:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/SKRSQ2J3HVA6TNIDTNXSKOSPEE.png)
As I read the news, I note that less and less members of our country have a connection to World War II. While I was only 2 when that war ended, it has been a part of my life in many ways.
I was born in 1943. Victory was more than two years away. My mother once told me as I was saying my prayers each night, I would end with “God bless everyone but the Nazis and the Japs!” One night mother said to me, “That is not necessary any more. The war is over.”
I would like to think I remembered that statement, but whether remembered or reminded, I became aware of it.
So, that was 1945. The war had started for some in 1939 with the invasion of Poland. My friendship with Wally Pieszka gave me so much information about those early years in his birth country. But I had done my own research of other parts of that war. I had also visited the Berlin Wall on its first anniversary.
Later, I went to Normandy and stood in awe from the German machine gun nests, wondering how anyone survived coming ashore from those boats. I visited Auschwitz and later actually sat in the courtroom where the Nuremberg Trials were held.
Finally, I got to Hawaii and went to the USS Arizona memorial at Pearl Harbor. I also had the honor of listening to Col. James Kasler as he told of his experience as a 17-year-old tail gunner during the strikes on Japan from a B-29.
For those reasons, I picked up a book, “World War II, Victory in Europe,” the other day. Much of the book was comprised of photographs that had appeared over the years in Life magazine. It was then that I realized that it was 80 years ago that the victory over the Nazi regime took place. From my reading, I made a list of dates of historical happenings in those early months of 1945 and would like to share them.
Jan. 25: The Soviets liberate Warsaw, Poland, and the Nazis start moving inmates of the death camps westward. Those who could not walk those dozens of miles were killed.
Jan. 27: Soviets march into Auschwitz, liberating hundreds of those who had survived.
Feb. 3: Allies start bombing Berlin for the first time.
Feb. 4: Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt meet in Yalta forming the plans for the final demise of the German state.
Feb. 13: Heavy allied bombing of Dresden kills 135,000 people, mostly civilians. On the same day, Hungary surrenders as Budapest is conquered.
March 7: U.S. troops take control of the bridge at Remagen, giving allied troops a direct way into Germany. There was a movie made of this battle, “The Bridge at Remagen,” and I was later to learn that the first Jeep driven over that bridge after it was secured was driven by none other than Kankakee’s own Sam Azzarelli.
April 11: The Netherlands is freed after more than 6 years of occupation by Germany.
April 12: President Franklin Roosevelt dies, and Harry S. Truman becomes the American president.
April 15: The concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen is liberated.
April 21: Allied troops take over what is left of Nuremberg. As it was thought to be the spiritual hub of Nazism, it had been virtually leveled by allied bombs.
April 25: Soviets seize Berlin while Allied troops liberate Dachau.
April 30: Adolph Hitler, and his mistress, Eva Braun, die by suicide in a bunker near Berlin.
May 1: Italy formally surrenders.
May 7: General Alfred Jodi travels to France and officially surrenders Germany to the western Allies.
May 8: Historically, this day becomes the official VE-Day.
June 5: Germany is officially partitioned into four parts, one each to the French, British, Americans and the Soviets. East and West Germany unofficially begin decades of hate, distrust and estrangement.
Of course, the war wasn’t over. Japan fought on until the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the world’s first atomic bombs. Japan surrendered a few weeks later.
Eighty years ago, right now. And how have we lived since that end of that war? The world got Germany back together. Japan and Germany became allies of the United States. Wars went on with other opponents all over our world.
Our former compatriot, Russia, is our enemy in many ways. China and the United States have lost a relationship. Russia invades Ukraine much like Hitler did Poland some 86 years ago. Are we any better as a world?
Thanks to those men and women of the world who fought the aggression of the 1940s so we could keep our freedom at least for the present. Perhaps our world leaders should read the book or watch the movie “Paths of Glory” as it explores the futility of battle as occurred with World War I.