The War Blog - Weekly Update #3

1. Paintings Hitler bought found in Czech Republic

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/02/28/2248247/paintings-hitler-bought-found.html#storylink=cpy

A five-year search by a Czech author has discovered that 16 paintings in the Czech Republic were once owned by Adolf Hitler.

The art works, which Hitler bought in Germany during World War II, had been moved to Czechoslovakia after it was occupied by the Nazis to prevent them being damaged by Allied attacks.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/02/28/2248247/paintings-hitler-bought-found.html#storylink=cpy

2. 'Ours to Fight For' tells stories of Jews who served in WWII

In all, 550,000 Jews - 11 percent of the total U.S. Jewish population - served. Nearly 40,000 were wounded, about 11,000 were killed and 52,000 were decorated for gallantry. But this exhibition, recognized by the American Association of Museums, is less a celebration of heroism and more about what was universal and unique about the experiences of Jewish veterans.

3. Happy Valley author takes on WWII in second novel

“The Bridge of Scarlet Leaves” is a love story set in Los Angeles in 1941, when violinist Maddie Kern secretly elopes with Lane Moritomo, her brother’s best friend. Pearl Harbor is bombed the next day, and when Lane and his family are moved to an internment camp, Maddie soon follows.

As the war progresses, both Maddie’s brother, TJ, and Lane join the military; TJ becomes a B-17 tail gunner in the U. S. Army Air Force, while Lane enlists in the Military Intelligence Service, a secret branch of the U.S. Army responsible for interrogating and code breaking against Japan. When the war ends, the characters have experienced loss, love and understanding.

4. ‘Band of Brothers’ veteran Buck Compton dead at 90

Lynn D. “Buck” Compton, an Army paratrooper whose World War II service was portrayed in the book and HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers” and who later as a prosecutor secured a conviction of Robert F. Kennedy assassin Sirhan Sirhan, died Feb. 26 at his home in Burlington, Wash. He was 90. In the series he was played by Neal McDonough. Buck Compton also wrote a book about his exploits called "Call of Duty".

5. Readers share their memories about German POWs in Texas

Did you know there were some 50,000 German prisoners of war, staying in dozens of Texas camps, during the latter half of World War II?

6. Bergen-Belsen concentration camp survivors make contact with WWII medic Walter Gantz

As a combat medic with the 9th Army's 95th Medical Battalion, Walter "Babe" Gantz treated somewhere in the ballpark of 19,000 patients over the course of the Second World War.
Perhaps none made a more profound impression on the South Scranton resident than the emaciated, emotionally damaged souls from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. The memory of them has haunted him for decades, but never in his wildest dreams did he think he'd come into contact with any of them.