We are happy to announce a new curator, John Kemler, replacing Lisa Yoder.

The World War II exhibit at the Gratiot Historical Museum is now closed, and loaned items have been returned.  Over 500 people visited the exhibit which was on display Memorial Day through September. It was a fitting tribute to those who gave so much for their country.  Many Thanks to the veterans and others who shared their WWII stories and items with the community.

The museum will be closed through the winter and will open again in the spring.  Tentative plans are to return the museum to a house of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, featuring many of the museum’s stored antique quilts.  Plans are to re-open an upstairs bedroom, the old store with some new displays, and the barn for viewing.

In conjunction with the 2013 museum opening, an historical home tour is being planned featuring several restored historic homes and buildings in Ithaca.  The museum will be one of the homes toured on Saturday afternoon, May 18. Then the museum, the store and barn will be open again on Sunday afternoon, May 19.

Part of the 71^st Artillery division, Tony saw combat duty in Europe.  As the flank guard in charge of a .50 caliber gun and crew, he shot down multiple planes.  In the process, he earned 2 bronze stars.

Then, in 1945, the 71^st  stumbled upon Gunskirchen, a concentration camp near Wels, Austria.  The crowd at the museum had the privilege to hear the passion in Tony’s voice as he gave his eyewitness testimony.  The smell of death, he said, had hung heavy in the air, and his stomach couldn’t hold down his breakfast the first time he stood at the gates of the camp.  That the people imprisoned in the camp had undergone unbelievable torment cried out from all corners.  The best way Tony found to leave listeners with a picture of the survivors was to bid us imagine that old friend of the science classroom:  a skeleton.  Now, cover the skeleton with flesh-colored trash bags to represent skin, and suck all the air out.

Tony’s unit spent a week at the camp.  The survivors were so malnourished that they could only be fed pieces of bread soaked in warm water; anything more would overwhelm their systems and kill them.  In fact, Tony was once taking a break when one of those walking-skeletons sat down next to him.  In the universal language, the survivor motioned that he’d like the cigarette Tony had been smoking.  Tony was willing to share and handed it over.  The survivor promptly swallowed it,  (imagine being hungry enough to eat a lit cigarette) but then fell over dead.

Horrors surrounded them.  The bodies were everywhere, and especially gruesome were those on whom the camp doctors had been doing surgical investigations without anesthesia.  The American soldiers were disgusted that the townspeople near the camp to denied they knew about what was going on there.  So they made the “bigwigs” come out to the camp, measure the bodies and use hand tools to build the coffins.

For many years after the war, Tony kept these experiences to himself, for how could anyone who wasn’t there understand?  Yet as time passed, new generations came along.  At a family gathering, young people were discussing the rising academics who taught that the Holocaust never happened.  Tony spoke up:  “I saw those bodies.  I was there.  Don’t let them tell you it never happened!”  And his story began to come out.

In 1999, armed with her knowledge about her father’s service, Tony’s daughter Laurie made a visit to the Holocaust Memorial Center near Detroit, MI.  In the process, she was able to bring about a meeting between her father and Harry Weinstein, a 14-year-old Jewish boy liberated from Gunskirchen.  The two men became close friends, right up until Harry’s recent death.

From air battles over Europe to the beaches of Normandy on D-day; from the Battle of the Bulge to liberating a concentration camp; from the decks of kamikazied aircraft carriers to foxholes on Okinawa; from the dropping of the first atomic bomb to “every-day” service, men and women of Gratiot County served selflessly in the heart of WWII.  Unfortunately, the display of items loaned to the museum in Ithaca must end Wednesday September 26.  Don’t miss your chance to see this record of their service, Wednesdays from 1-4 PM!

Invitation to the WWII Exhibit

WWII Exhibit Brochure

Opening Day!

PowerPoint Presentations

• A Timeline of WWII in the Pacific Theater
• A Timeline of WWII in the European Theater

WWII Exhibit – Items Solved

Channel 6 News Story

Photos of Opening Day

Stories are the framework of history and supply the organization of this exhibit.  WWII found America battling enemies on many fronts, so coverage identified information depending on the place it involved:  European Theater, Pacific Theater, Home Front.  A different room in the museum features each place.  Within those rooms, artifacts that tell the wartime experiences of a particular serviceperson are grouped together.

Entering the front door, visitors will come upon the sitting room.  The main purpose here is to provide a comfortable place to pause, browse photos and manuscripts, and ponder the efforts of this freedom-loving generation.   A display of officer’s bars, unit emblems, and other patches can be researched for further identification.  One corner shows the service of Wayne Kelly, a drill instructor at Fort Riley, Kansas.   His family saved the ration tokens and stamps that remained when the war ended, and those items are on display here as well.

Passing through the double doors of the sitting room leads to the space dedicated to the European Theater.  Here one finds the Russian binoculars and Nazi battle flag brought home by Robert Greening.  Further in is the collection of Robert Tedhams, D-Day veteran who served in an experimental tank corps.  Items show John and Lois Barden’s experience, recently-married just prior to John’s airplane being shot down over Germany.  Duane Rench’s personal effects are displayed alongside a painting of the spectacular crash that killed the young waist gunner from Alma.  From the museum’s own collection, a massive scrapbook layers article upon article of WWII news and commentary.   Yet another display case houses the scrapbook, Nazi pins, and other items from a collection that records the service of Floyd Freed, also a D-day survivor.  A manuscript Lee Arthur Chaffin wrote of his experiences in Europe, with a bayonet he brought home are there as well.

Back through the sitting room, a left turn takes the visitor into the room dedicated those who served in the Pacific Theater.  One wall and display case trace the contribution of the Flegel family, from which four brothers served in WWII.  Their uniforms, a bayonet, Japanese flag and sword, rivet from a Liberty Ship, and even socks tell the story of Romaine, Nyal, and Don Flegel.  A nearby exhibit shows Duane Beard’s presence on Tinian on the day the plane Enola Gay carried the first atomic bomb to drop on Japan, and Karen Smith’s father’s photos from the occupation that followed Japan’s surrender.  Other displays highlight: Red Ingalls, whose aircraft carrier survived direct hits by two kamikaze planes; Earl Wickman, creativite with bullets and shells; Jack Ginther, who loaned a packaged dinner and mess kit; Richard Lumsden’s hats and training certificates, and Bud Smith’s high school diploma next to a blanket he brought home from the Navy.

Items in the kitchen remind viewers that WWII reached into all areas of everyday life.  Arlene (Fortney) Gearhart’s journals, photos, and uniform showing women’s service, a V-mail sent from North Star telling a soldier all the happenings at home, a steel penny issued so copper could be used for wartime manufactures, documentations of strict rationing, the V-for-victory tie, a patriotic birthday card and scrapbook a child compiled to commemorate President Roosevelt’s death:  all show how much civilians found their lives touched by the effort to win WWII.

The front room displays daily life and uniforms of the Army Air Corps.  As fifth grader Mackenzie puts it, “The historical museum was just the most fascinating thing I have ever seen because of the Air Corps room.  You just have to go to the museum because of it.  In that room, you will see the most superb air corps artifacts like a parachute, uniforms, typewriter, also what they slept on, and a bunch of other stuff that is really superb!” Thanks to the collection of Joe Vozar, the exhibit is complete down to the card game that some pilots seem to have just left, perhaps to fly out on a mission!

As comprehensive as this description may appear, there are many more items of interest and stories to discover in the Gratiot County Museum’s WWII exhibit.  There is no need to be familiar with WWII in order to enjoy the displays.  They are set up to make self-guided tours easy and entertaining.  Of course, museum volunteers will be on hand and, throughout the summer, veterans and others who are knowledgeable about that era may be on site as well.

Consider this your invitation to join us for the grand opening of the WWII exhibit at the museum, 129 W. Center Street, Ithaca after the 10 A.M. Memorial Day service until 3 P.M.  Refreshments will be served!  If you can’t attend that event (or if you’d like to return!), regular hours will follow on Wednesdays from 1-4 P.M.