Wednesday, August 20, 2014

WWII: History or Too Close to the Present?

by Elisabeth Marrion

Why write about World War II in the History section? When does the present stop and history start? 100 years, 150 or as little as 50 years. Who decides?

I have asked the same question on relevant Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads and Linkedin sites. The common belief is, yes World War II is now classed as History.

Strange that, because in World War II History we can still ask some of the people who experienced it first-hand. No need to only rely on the internet search engines, libraries or reference books. Even at school if the history teachers are so inclined he or she could still invite a member of the public for a live debate. There are many who would love to share their stories, I am quite sure. I hope we don’t miss the only chance we have and go right ahead. Ask them: ‘What was it like where you lived? Did you run and hide in an air raid shelter just like Annie and her family did in Liverpool Connection? Your building--was it destroyed? What about rationing? What about everyday life? Was there such a thing? Did you go to school? Were you evacuated?' And the biggest question of them all, and yes we can still ask this directly today although it is 70 years since end of the war, 'Did you go to war? Did you have to fight?’

My novels are all about that time in our history. It is a time still close to me although I was born in 1948. But it is more complicated than that. My mother was a German war widow, her husband, a young officer, fighting under Field Marshal Rommel. My father however, was a Lieutenant in the RAF.

Liverpool Blitz: This is the name now given to the air raids carried out on the town. It was the heaviest bombed town outside London with a total number of 4,000 lives lost. Second only to London which suffered a loss of 30,000.

The first air raid on Liverpool was carried out the night of 28/8/1940. Liverpool was attacked by one hundred and sixty bombers, and the raid continued for three further nights just when most families of evacuated children were debating whether they should come home. By now the mothers believed the government had acted too hastily with the order to send children from possible target areas to safety in the country. The attacks on Liverpool continued relentlessly for three months, the most memorable being the Christmas Blitz which started on the 22nd of December 1940. ~

“Is it a false alarm again?”
“This one is for real, Annie! Grace, give me your David. Come on you, hurry along now.”
“I can’t see anything”
“Yes, we can, look.”
A flush of bright light through the corridor window. They stopped in their tracks. The light was followed by an ear-splitting noise, and the building seemed to move.
“Mam!”
“Hurry, Hurry, Hurry, to the shelter, now!” shouted the warden. Jeffrey and Grace ran past Annie and were already out of the door. Dorothy still clinging to her mam.
Outside on the right side, a fire was burning. The heat made Annie take a step back. She covered her mouth with her hand, trying to avoid choking.
“Dorothy. Run!” She managed to shout before she started to cough.
Aircraft noises drowned out Annie’s instructions. She hurried after Dorothy. A whistling sound, silence, then a massive boom, which seemed to be really close by. The earth shook under her feet, and Annie hit the ground, dropping Derek as she fell.
“Derek!” Nobody heard Annie’s cry for help. She was alone, flat on the ground, unable to move. From fear or shock, she did not know, but her legs refused to carry her weight. Burning rubble near to where Derek had fallen.
~

My father’s (Joseph) first assignment in England (after a spell in Hong Kong) was manning one of the towers in July 1940 when planes were spotted off the channel and Portsmouth harbour was under attack. Later he was on one of the crews of 227 Lancasters and 8 Mosquito bombers on a raid on Hildesheim (my home town). It was destroyed in a 15 minute raid on the 22nd of March 1945. My mother (Hilde) on the ground, ran for her life, trying to protect her family and friends. They survived.
After the end of the war, only just over one month later, Joseph volunteered to be stationed there since it was now in the British Zone. He helped in rebuilding the town where met my mother.
~

“Have you seen that English soldier outside Hilde?”
“What soldier?”
“The one across the road, see over there, he is lighting a cigarette. He has been here before, he keeps looking at you.”
Hilde walked over and stood next to Maria, who had moved the curtain for a better view.
“No, Maria, he is looking at you.”
“Hilde, go and ask him for a cigarette.”
“Maria, we don’t smoke.”
“He does not know that.”
“But I don’t speak English.”
“You can say Cigarette, please, don’t you?”
“Of course. But why?”
“Hilde, I know it’s hard, but we are running out of supplies and have very little left we can trade with. We can get butter for a few cigarettes. Plus, despite your old clothes, you look lovely, please go and ask him.”


Their story is told in my books The Night I danced with Rommel (in English and German) and Liverpool Connection. I am now working on the third book, Cuckoo Clock.

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32 comments:

  1. Thank you for sharing those stories. My great grandfather served with the British army in WWII and my grandfather turned 18 just as the war ended. My grandmother told me some stories about the 'interesting' men who would show up to see her father in her house in Ireland. I think I will do a historical but not just yet. :)

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    1. Thank you Elizabeth, I am looking forward to reading your book about this time when you decide to write it

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  2. Very good point!!! Thanks for sharing your titles with us. They've caught my interest.

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  3. Of course it's history! I've written historical fiction set in the 1960s, when I was a child. I remember it, but it was a whole different world. The 1940s certainly were. Given that there are still survivors of the Holocaust, such as my parents, and there are people refusing to believe that their families were wiped out and they were in camps, it is indeed important to ask what it was like and what they can remember. It's still history.

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    1. Thank you Sue, I am trying to get some schools to read them and hopefully I could go and speak to the pupils since I know something about 'both' sides

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  4. Yes, that history is very close. I was talking only last week with someone who remembers those times (she's 102!) and I think we are apt to forget just how gruelling it was to live through them. Thanks for posting!

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    1. Thank you Deborah. yes we must not forget, wonderful that you had a chance to speak to the Lady

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  5. I have read both books and am looking forward to the third in the series. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Sorry had misspelled something and removed it. Should of course say

      'Thank You Mary Ann'

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  6. You say there are still survivors of WWII, which is true, but how many and for how long. I think for those of us whose parents lived through WWII it is still very near, but beyond that it is certainly history.
    Great post and great photos!

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  7. The war ain't no 'ist'ry fer me, Elizabeth, it's still goin' on. Cripes, don't we never learn nuffink from the past, 'specially about gang territory an' bullyin'...?

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  8. Jenno, my dear, you are so right !

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  9. SAT wrong answers penalty is very heavy and students should very careful in first attempting. You don’t guess blindly in SAT MATH section. Because this is very sat prep boca raton critical portion should solve very carefully. How we can prevent during SAT from blind guses.

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  10. I am glad to hear some of you consider WWII a historical time period. I made mention of my book Behind the Mask on a historical blog site and someone commented it didn't belong there. My dad fought with the free French and my mom worked in the American Consulate. She occasionally passed on clandestine notes. My book, though a romance, is fiction is mixed with stories from family and friends who lived in France in the 1940s. If anyone is interested in reading a pre released copy in PDF form I'd love to know your thoughts as I am anything but a WWII expert.
    Contact me at: riteromance@aol.com

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  11. Thank you Marianne for your comments

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  12. Great stories, warmly written, Elisabeth. By the way, my mother built those Lancaster bombers and my father built Churchill tanks. Very few people escaped the effects of the war.

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    1. You must have some great stories to tell, djkelly , Thank you so must for telling me and your kind comments

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  13. Yes, WWII is history and becoming more so every day. Sad to see that generation leave us. I feel we have missed so many of their stories. I am just completing historical fiction romance featuring a soldier from the U.S. 10th Division Alpine Ski troops during WWII. After training they served in Italy where much of my story takes place. They are a wonderful group of men, so interesting. My research was enlightening and so very educational. There is a wonderful youtube tribute to them. Photos set to music. Rather haunting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tJCjLtlybU Thank you for your blog.

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    1. Yes , Julia unless we listen to the people now, soon everything will be lost. I was lucky I had a lot information from my family, but still had to do a lot of research and speak to others. I am glad I undertook this journey

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  14. History is a funny thing... has this habit of repeating itself if people are not careful. Just look at Israel today and how many people want to wipe them off the face of the earth.

    My father's line is German by name, I never knew if I liked that... wasn't sure why. Then, we found out that, though we came from Germany, most of our surenames are of Jewish ancestry as much as German.

    My parents are too young to have lived through the war...but it still seems like a close connection to me. In my genetics I quite possibly represent both major sides of the conflict.

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  15. My father was a prisoner - at Dachau in the end. He's gone now, but not that long ago.

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    1. Yvonne that is amazing. Was he able to talk about it. In my next book which I just finished one of the characters is in Dachau and there are quite a few chapters about it. My books are based upon a true story

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  16. Thank you for your comments, maybe one day you will be able to find the strength to research your history. What do you think?

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  17. The devastation shown in the photo is horrendous. I can remember taking a train out of and into London in 1974 and still seeing remnants of the damage from the war.

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    1. Yes it is hard to remember today what the damage was like, some of us still remember, I myself can still see all the bombed out buildings. After the War a mad scramble was in place to build as quickly as possible. Little though was given to the actual houses as long as people had somewhere to live. A decision regretted by councils many times. But what else could they have done?

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  18. I have just come across your blog Elisabeth and will definitely be checking out your books. I have written a world war two historical novel based on the true story of an English woman who lived through the war in Nazi Austria, then a part of the German Reich. Her marriage broke up in 1942 and she then had to fend for herself. She was in Vienna during the bombing of that city, and experienced the Russian assault in April 1945. Somehow she survived to return to England and start another family, and became, eventually, my mother. You can see more here: www.interrogating-ellie.com

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  19. Wow Julian That's sounds quite a story. I will definitely look you up and buy your book

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