Big Numbers Often Have a Story Behind Them

Posted by Jeff Carter
on October 20th, 2012

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you read one thing today, read this Wall Street Journal article on what one history teacher is doing for fallen soldiers. It’s really a neat way to teach kids about the history of war. Here is an excerpt from a World War 2 soldier.

Binks and Betty became engaged before he shipped out for Europe with the 35th Infantry Division. Sometimes she would picture him overseas throwing grenades like baseballs.

On Sept. 22, 1944, he wrote to his sister Charlotte: Betty “should know by now that I am thinking of her at all times. All I do is pray for the day to come so we both can be together again, and married.”

His letter must have crossed with one from Charlotte. “Write some,” she said, “and I’m praying constantly for you.”

The envelope, now in Mr. Clark’s classroom, came back unopened and marked in red ink: “Deceased. “About a week after Cpl. Gettler had written to his sister, German troops penetrated the division’s lines and drove the corporal and other American mortarmen out of position. Armed only with a pistol, he and a comrade pushed their way back to their mortar tube to repel the Germans. Cpl. Gettler was killed by enemy fire, earning a posthumous Silver Star medal for valor.

When you walk past a military cemetery, you see yards and yards of white government issued tombstones. In some foreign cemeteries, it’s marble crosses, or Stars of David. They are faceless. Just names on monuments. But, as we know, there was once a living, breathing human being behind that name. They died fighting for the cause of freedom.

One of the initiatives we have at the National World War Two Museum is a way to honor the memory of your family member or friend by making a book. It’s pretty cool. The museum will add historical photos the way you want them, to give the story historical context.

I love the idea of taking the faceless data point of XX,XXX dead, and turning it into a human story. One that people can relate to. It brings home the meaning of what they did. It humanizes their sacrifice. Bringing it down to this very basic level brings it home. It makes me appreciate their suffering, and dying even more. They won’t be, nor can they be forgotten.

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