Albert Janov

PRIVATE ALBERT JANOV was born in the rear of a store on Haddon Avenue in Camden NJ. By the time he reached High School, his family had moved to 813 Haddon Avenue in Collingswood NJ, where he was involved in many extra-curricular activities. Known to his friends as Al, for his yearbook he described his hobbies as "dancing, dates, and work", and his ambition "To become a success in life." He graduated from Collingswood High School in 1941, and had entered the University of Pennsylvania. His last stateside address was 60 East Collings Avenue, Collingswood NJ.

Albert Janov enlisted into the Army on December 18, 1942. When asked why he left college to enlist, instead of waiting his turn to be called, he replied soberly that "this was no time to wait." 

Albert Janov was initially sent to electrical school in Chicago IL. He was then sent to the University of Missouri at Columbia MO as part of the ASTP program to study engineering and radar. When the ASTP program was shut down, he was transferred to a field artillery battalion, in April 1944 he was sent to an infantry unit in Alabama. On May 30, 1944 he was reassigned to a Field Artillery Battalion at Fort Dix NJ. In July he went overseas with his unit to England, and he landed in France in August.

Private Albert Janov was killed in action on September 10, 1944. He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Morris Janov, of Collingswood NJ. He was brought home after the war and was buried at Crescent Burial Park in Pennsauken, New Jersey.

Newspaper Columns Referring to Albert Janov
Columnist is unknown. 
They were clipped and saved by Ruth Grubb for the Collingswood HS Service Record

     He was born in the rear of a small Haddon avenue dry goods store a score of years ago. He grew up to be a chubby youngster, as smart as the proverbial "steel trap".
     "It seems only yesterday we remember him passing by, with his school books under his arm," we wrote in this column when he enlisted in the service two years ago.
     Whenever he was home on furlough he would stop and see us, and we told his father only a few months ago, "You should be proud of Albert, for he has grown up into a fine young man."
     "I don't see why we must have wars" he once told a friend. "I can never imagine myself killing anyone." Later when asked why he left college to enlist, instead of waiting his turn to be called, he replied soberly that this was no time to be waiting.
     Albert looked fine and fit the last time we saw him. he told us how much he like Army life, and how anxious he was to get overseas and help get it over with.
     Underneath this spirit of Albert's we knew as well as we ever know anything, he didn't like this war any more than any other American boy who had been raised in peace- but just as millions of other American kids he had too much courage and pride to gripe about it.
     Albert Janov was killed in action in France on September 19- another name to be added to the growing list of young men who have given their lives in this war.
     We can only hope that their sacrifices gives the American people an awareness they failed to hold to following World War No. One

ANOTHER COLLINGSWOOD BOY COMES HOME

     Albert Janov, a soldier of Jewish faith, came home this week. He comes from a lonely field in France, where his grave was marked by a simple white painted piece of wood, to a final resting place in a burial park not far from here. Albert was killed in France on September 10, 1944.
     Perhaps you did not know Albert. We did, just as we knew many boys who went away so bravely and so gay, and who are only now coming home- their earthly days ended hardly before they had begun.
     Albert was an eager boy. He was bright, almost brilliant, and of sturdy health. We were convinced that some day he would make his mark. It was like him not to wait his turn. His eagerness sent him into war before his country requested him to go. he wanted to help get it over and done with. This is what he told us once, when home on a furlough.
     "You reach one stage of training, and you want to get on to the next", he said. "I am anxious to get over there and when I do I suppose I will be just as anxious to get home again. I have always been impatient and most fellows in the service seem to be the same way."
     Albert didn't have time to make the kind of mark we expected from him. On a September day almost five years ago, he told a companion that at two o'clock that day he and two others were being sent on a mission. What it was, Albert, under orders, did not reveal to his friend. It does not matter now. None of the three came back.
     We are reasonably sure that U.S. Soldier Albert Janov wanted to get into it and get it over with. He was like that.
     Albert did make a mark. In death, he and the other boys whose names appear on Collingswood's war memorial, and thousands more, formed that tragic generation of American youth that gave their lives in the service of their country from 1941-1945.
     Countless words have been said and written extolling their deeds and sacrifices. All of us shall be better, and they shall rest quieter, if we do less talking and less writing, and more of thinking and doing towards constructing the kind of world they were told they were fighting for.