[Leica] Victory Day

[rclark01 at comcast.net (Robert Clark)]

Thank you for posting your remembrance, Nathan.  As an American male of 
43 years, I only know of the war from stories of relatives, books, 
movies, and to me the most important way, from visits to places in 
Europe where the was took place.  My mother tells me of the stars in the 
windows of houses in her hometown and the blackout drills on the west 
coast.  I have visited the Holocaust museum in Washington DC and 
someday, hope to visit more sites in Europe.  I believe all of us who 
are alive today owe a debt of gratitude in some part, to the generation 
of soldiers who defeated the Axis countries and provided a better world 
for mine and future generations.

Robert Clark
Lancaster, PA

Nathan Wajsman wrote:

>Today is May 8th, the day World War II ended in Europe. In many
>countries various solemn events are taking place. I will visit the
>Commonwealth cemetery near Arnhem tomorrow morning.
>
>On this day, as a son of a Holocaust surviver, I want to remember and to
>thank the people who made victory over Nazi Germany possible:
>
>- the Russians who lost 20 million people during the war and whose stand
>at Stalingrad was arguably the turning point of the war, certainly on
>the Eastern Front;
>
>- the Americans who brought their military and industrial might to bear
>on the opposite side of Europe;
>
>- and most of all, the British, who persevered during the darkest hour
>in 1940, when all of the Continent was either occupied or neutral, the
>Soviet Union had its non-aggression pact with Hitler, and the USA was
>happily neutral on the other side of the Atlantic. If Britain had
>fallen, there would have been no Western Front, no place for the USA
>from which to stage D-Day, no future for this continent.
>
>May their sacrifices never be forgotten.
>
>Nathan
>  
>