[February 11, 2024] Occasionally, you hear about our World War II heroes. Still, you never hear of them coming home from the battlefield and integrating themselves back into their hometowns, opening a business, marrying and having children, and being a pillar of their community. Today, we have the daughter of one such hero, Susan Friedenberg, and I want to thank her for sharing one incredible story about her Dad. He was a true WWII Dad Hero.
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My Father, Staff Sergeant Bernie Friedenberg, was a Medic on Omaha Beach and fought and saved lives for 4.6 years in every campaign in Europe; he came home from the war emotionally damaged. No one knew about PTSD then. He hid the horrors of war and never talked about it, like most soldiers who come home from war. He chilled out for a few months and wanted to open a bar in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he was from.
His beloved Dad, Jake Friedenberg, had a great deal of money, and Dad told him that he wanted to open a bar in Atlantic City. My Grandfather said that he would “give” Dad the money. My father was a proud man and wanted to do this with no help from his father.
He went to First National Bank in Atlantic City and asked for a loan to open a bar, and they refused him because he had NO collateral. He still would not let his Dad help him. My father was a proud man.
He gathered all his medals – including 2 Purple Hearts, 2 Bronze Medals, and 2 Silver Stars – and went to the Mayor of AC’s office, Mayor Joseph Altman. He walked in with his military paperwork and the medals, and the secretary said, “Sir, do you have an appointment to see the Mayor.” Dad said “No” and walked right by her and into the Mayor’s office.
The Mayor looked up and said, “Who are you?” Dad responded with:
“I am Staff Sergeant Bernie Friedenberg, and I was raised in Atlantic City and left for 4.6 years of war from here, and here are my medals, [placing them on the Mayor’s desk] and I need a loan Mr. Mayor and First National Bank will NOT give me one because I have no collateral…. I need you to CO-SIGN a loan for me, Sir”.
The Mayor stood up, shook Dad’s hand, thanked him for his service and said, “Let’s go, Sergeant Friedenberg.” And off they went. The rest is AC history. Dad opened the Dusty Roads Bar. It was around the corner from the famed Five Hundred Club.
Susan C. Friedenberg – A PROUD Veteran’s Daughter
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Please read my books:
A wonderful story. Made me smile.
Beautiful story, thank you!
True! Thanks to everyone here for the positive comments about this article. This is one of those reasons I keep coming back to Gen. Satterfield’s blog. Oh, read his book “Our Longest Year in Iraq.”
https://www.amazon.com/Our-Longest-Year-Iraq-Construction/dp/1737915510/
As the son of a Korean War vet, I can understand the pride that Ms. Friedenberg has in her dad, much like that of my dad. We grew up with such amazing, scary, happy stories of the war, that it was just normal. But it was later when I was off to High School that I learned this was not so common, in fact, rare. It was a shock, esp. when my friends would tell me that their dads avoided going to Korea during the war. That was just unimaginable to me.
Your Dad wanted to share his stories with you… like a cleansing to his family about his experiences. My Dad just could not talk about the war AT ALL…. until Saving Private Ryan came out. The flood gates of horrors surfaced and he was having BAD nightmares… and the VA hospital and DRS told Dad to write it all down and purge himself that way… and he wound up writing a book called ” Of Being Numerous – World War II As I Saw It”. And then started talking to kids in colleges in South Jersey and high schools about the war. It helped him a lot to tell kids about the war…. God bless your Dad for serving…
Thank you Susan for sharing.
Excellent comments.
Ms. Friedenberg, it is obvious that you are very proud of your dad and I just want to let you know I appreciate you taking the time and making an effort to tell one of his stories. Your dad’s insistence on opening the Dusty Roads Bar (love the name, BTW) is a classic. These men of that war wanted to be independent, married, have kids, be good members of their neighborhoods, and help others. Totally unlike kids today. I do appreciate you telling us this story. It made me proud to be a veteran’s daughter too.
You are lucky, Lady Hawk to have a veteran dad, just like Susan F. We all need to hear more of these stories.
💖 Yes, wonderful story 💖
I adored my Dad as I am sure you did too. He was a man of great integrity, humor and madly in love with my magnificently gorgeous Mom. I was blessed to be the daughter of Bernie and Phyllis. They were maried for 70 years!!! God bless our troops as President Biden says every day! It is SO important to do what we can for our heroes when they come home. They fought for “US”.. now we need to fight for them….It KILLS me to see homeless Vets on the streets here in Philadelphia.
Excellent comment on your Dad and your wanting Philly to do something for the homeless veterans. Good news something is being done now with the police commission of Philly. She have a personal staff that met lasted week on 8 Feb with several veterans and Burlington county Sheriff department homeless outreach to brain storm ideals. Plans are for more meetings. Go to my email kook for email sent out from Richard Sand addressed this on 12th February
Excellent comment lady hawks
Rare are we hearing of this anymore…. today’s youth are weak, effete, privilidged, entitled, unhappy, and often stupid. They need a little SSG Bernie in them.
We are lucky to have such men (and those who helped them) among us. Thanks Susan for telling one of many stories about your hero dad. Very few today are alive to tell such stories. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU. And anytime you want to tell another story, I’m sure Gen. Satterfield will get you onto his blog. 👍
Indeed, we are lucky!
Here is one from Dad’s book…. As a Medic… he was aware of all the moans and crying from his injured soldiers. A bomb blasted a building, and Dad heard a man inside crying out in pain and he was moaning , and Dad thought it was one of his men…. He carefully went into the building and there was a VERY wounded young German soldier about Dad’s age crying out in agony and holding a picture in his hand of his young wife and baby…. Dad thought to himself, “Maybe he was drafted…. maybe he has no idea what Hitler is doing to Jews and the horrors of the concentration camps”. My Father was a Medic with a gun…… He could have shot this young guy…. and Dad could not do it because he was in agony & crying out in pain and was no threat to Dad…. My beloved Father knelt down…. shot him up with morphine and tended to his wounds…. then looked him in the eyes and said in YIDDISH, “Never forget that a Jew saved your life”. That is the kind of man my Father was….. RIP Daddy… you live in my heart with Mom.
Susan
Your farther was an awesome man with a great compassion for others. Jesus commands say love your neighbors as yourself. Your neighbors are not necessarily next to you; kook like you;have your same political views: have your same regilous views. You dad looked passed all those barriers to render medical care to someone who he was supported to kill. That’s love ❤️. Thanks for sharing this with us. I as a retired veteran thank your dad for his service. RIP.
Susan C. Friedenberg – A PROUD Veteran’s Daughter ….. thank you, ma’am.
Thank you Gen. Satterfield for Susan Friedenberg’s article on her being proud of her hero dad from WWII. We hear so very few of these stories anymore. Today’s young folks think that WWIi is ancient history and nothing to learn from it. What we see in this story is what happens after these vets returned to America and proceeded to make themselves key players in their community. Staff Sergeant Bernie Friedenberg is a classic hero.
Janice, precisely! I’m glad I read this story. ❤ Loved it. Cheers!
Nothing like recognizing heroes. Gen. Satterfield does this on a regular basis. See this search link for some of them:
https://www.theleadermaker.com/?s=hero
Read them. As, Gen. S tells us, learn to tell the stories of heroes.
And the more we read, the better we become as humble folks walking among greats.
😊😊😊😊😊
Thank you Janice, I have the YOU TUBE video of Governor Corzine interviewing my Dad….I will try and post it here. and if it does not go thru, email me… Governor Corzine signed a “BILL” intp legislation in NJ to educate people on WW2.Bernie and New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYmcqGsJKbY
Amazing story. Susan, it made me smile. Thank you!
Thank you Audrey, he was quite a guy……