My uncle was born in Detroit on April 29th, 1923. In October of the same year, he moved with his parents to their home town, Sonneberg Germany. On September 29, 1929 they landed in Toronto, along with my father who was born in Sonneberg. Bill boarded a train in Toronto on its way to California to join the US Army on November 9, 1943. On April 16th, 1945 he was killed in action in Luzon.
He had lived less than 150 days in the United States, yet he volunteered to serve in that country’s armed forces. I had asked my Dad why uncle Bill signed up. He said “because he thought it was the right thing to do.” In a letter dated January 25th, 1945, Bill wrote about his reasons for enlisting: “I felt something was missing in my life, because many friends had entered the service. Then too I wanted to retain my American citizenship with honour.”
His cousin, Renate, who lived in Sonneberg, Germany with her mother and Grandmother through the war, was born after my father and uncle had left for Canada. While she had never met Bill, I expect she heard something about him from the grandmother they shared. Their grandmother had last met Bill when she visited Toronto for 10 months starting in April 1938. It might have been the stories of a doting Grandmother that shaped her views. Renate said to me one more than one occasion that Bill had chosen to fight the Japanese rather than the Germans. It seems that she had constructed this story to somehow make sense of the disparate pieces of information available to her. “Narrative is about creating meaning over what would otherwise be random and disconnected” (Schutt, 35).
My father said this was untrue and this was confirmed from reading Bill’s letters; he had no control over where he was stationed. But regardless of the facts, this story does perpetuate a myth the German side of the family could accommodate: yes, Bill fought on the other side, but it wasn’t against his homeland. “Myths and stories are meant to offer possible, if not always plausible, explanations for emotional calamities within the family. They are a blend of fact and fiction preserving important themes, special events, and notable personalities in the history of each family. However, to family members, ‘veracity is never the main point—what’s important is what could be rather than what actually was’” (Encyclopeadia.com).
It was hard for my Dad and Grandparents to talk about Bill; it would inevitably end when my Grandmother broke down in tears. As a result I got little in the way of a cohesive story about his life, simply a few disparate “facts”: he was killed in the Philippines; he played the piano; he was in University studying chemical engineering when he volunteered; he read the encyclopedia; he was a medic in the 8th US cavalry. However, it was his portrait that spoke to me more than any of the words. Encased in a marble frame, the glass-covered image is like a monument (or a gravestone), an image locked in time, with a self-written narrative informed by the reminiscences of others and my interpretation of what I saw. I read into this photograph as much as I dared: he was strong, confident, but warm; he was a hero; he was brave … The words from his commanding officer only validated what I felt through the image.
“At the time of his death, William’s platoon was attacking an enemy strongpoint in the mountains. He was killed near Santa Clara, southern Luzon by enemy rifle fire. William was giving medical aid to a wounded comrade when an enemy bullet struck him in the chest and he died instantly without suffering.”
Marvin L. Truby, 1st Lt., 8th Cavalry, April 20, 1945
Reading his letters, I saw in Bill someone who was at least a bit of an idealist. Volunteering was about honour, about doing the right thing. It was without fully appreciating the risk. The sum of these two forces — the image and the letters — defined for me central elements of character: confidence, honour, and warmth or empathy.
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Not unlike the monuments of famous people, I am uncertain about the future of my monument. Will it be passed on to the next generation? Not that I expect it to suffer the consequences of public monuments, like Ryerson, MacDonald, etc. through the discovery of the dark side of their legacy. Bill died too young to create a legacy. My question is whether the artifact itself will survive? Will the picture be handed down or will it end up in a box and then discarded like so many family pictures.
My photograph sits on the piano in the living room, in plain view for anyone to see; no effort is required, simply a glance, a turn of the head. But as more of our images take on a digital form, access is often mediated through some sort of technology. But this is not so much about a technology shift at the root of demise; it is that the technology shift mirrors a cultural shift, where the photograph shifts from memory tool to communication devices, and from sharing (memory) to sharing experiences (van Dijck, 4).
What are the implications for the family story?
The link with monuments … family albums are like monuments
References
Carter, Rodney G S. Photography and Personal Mythology. Last Accessed September 13, 2020. (https://www.academia.edu/6726476/Photography_and_Personal_Mythology)
Encyclopedia.com. Family Stories and Myths. Last Accessed September 13, 2020 (https://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/family-stories-and-myths)
Goldberg, Jeffrey. Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’. The Atlantic Magazine. Last Accessed: September 13, 2020 (https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/trump-americans-who-died-at-war-are-losers-and-suckers/615997/)
Hertha, William H. Letters to Home, 1943-1945. Private Collection
Schutt, Stefan; Berry, Marsha. The haunted photograph: context, framing and the family story. Last Accessed September 13, 2020 (https://www.academia.edu/3067573/The_haunted_photograph_context_framing_and_the_family_story)
van Dijck, Jose. Digital photography: communication, identity, memory Last Accessed September 13, 2020. (https://www.academia.edu/26648509/Digital_photography_communication_identity_memory?email_work_card=title)
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