Leadership and Adversity: Major General Sid Shachnow, U. S. Army,
(Ret.) Story
By: Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.
This article offers an insight into groundbreaking proven research
into how to overcome adversity and how to become a successful
leader which is well researched and fully documented in my new
book “Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent
Leaders.” This new Leadership book has received extensive
endorsements and enthusiastic reviews from well-known prominent
business, political, and academic leaders, best-selling authors,
and leading scholars who either participated in the study or
reviewed the research findings.
You will discover the proven success habits and leadership secrets
of people who, in spite of adversity, discrimination, abuse, or
difficult or life threatening challenges shaped their own destiny
to become successful, effective leaders.
The full results of this research are presented in the just
published book, “Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of
Prominent Leaders,” by Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D., which is
available on www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.ca,
www.amazon.de, and
www.amazon.co.uk.
The nine initial prominent successful leaders, who’s stories are
told and shared their secrets about how to overcome adversity
were: Dr. Tony Bonanzino, U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (UT), Monzer
Hourani, U.S. Senator Daniel Inouye (HI), Dr. John Malone,
Laurence Pino, U.S. Army Major General Sid Shachnow (Ret.), Dr.
Blenda Wilson, and Zig Ziglar.
The data from the above nine research participants was materially
augmented by seven other successful individuals who overcame
adversity including: Jack Canfield, William Draper III, Mark
Victor Hansen, J. Terrence Lanni, Angelo Mozilo, Dr. Nido Qubein,
and Dr. John Sperling.
Additionally, five internationally known, highly respected
Best-Selling authors, and major academic scholars offered their
peer debriefing comments, reviews and their agreement with the
findings of my research findings including:
Dr. Ken Blanchard, Dr. John Kotter, Professor Jim Kouzes, Dr. Paul
Stoltz, and Dr. Meg Wheatley.
This is a short biography of one of the principal participants for
my Leadership and Adversity research who generously contributed
their time and insights into the phenomenon of how individuals can
successfully overcome adversity and obstacles and even go on to
become prominent successful leaders. This Major General Sid
Shachnow’s intriguing and insightful story:
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| Howard Edward Haller (still with the beard) and US Army Major General Sid Shachnow (Ret.) tour the General’s House Farm, after discussing Leadership and Adversity for several hours in the General's home near Ft. Bragg, NC |
General Sid Shachnow survived the Nazi Holocaust. He served two
intense tours as a Green Beret officer in Vietnam, as well as
serving several tours of duty in Germany. Sid Shachnow was born
Schaja Shachnowski in Kausas, Lithuania in the mid-1930s. He was
the elder of two sons born to a middle-class Jewish couple. His
life was materially altered by the events of World War II in
Europe and the Nazi Holocaust. One of the first things the
invading Nazis did to Sid’s family was to kill Sid’s Aunt Tili and
Uncle Abraham. They were “burned alive in their home.”
Because Schaja and his family were Jewish, the Nazis interned them
in the concentration camp at Kovno in Lithuania when Schaja was
only 7 years old. Schaja's younger brother was smuggled out of the
camp shortly before Schaja escaped. Schaja explained, “I escaped
at age ten, with nothing but rags on my back; I was able finally
to flee that hellhole. Most of those I left behind died.”
Schaja had escaped just days before the Nazis came in and killed
every child in the Kovno Camp. Historical records indicate that of
the 40,000 Jews interred at the Kovno Camp, a mere 2,000 survived
(Shachnow, 2004, p. 30). Young ten-year-old Sid, who was all alone
after his escape, “hid for many months from both the Nazis and the
Lithuanian partisans.” His mother also escaped the Kovno
Concentration Camp, just as World War II was ending.
Schaja, now known as "Sid," still needed to escape from the
Russians, who were in control of his native Lithuania after the
war. According to Sid, the Soviet occupation of Lithuania was not
much better than the Nazi occupation: “It was unbearable.” He
learned from his mother that “the NKVD [later known as the KGB]
was as ruthless as the [German] Gestapo.” To escape from
Lithuania, Sid, his mother, and his younger brother made an
arduous journey, lasting six months, partially on foot, carefully
avoiding Russian troops. Sid’s father remained temporarily in
Lithuania and rejoined the family later in West Germany.
In war-torn West Germany the Shachnowski family struggled to exist
and to make a living. There were few jobs available, but Sid’s
mother “did speak German and this helped.” To survive, Sid and his
mother were involved with the “black market,” selling contraband
items to U.S. troops. Sid said, “I started working in the black
market
. . . picking up merchandise [on a bike].” His employer, Mr.
Schmidt, “said if I got caught it was my problem and not his.”
After a few delays, Sid and his family immigrated again to the
United States. In America Sid, his parents, and younger brother
all lived together, and they found “hope and opportunity.”
Sid indicated that he had always been industrious, and he worked
his way through high school, where he meet Arlene, fell in love,
and wanted to get married. Because Arlene was not Jewish, Sid’s
“parents became exceedingly upset, yelling and screaming and
rending their clothes.” They refused to allow the marriage. Sid
dropped out of high school when he was a senior to join the U.S.
Army.
He came back from Army basic training and married Arlene. She
always encouraged him.
My wife said to me, you know, I think you should do something
about becoming an officer. It’s easier said than done. Because in
those days, I didn’t have a college education, I was a young
enlisted man without any real leadership experience, or whatever.
But it’s the thing that sort of opened my eyes to, you know, If I
want to be more successful in a field that I seem to be enjoying,
I need to assume some leadership position. I need to be in charge
at night, because that’s where things are happening.
With encouragement from several senior officers, who became
mentors, Sid went on to Officer’s Candidate School and earned his
commission. As a young U.S. Army officer he volunteered for two
tours in Vietnam with the U.S. Army Special Forces [Green Berets].
In Vietnam, Sid earned two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars
with a “V’ for Valor, and other awards. Sid primarily served with
the Special Forces, in Vietnam, the Middle East, and at the Berlin
Wall. He “served in the U.S. Army for forty years.” He indicated
he “spent thirty-two of those years in Special Forces.”
While in the U.S. Army, Sid served multiple tours of duty in
Germany, including “ironically helping to protect the Germans from
the Russian Communists.” He was the Brigade Commander in Berlin,
Germany in charge of U.S. Army units at the Berlin Gate at the end
of the “Cold War.” Sid worked closely with the West German
military while serving his tours in Germany. He reported that his
headquarters had been the headquarters of Hermann Goring, the
number-two man in Nazi Germany, “not a shabby place by any
standard.”
In response to a question posed by Simon Wiesenthal (Wiesenthal,
1998), about forgiving Nazi soldiers, Shachnow replied, “I served
a considerable part of my military career in Germany protecting
[the Germans] . . . I was prepared to give up my most precious
possession, my life, in that effort” (p. 243). I interviewed
Shachnow near Fort Bragg, NC at his home for nearly two hours. Sid
Shachnow’s griping and inspiring autobiography, Hope and Honor
(2004), is a great read.
Copyright 2008 ©Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.
Howard Edward Haller, Ph.D.
Chief Enlightenment Officer
The Leadership Success Institute
Author: “Leadership and Adversity: The Shaping of Prominent
Leaders”
Publisher: VDM Verlag Dr Müller AG & CoKG ISBN 978-3-639-09841-9
[Now available on www.Amazon.com]
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