I look at the world today and it's only been 81 years since Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated. I was born only 31 years after this. Maybe the younger generations weren't raised with stories about the war from their family elders, but many of us were. World War II was not ancient history. It's still living history.
I often think of my godmother/grandaunt who turned 103 in December. Her husband, my godfather/granduncle - a first generation Ukrainian born in America, was a soldier during World War II. Both grandfathers and all of my granduncles served in the armed forces. Most were stationed in Europe, outside of my maternal grandfather who was on the Pacific front in Papua New Guinea. My Godmother is the last living member of that generation in our family.
We have relics of the war. My Grandpa used to have a grenade sitting on his side table by his recliner. Memories of war were everywhere. I have a letter signed by President Truman to my grandfather for his service in the war. The things they saw. They weight of war they carried with them. We may never really know what horrors they endured. I know my Pop Pop and other granduncles fought the Battle of the Bulge. One of my granduncles survived the sinking of the Leopoldville which claimed the lives hundreds of people in the frigid waters of the English Channel. My first husbands grandfather in England was a technical attaché to Eisenhower (later I would find out that Eisenhower is a distant cousin on the Himmelberger side and his wife Mamie is a distant cousin on the Singer side - ancestry is wild, but I digress)
These stories are memories. Visceral physical memories. As I was writing this, I thought of my grandfathers camera, as I am a photographer too, as is my father. But, this camera is special because its a Zeiss Ikon my grandfather had during the war - this camera captured not only generations of family photos, but it also photographed the war. Most of the photos are from Germany (Nuremburg and Lohr) and a few from the English Channel in France and London. I included some of the images from World War II below.
Every single family member who fought in the war were first generation with Ukrainian/Slovak parents with the exception of my grandfathers Pennsylvanian Dutch (German) family that came over between the late 1790s and 1850s mostly. Its horrifying to think of how they would be treated today by the American Fascist Party. They are heroes who helped end World War II.
~ Omas gegen rechts ~
- Jennifer
