Stories tagged "1940-1941": 53
Stories
Pearl Harbor
“I do not know where this country would have been after December 7, 1941, if it had not had the ships and the know how to build more ships fast, for which one Vinson bill after another was responsible.” Editor's Note: On December 7th, 1941, Japan…
The Hitler Youth
“We had a lot of troubles with the Hitler Youth leaders since we were considered Americans. I did get into a lot of fights, until my father paid them a visit… The German law required all children to enter the organized German Youth, or Deutsche…
Evacuation to the Country
"I was probably around five. Five or six. And I remember my mom and dad putting my brother and I on the train, and I remember us having our gas masks, but I don't remember having any luggage. I'm sure we did. And they put us on the…
Rationing in England
I had a green ration book because of my age. My brother had the blue, and my mom and dad had white ones. And I was able to get orange juice on mine, and we could get an egg once a week, and meat was almost inaccessible. My dad would buy some black…
The Blitz
We had black-out curtains. And my dad was what they called an air raid warden. He, and another neighbor, they would walk the streets at night to make sure no lights were showing through the windows, and they would take it turns with different…
Occupation of Denmark
"[On April 9th, 1940], my parents both, individually, remember waking up, getting ready to go to school, and hearing all the noise of the low-flying airplanes and then all the leaflets being dropped all over to surrender, that Denmark was now…
Growing up in Los Angeles
"About two years [after we arrived in the United States], my father had an opportunity to buy a dress-making factory, and he had some money and my mother had some money, and they invested it with another partner in this dress company and he…
Survival in Paris
"My grandmother on my father’s side, she was living in Paris. She wasn’t able to come with us at all, and she was hidden—or not hidden—but she lived in a “senior citizens”—we’d call it—home. And eventually she came out and joined us in…
Grandparents Fleeing the Nazis
"When the Nazis took over, for about two years, there were two zones of France: one was the Occupied Zone, which included Paris and most of the Coast, and the other part was the Southeast part and the Riviera and the Mediterranean Coast, which…
Relief from Overseas
"Rationing started, which would’ve made daily life quite tough. Just getting the food on the table, et cetera. But we were never—it never got to the point where we were gonna starve, I don’t think. And later on, of course, we got a lot of…