Teenagers during World war 2

To whom it may concern:

I am doing a project for my English class. We just finished the book, A Separate Peace, and now we are to do some research. My assignment is to talk to people that were teenagers during the war. I need to know information such as: -what education was like during the war -how did other teens entertain themselves -how were lives affected or changed If you have more information, please add on. I would greatly appreciate it if you could help. If you could please include your name and age(strictly confidential). Thanks a lot. Rachel

Let's see, Rachel, I have to look back quite a way. I'm 70. I lived in a small town in North Carolina. On Pearl Harbor day, a Sunday, I heard the news announcement, my father said: 'What the hell do those crazy people think they're doing>' He was excited. He rarely said hell.

I went off to an orchestra concert. I played clarinet in th orchestra. We performed something of Shovtakovitch. Remember, Russia had entered the war. Russians were good.

Education. No change to speak of. We were taught the same subjects as

Sounds like you're studying the teenager's life back in the States during the war. That's fine. But I hope you realize that many teenagers were FIGHTING the war during that time. Not only the US, but certainly in Germany, where 16 and 17 year olds were manning antiaircraft guns and were actually out in the combat units. Are you curious about how these teenagers lived and died in the frontlines? Are you curious about the fact that it always seems that it's the young people who wind up fighting and dying in the wars that the older people get us into?

I know a German lady who was a teenager during the war. To this day she can't look up at the night sky for fear of seeing the deadly bombers.

Bill Momsen Nautical Brass Onlune

If Rachel is covering the lives of teenagers outside the United States, I hope she'll read the diary of a teenager called Anne Frank.

All the best,

Rachel,

A few weeks ago I met a man who was a 13 year-old German schoolboy in the city of Danzig in 1944 and 45. Heiz Schmidtgerke (sp?) was his name, and he had a very good humor about everything, despite being in a rehab hospital with a shattered leg from a hit and run driver.

At one point he spoke of air attacks on the city, and then with a big smile told me that kids, well, they look at some things different, you know? They took special interest in the air raids for one big reason. The regulations in Danzig (maybe in all German areas?) said that if bombs fell after midnight, there would be no school the next day. So every time he and his sister heard air-raid sirens or the sound of planes or bombs, they started watching the clock. Close to midnight they'd go outside and do a countdown, waiting to hear the sound of just one bomb after the stroke of midnight, and then have a small celebration. Now, some might say that this was insensitive to the fact that people may have been (probably were) dying in these raids. But what could they do about it? I think it was a case of taking pleasure where you can find it during hard times.

Best to you, David Thomas (10 years younger than Heinz)

Several years ago I worked with a man who had grown up in Germany in WWII. With the Allied bombing campaign in full swing, he was evacuated to the country. As is usual with kids, the new ones were picked on and he was beaten up by several of them. Realizing that the best way to make sure that it didn't happen again was to deal with them individually, he followed one of them home and continued the fight in his living room. The fight continued with the other boy's mother hitting him with a broom to stop it. He said the two of them became the best of friends

On the seventh of December 1941 I was eleven and now of course 79 (not 70 as the writer stated he is). I'd just come up from the Basement and was told by my Grandad about Pearl Harbour. To this day when I go that room that is what I think of. My Dad had been called up in March (Doctor) and he and Mother were at Fort Meade in Maryland. My personal part in the war was parking cars as a Boy Scout when the local Draft Board sent those drafted off to war. We had spent the summer of 1940 near Meade on the Severn River and my brother and I had a great time playing on World War I tanks that were stored there. Litte did I know what was actually going on and still spend much time reading history and learning about what went on. I spent 20 years flying in the Air Force and actually going to many places made famous all over the world during the war.

Robert, welcome to the forum

Did WWII have a big influence on your life?