Back from an incredibly successful trip to Germany and England. Added eight important stories from veterans and civilians involved in the Second World War. Their experiences are unique and important addition to this project that has been heavily focused on the US involvement. Also was able to document important sites in Germany including Munich, Nuremberg, Weimar, Buchenwald, Hannover and more. Very thankful to the @royalbritishlegion@tobiaskreuzmann@raphaelahoefnerautorin and especially @paul_oechsner_ for making this trip so productive and an amazing experience.
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Today, on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings on the beaches of Normandy, I share this image of the Battlefield Cross monument at the Normandy American Cemetery and an image of it being used for a soldier killed on June 6th, 1944. The Battlefield Cross is a symbolic replacement of a cross, or memorial marker appropriate to an individual service-member’s religion, on the battlefield or at the base camp for a soldier who has been killed. The purpose is to show honor and respect for the dead at the battle site. The practice started during World War I, as a sign of respect for those that gave their lives in combat during wartime.
There has been and will continue to be a lot of Pomp and Circumstance in Normandy and parts of the United States this week rightfully honoring our veterans who served in World War II. Let us also remember that on this day alone the Allied Nations had over 10,000 battle casualties with 4,414 confirmed dead on the beaches and shoreline of Normandy.
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80 Years Ago Today:
Lieutenant Herbert Denham Brotheridge was a British Army officer who served during the Second World War and is often considered to be the first Allied soldier to be killed in action on D-Day, 6 June 1944. Brotheridge was chosen to command first platoon in Major John Howard’s ‘D’ Company, 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 6th Airlanding Brigade, 6th Airborne Division. The original plan was for Lieutenant David Wood to lead the first platoon across the Caen canal bridge, however shortly before D-Day Howard changed the order of landing and Brotheridge was selected to lead the first platoon across the bridge at Benouville. The gliderborne platoons left Dorset at 22:40 on 5 June 1944; crossing the English coast over Worthing, Sussex. Brotheridge’s platoon’s glider piloted by Staff Sergeant Jim Wallwork, landed in Normandy at 00:16 on 6 June: landing less than 50 feet from the water tower of the Benouville Bridge and Brotheridge led the first charge across the bridge, now known as Pegasus Bridge. He managed to silence the left German MP-post at the western bank of the Caen Canal; he and his platoon then came under attack by Spandau machine gun fire from the direction of the Gondree Cafe on the far side of the canal. Brotheridge was hit in the back of the neck by the machine gun fire and died of in the early hours of 6 June, aged 28. Lt. Herbert Denham Brotheridge is buried in the War Cemetery in Ranville Churchyard, near Caen, in France. Ranville was the first village in France to be liberated.
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One of the most important locations I photographed on my first trip to the Pacific Theater was The Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines run by the @usabmc . It contains the largest number of graves of our military dead of World War II, a total of 16,859, and the only one located in the Pacific Theater. The headstones are aligned in 11 plots forming a generally circular pattern, set among masses of a wide variety of tropical trees and shrubbery.
In stark contrast to the majority of the ABMC cemeteries in Europe that are tucked away in rural or suburban areas, the Manila American Cemetery sit right in commercial area of Taguig in Metro Manila with part of the skyline overlooking the Memorial. I found this very unique in comparison to the many ABMC cemeteries I have photographed in France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
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This is an important milestone toward the conclusion of the project and book publication. The Pacific Theater was a separate beast, and by some opinions, a separate war, as the allies fought to stop Imperial Japan from their global expansion.
I depart for Manila to begin the documentation of this part of World War II. I will be doing photography on the Islands of Luzon and Leyte in the Philippines, as well as Saipan and Guam where some of the most vicious fighting occurred. While most of the attention was given to disastrous attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the Japanese simultaneously attacked the US and Philippines the same day. Americans and Filipinos who surrendered on Bataan, found themselves on a death march that would go down as one of the most brutal treatments of prisoners of war in modern history. In 1944 the tide of the war was turning. The Army and Marines found themselves invading Islands across the Pacific Ocean making their way toward Japan. The invasions of Saipan and Guam were ruthless but successes for the Americans and marked a turning point in the war, forcing Japan’s Prime Minister Tojo to resign due to the string of defeats the Imperial forces were suffering.
Since beginning this project in 2018 in Europe, 218 portraits of men and women who served in the war or survived the horrors of the Holocaust have been taken to share their stories and the history. 25% of these portraits include men and women who served in the Pacific. It’s finally time to make my way there to document these battlefields and memorials as they are today. Please consider donating to this project using the link in the bio.
One of the most exciting parts of the trip is going to be a SCUBA dive to photograph wrecks off the coast of Saipan which I prepped for last month. I’ve also included a few portraits of the veterans I’ve met who served on or off the coast of these Islands.
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The last living survivor of USS Arizona, Lou Conter has passed away at the age of 102. Lou enlisted in the Navy at age 18 and found himself serving on the Arizona a few months later after basic training. Of all the ships that were hit by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, the USS Arizona suffered the most catastrophic damage and casualties losing 1,177 crew members with only 334 survivors. Lou helped fellow sailors try to abandon ship despite explosions, continued attacks from the Japanese fighters and a sinking ship. Conter eventually abandoned ship and spent the next few days assisting with fire fighting and body recovery. Lou went on to train as a pilot and serve with the Black Cats for the remainder of WWII. He was shot down twice and managed to escape capture both times.
It was such an honor to include Lieutenant Commander Conter just over 10 months ago to include him in this project. A huge thanks to his daughter, Lou Ann for arranging this meeting. Rest in peace Lou, and thank for service and sharing your history!
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This is a really tough one. Joseph Randazzo, who served with the 75th Division, and my friend passed away Sunday at age 97.
He volunteered for the draft as a kid from Brooklyn on his 18th birthday which happened to be D-Day, June 6th, 1944. He was a replacement in G-Company, 291st regiment, 75th Infantry Division. He arrived at the front at the end of the Battle of the Bulge. Joe fought campaigns in Belgium, France, Holland, and Germany. Randazzo went into combat with his buddy he met in the service, John Melnik. John and Joe went across the Atlantic together, into France through the replacement center and into the same company. On April 5th, 1945, Randazzo was horrified that his best friend Melnik had been killed by multiple bullets to the head. Joe would volunteer to help retrieve the body of his fallen comrade. Not a day later, while fighting in the outskirts of Dortmund, Joe was seriously wounded when a sniper shot him in the leg, shattering his tibia. He would be cut off from his unit while bleeding from his leg for nearly 24 hours. He would spend the next year in different hospitals until his leg was healed enough to be discharged. After discharge, and suffering from post-traumatic stress, Joe disappeared to the Carolina’s for more than half a year. Eventually he would write his parents for some money and returned home.
Joe was my 17th portrait out of current 217. Joe was the first portrait I had been able to do after this project came to a halt for 17 months due to the Covid pandemic. I met Joe and his wonderful daughter Marisa in July 2021, and I quickly realized not only how special he was, but what a wonderful family he had raised despite his serious traumatic experiences in the war. Joe also was the first vet I had met to open up to me in detail about what he saw when finding his friend gruesomely killed and was a real eye-opening experience for me. Not only that, Joe had one of the most impressive memories, not only the 217 people I have met for this project but probably of any person in their late 90’s anywhere in the world. Joe remained sharp as a tack even in his final days. He will be dearly missed by me and all that knew this amazing man.
I am incredibly grateful and have enormous respect for the more than 200 veterans, survivors and Rosie’s who have sat for their portrait for this project, but some of these amazing people are just extra special people. Robert White was one of those people. Serving in the 17th Airborne Division, he saw action in the infamous Battle of the Bulge and Operation Varsity. After the war, Bob became a serious runner, participating in dozens and dozens of marathons in his life. Bob could not have been a kinder, gentler soul if he had tried. I had the honor of spending some time Bob on quite a few occasions and last saw him enroute to another veteran back in April. Though he had been interviewed countless times, he agreed to share his story with me in an interview in the midst of a busy weekend in Washington last year. He turned an amazing 100 years old on October 7th of this year. Since I was not able to get down for his birthday celebration, we spoke on the phone both before and after his 100th. Even in his final days he was still trying to offer whatever assistance he could to me and the other historians trying to document these stories. Bob was a special person and will be missed incredibly. I can’t thank @andybiggs617 author of the @therifle_ enough for introducing us back in 2019 and again in 2021.
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What day is it, and where are my pants? Life on the road with 99 year-old WWII Veteran, David Marshall.
Heading to the @therifle_ book signing in Boston!
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A little less than 4 years ago, I had done a portrait and interview with one World War II veteran, the amazing Al Mampre, and no Holocaust survivors. I never would’ve imagined in that time including 18 months of no meetings due to COVID, I would have the honor of having 200 of these heroes sit for their portrait for this project. Even more incredible that in one weekend in Montreal, I was able to include 4 more Holocaust survivors, 4 Soviet survivors from the siege of Leningrad, and 2 veterans of the Soviet Army. It continues to be important to document a wide range of stories from all sides of this horrific period of time in human history. The 200th participant in this project was Holocaust Survivor Tibor “Ted” Bolgar. Despite being legally blind and nearly deaf at age 99, he still continues to speak out against hate and gives talks about his experiences in a number of concentration camps including Auschwitz and Dachau.
Please continue to support this important work by following on Facebook and Instagram.
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Line Number 548
The number on Schindler’s List of 1,100 Jews, that read: “Goldberger, Roman, 10.8.22 Autoklempnergeselle” (His name was changed to Lesniak). The ink on that paper saved him from an almost certain death sentence at the hands of the S.S. The movie “Schindler’s List”, released in 1993 was nominated for twelve Oscars at the 66th Academy Awards, and won seven, including Best Picture. 30 years later, it is still the most recognized film about the Holocaust ever produced. It was important to me that this paramount work was represented by one of its survivors. It is a monumental story both because of what was done to save 1,100 Jews from the gas chambers of Auschwitz, and the importance of the film. The challenge of arranging a meeting with a survivor from the list of Jews saved by Oscar Schindler and his wife, only 4 still live today, with Roman being the only survivor living in America. Roman no longer gives interviews at age 101 but allowed me to visit with the condition that I would not conduct an interview.
Roman began working in his father’s factories and going to trade school as a young boy. Roman just turned 17 when the Germans invaded Poland and seized all Jewish busines. His family lost everything and soon found themselves living in the Krakow Ghetto. One by one he lost countless family members at the hands of the Nazis. His Father was murdered when he joined the resistance. During the Ghetto liquidation on March 13, 1943, his mother was killed, and later his sister died in Auschwitz at the hands of Dr. Mengele. Due to his experience in the factory, Roman had been included on Schindler’s list and survived the Holocaust along with his brother. He went on to join the Israeli Army and was wounded twice in the subsequent wars of the 1940’s.
To Mr. Lesniak, I was likely just another historian trying to capture his incredible survival story, but to me, it meant the world. I appreciate every single veteran and survivor who takes the time to speak with me but being able meet with Mr. Lesniak today was an emotional experience. With world events going on now, it is more important than ever to learn from the past about what hate can do to humanity.
The @thenecessarywar project has been able to collect over 75 interviews on video of WWII veterans and Holocaust survivors. The most personal interview to date has now been recorded for eternity as my Grandmother Livia shares her and her family’s Holocaust survival story while living in the Northern Italian port city of Trieste. Some of her relatives were murdered at Auschwitz and Buchenwald.
Livia will be 90 this weekend! She’s pictured here prior to her interview earlier this month and the second photo is her at age two with her mother.
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