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I spent the last 2 weeks watching, no absorbing, Ken Burns' the war. I thought it was remarkable. I believe that it is so important to get the testimonies of these men from 4 American communities and those of the "girls back home" because, as we know and as stated near the end of the film, 1000 of these people die EVERY DAY.
In today's climate, that means that there are 1000 fewer voices that can call people like o'rielley a liar when he makes claims like American GIs slaughtering those poor little SS at Malmedy (spelling?). 1000 fewer voices to counter the Holocaust deniers.
I realized now more than ever how blessed my family was. We had 4 men (my father, his brother, My 2 Uncles Joe, my mom's brother & brother-in-law) in HEAVY combat. None got a scratch.
My dad was a bombardier in Europe. He saw his best friend's plane fly into flak and every man on that bomber died. While I believe that all men & women who put on the uniform and serve honorably are heroes, none in my family was more of a hero than my Uncle Joe (my mom's brother).
There are too many stories to share now, but I have to tell one story about Joe. He was the top Sergeant of his outfit (even 40+ years after the war, I still heard men in the neighborhood call him "Top"). They were part of a troop that liberated a concentration camp.
He said that many of his men wanted to shoot the nazi guards who were caught. He told his men that THEY were not nazis and they would not only not shoot the Germans, they would treat them well and obey that "quaint" Geneva Convention.
He never told his men that it was all he could do to not set his Thompson on single fire and "shoot every one of those bastards" himself. They were GIs from the Philadelphia suburbs, most of whom had never seen a Jewish person in their lives. Most of them were just kids themselves, but they knew the unspeakable horrors of what they'd seen.
I think that one of the great things that Ken Burns did in this film was to get those who lived at this time to tell what happened to them. He realizes that history is what happens to everyday people, not just the General and Presidents.
These are a "very" few of the tales related by my family.
How about yours?
PEACE!
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