Kovno concentration camp during World War II because his family was Jewish. For three years he endured countless brutalities in the camp and was forced to watch helplessly as most of his relatives perished. To increase his prospects of survival, young Shachnow performed heavy manual labor under harsh conditions. He narrowly escaped death only days before Kovno's gruesome "Children's Action", of March 27-28, 1944, when Nazi troops rounded-up all children in the camp and marched them to The Ninth Fort for execution or to Auschwitz to be gassed. After smuggling out of the camp, Shachnow lived in hiding for months, mostly in austere seclusion, where he nearly expired from starvation and malnutrition. Shachnow fled west after the Soviets liberated Kovno from the Nazis and began to implement Communism. His grueling 2,000 mile, six month journey across Europe, mostly on foot, took him across Lithuania, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria, and finally to American occupied Nuremberg, Germany where he hoped to obtain a visa to the United States. To eke out a living in war-torn Nuremberg, Shachnow resorted to pirating black market contraband such as pantyhose and chocolate.
In 1950, Shachnow finally obtained a visa and immigrated to Salem, Massachusetts where he attended school for the first time in his life. After working his way through high school he enlisted in the U.S. Army. As a Sergeant First Class he entered Officer Candidate School and received his commission in the U.S. Infantry. In 1962 he volunteered for the United States Army Special Forces, also known as the "Green Berets" where he served for the next thirty-two years. After joining special forces, Shachnow was promoted to Captain and assigned as Commander of Detachment A-121, at Vietnam's An Long Camp near the Cambodian border along the Mekong River. In the 1970s he served as Commander of Det-A, later known as Delta Force(Det A did NOT become Delta Force), a clandestine unit of cold war Green Beret commandos on high alert 24-hours a day. This covert unit required a large number of Eastern European immigrants who brought much needed culture, geographical and language skills. Their missions were classified, they dressed in civilian clothing made in east Germany, and carried East German documentation and identification. Shachnow grew as Special Forces grew, rising to the rank of Major General, receiving both a master's and doctoral degree along the way. He traveled the world, from Vietnam to the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Korea and back to Berlin, Germany for the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall, but the brutal lessons of the Holocaust have always stayed with him.
Maj. Gen. Shachnow's past assignments have been as commander or staff officer with Infantry, Mechanized Infantry, Airmobile, Airborne and Special Forces units. Gen. Shachnow's most recent assignments include:
- Commanding General, John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School, Airborne, Fort Bragg (1992-1994)
- Commanding General, United States Army Special Forces Command, Airborne, Fort Bragg
- Commanding General, U.S. Army-Berlin; Director, Washington Office, United States Special Operations Command, Airborne
- Deputy Commanding General, 1st Special Operations of Command, Airborne, Fort Bragg
- Chief of Staff, 1st Special Operations Command, Airborne, Fort Bragg
Maj. Gen. Shachnow is the recipient of:
Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster
Silver Star with Oak Leaf Clusters
Defense Superior Service Medal
Legion of Merit
Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Clusters and Valor Device
Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster
Meritorious Service Medal with two Oak Leaf clusters
Air Medal with the numeral "12"
Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf clusters and Valor Device
Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Cross
Maj. Gen. Shachnow is the author of Hope and Honor, an autobiographical account of his childhood experience in the Nazi Kovno concentration camp of Lithuania, his immigration and assimilation to the United States and his 40 year career in the U.S. Army, Special Forces.
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