Memorial Day Observance, Niles IL, May 26, 2014

Panoramic photo shows the line-up of civic officials facing the audience as everyone listens to Mayor Andrew Przybylo's remarks  honoring  the fallen at the Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall.

Commander James Kozak looks on from the left and the taller Friends of the Niles Library President and Village trustee Chris Hanusiak stands 3rd to the right from the Mayor. In addition to the other members of the Niles VFW Post 7712 present, the dignitaries visible include Village Trustees Rosemary Palicki, John  Jekot,  Dannette O'Donovan Matyas, (also a Library Board Trustee), Joe LaVerde, George Alpogianis,  Niles Village Manager Steve Vinezeano, and Deputy Police Chief Vincenzo Genualdi.

The Niles VFW Post 7712 Members, Ted Szewc and Tom Davidson, stand before the flagpole and plaque at the Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall after the well-attended Annual Memorial Day Observance.

Marker just west of Niles Veterans Memorial Waterfall identifying  former location of St. Hedwig's orphanage and its successor buildings. The waterfall is located at the southwest corner of the Milwaukee and Touhy intersection in Niles, Illinois.

"D-Day," the Annual May, 2014 Memorial Day Exhibit at the Library

The library’s annual May display to honor our local veterans and highlight the local Veteran’s History Project was initiated by Battle of the Bulge veteran, Al Aronson, of the US

28th Infantry Division or the “Keystone”/Bucket of Blood Division  in 2009.  Mr. Aronson’s interview transcript is available along with those of 52 other heroes in the 3rd floor Reference Department and via the library’s website . This year’s exhibit focuses on the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944. The library acknowledges the informed generosity of Niles resident and veteran Ralph Ponfil who donated the German war artifacts.  This year’s exhibit again benefits greatly from the contributions of Niles resident Chris Reuscher who has shared appropriate uniforms from his extensive collection which is detailed on a most helpful website .

3 VHP participants who have recorded their memoirs of service through the Niles Public Library took part in the Normandy Invasion: Max Kolpas (Wood Dale), Walter Tymczuk (Niles) and Matthew Wojtaszek (Niles). All served in the US Army.

"The Longest Day" Showing Sunday, May 18, 1:30pm

 In anticipation of the June 6th observance of the 70th Anniversary of D-Day, the Niles Public Library, 6960 W. Oakton St., screens the 1962 Academy Award-winning film, featuring a virtual who's who of Hollywood stars. The film is rated G and runs 178 minutes.

Two residents of Niles and participants in the Veterans History Project, Mr. Walter Tymczuk and Mr. Matthew Wojtaszek participated in the Normandy invasion as did the Wood Dale participant,  Mr. Max Kolpas. All of the VHP transcripts can be read and listened to online and  in the library.

Europeana 1914-18

Europeana, the new multi-cultural, multi-format web site for the preservation and sharing of European culture has a new collection,  the Europeana1914-1918. It deals with the First World War and
 allows "the national collections of libraries to sit beside personal stories and treasures and important film archives." 

Here is a sample item, a digitized scan of a post card sent by one World War I German Army soldier, Adolph Hitler to Karl Lanzhammer.

"Two days after the soldier Adolf Hitler wrote this postcard to his comrade Karl Lanzhammer telling him about a visit to the dentist, he wrote another one on 21 December 1916 about the painful visit, where he claims 19 of his teeth were extracted."

General Dwight Eisenhower, General George Patton and President Harry S. Truman

This US Navy photo was sent by a follower of this blog who has just visited the Truman Little White House in Key West, Florida.

"Swastika Nation: Rise and Fall of Fritz Kuhn and the German-American Bund"

Chicago writer Arne Bernstein discusses his latest work at the Niles Public Library on Wednesday, March 19, at 7pm as he describes how the Bund and its upstart leader aimed to
establish a fascist dictatorship in the Unites States in the late 1930s even developing their own version of the SS and Hitler Youth Corps. The Chicago Tribune judged Mr. Bernstein’s account as “impeccably researched and forcefully written.” Mr. Bernstein is also the author of Hollywood on Lake Michigan and Bath Massacre: America’s First School Bombing. He is also a graduate of Clarence E. Culver School in Niles. 

Book Sentry, March 2014 issue

Spot the new arrivals on military history, especially those providing context for the library's ongoing Veterans History Project.

Vietnam: The Real War: A Photographic History by the Associated Press By Hamill, Pete Author Associated Press Author Associated Press 2013-10 - ABRAMS 9781419708640 Check Our Catalog …More

Defiant: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam's Most Infamous Prison, the Women Who Fought for Them, and the One Who Never Returned By Townley, Alvin 2014-02 - St. Martin's Press 9781250006530 Check Our Catalog The story of the indomitable American POWs who endured "Alcatraz," the Hanoi prison camp where North Vietnam locked its most dangerous and subversive prisoners, and the wives who fought to bring them home. …More

A Curious Madness: An American Combat Psychiatrist, a Japanese War Crimes Suspect, and an Unsolved Mystery from World War I By Jaffe, Eric 2014-01 - Scribner Book Company 1451612052 Check Our Catalog

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War By Kinzer, Stephen 2013-10 - Times Books 0805094970 Check Our Catalog A joint biography of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, who led the United States into foreign adventures that decisively shaped today's world as the Cold War was at its peak. …More

The Russian Origins of the First World War By McMeekin, Sean 2011-11 - Belknap Press 0674062108 Check Our Catalog In a major reinterpretation, Sean McMeekin rejects the standard notion of the war's beginning as either a Germano-Austrian pre-emptive strike or a miscalculation. The key to the outbreak of violence, he argues, lies in St. Petersburg. Russian statesmen unleashed the war through policy decisions based on imperial ambitions in the Near East. …More

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program That Brought Nazi Scientists to America By Jacobsen, Annie 2014-02 - Little Brown and Company 031622104X Check Our Catalog The explosive story of America's secret post-WWII science programs, from the author of the "New York Times" bestseller "Area 51" …More