Posts Tagged ‘WWII’
History of The Olympics
HISTORY OF THE OLYMPICS While the modern Olympic Games go back to 1896, the ancient Olympic Games reach back as far as 776 B.C. and beyond. Though historians hang the beginning on that date, it seems the Games had been going on for several centuries before the 8th century B.C. Held originally in Olympia, Greece —…
Read MoreHistory of D-Day: 77 Years Ago
HISTORY OF D-DAY Why has D-Day captured the imagination of American consciousness for three-quarters of a century? On Twitter, the hashtag is #DDay77 Seventy-seven years ago, on June 6, 1944, the Allies launched an offensive on the Normandy coast of France to liberate continental Europe from the Nazi German occupation. D-Day was the largest invasion by…
Read MoreHistory of Memorial Day: Which War?
HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY: WHICH WAR? Memorial Day was not universally recognized as a shared American Holiday until after World War I. But that’s not how it started in the United States. When did it begin? Civil War and Memorial Day Following the American Civil War or the “War Between the States,” as it…
Read MoreHistory of V-E Day: End of WWII in Europe 76 Years Ago
HISTORY OF V-E DAY Seventy-six years ago today, World War II ended in Europe with the acceptance by the Allies of unconditional surrender from Germany on V-E Day. Or did it? May 7, 1945 V-E Day Adolf Hitler had committed suicide in his Berlin bunker on April 30, 1945, as I describe in my…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau: April 29, 1945
HISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU: APRIL 29, 1945 I remember what my father had told me of his involvement in the liberation of Dachau, shortly before he died in 1976. Some of his war buddies discovered the tribute site I’d created for him and called or emailed me to recount stories I’d not known…
Read MoreHistory of Holocaust Remembrance Day
History of Holocaust Remembrance Day Today, April 8, is Holocaust Remembrance Day. It is a part of Holocaust Days of Remembrance, established by the U.S. Congress as the nation’s annual commemoration of the Holocaust. The U.S. Army remembers the six million Jewish and millions of other victims of the Holocaust and honors the survivors’ resilience. In…
Read MoreHistory of Christmas Eve: Polish Christmas Wafer
History of Christmas Eve: Polish Christmas Wafer, its tradition and background
Read MoreHistory of Christmas Eve and the Battle of the Bulge: 76 Years Ago
HISTORY OF CHRISTMAS EVE AND THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE: 76 YEARS AGO On Christmas Eve, 1944, my father, Staff Sergeant John Petro, had arrived in Strasbourg with the 42nd “Rainbow” Infantry Division. Eight days earlier, the Battle of the Bulge had begun, and the 42nd Division, along with others, supplied much-needed reinforcements to the…
Read MoreHistory of Veterans Day: Lest We Forget
HISTORY OF VETERANS DAY A professor once commented, “We write things down so we can forget them.” Now, of course, this is true in the sense of writing down appointments so we don’t have to worry about missing meetings. But that’s just it; we do forget things. As individuals, we forget things that are important…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau — a Personal Reflection
HISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU, a Personal Reflection On April 29, 1945, 75 years ago, toward the end of World War II, the Allies captured and liberated Dachau. My father, Staff Sergeant John Petro, was one of the liberators. It was one of the few stories from The War that my father told me…
Read MoreHistory of the Liberation of Dachau: April 30, 1945. Part 2
HISTORY OF THE LIBERATION OF DACHAU: APRIL 30, 1945. Part 2 In Part 1, I discussed the Nazi Concentration Camps and the initial movement of US Army divisions into Dachau. The Camp As my father and the 42nd “Rainbow” Division moved into the Dachau Concentration Camp, of the 32,000 survivors still alive in the main…
Read MoreMemorial Day: Why We Fight
HISTORY OF MEMORIAL DAY: WHY WE FIGHT The world is different than it was almost two decades ago as we celebrate Memorial Day. Presently we have troops in countries that we didn’t have then, and after 9/11 we now remember why we fight. The History Channel often re-runs the HBO series Band of Brothers, the…
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