Jerome Holzman says he is proud of the medals he won in World War II, even if it took more than 60 years for him to receive them.

“I was one of 2,000 American troops who helped liberate Czechoslovakia,” he said.

The liberation was in 1945, but his accomplishment wasn’t recognized officially until three weeks ago, when he received a package at his home in Madison from the military attaché at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, DC.

“In 2005, the Czech Republic commemorated its freedom from German occupation and issued 2,000 medals. I was one of those 2,000 troops,” he said.

But Holzman did not attend the award ceremony at the embassy, and it took another two years for the medal to arrive by mail.

Interviewed by telephone, he had a partial explanation for the long delay.

“The Czech government recognized the fact that the U.S. Army liberated them, but the Czech population didn’t know about it. The Russians did a brainwashing on them for one generation after another,” he said.

The full story began emerging after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Two years later, Czechoslovakia divided itself into two nations, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, and a bit of history hidden by the Soviets was revealed.

“The Czechs were not allowed to talk about the fact that the Americans had come in and helped. So two generations grew up not knowing that the Americans had anything to do with them being liberated from the Germans,” Holzman said.

Born and raised in Newark, he describes himself as “a Jersey boy from the word ‘go.’ I’m a Jew from the northern end, up by the Italian-German section of the North Ward. I started going to Ahavas Sholom when I was six years old and I still go there for services,” he said.

Sixty years after his discharge as a corporal, Holzman is still active as secretary of the New Jersey Chapter of the Army’s 94th Infantry Division Association.

He is concerned that many of the state’s veterans are still not recognized for their wartime service. He complains that New Jersey has a memorial for the Americans who fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars, but none as yet for those from World War II. Three years ago, then Acting Gov. Richard Codey appointed Holzman to the commission in charge of its design and construction. It has already been designed and approved for sitting in Veterans Park near the State Capitol in Trenton.

“We still need $4.5 million to build it,” he said. “We did have $1 million, but somebody in government saw it there and said, ‘Ooh, let’s use it for something else.’ You know how the politicians go. Now, all we need is money.”