‘Honor’ at last for war heroes
Kravitz’s uncle to get top medal
WASHINGTON — Two heroic New Yorkers who died in battle — including the uncle of Grammy winner Lenny Kravitz — will receive the nation’s highest honor, thanks to a former soldier who probed bias in medal awards.
Army Sgt. Alfred Nietzel of Queens died in 1944 in Heistern, Germany, and Pfc. Leonard Kravitz of Brooklyn was killed seven years later in Yangpyong, Korea.
Both were awarded their branch’s second-highest honor: the Distinguished Service Cross.
Kravitz’s childhood friend and fellow Army man, Mitchell Libman, spent nearly 50 years lobbying Uncle Sam to reconsider Kravitz’s case and grant him the Medal of Honor, the highest accolade.
After his unit’s machine gunner was severely wounded, Kravitz, 21, manned the weapon and swept the battlefield with fire, mowing down Chinese troops and drawing others toward him so his platoon could retreat.
The next day Kravitz’s unit reclaimed the position and found his lifeless body.
“Lenny was a guy who would do anything for his friend, but he was a good quiet guy, not a killer type guy,” said Libman, now 83 and living in Hollywood, Fla.
When he did some research, Libman discovered that Kravitz was among 138 Jews to receive the Distinguished Service Cross since World War II, while only two received the Medal of Honor.
Libman called the ratio “ridiculous” and a clear indication of anti-Semitism in the review process.
He enlisted the help of former Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.), who pushed a 2001 law requiring review of Jewish and Hispanic troops’ valor citations.
Prior reviews of Asian-American and African-American citations resulted in an additional 28 Medals of Honor being awarded.
The new review found 18 such cases including Kravitz, plus six more in which soldiers who weren’t Jewish or Hispanic merited the high honor.
They included Nietzel, 23, who singlehandedly covered a withdrawal on Nov. 18, 1944, and was killed by a German grenade.
The 24 men — all but three of whom died on the battlefield — will be honored by President Obama March 18 at the White House.