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Luise -An Off Topic

Started by just2baccepted, August 26, 2009, 12:59:59 PM

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just2baccepted

Luise - I noticed that you mentioned something about "when you were young during WW2."  I was just curious what you remember about that era and especially Hitler's assention into power.

The thing is I started working as a librarian about three years ago and I've always been enthralled with history, especially war history.  When I go to the gym I take my MP3 player with me everytime and I listen to an audio book usually about this type of stuff, so I've really been learning a lot lately about Hitler.  I was on a civil war kick for awhile and so we visited Vicksburg, MS at my hubby's recommendation and then I got on a Revolutionary War kick and then we visited Williamsburg, VA.  Both trips were great!  Then when I found out my hubby was having his military summer camp at Oahu, Hawaii that put me on a WW2 kick.  I really don't see myself leaving the country to see places where WW2 battles were fought like we can with some of the other wars.  So I thought gee Oahu is really what got us kicked into the war.  We actually just got back about a month ago.

I got to stand on the Battleship Missouri and stand in the actual place where the Japanese surrendered to us.  I also got to stand in the Arizona Memorial and see the ship just under the sea.  What was strange was after all these years the ship was still leaking oil! It was ever so slightly still bubbling to the surface.  History is my passion and I was in awe!!  My hubby and I also of course stayed on the military base, Hickam and I got to see the strip of sea/canal where the Japanese pilots flew to head to Pearl Harbor.  And what was amazing was the buildings on base that were facing that strip of sea headed for Pearl Harbor had these huge bullet holes in them, I guess because the Japanese pilots were shooting at the base when they were headed for Pearl Harbor! That was amazing!  My hubby said that they never fixed the bullet holes because it was to serve as a reminder.  I took lots of pictures of those bullet holes!

I know I'm getting a little wordy here with my supposed question.  But I was wondering what you remember.  I know you didn't have 24 hour cable the way we do today.  But what did your friends, family, neighbors think about Hitler and especially what he was doing to the Jews?  What I didn't understand is why our country didn't jump in earlier to stop this mad man.  From what I've read its like we and other countries just turned our back on the Jews.  Do think that is correct?  I realize in the end we majorley saved the day.  But did people think back then that we should enter  the war and stop Hitler?  I've always wanted to talk to someone who lived during this era but I really didn't know anyone.  My uncle said he remembered seeing the newspaper saying that Pearl Harbor had been hit the following day and his family talking about it but that pretty much all he remembered.  I take it that Pearl Harbor was like 9/11 for my generation.  Any of your thoughts on this would be appreciated and anyone else for that matter.  Thank you for reading.

luise.volta

I'm going to chat with my hubby about this, since he was born in 1911 (before WWI) to get whatever perspective he might want to add to the memories I can dig up. Later... :-)
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama

Prissy

I'm so glad you're interested in WW11....so many don't know what it was about at all.

I was born after the war started and before it ended.  My father fought for the liberation of the Phillipines with MacArthur.  He did not come home a normal man.  Physically normal, mentally not.

Yes, Pearl Harbor was the 9-11 of today.  People here wanted to stay out of Europe's War. Pres. Roosevelt wanted the US to get involved but the people didn't. Only after the bombing at Pearl Harbor did the US go to war.

The "rag tag" bunch of kids who fought for the US were just mostly farm boys who knew nothing more than real hardship following The Great Depression.

For real insight into one of the young men who fought, Audie Murphy, the most decorated soldier of WW11, look him up.  He was about 16 and only 5'5.  It is the most inspiring story!  What courage he had.

Thank you for caring about the men who gave everything for us to be free. Most of them are dying at an alarming rate now and will someday just be a memory. 

It should be a testiment to kids of today, never to be forgotten.

just2baccepted

Thank you ladies.  Luise I'm looking forward to what your husband can remember.  Prissy I had heard that about how the public didn't want to get into a war and some accused Roosevelt of letting Pearl Harbor happen.  My mom told me that her dad drove trains during the war and that he was a Marine or something like this. 
When I decided it was time to give up on trying to have baby (I have bad ovaries) my hubby said we should travel.  So we've been to some neat places.  My hubby, being the military, has been all over the world.

luise.volta

Talked with my guy who was in New York City College when Hitler took over in 1933. It is now Baruch University and he is their oldest, cum laude grad. He was of the opinion that WWI was "the last war" and that the United Nations would wisely handle anything threatening. As far as his memory serves, everyone he knew believed the same thing. So, it followed that it wasn't the United States' "place" to intervene. We were in the great depression and he says "we had problems of our own." He didn't see it as an "isolationist" policy, he thought all world issues were permanently taken care of by people wiser than he at the United Nations. In the ensuing 10 years before we did enter the war, he followed the Jewish persecution and Hitler's devouring of Europe but he says that the newspapers' "war correspondents" and the radio couldn't provide the "hands on" graphics that TV and the web offer us now and it was easier at that time to have it be an "over there" thing. When we entered the war, he was a young father of two and was passed up by the draft. It has since been proven that Roosevelt could have stopped the Pearl Harbor raid and didn't because he knew it was the only way to wake us up, get us into joining with the Allies and end it.

I was 6 years old when Hitler came into power and 15 when we entered WWII. I remember hearing the news and seeing the papers and finding it confusing and offensive...but I was self-absorbed in those years and it seemed like it was about another reality or planet to me. Also, at that time...females were not supposed to "worry their pretty little heads" about such things. (I kid you not!) My dad had such bad vision, he wasn't drafted and I had no brothers. My great uncle Paul was a West Point graduate and a general but I saw him infrequently and didn't really know him. The depression brought us terrible times and life was very much about survival in the late 20s and the 30s. I remember learning a song in grade school, "Garden, Garden for Victory" but we didn't. After Pearl Harbor, we had rationing and again I had a very subjective experience of that. My dad became an air raid warden and worked in a defense plant during the war. We lived in a suburb of Detroit and had air raid drills at school and at home. I lost two male cousins in WWII and in 1945, when I entered Nurses' Training, the only guys left around were 4F (unsuitable to serve), wounded or old. I joined the Cadet Nurse Corps and agreed to serve in the Navy after I graduated but the war ended before that and I was released from my commitment while being allowed to finish. I, too, had a naive concept of the people in power being wise and able. When they did something officially reprehensible like the concentration camps in our country for American-born people of Japanese ancestry...I couldn't see their rationale but I believed they must have something solid to go on and I trusted them. I was in college when the war ended and marched in the streets in Grand Rapids, Michigan...shouting with joy with everyone else. I married a mentally damaged WWII vet I had known since I was two years old, who had nightmares where he would stick an imaginary bayonet in my ribs and shout, " Comma ze out mit handi ho!" He was awarded the bronze star and then set adrift. He got 52/20. $20. a month for 52 months, if I remember correctly. Like Prissy's dad, he never recovered and no one knew anything about Post Traumatic Syndrome.

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama

just2baccepted

Wow! You truly are a walking piece of history!  You are the first person that I've spoken to that has remembered and lived during this era.

I tend to get emotional about certain parts of our history and this is one of them.  I ashamed to say I wasn't the best student in the world and I would have rather played when i was a child then learn.  I didn't buckle down till the 12th grade because of college looming.  So to be honest I've spent my thirties now really studying history.

I recently listened to an audiobook called Hitler Youth. And like I said before I always listen to them on my MP3 player, so I'm sure the other people working out probably wondered about me because sometimes I would have tearing eyes while I listend to it.

The parts where the Brits and the Americans would go and liberate these death camps and carry out the Jews that were too weak to walk.  And how our country went in there and gave the German people all their rights back and we re-educated them since they had been fed all this crazy propaganda.  I have to tell you after listening to this book I felt so proud to be an American.  I know that sounds cheesy but I can only imagine how patriotic you and everybody must have felt.  Your generation is truly The Greatest Generation as Tom Brokaw calls you.

I've watched a couple documentaries that I got from my work(library) about D-Day and of course I've seen Saving Private Ryan  and I never realized how pivotal this battle was to us winning the war.  When I saw the movie I didn't realize that Hitler I guess realized that he couldn't defeat us after losing the Normandy beach.  Again thanks for the response.  I wish I could have coffee with you.  I bet you both have more great stories.  And please thank your husband for his thoughts.

luise.volta

You're welcome!  :)

Two other things that are WWII connected but more current in my family and extended family:

My grandson was a Ranger in the Army. He's an attorney now and recently went to Europe to be at Normandy for the anniversary of the invasion. His description of the museums there and the event make me think that it would be a place that would be extremely meaningful for you to visit.

Secondly: My ex-DIL (and best friend) remarried an guy whose dad was one of the original WWII Kuskegee Airmen and recently was presented with the Congressional Medal of Honor in connection with his service to his country. They were the first black men allowed to be pilots and I think you might find reading up on them very interesting.

And as far as studying in school, I was with you all the way. I thought school was designed as a place for girls met boys and boys met girls. End of story. I only got into college because my older sister knew someone who knew someone and took pity on me, and of course I was at the top of my class there because all of the boys were in the service! ;D  ;D  ;D
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama

just2baccepted

I'm so jealous! I watched the anniversary on TV.  A fellow librarian said that she took a European trip with her daughter and they visited the home in Amsterdam where Anne Frank hid since its now a museum. I would be so honored to see that type of stuff.  My hubby has also been to Germany but he didn't get to see a whole bunch because of his long work hours, but he did say that he and another guy drove on the Autobond(not sure if that's spelled correctly).  After listening to Hitler Youth I learned that the Autobond was built by the Hitler youth.  Thanks again.

Prissy

Something I send every year....Just2be, I think you might enjoy reading it.
________________________________________________________________
Today is June 6, 2009,  65 years since young men died on the beaches of Normandy to save the world.  I know I send this letter every year but I can’t help it…..

As always on this day, I am filled with strong emotions but most of all, a sense of gratefulness at how God sends the bravest people just in time to help us along the way.   I hope He continues to bless us.  I have my doubts about whether we will let Him do that any more.

I am truly grateful for all the young men who gave up everything they had, including their lives, for me.  I think of Audie Murphy, a Texas boy, 15 years old, 110 pounds who was the most decorated Soldier of World War 11.

We went about our day today like nothing ever happened, yet everything that means anything happened on that day.

I hope teachers will teach history to young people.  Most children don’t know one single thing about what happened on that day. 

How tragic to have it forgotten.  I never will forget it.  I have not forgotten June 6 on any year and tried to teach my own children about it.  Thank God they have a sense of history.  We need it taught every day.

I think about Anne Frank who wrote in her diary about the hope she felt when word filtered in about the liberation.  She dared to dream she would reach age 14.

Her camp was liberated too late but her memory and her dream that people were basically good, even as she was being starved to death, should be a lesson to every young person every single day.

This little girl’s camp was liberated just 2 weeks after she died.  She never grew up to be a writer, which she dreamed to be, yet her Diary is a best seller even today.   

Your child can grow up to be anything he or she dreams to be because of these young men who gave their lives in your place. Don’t let anyone or any politician with a smooth voice take this away from us!

TEACHERS:  TEACH HISTORY, PLEASE!  PARENTS:  TEACH HISTORY TO YOUR CHILDREN, PLEASE!

Only a few of the young men on that beach who fought so hard are alive today.  Don’t ever forget their sacrifice……God Bless them, always.

I know I send this every year but I hope each year brings new respect for what took place on this day, June 6, 1944.





luise.volta

Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama

just2baccepted

Your child can grow up to be anything he or she dreams to be because of these young men who gave their lives in your place. Don’t let anyone or any politician with a smooth voice take this away from us!

Amen to that!

Thanks for this, I enjoyed it very much!

luise.volta

I have a picture someplace of me in full Cadet Nurse uniform. If I find it, I will put it up.  :)
Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible. Dalai Lama