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A History of Columbia County Florida (1996) Edward F. Keuchel 256/340

A History of Columbia County, Florida

learning of the dangers of Hitler’s Nazi Germany. Since Jews in
Germany were among the first to suffer from the new Nazi state, it
is understandable that American Jews would take a position of
leadership in alerting Americans to the danger. In January 1939,
Jewish leaders from nine North Florida counties met in Live Oak
to plan a drive to aid the distressed Jews of Nazi Germany and
Eastern Europe. Lake City had the second largest delegation
consisting of Leo J. Gelberg, William Rosner, Max Bohrman, Sam
Cristol and Nathan Zelkins. A special appeal to help the Jews of
Europe was made in all of the churches in Lake City on Sunday,
February 12, 1939, while in an editorial, the Lake City Reporter
warned its readers of the dangers inherent in totalitarian states
such as Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union.16
Some Columbia Countians were preparing for World War II
prior to the Japanese bombing of the American fleet at Pearl
Harbor on December 7,1941. More than a year earlier Company H
of the 124th Infantry, Florida National Guard, was mobilized
along with other National Guard units as the international situation
deteriorated following Hitler’s invasion of Poland in September
1939. Company H, a Columbia County unit, was commanded by
Captain E. A. Wright. R. B. Harkness served as First Lieutenant
and Hugh A. Wilson as Second Lieutenant. Company H repre­
sented a cross-section of Columbia County. If many of the family
names were those of the earliest settlers of the county, others were
those of more recent arrivals. Company H received its military
training at Camp Blanding, Florida, and later was sent to the
Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia, where it served as a
demonstration unit. Men of the unit later saw fighting in the
Pacific in campaigns for New Guinea and the Philippines. Many
other Columbia countians went into military service after the
United States entered the war in December 1941. A. K. Black
resigned as State Attorney, closed his law practice, and went into

™Lake City Reporter, January 13, 20, February 17, 1939.
196

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