Julius Gootzeit
1LT in Signal Co, Special : Officer
Military occupational specialty: 501
ASN#1643599
Born 1914 in NY, Died 1982
County of residence at enlistment: Kings County, NY
Other residence(s): Brooklyn, NY; Jamaica, NY
United States Army, European Theatre of Operations
Occupation before the war: Sales clerk
College education before the war: 1-2 years
Julius Gootzeit was born on November 26, 1914 in Brooklyn, NY, the middle of three children. His father worked as a cutter/tailor in men's clothing; both of his parents had been born in Russia. In his Brooklyn neighborhood on East 93rd Street in 1930, more than half of the households were headed by a Russian-born individual, and only one by someone born in the U.S.
He graduated from Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn in January, 1931. Over the course of the next 10 years, he pursued some combination of work and school. He registered for the draft on October 16, 1940 and enlisted on March 4, 1941. At that point he gave his occupation as salesclerk and stated that he had one year of college. (The 1940 census says that he was working as a counterman at a restaurant and that he had two years of college. It is likely he was going to school part-time. His older brother and his brother's wife were both college graduates, so clearly this was a family in which education was valued.)
He married Hannah Cohen in November 1941 in Brooklyn. At some point he must have been given the opportunity to attend officer training, because his 1941 enlistment Army Serial Number was changed to an officer's number by the time he was recorded as a member of the Ghost Army's Signal Company Special. He served in Europe with the unit and was discharged on December 18, 1945 with the rank of 1LT.
He married Helen Scharfman in Manhattan in 1951; nothing else is known of his life or work.
He died on March 15, 1982; he was living in Jamaica, Queens, NY at the time. He is buried at Montefiore Cemetery in Queens.
Sources:
1920 census
1930 census
1931 high school graduation record
http://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/Graduate/1930/1931.FranklinK.Jan.html
1940 census
1940 draft card
1941 enlistment record
1941 marriage license record
1951 marriage license record (2nd marriage)
1982 Find a Grave record
1982 Social Security death index
1982 VA death record