May 7, 2024, marks the 79th anniversary of an understated declaration from General Dwight David Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces.
Absolutely Steve, we should remember this day! That’s why it amazes me why we Americans do not as a whole remember it. I’m especially amazed if those Americans WHO are “baby boomers “ whose parents or other family members served in WWII
We never were allowed to forget the sacrifices and the horrors and the sheer perseverance of our troops and everyone in the war effort.
To my father and uncles it meant turning to the real possibility of shifting to the war in the pacific, to my mother, aunts and grandmothers it meant a reprieve for the time being of worrying about their very much loved ones. For my mother in law it meant wherever her husband was flying it was no longer against the Nazis.
My dad fought in Europe in WWII. Though I miss him every day, I'm glad he did not live to see the rise in fascism here and around the glibe. His stories of fighting the Nazis have turned out to be meaningful and inspirational in ways I never imagined they'd be.
We don’t celebrate tomorrow VEDay enough. Same with VJDay in August. Those of us born either during or just after the war are aging and we need to make sure the generations that follow us know about these things. We celebrate DDay extensively we should celebrate the Victory days as well.
Thank you for always saying it, the way it is!! Trump is scary and everyone who cherishes the freedom our ancestors sacrificed themselves for to preserve our freedom must do their part to ensure he never becomes the leader of the free world again. Icing on the cake would be him wearing an orange jump suit for everything he’s done to hurt innocent people. What a despicable human being!!
My father was one of the last soldiers to enter WWII. He turned 18 in February, 1945 and entered basic training a few days later. He was sent to the South Pacific moving from one island to the next ending up prepared to invade Japan when the first atomic bomb was launched.
He passed in late 2012 at the age of 85. If alive he would be 97.
He was just one of so many young men to serve his country, faithfully and without hesitation, at a time America needed them.
Thanks for the reminder, Steve. I fear that the retained memory of most Americans is equivalent to the warp speed of social media and the fractional modus operandi of cable news. A recent example: Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the majority of Americans are unaware that the war, the struggle of Ukrainians for their very survival, continues. When the last survivor of WWII, and the last survivor of the Shoah, pass away, the short attention span of many Americans, the rise of Nationalism, and the cult of the narcissistic orange demagogue, will unleash a sorrowful and dangerous increase of forgetfulness, denial, and unapologetic fabrication. I refuse to bury my head in the sand, or remain quiet. I will vote. But will it be enough? Will commitment to the truth and the memory of Never Again survive? I fear.
Thank you Steve for memorializing this day. I remember a time when praising Hitler was a bad thing. The greatest generation said “the only good nazi is a dead nazi” and today might be considered hate speech.
do not remember. I remember as a boy asking my Dad, who served in the Army Air Corps but didn’t see combat, about his reasons for serving. He was very much focused on the threat to freedom that Hitler and fascism represented to the U.S. and the world. How quickly we forget, or as historically illiterate we are, we never apparently never knew. Now some Americans are happy to bring a fascist demagogue into the White House. Democracy can be scary sometimes…
Keep ringing this bell, Steve. Over and over again! It is incomprehensible to me that less than 80 years after WW 2, we are where we are. “Never again” should ever and always be proclaimed in this land and around the world.i am firmly convinced that my 3 uncles who served in combat in WW 2 would be shocked to see the utter moral bankruptcy of Trump and his cult and the vile and evil views they espouse and celebrate. What are we doing?
I especially think often these days of my father in law. He would have turned 100 years old in July of 2025, if he were still here. As a 19 year old, he fought on the sands of Iwo Jima. He served in the 26th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division. The 5th Marines suffered the greatest number of casualties of the 3 divisions who fought there. He saw things and did things so “never again” would we have to experience the evils of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
God help us, what is wrong with our country? I never thought I would see the day where we called evil good. To see so many of my fellow Christians and other supposed sane and responsible adults support such a sick, perverse, frightening and honestly depraved and deranged person has shaken me. I still cannot believe it.
Keep up the history lessons and keep telling us and the world we cannot allow evil to triumph. Thank you.
Thank you for reminding your readers of this historic day. We need to shout it from our rooftops, “Never again!” May all who fought for the freedom of the world, the preservation of nations and cultures, and the future for all the citizens of the world be honored and celebrated with somber and thankful respect. As I finish my comment my husband and I are going to honor them with a moment of silence and gratitude for all their sacrifices, especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.
That is an excellent point. Certain things from childhood stay with you. The stories are important. In my family, when I was a child, I remember the story of my great uncle, who served in the US Third Army during World War 2. He landed in France in the summer of 1944 and fought to the end of the war. My family used to joke that Uncle Al was the only family member who swam across rivers in winter. It was a true story and it stayed with me, never to be forgotten.
There was no bombast In Eisenhower, no showboating, just a clear understanding of what was at stake. His calm amidst the storm was a national treasure. He loved golf and was criticized for playing too much during his Presidency. I think it was his meditation and he certainly didn’t cheat.
My mother was a month shy of 9 on V-E Day. As dementia took her memories, one thing she remembered as long as anything else was going to the roof of the apartment building, where they weren’t supposed to go, with her brothers (5 stories in the Bronx), shredding newspaper, and throwing it off the building. Not surprising, since even in 1945, I don’t think she could remember life before the war. Three of her uncles served. Her dad was a bit old for the draft, but worked as an artillery inspector at the naval shipyard. All fading rapidly into history.
Do you think the reason that we, Americans, are not as sensitive, well informed, that we don’t hold these memories as sacred, is because the fighting was not on US soil? I recall traveling in Europe in 1965 as a young woman and seeing the rubble from WW 2 still in London, Paris, all over Germany and Italy. My baby boom generation in Europe grew up with visible reminders that it must never happen again. At the time I was shocked at seeing the destruction 20 years after the fact, but many of my US peers have no frame of reference.
Absolutely Steve, we should remember this day! That’s why it amazes me why we Americans do not as a whole remember it. I’m especially amazed if those Americans WHO are “baby boomers “ whose parents or other family members served in WWII
We never were allowed to forget the sacrifices and the horrors and the sheer perseverance of our troops and everyone in the war effort.
To my father and uncles it meant turning to the real possibility of shifting to the war in the pacific, to my mother, aunts and grandmothers it meant a reprieve for the time being of worrying about their very much loved ones. For my mother in law it meant wherever her husband was flying it was no longer against the Nazis.
My dad fought in Europe in WWII. Though I miss him every day, I'm glad he did not live to see the rise in fascism here and around the glibe. His stories of fighting the Nazis have turned out to be meaningful and inspirational in ways I never imagined they'd be.
We don’t celebrate tomorrow VEDay enough. Same with VJDay in August. Those of us born either during or just after the war are aging and we need to make sure the generations that follow us know about these things. We celebrate DDay extensively we should celebrate the Victory days as well.
Thank you for always saying it, the way it is!! Trump is scary and everyone who cherishes the freedom our ancestors sacrificed themselves for to preserve our freedom must do their part to ensure he never becomes the leader of the free world again. Icing on the cake would be him wearing an orange jump suit for everything he’s done to hurt innocent people. What a despicable human being!!
My father was one of the last soldiers to enter WWII. He turned 18 in February, 1945 and entered basic training a few days later. He was sent to the South Pacific moving from one island to the next ending up prepared to invade Japan when the first atomic bomb was launched.
He passed in late 2012 at the age of 85. If alive he would be 97.
He was just one of so many young men to serve his country, faithfully and without hesitation, at a time America needed them.
Thanks for the reminder, Steve. I fear that the retained memory of most Americans is equivalent to the warp speed of social media and the fractional modus operandi of cable news. A recent example: Russia's invasion of Ukraine. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that the majority of Americans are unaware that the war, the struggle of Ukrainians for their very survival, continues. When the last survivor of WWII, and the last survivor of the Shoah, pass away, the short attention span of many Americans, the rise of Nationalism, and the cult of the narcissistic orange demagogue, will unleash a sorrowful and dangerous increase of forgetfulness, denial, and unapologetic fabrication. I refuse to bury my head in the sand, or remain quiet. I will vote. But will it be enough? Will commitment to the truth and the memory of Never Again survive? I fear.
I read somewhere in Jewish literature the saying “Every generation they come for us.”
Thank you Steve for memorializing this day. I remember a time when praising Hitler was a bad thing. The greatest generation said “the only good nazi is a dead nazi” and today might be considered hate speech.
Absolutely sublime. Signed Eisenhower. I've appreciated this telegram for decades and today its meaning means more. It gets me verklempt.
do not remember. I remember as a boy asking my Dad, who served in the Army Air Corps but didn’t see combat, about his reasons for serving. He was very much focused on the threat to freedom that Hitler and fascism represented to the U.S. and the world. How quickly we forget, or as historically illiterate we are, we never apparently never knew. Now some Americans are happy to bring a fascist demagogue into the White House. Democracy can be scary sometimes…
www.tomthedemocratist.com
Keep ringing this bell, Steve. Over and over again! It is incomprehensible to me that less than 80 years after WW 2, we are where we are. “Never again” should ever and always be proclaimed in this land and around the world.i am firmly convinced that my 3 uncles who served in combat in WW 2 would be shocked to see the utter moral bankruptcy of Trump and his cult and the vile and evil views they espouse and celebrate. What are we doing?
I especially think often these days of my father in law. He would have turned 100 years old in July of 2025, if he were still here. As a 19 year old, he fought on the sands of Iwo Jima. He served in the 26th Regiment of the 5th Marine Division. The 5th Marines suffered the greatest number of casualties of the 3 divisions who fought there. He saw things and did things so “never again” would we have to experience the evils of the 1930’s and 1940’s.
God help us, what is wrong with our country? I never thought I would see the day where we called evil good. To see so many of my fellow Christians and other supposed sane and responsible adults support such a sick, perverse, frightening and honestly depraved and deranged person has shaken me. I still cannot believe it.
Keep up the history lessons and keep telling us and the world we cannot allow evil to triumph. Thank you.
Thank you for this reminder Steve, as always. May we never forget.
Thank you for reminding your readers of this historic day. We need to shout it from our rooftops, “Never again!” May all who fought for the freedom of the world, the preservation of nations and cultures, and the future for all the citizens of the world be honored and celebrated with somber and thankful respect. As I finish my comment my husband and I are going to honor them with a moment of silence and gratitude for all their sacrifices, especially those who gave the ultimate sacrifice with their lives.
Perhaps more people need to write about it? Children’s stories especially. They will remember a story from childhood.
That is an excellent point. Certain things from childhood stay with you. The stories are important. In my family, when I was a child, I remember the story of my great uncle, who served in the US Third Army during World War 2. He landed in France in the summer of 1944 and fought to the end of the war. My family used to joke that Uncle Al was the only family member who swam across rivers in winter. It was a true story and it stayed with me, never to be forgotten.
There was no bombast In Eisenhower, no showboating, just a clear understanding of what was at stake. His calm amidst the storm was a national treasure. He loved golf and was criticized for playing too much during his Presidency. I think it was his meditation and he certainly didn’t cheat.
Eisenhower certainly deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest leaders this country has ever produced.
My mother was a month shy of 9 on V-E Day. As dementia took her memories, one thing she remembered as long as anything else was going to the roof of the apartment building, where they weren’t supposed to go, with her brothers (5 stories in the Bronx), shredding newspaper, and throwing it off the building. Not surprising, since even in 1945, I don’t think she could remember life before the war. Three of her uncles served. Her dad was a bit old for the draft, but worked as an artillery inspector at the naval shipyard. All fading rapidly into history.
Do you think the reason that we, Americans, are not as sensitive, well informed, that we don’t hold these memories as sacred, is because the fighting was not on US soil? I recall traveling in Europe in 1965 as a young woman and seeing the rubble from WW 2 still in London, Paris, all over Germany and Italy. My baby boom generation in Europe grew up with visible reminders that it must never happen again. At the time I was shocked at seeing the destruction 20 years after the fact, but many of my US peers have no frame of reference.