Erika Feaser

War bride (Germany )

I was in a Russian prison camp, trying to avoid being raped and I had to scrounge for food to survive.

The war ending did not change anything. Nothing changed since we didn't know the war ended.

Submitted by:
Linda A. Laurie
Poway, CA - United States

Relationship to Storyteller:
Adult volunteer

Sally Fischbach

Catherine Fogarty

War bride (United Kingdom)

I was stationed in Winchester England, when we all heard the news. We were all singing and dancing. There was no work done that day. It was so exciting.

I was so happy that day. I will never forget it. My father was a ship builder and my mohter worked in a store. It was so good for them. They didn't have to go to the air raid shelter any more, but they were still rationed. My dad was happy because he wouldn't be in the Home Guard any more.

Submitted by:
Linda A. Laurie
Poway, CA - United States

Relationship to Storyteller:
Adult volunteer

Payton Ford

Barry Friedman

U.S. Navy

My story actually begins about three months before August 14,1945.

On May 4th 1945, I returned to the States after about two years aboard a destroyer in the Pacific. I left my ship still on picket duty between Japan and Okinawa. Our duty was to warn those ashore of an approaching flight of enemy planes. Many of those planes saw us as targets and our squadron alone lost most of our ships to the Kamikazes.

But now I had arrived back in San Francisco and received my orders to stateside duty on the East coast. On May 7th, 1945 I boarded a DC3 with a planeload of other military people most of whom like myself had returned from a combat zone.

When we were over Omaha, the plane captain announced that Germany had surrendered. The news was expected, so the celebration didn't last long. Most of us expected to be back in the Pacific to the war we had left.

We approached New York at dusk and the plane captain announced that he would fly over the Statue of Liberty. He said that we might not be able to see it in the darkness that was coming on, because the light in Liberty’s torch had been blacked out since the start of the war. We all crowded to the windows hoping to catch a glimpse of the statue. The next few moments were a once-in-a-lifetime experience. As we gazed down in the gloom, the statue first appeared as a dark mass. From the torch in the statue’s raised hand, a tiny lamp began to glow. At first It seemed no brighter than a match. Gradually it became brighter and brighter - like a huge white flower opening until it lit up the sky. The Statue of Liberty torch, dark through the years of the war, was turned on again... it was VE Day, Victory In Europe.

If there’s a point to this story it’s this: To those of us returning from the battlefield, the Statue of Liberty we crawled over each other in our anxiety to see, was a symbol that stood for why we had gone to war. So many of our friends, comrades, loved ones, had died protecting that symbol, assuring that the torch in Liberty’s hand would remain bright to light up our lives, our country, our world, our planet.

Submitted by:
Barry Friedman
San Diego, CA - United States