Featured Stories: 32
Stories
Passover in Nazi Germany
“Well, we crossed over the river into Germany. And the first town of any consequence was called Dahn, Germany. And that was towards late March 1945. I had an interesting experience there. Once Dahn was under control and the German soldiers had…
Home Front
"After my dad’s father died from a measles epidemic, his large family of five siblings and his now single mother Frederica lost her farm during the Depression. During the war, Dad’s sisters went to work. The older sister married…
Joining the WAVES
"I am not sure how Mother was recruited. She may have seen a poster or heard an advertisement on the radio. The WAVES primarily used newspapers, radio, and personal contact to recruit. Mother wanted to be a flight attendant, but…
World War II Work
“Well, I was in the recruiting duty when I was in the Wac’s. I did public relations; I tried to recruit other Wacs. And I think perhaps there that it was an asset, being able to speak easily like I do. I suppose that might have had something to do…
The Bataan Death March
“Our rings and watches and any gold that we had was taken by [the Japanese]. We were lined in columns of four and started marching up the one little narrow paved trail toward San Fernando. We didn’t know where we were going, but every time we met a…
The M.S. St. Louis
"They heard about this ship that was going to be sailing from Hamburg to Cuba. It was leaving in May of 1939. And they did everything they could to book passage on it. Apparently the tickets were sold out almost immediately. They had to pay an…
A Familiar Accent
“We left off there at Stalag III. This was about the 7th or the 8th of June. We went down the 30th of May. This is the 7th or 8th of June and we were standing there by the loading platform and this real mean looking German guard came out hands on…
The Navy
“I was patriotic. People were patriotic back then. People loved their country and they were patriotic and were really afraid that we were going to lose it because we had, we were fighting two wars... People really cared about what happened and I…
Success as a Senator
Editor’s Note: The above quote is from the Congressional Record concerning the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act. A great deal of Russell’s efforts as a Georgia Senator revolved around agriculture both at home and abroad. He would be…
Postwar Career
"So when they dropped the bomb, ending the war, we were of course ecstatic. It was a reprieve. So we did all this, and we then returned to Pearl, back to San Diego where, a few months later, I got discharged and went home and started college."…