Sholom Home residents sit and stand around a table for bingo hosted by Jewish War Veterans Minnesota Department. Sholom Home has enjoyed an over 100 year legacy in providing a broad continuum of residential, social service and health care services primarily for older adults.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Memorial sign at the Boy Scout Troop 85 Corral. The sign reads: "Dedicated to the memory our former scout - Dick Engle, lost in the Pacific on the U.S. sub 'Trigger'."
Contributing Institution:
North Star Museum of Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting
Cantor was a popular entertainer who traveled periodically during World War II to promote sales of U. S. War Bonds. He is shown here with the Lebedoff triplets; David, Jonathan and Judy. Arrangements for Cantor's visit were made by Minneapolis Hadassah.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
Envelope that contained the Press Release from the United states Air Service Command about Corporal Joe P. Burmis's activities in England as a vehicle mechanic.
Evelope from the letter from Private First Class Arthur L. Bentzen to Peter Tema, editor of the Columbia Heights Record, asking to recieve a copy of the local newspaper in England.
Real photographic postcard showing First Street in Shakopee. Businesses seen in the image include Gamble Stores, Gellhaye's Caf, the Shakopee Theater, Strunk's Drug Store, and several bars. Lines of cars are parked along both sides of the street. Etched into the emulsion along the bottom edge of the image is "First Street/Shakopee/Minn./07411." Handwritten in black ink along the top edge of the image is "See Here Air.Plane Look.Out" with an arrow pointing to a building on the street. The card is used and is addressed to Commander Leo A. Ketterer at Great Lakes, Illinois. The message reads "Shakopee, Minn./ Where men are men and boys are snots./Sept 6-44/Dear Leo: Reason for short address above. I believe in economy. Ink is ink. It wont be long now. Hitler on end of rope will be dangling and the lights will go on again. All over the world. Shakopee the City of Progress is very quiet at present as you go on the main drag 5th Ave. You may see a dog near a hydrant and occasionally for a thrill you'll see a cat scooting down the alley looking for shelter or (illegible) and so day by day. Steady by we are getting older. Expect to see you here in the near future./Kindest regards (illegible)."
In this interview, Alan Stiegler gives an account of his life as a Jewish Minnesotan, World War II veteran and legal practitioner. He was born in 1925 and raised in Minneapolis. His family background in is Russia and he describes some of their stories that involve working in a sweatshop in St. Paul and homesteading in North Dakota. Stiegler describes how he was drafted at age 18 to fight in World War II, how he began specialized training but wound up in general infantry, having experienced some anti-Semitism. He describes how he fought through the Siegfired Line and the Battle of the Bulge, encountering new rocket propelled bombs developed by the Germans, and tells a story about how he was injured by a roadside bomb. In addition, he describes his life occupying Germany after the war and his subsequent career as a medical mal practice lawyer in great detail. He tells specific stories of anti-Semitism in Minnesota and North Dakota during his law career. He concludes with a description of his personal life after retirement and his family. This interview was conducted by Helen Rubenstein as a part of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest World War II Veterans Oral History Project.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
This was an interview conducted on February 11, 1990 by Richard Olson. Albert Wedell was born September 29, 1911 in Milaca, Minnesota. He enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and trained in California. He was assigned to the repair division of the U.S.S. Louisville, on which he served in the Aleutian Islands and the South Pacific. He discussed the armaments of the ship, the conditions aboard, men he met in the crew, and some of the attacks on the ship by Japanese ships and aircraft. While in the Navy, Wedell married Velma Swenson on March 14, 1945, and was honorably discharged on October 27, 1945. After the war, he ran a dairy farm near Milaca for 45 years and served on the Chase Brook School Board, the local telephone and creamery boards, and the county ASCA. Wedell passed away on March 16, 2000 and was buried in Borgholm Cemetery in Bock, Minnesota. He was survived by his wife, two sons, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
Alice Baldwin, interviewed by Florence Ferrier, talks about her father homesteading, businesses in Baudette, Minnesota, and her life in Baudette, Minnesota.
In an oral interview conducted by Mike McDonald on September 6, 1993, Robert "Bob" Duoos discussed his training and service during World War II as a member of the 80th Infantry Division in Europe. Duoos was born on January 15, 1923 and was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Duoos was drafted in to the U.S. Army in December of 1942. In this interview, Duoos described his experiences in the European Theater, including his interactions with the foreign civilians and the time he spent in England, France, Germany, Luxemburg, and Czechoslovakia. In this interview, Duoos discussed his participation in the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp near Weimar, Germany. He described the horrors of "The Beast of Buchenwald" from his own experiences and recounts the stories he heard from survivors of the camp. Duoos voiced his opinions on the leadership of General Patton and General Dwight D. Eisenhower and the Pacific Theater of World War II.
This was an interview conducted in the late 1980s to early 1990s by John Carter. Bohn E. Fawkes was born on September 2, 1919 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was part of the ROTC program when World War II began, and was called to active duty initially in antiaircraft battery, but he took up the opportunity to attend flight school and be a pilot. Fawkes was a B-17 pilot with the 8th Air Force and participated in bombing raids on a manufacturing facility at Schweinfurt, Stuttgart, and Hamburg in Germany. He flew 25 missions before returning to the United States. Fawkes was stationed at Rapid City Airbase in South Dakota as a B-17 flight instructor, and eventually transferred to a B-29 training instructor in Fairmount, Nebraska. Fawkes left the military in 1962 to become a stock broker. He passed away on February 17, 2007 and is buried in Fort Snelling National Cemetery.
In an oral history conducted by David Overy on November 17, 1990, Carl E. Erickson discussed his experiences as a lawyer before being called to duty as a training officer and Civil Affairs officer in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Born and raised in St. Cloud, Minnesota, Erickson had joined the National Guard ROTC while studying law at the University of Minnesota. In this interview, Erickson described his experiences that led him to being assigned as part of General Douglass MacArthur's staff, and how he contributed to the rebuilding of the Pacific communities destroyed by the war. Lastly, Erickson detailed being reassigned from going into service in Korea to continue being a lawyer in Tokyo while the Army engineers rebuilt the area. Erickson was born on June 22, 1911 and is believed to have passed away on January 13, 1992.
In this oral history by David H. Overy, Carl F. VanderHaar details his service experiences in the Minnesota National Guard and U.S. Army from 1931 to 1952. VonderHaar was born in Albertville, Minnesota on June 21, 1913, and was raised in Little Falls where he spent his adult life. His service includes early surveying and construction at Camp Ripley, motor repair during World War II, and later quartermaster duties in both World War 2 and Korea. VonderHaar served overseas in Ireland, Africa, France, and the Philippines. In Minnesota, he ran several successful businesses between his terms of military service. VonderHaar also discusses Japanese internment, Vietnam and the Gulf War. The father of four he died on April 27, 2014, at the age of 100 in Little Falls, Minnesota.
In an oral history conducted by Daniel Lewis on May 18, 1991, Charles Arnold discussed his experience as a baker and typist in the United States Air Force during World War II. Raised in Preston, Minnesota, he was drafted into the Army in 1941, but enlisted in the Air Force and became a baker. In this interview, Arnold described day to day life living and working in the Matagorda Island Air Force Base in Texas. In 1945, Arnold was transferred to Fresno, California to attend typist school. In addition, he discussed his thoughts and feelings about his time in the Air Force and the several military bases he served on. In 1944, Arnold married his wife, Audrey, and had six children. Lastly, Arnold discussed life after the Air Force, becoming a farmer and raising his children. He died on December 9, 2009.
Chester Judd was born on Apr 2, 1916 and served as a first lieutenant in the Air Force during World War II. . He was stationed in England from September 1944 to late 1945 and was a B-17 copilot on 35 missions. Judd described camp life, including food and lodging, and explains how the planes were organized for actual missions. He described several combat experiences and how pilots and crew dealt with the strain, particularly flying his final mission. He returned to the United States and flew C-47 cargo planes to transport wounded veterans to hospitals across the country. After the war he became a farmer. He died on November 15, 1995.
In an oral interview conducted by David Overy on September 4, 1992, Clair A. Dziuk discussed his experiences in the construction of the Alcan Highway, from 1941 to 1943. Dziuk was born April 5, 1907 in Benton County, Minnesota, where he was raised. In this interview Dziuk describes the day to day life of building the Alcan Highway, from working with Canadians and the Army, camp life, and the wildlife of Canada.
This interview was conducted on December 7, 1989 by Nancy Baker. Clara Schrom Gruber was born in Albany, Minnesota, on July 3, 1921. After graduating high school in 1939, she enrolled in St. Cloud Hospital nurses training at Fort Leavenworth and Fort Riley, Kansas, finishing in 1942. In June 1943, Gruber entered the United States Army Nurse Corps as a first lieutenant. Gruber helped establish two general hospitals, one outside of London, the other near Glasgow, Scotland, where wounded soldiers were evacuated directly from the war zone. In addition to her nursing responsibilities Gruber described the German and Italian prisoners of war who were housed next to the hospital in Glasgow. Upon discharge from the Army in December 1945, Gruber returned to St. Cloud and worked as a private nurse at the St. Cloud Hospital. In 1946, she married Roland Gruber, a paratrooper during World War II, and they raised five children. She worked as a registered nurse at the St. Cloud VA Hospital from 1967 until she retired in 1981. In this interview Gruber also discussed her nurses training at the St. Cloud Hospital and being encouraged to enlist by one of the doctors, the benefits of having served, and life after returning to St. Cloud. Gruber passed away on July 5, 2002.
In an oral history conducted by David H. Overy on June 3, 1991, Claude Menzhuber discussed his experiences both in combat and post-war as a combat engineer and supply sergeant in the European Theater during World War II. Born and raised in Minnesota, Menzhuber was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942. In this interview, Menzhuber described his training experiences as a combat engineer, both in basic and combat, as well as participating in the invasion of Sicily. He described the civilian's attitudes towards the American soldiers and briefly his conversations with German solider prisoners of war. Lastly, Menzhuber discussed his feelings about the Vietnam War and Desert Storm. He married his wife, Marian, in 1943 and they had two children, Carole and Lowell. Menzhuber was born on May 12, 1909, in Spring Hill, Minnesota, and passed away on March 21, 2005, in Sartell, Minnesota.
Clem Miller was born on May 5, 1922 in Duluth, MN. He joined the Minnesota National Guard in 1939 and was inducted into the Army in 1941. He and his unit, the 125th Field Artillery in the 34th Infantry Division, were sent to the European theater, and he saw action in North Africa and Italy. Miller directed artillery fire on the battlefield as a surveyor had a wide variety of combat experiences including artillery barrages, air raids, sniper fire, minefields, and friendly fire. In North Africa he patrolled the battlefield after the Allied victory and guarded POWs. In Italy, he served with the 100th Infantry Division and the 92nd Infantry (segregated units of Japanese Americans and African Americans, respectively). Throughout the interview, Miller gave his opinions on the quality of American troops as well as the German and Italian soldiers, their respective armaments, and the civilians he encountered. Miller wrote about his military experiences in a book entitled Some Things You Never Forget. He died on August 27, 2008 in Hermantown, MN.
In an oral history conducted by Kris Wiggs on September 27, 1992, Clifton L. Gawtry discussed his experience as a flight instructor for the United States Navy during World War II. Gawtry was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on September 29, 1923. In 1941, after graduating high school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, he enlisted in the United States Navy in the V-5 program. After various flight schools for eighteen months, Gawtry became a flight instructor in Jacksonville and Pensacola, Florida. Gawtry recounted his experiences and comments on various aspects of flight and flight instruction. In 1944, he married his wife, Alice, and had four children. From 1949 to 1963, Gawtry served in a reserve squadron until he retired. He died on April 2, 2000 at the age of 76.
In this interview, Daniel Heilcher gives an account of his life as a Jewish Minnesotan and World War II veteran. He was born in 1923 and raised on the North Side of Minneapolis. Heilcher gives a description of his Jewish childhood on the North Side, and explains how he entered the service with the Air Corps Cadets, training in various places around the country, including St. Paul. He remembers in the interview how he rode on bombers that landed in France and subsequently pushed forward to Paris where his unit worked to ferry supplies to the front lines. Toward the end of the war he traveled around Europe. Heilcher recalls the arrival back in the United States and his post war life. Much of the interview involves Heilcher's post-war record company that expanded almost nation-wide. He concludes with an account of his personal life and family after the war. This interview was conducted by Linda Schloff as a part of the Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest World War II Veterans Oral History Project.
Contributing Institution:
University of Minnesota Libraries, Nathan and Theresa Berman Upper Midwest Jewish Archives
This was an interview conducted on July 19, 1989 by David Overy. Dean H. Aarvig was born on October 15, 1920 in Wilmar, Minnesota. He graduated from high school in 1937 and was drafted into the Army in 1942. After completing basic training, Aarvig went to Officer Candidate School (OCS) and joined the 9th Armored Division in France as a platoon leader that conducted intelligence & reconnaissance missions. During his service, Aarvig participated in the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Remagen. After the wars end, Aarvig returned to Minnesota, where he and his wife ran a newspaper in Grand Meadow, as well as farmed. In November of 1950, Aarvig was recalled into the service and served with the 25th Infantry Division as a Company Commander in Korea. He talked about his thoughts on those in Vietnam burning their draft cards and going to Canada. Aarvig was married and had two children. He passed away on July 2, 1998.
