Christmas Party

The WWII Veterans Discussion Group had an enjoyable Christmas party on the 21st, complete with food, singing and raffle baskets!

70th Anniversary

Battleship Row
photograph from the Naval History and Heritage site.



This past December 7th was the 70th anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

It was sad to learn that the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association disbanded due to the small numbers left and the difficulty of the remaining aged members have experienced in attending the meetings.

The New Haven Register interviewed local Connecticut residents asking them about their memories of Pearl Harbor Day. Like the day President Kennedy was shot, people remember where they were and what they were doing when Pearl Harbor was struck.

The November 6th issue of Parade Magazine featured an interview with six soldiers called Six Wars. Six Vets. Six Stories of Courage. Among those interviewed was WWII veteran, Bob Kessler who served aboard an amphibious troop carrier in Okinawa and other Japanese held islands. The article is available in the reference office of the library; a video of the interview can be found at: http://www.parade.com/news/veterans/articles/video.html

We were pleased to welcome Bob Janicki (shown above) to the October meeting of the WWII Veterans Discussion Group.

Mr. Janicki has an impressive biography. He served as a Marine Infantry squad leader with the 3rd Marines in the I corp area of Vietnam from 1967 through October 1968 through the Tet Offensive. He served with the Marines four years. He has been awarded the Purple Heart,and Combat Action Ribbon among many other awards. In his employment at AT&T, he organized the SNET Veterans, later called the AT&T Veterans. The group conducted outreach into the community in support of numerous Veteran related efforts. In 2006, he was inducted into the the Connecticut Veterans Hall of Fame for his lifelong dedication to veterans and their families. He serves as Secretary on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut State Veterans Memorial. Mr. Janicki spoke about the building of the Memorial which will be Connecticut's first Statewide Memorial to honor all veterans. To read more about the Memorial go to: www.cthonorsvets.org

Michael Forte gave a presentation on his compilation "Dearest Buby-Letters from a POW" at the July 27th WW II Veterans Discussion Group meeting. The compliation tells the story of Michael's father-in-law, Abbey Perlman, a prisoner of war during WW II. Michael generously donated a copy of his work to the library,which will be kept in the archival collection.

Louis Mingione, a retired firefighter and East Haven resident, would like to rebuild the Foxon Park Honor Roll that once stood opposite his residence at 109 Old Foxon Road. The Honor Roll, shown in the photo above, was constructed in the early 1940s and listed the names of Foxon residents who served in World War II.

The reconstucted Honor Roll will stand at 97 Old Foxon Road, at the corner of Rose and Brennan streets, and will again list the names of those who served from Foxon in second world war.

Steve Karjanis, of Karjanis & Sons Motors at 97 Old Foxon Road, is donating the property on which the Honor Roll will be constructed.

Any information or pictures concerning the original Foxon Honor Roll would be deeply appreciated, as would any contributions toward the reconstruction. Checks may be made out to Citizens Bank-Foxon Park Honor Roll and sent to Citizens Bank, 430 Foxon Road, East Haven, Conn., 06513. For those who may have information on the Foxon Park Honor Roll, Mr. Mingione would like to be contacted at 203.469.1824.

A Search For a Soldier

An individual thought I might be interested in an old newspaper article he had seen on a WW II soldier of the name of Finny, Finney, Fenny or Fenney who lived on Highland Avenue in East Haven. I went ahead and tried variant spellings in the old newspapers we have on DVD. Below are some of the results:

1937 - Only Surviving Civil War Veteran in East Haven

With the occurrence of 150th anniversary of the Civil War it was interesting to find the article below while working on a reference question concerning a soldier of WW II



Caption below the photograph: Mr. Charles W. Grannis at the age of sixteen, taken at the time he enlisted in the Civil War.
The type states: Mr. Charles W. Grannis, 92, of Old Foxon Road, Foxon is the only survivor of the Civil War now living in the town of East Haven. He enlisted at the age of 16, at which time he ran away from home to join the Union Army. His father's efforts towards keeping him out of the war were fruitless, for Mr. Grannis returned to the army. He served during the whole four years of the war from 1861 to 1865. He was a member of the Tenth Connecticut, Company A, and was twice wounded, at Petersburg, Va., in 1863 and at Richmond, Va., April 2, 1864, nine days before the surrender of Lee.

Mr. Grannis is a member of the Admiral Foote Post, No 17, of New Haven, and is also a member of Lodge No. 63 A.F. and A.M. He has twice served East Haven as representative in the General Assembly, at Hartford, in 1895 and 1899, has served on the school board, and served as chairman of the Republican Town Committee for a period of eight years.

Despite his 92 years, Mr. Grannis is as chipper as a youngster, and it is hoped that he will live to see many more Memorial Day celebrations in East Haven.

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Central Connecticut State University has posted a number of events pertaining to the Civil War (see below) or see: http://finalsite.ccsu.edu/page.cfm?p=8704

Wednesday, May 11, 7:30 p.m. - Connecticut in the American Civil War – A lecture and book signing by Dr. Matthew Warshauer – Lewis S. Mills School Auditorium, Burlington.

Thursday, May 12, 7 p.m. – Connecticut in the American Civil War – A lecture and book signing by Dr. Matthew Warshauer – Old Saybrook Historical Society, Acton Library, Old Saybrook. http://www.oldsaybrookct.org/pages/oldsaybrookct_library/index

Friday, May 13, 2011; 6:00 PM. Woodford Descendents to Mark Their Civil War Ancestor’s Graves; GAR Medallion and Flag Placement. West Avon Cemetery, 280 Country Club Road. The public is invited to attend. Event will be held rain or shine. Information here.

Saturday, May 14 – 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Litchfield Awake! - Civil War Encampment on the Town Green in Litchfield, CT. Sponsored by the 2nd Heavy Artillery and the Litchfield Historical Society. http://www.the2dconn.com/CampDutton2011.htm

Sunday, May 15; 12 p.m. - 5 p.m. “Monumental Achievement: The Civil War and the Making of American Memory” - presentation by William Hosley, noted Connecticut historian - 2 p.m. Exhibit of a variety of Civil War-era toys and military memorabilia, including some collector’s items for opening day only. Ellsworth Memorial Homestead, 778 Palisado Avenue, Windsor, Connecticut. More information here and here.

Wednesday, May 18. 7:00 pm. The Power of the Press: Secession, the Lincoln Inauguration, Fort Sumter. Roseland Cottage Carriage Barn, 556 Route 169, Woodstock, Conn. 860-928-4074; Information here.

Thursday May 19, 2011, 12pm-1pm. Zachary Bodnar, the 2010-11 Gunn Scholar, lecture Gunn's Soldiers: Tales of Civil War Soldiers from The Gunnery. Gunn Memorial Museum, 5 Wykeham Road,Washington, CT 06793. www.gunnlibrary.org.

Saturday, May 21 10:30-11:30 AM CONNECTICUT AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE CIVIL WAR, Housatonic Community College Assistant Professor David Koch, New Haven Public Library 203-946-8130 x203, : www.cityofnewhaven.com/library.

Saturday, May 28, 2011, 1 p.m. – Dedication of New Civil War Monument. West Cemetery, Memorial Boulevard, Bristol, Connecticut 06010. Contact: Robert T. Barnett, 105 Jerome Avenue, Bristol, Ct. 06010 robert105@netzero.com


JUNE


June 2011, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas will present an immersion experience entitled “Freedom’s Journey,” which encompasses a series of performances, ideas discussions, and tours that address the topic of the Civil War and the cultural heritage within the state of Connecticut. www.artidea.org

Saturday, June 4, 2-3 pm FROM COLONIAL AMERICA TO THE CIVIL WAR Matthew Bartlett, author of The Gettysburg Chronicle, will explore the historical roots of the Civil War. New Haven Public Library 203-946-8835 www.bartlettjune4.eventbrite.com

Thursday June 9, 2011 at 6:30pm, Matthew Warshauer, Professor of History at CCSU and co-chair of the Connecticut Civil War Commemoration Commission, will discuss his new book, Connecticut in the American Civil War: Slavery, Sacrifice and Survival. Gunn Memorial Museum, 5 Wykeham Road,Washington, CT 06793. www.gunnlibrary.org

Memory & Legacy An Exhibit Telling the Story of the New Haven Holocaust Memorial

The opening reception for the Memory & Legacy traveling exhibit was held at the library on April 14th, 2011. The welcome was given by Fay Sheppard (below) of the Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory, Inc.
Ms. Sheppard spoke of the deaths of one and a half million Jewish children who perished in the Holocaust.



East Haven's mayor, Mayor April Capone, shown below, spoke about the endurance of survivors. The traveling exhibit, depicting the story of the New Haven Holocaust Memorial, can be seen behind her.



Professor Ann Heekin, Director of Programs and Publications for the Center for Christian-Jewish understanding at Sacred Heart University, delivered an impassioned talk: Days of Remembrance 2011, Justice in the Face of Accountability: What have we learned? The Burden of Memory, The Blessing of Memory.

Professor Heekin spoke about the Days of Remembrance 2011, as marking three landmark mandates for justice after the Shoah- the 65th anniversary of the verdicts at the first Nuremberg trial (1945), the 50th anniversary of the trial of Adolf Eichmann (1961) and the 46th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, the Church teaching that overturned Anti-Semitism.

She stated that the theme of this year's Holocaust commemoration, "Justice in the Face of Accountability" asks us to reflect on the question of "What Have we Learned?" Has the burden of the memory brought with it the blessing of the memory?

Prof. Heekin addressed that question in the light of the relations of Christians and Jews, before and after the Holocaust.


Professor Heekin

Stephen Ronai spoke about his experience as a survivor, seeing his grandmother taken from the family at a train stop.


Stephen E. Ronai, Esq.


Eileen DeMayo, head of the Hagaman Memorial Library Board, read the poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller-"First They Came for the Jews."


Mrs. DeMayo

The program continued with WW II veterans escorting Holocaust survivors to a table in which each survivor placed a white rose in remembrance of those who perished.






















(Above and below) WW II veteran, Judge Anthony DeMayo escorting Holocaust Survivor, Bina Fenig.





(Above and below) WW II veteran, George Barba escorting Holocaust survivor, Helene Rosenberg.



(Above) WW II veteran, Edward Misbach escorting Holocaust survivor, Edith Friedman.

(Above and below) WW II veteran, Martin Nobile escorting Holocaust survivor, Wolf Zelinger.



(Above) WW II veteran, Harry Maresca escorting Holocaust survivor, Dr. Ralph Freidman.

Colinette Gordon Compton shared childhood memories of growing up during World War II in her native town of Stone, England. An American Field Hospital was set up in the town of Stone, near Coventry, and for two years American servicemen lived in the town. She has happy memories of sharing the family home, and daily life, with six American Doctors, and their six aides.

She brought a large basket of chocolate candy to the meeting and said she was "giving back" for all the chocolate she received as a girl from American soldiers.

The presentation which accompanied her talk can be seen below:

Honoring Veterans

The Connecticut Daughters of the American Revolution (CTDAR), led by State Regent Joyce Cahill, is sponsoring a project to raise money for the State Veteran's Memorial. 100% of your donation will go toward the construction of the Memorial at Col. Raymond F. Gates Cemetery on West Street in Rocky Hill, CT. Your veterns's name will be placed in the Connecticut Daughters of Revolution Book of Honor. The book will be published in 2014 and will be available in libraries around the state. There is a ten dollar fee payable to the CTDAR. Forms will be available at the next WW II Veterans Discussion Group meeting.

We would like to thank Cedar Woods Retirement Facility for their invitation to the USO Dance Saturday, Feb. 26th. The ice cream floats were delicious, we enjoyed the dancing, the band, the dinner and the display from Dan Garitta and friends. Below are a few photos from the dance.






Above: WW II reenactors, Kyle and Tina, check their cell phones - note WW II Veterans Discussion Group Members Rudy Pohlman, Martin and Linde Nobile in the background.

At left: Cedar Woods' Robin Smith dances with WW II Discussion Group Member Rudy Pohlman.





















Below: Pat Baker and Gerry Gillespie make their selections of candy cigarettes and other treats from the "Cigarette Girl's" tray.
























Below Right: Joan Shannon and her friend take a dance on the floor.

Memory and Legacy - the Story of the New Haven Holocaust Memorial

The Hagaman Memorial Library will be hosting the exhibit, Memory and Legacy in April 2011. The exhibit tells the story of the New Haven Holocaust Memorial,and local Holocaust survivors. The Library will be the first public library to host the exhibit, shown below. Currently the exhibit is being shown at Quinnipiac University. A summary of the opening will give some idea of the opening cermony program the library plans to hold through the Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory Inc.

























Keynote speaker Mira Binford told her story of survival in Poland. Survivors such as Irm Wessel, one of the last Kindertransports children to leave Germany, and Helena Rosenberg who camouflagued her identity as a Catholic nurse, along with others placed a white rose in a vase on the podium. Survivors were accompanied by students from the “Adopt a Survivor” program which pairs a survivor with a student for a year.


John L. Lahey, Quinnipiac University President, (shown below at right) opened with welcoming remarks speaking of his visits to the Holocaust Museums in Washington, Jerusalem and Miami Beach:


“I walk through those exhibits and the history and the pictures all I can think of even to this day there are people… the president of Iran… “that think nothing of getting on a national or international stage and deny that the Holocaust even occurred…. And so it is extremely important that if its never going to happen again, we have to make sure that we have these memorials. We’re blessed this evening to have some the survivors here… at some point we won’t have the first-hand accounts and in the future who knows what the historians may write or what political figures may decide to rewrite history- therefore these memorials, particularly for the worst disaster in human history, the Holocaust, the attempted annihilation of an entire people, that these memorials need to be multiplied as many as you can have in as many communities.. and have gatherings like this where people can come together …to hear the first hand accounts of people who experienced it. “
Rabbi Reena Judd, Quinnipiac University Rabbi stated, “When experiences are shared, distances are shortened and understanding is enhanced. The words spoken, the pictures shown and the stories hereby shared, serve to illustrate the enormous distance we can travel apart from our fellows when we forget the humanity which is within us all…”.

Fay Sheppard of the Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory, Inc. (photo below left) gave a history of the Memorial. She shared the story of European Holocaust survivors who thirty-four years ago reviewed their past and came to the conclusion that -“We have nowhere to mourn our dead. We have no where to say the prayer for the dead the Kadesh. And we’d like to make sure that the memory stays intact that we think of our relatives our lost ones…our brothers and sisters our mothers and fathers…”























Ms. Sheppard continued the story of how the Survivors knocked on the Mayor’s door- at that time Mayor Logue- and said “We are new immigrants here in America and we don’t really know how the system works, but we hope that the city of New Haven would assist us. And we would like to put up some type of memorial…”. "I will tell you” said Ms. Sheppard, “ the City of New Haven, with a handshake made a pledge to help these survivors of the Holocaust. There was never a written document, never any fancy paperwork and the Mayor picked out the plot of land.” New Haven continued to be faithful in its support of the Memorial.

Keynote speaker, Mira Binford,(photo below) Professor Emerita, began her story of survival with a startling comparison of the number of children in Poland before the war and after.



“I was born a Jew in Poland in 1938…that was the year before the German army invaded Poland…. Poland before WW II had approximately a million Jewish children …six years later 5000 children in Poland itself, to be fair some had fled to the Soviet Union and survived there…that works out to be half of one percent.”

Ms Binford told that her parents had also survived, but 34 members of her extended family were murdered. After hiding in a bunker with no food Ms Binford and her parents were, in 1943, captured and put into a local slave labor camp.

Her parents threw a letter with a photograph of her and a plea to save her over the wall of the camp. On the other side of the wall were two Christian women, who with a nod of the head, decided to take her. And Ms. Binford was let down over the wall as well. One of them was an “amazing loving woman” who after a few months died of cancer. Ms. Binford fell into the care of the woman’s husband, who she later came to think of as “my own private nazi” even though politically he was anti-Nazi, had worked to save Jews and was in hiding for political reasons. She stated it was:

“...a year of terror for me – not only from fear of the Nazis, but fear of the man I came to think of later, when I was grown up, as my own private Nazi. He was my first teacher. He taught me how to read and write and at the age of six he taught me how to add and subtract fractions. And I made mistakes. And he beat me with one of his collection of rubber and leather whips …and I would cry. The cruelty was in that when I cried, he trained me and when he would snap his fingers, I had to laugh. So I learned to laugh at my own pain.”

Ms. Binford’s mother escaped from an Auschwitz death march and had the address where her daughter was staying. At the time of the liberation from the Russian army someone called to her mother that the Russians were about to execute the man who had been Ms Binford’s rescuer. The Russians were also going to execute the man’s son. Ms Binford’s mother worked to persuade the Russia officer that the man and his son were not collaboraters but had saved a Jewish child. It took all night but the Russian Officer was finally persuaded to spare them.

Only two days ago a German school teacher attending a conference on the Holocaust- and a relative of Ms. Binford’s rescuer- found Ms. Binford through the Internet. He wanted details, not as one would expect of his relative’s’ heroism in saving Ms. Binford, but rather of how Ms. Binford’s mother saved her daughters rescuer! The purpose of the Holocaust Conference the teacher was attending was how to make the lessons of the Holocaust applicable and how to use them for education and democracy in the schools. Of this coincidence Ms. Binford stated “I’m very glad this connection was made.” She drew her talk to a close with a lesson:

“The most important lesson that I learned from him was one that I didn’t realize for many, many years. And that was that you don’t have to be good to do good… that ordinary people- any of us- can make a difference without being saints- that you don’t have to be good to do good.”




Volunteer President Doris Zelinsky (photo right) and member Fay Sheppard of the non-profit Greater New Haven Holocaust Memory, Inc., provide the energy to keep the exhibit touring and keep the Memorial in repair. The New Haven Holocaust Memorial is located in New Haven’s Edgewood Park at the corner of Whalley and West Park Avenues. The memorial was designed by architect Augustus J. Franzoni. It consists of a base forming a Star of David from which rise six shafts that curve inward toward one another in a sense of enclosure, representational of the barbed wire enclosures of the concentration camps where six million Jews were killed under the Nazi regime. Ashes from Auschwitz were placed on the site by a survivor at the dedication of the site in 1977. The Memorial is shown in the photograph below.

The traveling exhibit, Memory and Legacy echoes the appearance of the Memorial. It traces the development of the Memorial from idea to reality incorporating personal stories of survivors.

The aspect of legacy is not only in the exhibit’s visual and audio (audio station) presentation, the legacy is grounded in the reality of memory handed from elder to younger through the Adopt a Survivor Program. In this rigorous program students are paired with survivors for a year in order to learn preserve and present to others the memories survivors commit to them. Ms. Zelinsky states “The student absorbs the survivor's story and creates a poster capturing the survivor's life and family. These posters are stories of loss but they are also vibrant with their tale of renewal and reestablished lives in our community”. The posters are displayed with the exhibit.

Ms. Zelinsky worked for Mayor Logue in 1976 when the Holocaust survivors enlisted the Mayor’s assistance in establishing a memorial She encourages educators and students to view the exhibit for its teaching potential and to raise awareness to the dangers of prejudice. She states:

‘’None of us realized then that we were creating the first Holocaust Memorial constructed on public land in the United States. And, it was built solely through private funds and support- - small contributions gathered "door to door", the volunteer efforts of the owner of Cheshire Landscaping, Marvin Cohen and his good friend, architect Gus Franzoni, and the support of the Mayor, and the Board of Alderman as well as the expertise in outdoor settings of the Parks department personnel.
Through the years, both Fay and I have been asked to chair the citywide commemorations held each April around Holocaust Memorial Day. As children of Holocaust survivors, we have both taken on this responsibility as part, almost, of something one does for family.’

The exhibit is currently on display from 8:30 a.m to 8:30 p.m in the Arnold Bernhard Library at Quinnipiac University 275 Mount Carmel Avenue, Hamden. In April, the Hagaman Memorial Library in East Haven, will be the first public library to host the exhibit.