A Mensch and a Hero

 

   Manuel Morse Rogoff

 

     Manuel Morse Rogoff was born February 12, 1917 in Mount Pleasant, PA. He was the son of Jacob and Edith Rogoff. Edith was my grandfather’s first cousin. Manny was the third of four children having two brothers and a sister. Jacob died when Manny was a teenager and Manny and his brothers took over and ran the family auto wrecking business in Leetsdale, PA. The business was very successful mostly due to the hard work and excellent management skills of Manny. As World War Two approached Manny, like many other young men, enlisted in the Army to fight the Germans. 

     His WWII experience was far from typical. He served in the Army Air Corps as a bombardier on a B-24 Liberator and was stationed in England. Their crew flew several missions over Europe. One time during a mission over Norway, bad weather caused them to lose visual contact with the rest of their squadron. However, being off course caused them to come across the heavy water plant, their intended target, that the Germans needed to facilitate the development of an atomic bomb. They dropped bombs and destroyed the plant and eventually they regained contact with their group and when they got back to base they were severely reprimanded by their superiors for not staying with their squadron. No commendations for hindering the German’s plans. 

     In January of 1944 during a mission over France, Manny’s plane was shot down. The people in the cockpit were all killed and the plane was on fire. Manny helped several crew members bail out before he himself jumped. His hands and face were severely burned but he kept his wits about him and when he landed in the French countryside he followed protocol by burying his parachute. Several French citizens helped to hide Manny from the Nazi’s including high ranking members of the French Resistance. His burns on his face and hands began to blister and became infected causing temporary blindness. The French people attended to his medical needs and moved him around the country until they could eventually send him back to England. They marched him to the coast in Brittany and in the middle of the night Manny and several other American and English soldiers were put on boats for the trip across the English Channel. 

    Throughout this whole ordeal Manny never knew the names of the samaritans that saved his life. They had his information and after the war they contacted him and he and they have had several reunions. Bernard Betrone, Pierre Cherrie, and Marcel Cola were three of the people in the resistance that helped Manny hide from the Germans and arranged for his safe passage to England. 

 

    Close to 6 months after being shot down Manny returned to the United States and shortly after that he was married to Irma Schaffer. He continued in the auto wrecking business with his two brothers, Leonard, and Bernard. They also procured the Desoto-Plymouth dealership for the area and named it The Rogoff Sons’ Company in honor of their father. Manny and Irma had two children, Larry and Cynthia. 

 

    After the war was over many veterans of WWII that had been saved by our French allies would have regular reunions. Manny attended several of them and one of them in England included a tea at Buckingham Palace. Yes, Manny, his wife Irma, and their Daughter Cynthia had tea with the Queen of England.

     One Sunday morning when I was still in high school my Grandfather called my father and said to look at the Parade magazine that comes with the sunday paper. There was an article about Manny and his lifesaving benefactors from France complete with this picture.

 

     It is no wonder that Manny was afflicted with PTSD although nobody even knew what that was back in 1944. He put on a strong front but suffered from nightmares, crying fits, and bouts of depression. Irma passed away in 1995 and shortly after that, Alzheimer’s disease took its toll on his mental health and personality. His son, Larry told me that Manny used to carry a picture of himself with his battle scars and showed it to people and asked if they knew who was in the picture. Larry took the picture away from him and his anxiety waned and he became a much more relaxed, peaceful man. Cynthia said that Alzheimers made him forget about his past tortures and he reverted to the gentle, kind man that he was before the war. 

     I interviewed both Larry and Cynthia to get a sense of what kind of man Manny was. Their insights made me wish that I had met him and had a chance to talk with him. Manny was a hard working individual driven to success. He was the force behind the success of their family businesses. He did not use profanity and was dedicated to his mother and his siblings. He was also very handsome. My Aunt Ruth (my father’s sister) always unabashedly exclaimed. “He was so handsome” every time his name was mentioned. His bravery and heroic actions saved several lives. He was a nice guy, a mensch.