Cherry Hill Public Library asks veterans to share stories at May 20 WWII veteran appreciation event
On May 20, during a World War II veterans appreciation event at the Cherry Hill Library, Mayor Chuck Cahn noted the following statistic: 16 million Americans served in WWII, just 855,000 of those veterans remain today, and in New Jersey that number is even smaller at about 22,000.
Those numbers alone show why the Cherry Hill Library started its ongoing “Veteran’s Oral History Project.”
Since 2013, the library has been interviewing Cherry Hill veterans and recording their stories of military life during war and peacetime, with the audio and video of those interviews to be posted on the library’s website and social media.
“We really want to share their stories with the community as well as have an area where they can have their own historical records so their friends and family can also hear their stories,” said Cherry Hill Library emerging technologies librarian Melissa Brisbin.
So on the morning of May 20, when the Cherry Hill Library, in conjunction with Cherry Hill American Legion Post 372 and Jewish War Veterans Post 126, hosted a WWII veteran appreciation event at the library, a repeated call to action was for veterans to share their stories.
“It’s important that we do capture the stories for my grandchildren, and the grandchildren of my grandchildren,” said JWV Post 126 executive board member Perry Levine. “The stories should not be forgotten.”
One story already recorded by the library’s oral history project was that of Cherry Hill resident and WWII veteran May Brill, age 91, who served the U.S. Navy in a division known as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service.
Stationed in California, Brill said her job was to help supply the Pacific fleet and bases.
In addition to sharing her story, Brill spoke of how the May 20 veteran appreciation event itself was another reminder to her that people had not forgotten those who served in WWII and all they did for their country.
“I’m here not because of me, but because people should not forget,” Brill said. “I tell children in schools you have to learn about past mistakes so you don’t repeat them in the future, and that’s my message to anybody.”
State Sen. James Beach, who also attended the May 20 event, spoke of his 92-year-old father who also served in WWII as a marine in the Pacific Theater.
He said growing up, his father never opened up about his personal experiences during the war, only now in the last years or so having started speak about that time in his life.
Beach urged those in attendance to do the same.
“Please tell your children, your grandchildren, your stories, because those stories 50 years from now will be so important to your grandchildren,” Beach said. “They want to be able to repeat them to their friends, to their grandchildren.”
To date, the library has had 20 veterans participate in the oral history project, with 12 being WWII veterans and the rest from either Korea or Vietnam.
To learn more about the project or see the interviews recorded so far, visit vohp.chplnj.org or visit the Cherry Hill Library’s YouTube channel.
If there is any veteran who is interested in sharing their story with the library, contact Valerie Carita at (856) 903–1205 or email history@chplnj.org.
