War Stories: Remembering WWII

By Elizabeth Mullener

Book Overview

Henry Lasoski, an officer in the Polish army, was there on the first day of World War II, thrusting his bayonet awkwardly into a German soldier hours after Hitler's army invaded his homeland in 1939. And Jacques Smith was there on the last, a member of the honor guard aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese signed the documents of surrender in 1945. From start to finish, this chronicle of fifty-three personal testimonies illuminates the Second World War in a way no mere accumulation of facts can.

In a journalistic tour de force, Elizabeth Mullener over the course of twelve years found eyewitnesses to virtually every major event of World War II, and she found them all in one American city--New Orleans. Some are natives of the city and some are not, a testament to the upheaval of war and its power to scatter people around the globe. The people she writes about are not grand heroes or prime movers. They are young men shaking in their foxholes, young women stitching up wounded soldiers, and children facing a world gone topsy-turvy.

And they saw it all. They witnessed the London Blitz and the siege of Stalingrad; the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Bataan Death March; the battle of Iwo Jima and the Nuremberg trials; the Normandy invasion and parties at the USO. Their memories are powerful. Harold Eck recalls sharks grazing his legs as he treaded water for four days after the USS Indianapolis sank in the Pacific Ocean. Anthony DeLucca saw bodies stacked like cordwood at Buchenwald. Christine Strevinsky slid a knife through the neck of a Nazi commandant at the age of nine. Frank Rosato played "The Missouri Waltz" for Harry Truman at Potsdam.

All poignantly related through Mullener's graceful and compelling prose, the episodes in War Stories provide an unusually intimate history of World War II and a direct, visceral connection to the central event of the twentieth century.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807127787
• ISBN13: 9780807127780
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 360 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Great for WWII history readers.

Excellent, absorbing book for anyone who wants real-life experiences of those who lived through WWII. Slightly disappointed that a brief update on the participants was not given in all cases (family information and careers after the war). I wanted to read so much more and wish the writer could choose people from other cities in the United States (large and small). Highly recommend it.

One of the best WWII books I've ever read

War Stories: Remembering World War II This is an excellent book. One of the best WWII books I've ever read, and I've read a lot of them! Each chapter is the story of an individual (real) person from New Orleans... each chapter provides a brief recollection of the impact of the war on that individual. The stories range from the memories of an artillery soldier recalling storming the beaches on D-Day to a Jewish child ousted from their farmhouse in rural Poland forced into hiding. War impacts us all, even those not on the front lines... this books tells those stories. A book about bravery, camaraderie, patriotism, and human nature. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Excellent

This collection of eyewitness accounts of the years between 1939 and 1945 manages to personalize the years between 1939 and 1945 war as no history book could. Using experiences of people from all walks of life (most of whom were teenagers or in their twenties during the war), the author has managed to skillfully craft a very readable and poignant collection. Recurring themes of courage, resilience, love and family carry the reader through the war from start to finish.