Stories, photos are being recorded and stored for future generations

A10

BY ALAN COCHRANE
TIMES & TRANSCRIPT STAFF

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Researchers from The Memory Project will be in Moncton and Miramichi next week to gather first-hand stories, memories, photos and letters from local veterans of the Second World War.

"This is an opportunity for us to meet with local veterans and their families and record their stories on site," Erin Whittaker, communications officer for the Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War, said yesterday.

The Memory Project is an initiative of the Historica-Dominion Institute. Researchers have already interviewed hundreds of Second World War veterans from across Canada. Their stories, in both text and audio form, appear on the website at www.thememoryproject.com. The idea is to compile a record of Canada's participation in the Second World War through the eyes of the men and women who were there. More than one million Canadians served during the war and many of those who returned have passed on through the decades. Those who remain are in their 80s and often in failing health.

Local veterans are invited to come and tell their stories to researchers on Monday, Nov. 23 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Moncton Branch 6 Royal Canadian Legion, 100 War Veterans Avenue. A lunch will be served at noon.

On Wednesday, the researchers will visit the Miramichi Legion from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The researchers are also making the rounds to some special care homes to visit veterans who can't be moved.

Whittaker says many veterans don't believe their stories are worth telling all these years later but often open up.

"Sometimes they bring their families with them and they tell stories and reveal details that they've never told their family members before."

Whittaker said the researchers are currently working as fast as they can to record the stories of aging veterans. In time, they may ask for contributions from the families of deceased veterans so they are urging people to hold onto any medals, photos, letters and other memorabilia to preserve history for future generations.

The stories on the website come from a cross-section of veterans who served in Canada's army, navy, air force and other branches during the Second World War. Some of the stories are memories about signing up for the service and the training, while others still have vivid memories of their own wounds, close calls with death and the friends that didn't make it home.

"The Germans turned a mortar and a bit exploded and these guys all went down in a group, all over the place. That's all I can remember. See, I can see them in my mind's eye, laying there on the ground and they'd been alive minutes before," remembered David Peat of Laverna, Sask., who served with the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada.

There are also stories from women who served many jobs, from typists to lumber camp workers.

Corinne Kernan Sévigny of Montreal recalls that even though the country was at war, many thought it was outrageous that a woman would join the army.

"I can remember that my poor parents were often asked how they could let their only daughter join the army. Even my friends, friends of the same age as me would say that I was completely crazy, that it just something that wasn't done."

The Memory Project is funded by the federal government. The Historica-Dominion Institute is a national charitable organization that was launched Sept. 1 through the amalgamation of the Historica Foundation of Canada and the Dominion Institute.

* For more information on the Memory Project, or to read stories of Canadian veterans, visit the website at www.thememoryproject.com