Grandfathers, grandfathers. Yesterday, David Baerwald talked about his grandfather, Ernst Baerwald, an American spy in Second World War Japan. Today, Katie S. Sanders talks about her grandfather, Murray Simon, whose life was saved by an American spy in Second World War France. In Ortiz’s War, co-authored with historian Nicholas Reynolds, Sanders writes about Peter Ortiz, who became the Allies’ secret weapon against the Nazis in France.

With his stunning looks, Ortiz might have been a Hollywood creation. Polylingual Franco-American aristocrat, French Foreign Legion, race-car driver, circus lion tamer, the most battle-decorated member of America’s first spy agency. He even played himself (anonymous brave soldier) in a number of post-war Hollywood movies. I wish he was my grandfather.

Five Takeaways

• The Spy Who Saved Her Grandfather. Murray Simon, 23, Queens, shot down in a black-painted B-24 full of spy supplies and pigeons — hidden by a Jew passing as Catholic, smuggled to Ortiz. “I’m a product of resistance.”

• No Peacetime Soldier. Paris Vogue heir, Foreign Legion runaway, lion tamer, serial escapee — and the most battle-decorated member of the OSS. His file: not a good candidate for a desk job, ever.

• The Heroic Surrender at Centron. Surrounded on Union II, Ortiz chose saving the town over fighting. Centron celebrates him every year. Bravery, per Sanders: thinking while being shot at.

• Wild Bill’s Wartime Startup. The OSS: 13,000 lawyers and cryptographers, plus Moe Berg and Virginia Hall. Hoover wanted the job and was denied. “I respect Donovan a lot more.”

• Are We in 1939? “I certainly hope not.” Pigeons have become drones, but the lesson survives: heroes don’t brag — and by illuminating what they did, we might learn.

About Keen On America

Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen.

Website: https://keenon.tv/ Substack: https://keenon.substack.com/ YouTube: https://youtube.com/@KeenOnShow

Buy Ortiz’s War: bookshop.org

Chapters:

00:00:31 Introduction: another grandfather, another war
00:02:01 Shot down a month before D-Day: Murray Simon’s story
00:03:22 Convincing Nicholas Reynolds
00:04:26 Who was Peter J. Ortiz?
00:07:35 This moment in history: crying out for heroes
00:10:10 Noblesse oblige and Spider-Man
00:11:15 Five languages, not ten (“Wikipedia is a storyteller”)
00:12:45 Free Solo, the Foreign Legion, and the eye of the storm
00:13:41 Casablanca, Sinatra’s rival, and a Vegas Valentine’s
00:15:25 What bravery teaches: thinking while being shot at
00:17:51 Wild Bill Donovan vs J. Edgar Hoover
00:20:11 Was Ortiz political? Allergic to McCarthyism
00:24:03 Products of their time? Webb and the greatest generation
00:28:13 An American Odysseus (via Matt Damon)
00:28:57 Good and evil: why World War Two still seduces writers
00:30:01 A forest in France: the photo of the crash
00:30:12 The Bulgarian Jew who opened his door
00:32:22 Did Ortiz love France — or the Legion?
00:33:29 The lion tamer who recruited Jefferson’s descendant
00:36:05 Has the Second World War ended? Overy’s question
00:38:33 From carrier pigeons to drones: Ukraine and the human element
00:41:35 “Heroes don’t brag”