Local World War II veterans and Dartmouth alumni recently compiled their memories and experiences in "World War II Remembered," a book of memoirs from 56 residents of the Kendal at Hanover retirement community published in October 2011. The project was featured on Brian Williams' NBC Nightly News segment on Feb. 6, adding to its already substantial success.
The book features the stories of residents who fought in the European and Pacific theaters as well as those who stayed on the home front. Book editor Mary Jenkins said in an interview with The Dartmouth that she attributes the book's uniqueness to the geographic and individual diversity.
The Kendal residents began working on the book two years ago, inspired by the Wake Robin Life Care Community in Shelburne, Vt., which published "Our Great War: Memoirs of World War II" in 2008. Each veteran's story became one chapter of the new book, which includes memoirs of current Kendal residents as well as previously recorded stories of deceased veterans. As of 2012, 740 World War II veterans die every day, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs, adding to the pressure to document their experiences.
"We want to preserve [our] stories," Jenkins said. "We are a disappearing generation."
In its first week on the shelves, "World War II Remembered" sold 3,000 copies, managing editor Clinton Gardner '44 said. In late November 2011, Brian Williams discovered the book and took an interest in the project, featuring it on his newscast, according to Gardner. In the week following the broadcast, the book rose to the top-10 sellers list on Amazon.com.
"Even before NBC happened, we were doing quite well," Gardner said. "Amazon is so busy they can't even tell us how many they've sold."
Hanover rarely sees publicity like the NBC feature. The Kendal residents were thrilled about their project, and filming the program itself was "an utterly fascinating experience," Jenkins said.
"We were extremely pleased with how it came out," she said.
The opportunity to inspire others to start similar projects excited Kendal residents, and Jenkins emphasized the value personal accounts add to the understanding of World War II.
"To have been there and to have lived through it is completely different than reading about it in history textbooks," she said.
Gardner, himself a Kendal resident, served for four years as an artillery officer in the war's European theater. Gardner's three-part memoir describes his injuries the physical injuries incurred at Omaha Beach on D-Day and at the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the psychological wounds from the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp.
"I call it my third wound, when I had the strange experience of being put in charge of the concentration camp and 20,000 liberated prisoners," Gardner said. "There I was at 22 years old with such unusual responsibility and such involvement in the tragedy."
Gardner also said he and his company were the first Americans to meet survivors from Auschwitz, including the author Elie Wiesel.
Jenkins, another Kendal resident, had just graduated from college and was recently married at the war's start.
"The honeymoon consisted of a train ride to Kansas," Jenkins said.
In Kansas, she lived on an Air Force base with her husband, John Jenkins '43. Even though the home front was "more mundane than the guys' experience," people living stateside during the war suffered emotional trauma as well, according to Mary Jenkins.
"A boy I had dated was killed," Jenkins said. "You had to get used to your contemporaries dying that was a very maturing sort of thing."
Upon returning home, Gardner found a "huge number" of veterans at Dartmouth at least 25 percent of undergraduates, he estimated many of whom had also served for four years. The Dartmouth campus was "extremely supportive in every way," Gardner said, citing College accommodations such as military school credit transfers and summer school.
Jenkins described a similar sense of support and involvement on the home front, saying that "the war characterized life for this generation."
"The country was totally united in winning this war," Jenkins said. "You learned about geography, listened to the radio it was the most absorbing thing."
