Museum at Cantigny seeks 'cheer for victory' videos for 75th V-E Day celebration
The newspaper headlines proclaimed "PEACE," confetti rained from the sky and crowds crammed streets to swing dance and toast GIs.
Allied forces 75 years ago on May 8 secured the surrender of Nazi Germany, finally ending the war in Europe.
Before coronavirus closures, a Wheaton military museum had planned a large-scale 75th anniversary celebration capturing the relief and jubilation of V-E Day, or Victory in Europe Day.
The shuttered First Division Museum at Cantigny Park in Wheaton is now trying to make a virtual observance just as evocative for a fading generation of World War II veterans.
The museum has joined forces with Honor Flight Chicago to enlist the public in creating "cheer for victory" videos, 10-second snippets that will feature in a digital salute for veterans to watch 75 years after the Nazi defeat.
"Our first goal here was to commemorate our World War II veterans that had served and are still with us," said Laura Sears, the museum's public programs coordinator.
For her video segment, Sears cut up newspapers to toss confetti reminiscent of the ticker-tape parades honoring soldiers upon their return home. Other museum ideas: dress in 1940s vintage fashion; share family photos of veterans; dance to big-band music; or simply express gratitude for veterans in videos you can upload to FDMuseum.org by May 5.
"I had one guest send me a really cute video of her children banging pots and pans in celebration," Sears said.
Honor Flight Chicago will send the final product directly to veterans who have taken Honor Flight trips to their memorial in Washington, D.C., their families and those on its mailing list.
"It allows us to all say thank you in a more personal manner and to be creative with the way that we do it," Honor Flight spokesman Doug Meffley said.
The videos are part of the nonprofit's efforts to connect with veterans while the pandemic grounds all Honor Flights. Volunteers have been recording Zoom interviews to preserve veterans' war stories while they're on waiting lists for trips. They've also have been calling veterans during the health crisis.
The First Division Museum is honoring their service with digital programming that also shows the horrors of war. For students, the museum has at-home curriculum remembering the role of the Army's 1st Infantry Division on V-E Day.
While the world celebrated the victory in Europe, infantrymen were liberating Holocaust survivors from the Falkenau and Zwodau camps in Eastern Czechoslovakia.
Cpl. Sam Fuller, who would later become a Hollywood director and influence to Steven Spielberg, was ordered by his captain to document the burial of Holocaust victims found by the division's soldiers, silent footage now seen in a museum gallery.
"When the prominent leaders of the town denied knowledge of the camp, Captain Richmond ordered the men in the town to dress the bodies of the dead prisoners and give them a decent burial, 'so their exit from this world would have some kind of dignity,'" museum historians wrote.
Other online educational content includes a V-E Day newsreel and the museum's Date With History Series on the Ghost Army and the Women Heroes of World War II. That presentation features Rosie the Riveter, whose mask-wearing likeness now honors health care workers fighting coronavirus.
"She's a great icon for today as well of everybody doing their part to help the greater good," Sears said.