STORIES From the HOMEFRONT Wilson: (Stills of War..planes, troops, etc.)

It was very important that we get those B-29s up in the air.

Yaffe: (Stills of women workers) An awful lot of women had to go to work and women had not gone to work.. Anich : (Stills of POWs) They didn't look scary they didn't look like the enemy, they looked like our cousins and uncles.

Hetz: (Stills of People from variety of vantage points) The Second World War, if you were involved in it, in some form or fashion, it changes you in a way you're never the same.

a way you're never the same.

Opening Sequence Narrator: WORLD WAR II WAS THE SECOND MAJOR WAR OF THE 20TH CENTURY AND THE DEADLIEST.

FROM GERMANY'S INVASION OF POLAND IN 1939 TO JAPAN'S SURRENDER IN 1945, MORE THAN A HUNDRED MILLION MILITARY PERSONNEL WERE CALLED INTO ACTION.

MORE THAN FIFTY MILLION LIVES WERE LOST, ABOUT A THIRD OF THOSE CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.

OVER THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND WISCONSIN SOLDIERS SERVED DURING THE WAR.

Hipke: We all knew we had to go to war, they took us right out of our classes.

Harris: Everybody said I can't wait until I'm 18 to go into the military and fight the Japs.

Narrator: WISCONSIN CITIZENS ACTIVELY PARTICIPATED IN THE WAR EFFORT, FACING THE CHANGES AND CHALLENGES IN EVERYDAY LIFE.

Rose: We all had to stick together because somebody's car would breakdown and there were no parts, no tires, no batteries to get where you're going.

Anich: It was a treat to have bacon and eggs on a Sunday, that was a Sunday special.

Mom saved the bacon grease in a special container and then during the week we would have bacon fried eggs.

Narrator: BUT EVEN WITH THE SHORTAGES, WISCONSIN AND MILWAUKEE PROSPERED.

Pifer: Before the war Milwaukee was one of most industrialized cities in the country.

It was a place of both large corporations like Allis Chalmers and A.O.

Smith but it was also a place of small machine shops.

It was a place of a large number of skilled crafts so that you had an industrial workforce that could affectively shift gears so to speak from the production of peacetime; whether it be automobiles or water heaters or whatever it might be to producing the material of war.

Narrator: AS THE WAR DRAGGED ON, MORE MEN GOET DRAFTED INTO MILITARY SERVICE, OPENING INDUSTRY'S DOORS TO OTHERS.

Pifer: One of the most studied areas of the change in the workforce is what happens with woman workers.

They tend to go from either the home or from retail into industrial production.

Rose: There were about four of us that went and worked at Case they because were making Bomb Bay Doors and wings for planes and I was Rosie the Riveter then, I was 17.

They needed a lot of people because there were no men left.

They showed us how to do it and this is the way we do it and that was it.

We put in an eight hour day or whatever it was.

We couldn't tell anyone what we were doing but we didn't know what that part was.

If anyone asked us we didn't know they just told us what to do.

There was a young woman, we were all very young and she got a telegram saying that her husband was killed.

That put such a bad feeling for everybody it was horrible, she was only 19.

Narrator: ROSE HERSELF, MARRIED AT A YOUNG AGE.

SHE MET A SOLDIER WHO WAS HOME ON SICK LEAVE.

Rose: He had just come in from the South Pacific, he had Malaria and they sent him home.

They promised him he would never have to go overseas again, but in the interim everything was going badly in Europe,.

So after being married two months he left.

I didn't realize I was pregnant we didn't know those things we were so naïve.

When he was in France the Red Cross was suppose to send a telegram to him saying that our child was born and he was in Nancy, France so we named her Nancy.

But he never got the telegram he saw it in the Stars and Stripes.

Pifer: Women very much are doing two jobs during the war, they're working for pay in industry or maybe in retail but they're also coming home and cooking dinner maybe looking after the kids if it's 1944.

Kavanagh: Because my mother died when I was eight I became a homemaker at 13, and so I had a lot of things to deal with facing how to deal with cooking and being a homemaker at an early age, plus starting my very first job.

Narrator: ALVINA SZEDZIEWSKI KAVANAGH MANAGED TO WORK, FINISH HIGH SCHOOL, AND MAKE A HOME FOR HER BROTHER AND FATHER.

Kavanagh: The War did provide us with some obstacles, such as not being able to get meat, butter, sugar, and any of the products I would have needed to start learning how to be a house wife, even though I was a homemaker.

It was learning how to get to the store with the stamps, if I remember correctly, so that I had to proportion my buying so that it would last throughout the month.

Narrator: SHE ALSO FOUND TIME TO VOLUNTEER WITH THE RED CROSS.

Kavanagh: I got involved in what they called "rolling bandages" for the Red Cross.

A group of us ladies who worked together went to a building on National Avenue, and it was part of the USO.

Yaffe: That was a real start it changed their attitude, positions, women who had literally just cooked, raised kids, sewed and cleaned were now recognized as being able to do a lot more.

I think it was the first step towards women stepping up.

Narrator: BECAUSE OF PHYSICAL PROBLEMS, LOUISE YAFFE'S HUSBAND DID NOT GO INTO THE SERVICE.

HE PRACTICED LAW AND BOUGHT PROPERTY THAT INCLUDED A BAR.

Yaffe: I would take a bus out to Kinnickinnic Avenue where this place was and I was supposed to watch the bar, I was also pregnant.

I rode the streetcar down from Oakland and Capitol down to south Kinnickinnic.

Narrator: THE WAR HAD SPECIAL IMPLICATIONS FOR LOUISE AND HER FAMILY.

Yaffe: I remember the oncoming of the whole Jewish problem because I happen to be Jewish.

We began to hear about the Holocaust and its beginning and just words that would get through, but most of the time we couldn't figure out that this could possibly be true.

Narrator: LOUISE'S BROTHER MONTY ENLISTED WHEN THE WAR BROKE OUT.

TOWARDS THE END OF 1944 CAME THE NEWS THAT FAMILIES DREAD, MONTY HAD BEEN KILLED IN A PLANE CRASH.

Yaffe: I was pregnant with my second child and we just go the word that they crashed and they didn't expect that anybody was alive but they would keep in touch.

My father's hair turned white in about two weeks, my mother was phenomenal and held on, we all were waiting for word.

They were over at the house with my first child and the phone rang and it was somebody saying that Monty was okay.

MUSIC (SONG--ROSIE THE RIVETER OVER PICS OF WOMEN WORKING...) Narrator: AT THE END OF THE WAR WHEN THE SOLDIERS RETURN, MANY WOMEN, LEAVE THE WORKFORCE, BUT NOT ALL.

LOUISE YAFFE LEAVES TO RAISE HER FAMILY, ALVINA KAVANAGH STAYS UNTIL THE BIRTH OF HER SON.

ROSE TRUCKEY CHANGES OCCUPATIONS, EVENTUALLY BECOMING VICE PRESIDENT OF A BANK.

Pifer: A number of authors talk about that the fact that World War II is this watershed event for women workers.

It's the event that starts, in a sense the modern woman's movement.

I disagree with that basic perspective.

If you look at the statistics, there's a major blip during the war when women enter the workforce in very large numbers.

If you take that blip out there is a steady progression over time so what's really happening is well before World War II women are entering the workforce and there's this steady progression.

The other thing that really reflects the nature of women's work and employment during the war is there's this broad assumption in the American populace that women enter the workforce for the first time in World War II and that just isn't true.

Narrator: THE WAR ALSO OPENED INDUSTRY'S DOORS FOR AFRICAN-AMERICANS.

BLACKS STARTED BEING HIRED TO WORK IN INDUSTRY AROUND THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

BUT BLACK EMPLOYMENT IN FACTORIES WAS CYCLICAL.

THEY WOULD BE HIRED, AND THEN LET GO, AND HIRED AGAIN.

WORLD WAR II WOULD CHANGE THAT.

Trotter: I think, in fact, we can say that World War II did a number of things for blacks.

For one thing it sort of created conditions under which African Americans who had been mired in unemployment at disproportionately high levels were able to finally gain reemployment.

Harris: When the war started when I turned 16 you could be hired to work in the factories and the thing was get a job to defeat the Japs so I was a fork lift driver at Allis Chalmers.

They had a counselor at school and he said if you're sixteen years old you can work in the summer in a factory, you had to have a work permit of course, parents okay, many of us did, that was my first job.

I felt very proud being able to work during the summer and help.

Narrator: A FEW COMPANIES LIKE ALLIS CHALMERS HIRED BLACKS, BUT MOST DID NOT.

Wilson: When I got to AO Smith there was this guy who checked us in and gave us our orientation.

Who told us, don't let no one shove no mess on you, you're a United States citizen, you're just as good as anybody else here.

I often wonder what happened to that guy after the war was over because it didn't turn out to be that way.

Nobody was as good as anybody else if your skin was tinted anything other than white.

Narrator: NELLIE ELIZABETH WILSON HAD APPLIED TWICE TO A O SMITH AND BEEN TURNED DOWN.

A MOTHER WITH TWO CHILDREN, SEPARATED FROM HER HUSBAND, SHE APPLIED A THIRD TIME AND WAS FINALLY HIRED.

Wilson: It was wartime and they used to tell me all the time things are going to be different when A O Smith starts paying the bill, but the government is going to pay the bill now.

Narrator: COMPANIES SEEKING GOVERNMENT DEFENSE CONTRACTS HAD TO PRACTICE OPEN EMPLOYMENT BECAUSE OF EXECUTIVE ORDER 8802.

IT WAS BLACK POLITICAL POWER THAT CAUSED PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT TO ISSUE THE ORDER.

A. PHILLIP RANDOLPH, HEAD OF THE BROTHERHOOD OF SLEEPING CAR PORTERS AND OTHER CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS CREATED THE "MARCH ON WASHINGTON" MOVEMENT IN 1941 TO HIGHLIGHT THE PROBLEMS BLACK WORKERS FACED IN THE DEFENSE INDUSTRY.

Trotter: .The March on Washington movement really made the point that World War II for all the benefit that it brought in terms of opening up opportunities for workers to enter industry.

That for black workers it would not be automatic.

Even in the case of vacancies and a cry for labor, industrialists were not hiring black people even though they claimed that were all these openings.

Narrator: RANDOLPH THREATENED TO BRING THE LARGEST NUMBER OF BLACK PROTESTORS WASHINGTON DC HAD EVER SEEN TO ATTRACT ATTENTION TO HIS CAUSE.

ROOSEVELT ISSUED THE ORDER.

AS A RESULT, NELLIE WILSON WAS HIRED AT A O SMITH, WORKING AS A PRECISION INSPECTOR; CHECKING MEASUREMENTS, EXAMINING BLUEPRINTS, AND INSPECTING AIRPLANE PROPELLERS.

Wilson: It was very important that we get those B29s up in the air and not be our fault if we could help it that some of them would not come back home alive.

Narrator: WHEN THE WAR ENDED, SO DID NELLIE'S JOB...BUT SHE WAS CALLED BACK TO THE COMPANY A YEAR LATER.

SHE STAYED AT A O SMITH UNTIL HER RETIREMENT IN 1969.

WHILE THERE SHE BECAME ACTIVE IN UNION ACTIVITIES.

SHE ALSO PARTICIPATED IN THE 1963 GREAT MARCH ON WASHINGTON.

BOB HARRIS GOT DRAFTED, SERVED AT THE END OF THE WAR IN KOREA AND CAME HOME.

Harris: I probably could have gone back to Allis Chalmers at that time if I wanted to but my goal was to go college that was my dream.

Narrator: BOB USED THE G I BILL TO REALIZE HIS DREAM, TAUGHT SCHOOL AND COACHED ATHLETICS.

THE GAINS THAT AFRICAN-AMERICANS MADE IN INDUSTRY HELPED THE BLACK COMMUNITY EXPAND FROM TEN THOUSAND RESIDENTS IN 1945 TO OVER 100,000 BY 1970.

Harris: We had relatives who came from the south many other families did too because they heard about the jobs.

It was a long train ride, but once got here they were employed for many years and many retired from these factories.

Narrator: ONE OF THE LESSER KNOWN STORIES OF WORLD WAR II INVOLVES THE LARGE NUMBERS OF POWS SHIPPED FROM EUROPE TO AMERICA DURING THE LATTER YEARS OF THE WAR.

Betty: Most states had POW camps, reality is that we had over 450,000 enemy soldiers that we brought back here and we had to put them somewhere.

What they were doing, initially at least into pre-existing camps.

The first was at McCoy where we had an old abandoned CCC camp, an abandoned CCC Camp, so we put them there that was our first.

Then they were putting them in military bases and then little camps here and there all across the country.

We did get more than our share, I suppose, because we ended with 20,000 for our state but that was common to have them in most states.

Narrator: WISCONSIN HOUSED PRISONERS IN THIRTY NINE CAMPS SPREAD AROUND THE STATE, USUALLY IN SMALL COMMUNITIES.

Betty: They did not want the public to know, for a couple of reasons.

Obviously one was security but that wasn't a real big issue here but they were afraid it might panic civilians and they didn't want revenge.

Ted Komp: They did the work of what most of our men in military would have been doing had they been here.

They worked the pea viners, vining peas, cutting hey, oats, grain, worked in the canning factories canning food products for the war effort, it was all over the state really.

Narrator: KOMP SAW THE PRISONERS WHO WERE HOUSED AT CAMP HARTFORD, HE WAS THIRTEEN YEARS OLD AT THE TIME.

Ted Komp: The sentiment of the people around here was kind of negative towards them because they were in the middle of the war and all our men were gone to war.

They brought these guys over here and fed them, clothed them and everything, they didn't like that it was negative.

Narrator: BUT NOT EVERYONE HAD NEGATIVE FEELINGS.

Anich: I didn't realize that it was a camp; I didn't realize that they were POW's but my girlfriend and I was nine years old at the time.

Here were these young men and they were talking funny.

I couldn't understand them but my girlfriend could cause her grandmother was from Germany so she knew they were speaking German.

When we spoke to them they didn't respond except for one and one man came forward.

It was interesting.

If I remember right they may have had food trays and it looked like not a very generous meal, knowing what kind of hard work they were doing.

Because of that it was a time when our moms would put cookies and cupcakes on the windowsills, because mom's baked everyday then, you know, at least in our families.

We snitched stuff and take them to the guys.

You never saw such big smiles on these people who were so stony faced before.

Hipke: In World War II I worked at the canning factory every summer and all I knew was at the canning factory.

In 1944 we got our first German war prisoners, they were housed in Chilton at the fairgrounds.

Narrator: RICHARD HIPKE WORKED FOR HIS FAMILY'S CANNING FACTORY.

Hipke: They were Rommel's troupes that were captured in North Africa.

Some of them were in the Hitler Youth Movement.

I said, "Macshnel" many times and they didn't like it.

We had guards walking around the plant one of them was with a sub machine gun, but I don't think it was loaded.

Betty: But the most interesting and probably the most depressing in some ways was the girl problems that was the biggest problem for the military camp commanders was to keep the girls out.

If you think about that, they were the only guys in town, our men are all gone, so here these women were and these good looking guys.

Hipke: We got letters from them because some of them fell in love with some of the girls working in our plant.

We got mail so we had to forward this mail to these girls and they were embarrassed.

Narrator: HIPKE ENLISTED IN THE NAVY.

AFTER HIS TOUR OF DUTY, HE RETURNED HOME AND EVENTUALLY HE BECAME PRESIDENT OF THE FAMILY BUSINESS.

Hetz: As far as the population in Wisconsin was concerned we were just like misplaced relatives so to speak.

I remember when I was in Milwaukee, Billy Mitchell Field, there were two places other than the farm that a couple of my buddies and I worked on, one was a mink farm, and the other was a sauerkraut factory.

Narrator: HARRY HETZ JOINED THE MEDICAL OFICER'S PROGRAM OF THE GERMAN AIR FORCE IN 1942.

HE WAS CAPTURED AND BROUGHT TO AMERICA IN 1943.

LIKE MOST PRISONERS, HE WAS ROTATED THROUGH A NUMBER OF CAMPS.

HE WORKED AT A CANNING FACTORY IN WAUPUN.

Hetz: You are aware of course that Wisconsin is little Germany in many ways.

It was almost like being home except you had to go back to the camp at night.

Narrator: KURT PECHMANN WAS DRAFTED INTO THE GERMAN ARMY IN 1940.

HE SERVED ON THE RUSSIAN FRONT, WAS CAPTUED AND CAME TO THE UNITED STATES IN 1943.

ONE OF HIS STOPS IN WISCONSIN HAD HIS DETAIL PICKING ONIONS.

Pechmann: The farmer figured if we get half of it done and in two days, he would be happy.

We went to work and we got the whole two acres I believe what it was, picking onions by hand in a good half of day.

He gave us a feast more than he should of, it was A-1 food, white table and the neighbors came to serve food, like a wedding.

We had beer, schnapps, it was against the law but he gave it to us anyhow because he was so happy.

No matter where we worked there was no complaints ever that the POW's did not behave.

Narrator: THE PRISONERS OF WAR WERE USUALLY SHIPPED STATESIDE.

MILWAUKEEAN ED GREEN , A MEMBER OF THE COAST GUARD WAS STATIONED ABOARD THE USS GENERAL H. GORDON; ONE OF THE SHIPS THAT CARRIED TROOPS TO EUROPE AND BROUGHT PRISONERS OF WAR BACK TO THE UNITED STATES.

Green: One of our big jobs we carried thousands, literally thousands of German prisoners back one after the other.

About 500 or more in one load.

I found contact with the German prisoners to be very good.

I talked with dozens upon dozens of them.

I mentioned one of the fellows, I talked to him, I talked to him quite a bit, he hung around the carpenter shop, and he was almost exactly my age, and he fought along with Rommel in North Africa.

I said, "boy your diction is just perfect,.

you have a vocabulary and so forth, and you enunciate the words, and your pronunciation is letter perfect."

He said, "I am a Harvard graduate. "

I said, "What are you doing in a vermacht?"

And he said, "Well, when I completed school, my folks still lived in Germany, so after I graduated I just went back to Europe, and immediately wound up in vermacht."

"And like you, none of us are very happy about the war, but it's one of those things."

Narrator: AT THE END OF THE WAR, THE PRISONERS WERE REPATRIATED.

MANY SOUGHT TO COME BACK TO THE UNITED STATES, AND ASKED THE FARMERS THEY HAD WORKED FOR TO WRITE LETTERS OF SUPPORT.

Betty: A lot of those farmers with the correspondence, said yes, you worked hard for me before you can come and I'll sponsor you.

We know nationwide of at least 5,000 came back and I know about 30 that came back to Wisconsin and I'm sure I don't know anybody at all.

Narrator: HARRY HETZ FINISHED HIS MEDICAL STUDIES IN EUROPE AND RETURNED TO THE US.

HE SERVED A MEDICAL INTERNSHIP, SETTLED IN THE CHICAGO AREA, AND WAS THEN DRAFTED INTO THE UNITED STATES ARMY.

Hetz: When I became a licensed physician and surgeon I was eligible for military service.

This was in 1955, the Korean War was over.

Narrator: KURT PECHMANN CAME BACK TO WISCONSIN AND STARTED HIS OWN BUSINESS IN MADISON, PECHMANN MEMORIALS.

HE BEGAN TO EARN A REPUTATION FOR DESIGNING AND BUILDING MEMORIALS FOR AMERICAN VETERANS.

Pechmann: I figured myself a friend of the American veterans and that's why I gave them all a good discounts and that got around.

I don't know who was in charge at that time they had a big ceremony I was invited to the VFW Hall here, and had a great big celebration and I got the American Purple Heart.

I can't believe it that an ex German prisoner of war gets an American Purple Heart.

I cried when I got it, because actually in the history of America that's the only time when an ex German POW gets an American Purple Heart.

I can't get over it yet.