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world war 2

Culture

Gen Xers are comparing themselves to the Silent Generation and the similarities are uncanny

"Very low key, no fuss or drama sorts of people."

Image via Canva

Many people from Generation X are comparing themselves to the Silent Generation.

Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1980, hold a unique place between Baby Boomers and Millennials. But its a previous generation that many are claiming to relate to even more: the Silent Generation.

In an online community of Gen Xers, a member named @bravenewwhorl shared with fellow Gen Xers about the similarities they share with the Silent Generation, those born between 1925 and 1945. "My parents were born before World War Two and my older siblings are younger boomers. Let’s hear it for the Silent Generation who were very much like us; went through the Depression, the war, took care of themselves and knew how to conserve resources," they wrote.

The user when on to add, "For example my mom scraped ALL the butter off the foil wrapper, and used every frying pan and leftover chicken bone as an opportunity to make soup."

chicken soup, sicken bone, soup, hot soup, homemade soup Chicken Soup GIFGiphy

The post seemed to resonate with many Gen Xers, who also shared their thoughts and experiences that connect them to the Silent Generation. These are some of the best comments from Gen Xers on why they feel simpatico with the Silent Generation.

no drama, drama, dramatic, low key, no fuss, generations No Drama Allblk GIF by WE tvGiphy

"My parents are Silent Gen. Very low key, no fuss or drama sorts of people." Dark-Empath-

"Mine too. That's basically their defining generational trait -- head down, work, and stay out of the way." stevemm70

"Oh the way my Dad could say nothing so very loudly. There are still things I wouldn't dream of doing now because his silence was so deafening. I am 56." Maleficent_Bit2033

"Mine were born during the war, but same. Extremely frugal and practical. Parents were way into reusing everything and not wasting. My mom still has a drawer full of Ziplock bags and sheets of tinfoil that have been used 10x. My dad drilled into me that social security probably will not be there for our generation, so save save save. Cars are tools, not investments. Drive it into the ground. My Honda is 20 years old, Dad!" Haunting-Berry1999

frugal, frugality, practical, cheap, save No Way Wow GIF by RatePunkGiphy

"My parents are Silent Generation, and because I was born in the mid 60s, so are the parents of almost everyone I grew up with. I am tired of this narrative that all GenX parents were boomers; that is simply not true, especially for those of us born 1970 or earlier. My parents were always very concerned about economic security, both for themselves and their kids. They transferred that concern to my siblings and myself." Ineffable7980x

"I still put ham bones in the freezer (Great grandma thing) for the soup I never make. Maybe this time :)." motherofguinaepigz

"My parents' parents definitely conserved resources - would wash and reuse 'tin foil', made food carry over into 4 or 5 different meals, shopped wisely, were extremely frugal with money and tried to be financially savvy. For them, cars, clothes, and appliances were maintained and repaired and lasted for years and years. My parents inherited a lot of those traits by example, and it followed down to us, too. Cars, clothes, and appliances aren't made today the way they were 'back then', of course, but we still try to make it work. I know people who change cars, or get new appliances, or even remodel or move to a new house every several years, and that just doesn't make sense to me. I just hope upcoming generations maintain and improve the 'reduce, reuse, recycle' mindset we were taught." DrewHunterTn

reduce, reuse, recycle, frugal, resources Reduce Climate Change GIF by INTO ACTIONGiphy

"My grandparents were Silent Generation. I am young GenX (but still GenX ‘76). I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for my Silent Generation grandparents. They taught me a lot, and I feel more in touch with their generation than I’ve ever felt with Boomers. The boomers were such a let down; not great parents and worse grandparents." kemberflare

"My folks are both silent generation (both born in 41) and I'm a young gen x (born in 75, last of 3), and farm kids to boot. They taught me a lot of important things. You do what you want, but think it through because all actions have consequences. Don't waste money on frivolous stuff, but when you buy something big, buy quality and make it last. Most importantly, while they loved me and thought I was special, the world at large doesn't think about me at all. Also, my mom still washes out ziplock bags. I did not keep that lesson." No_Hedgehog_5406

"Mine are young Silent gen’s, so didn’t know the war strife, but their parents knew how to be frugal, could fix anything, and passed that down through the generations. My parents said they were too old to be hippies, but almost went to Woodstock. My dad got a PhD to stay out of Vietnam. Like others have said, very low key, very private, and didn’t live in the past at all. Compared to my friends’ parents, I wouldn’t trade them for anything else." ZuesMyGoose

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Community

107-year-old WWII veteran gets his diploma 93 years after dropping out of high school

"It's a wonderful thing to graduate."

KTIV News 4/YouTube

107-year-old WWII veteran Orville Von Ehwegen receives honorary high school diploma.

Orville Von Ehwegen is proving that it's never too late to give up on your dreams. At 107 years old, he finally received his honorary high school diploma from East Sac County High School in Lake View, Iowa. He was honored during the high school's graduation ceremony on Sunday, May 18.

Von Ehwegen, a veteran of World War II, received his diploma 93 years after he was forced to drop out of school in 8th grade to help his dad on their family farm during the Great Depression.

He never got the chance to attend high school. "“It was gone. That part of my life, it was out,” Von Ehwegen toldKTIV News 4.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Years later, he served in the United States Army during World War II from 1942-1945. Following his military duty, he owned a successful appliance store with his wife.

But earning his high school diploma was something he always missed, something his friends and family knew. Recently, they rallied around him and reached out to East Sac County High School.

"I didn’t hardly think that it would ever, ever, ever happen. Never happen to me anyway. And it was just wonderful the way it turned out," Von Ehwegen told KTIV News 4. "That’s quite an honor. I’ve never been honored like that before."

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During the ceremony, Von Ehwegen was presented with his honorary diploma, and received a standing ovation. He also posed with his fellow Class of 2025 graduates.

"I was always kind, worked hard, and just enjoyed the life that I could. And it worked out just beautiful. Probably wasn’t as nice as going to high school and getting a diploma. But look what I got here," he told the news outlet.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

In another interview with SiouxCity Journal, he shared that the news he would be graduating came as a total surprise. And when he found out he would be recognized, he said, "Oh my God!" before agreeing to be honored.

Von Ehwegen's friend Steve Irwin helped lead the charge to get him the honorary diploma. "One thing led to another, and the school agreed to do an honorary diploma. So, I called back and and asked him if he thought that would be a good idea. And he kind of hemmed and hawed for about a half a second and said, sure, that sounds like a really good idea,” Irwin told FOX 17.

graduation, graduate, high school, high school graduation, diploma Jennifer Love Hewitt Graduation GIFGiphy

Von Ehwegen has had an incredible life. He told The Messenger that he was born on Aug. 21, 1917. He recalled life growing up as "hard work" and "long hours," noting that he rode a pony eight miles to attend a Lutheran school. But when things got more difficult for his family during the Great Depression, his dad approached him about dropping out of school.

"He says, ‘Bud, I can’t send you to high school this year because I can’t afford a hired man.’ That was in ’33," Ehwegen told the publication. "‘And you have to stay home and help me with the farm.'"

Through it all, he persevered. Congrats, Mr. Von Ehwegen!

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WWII

History (Education)

How a clever French museum director secretly saved the Louvre's artwork from Nazi plunder

When the Germans arrived, they were shocked to find the Louvre emptied of its treasures.

Mariordo (Mario Roberto Durán Ortiz) (left), public domain (right)

The "Mona Lisa" and thousands of other art pieces were hidden around France during WWII.

People can often feel when war is brewing, and some take precautions just in case. A combination of political unrest, bombastic language and sabre-rattling from leaders, on-the-ground shifts in military presence or police activity and other indicators can signal that war is imminent, and in the 1930s, Jacques Jaujard saw the writing on the wall.

The deputy director of French National Museums foresaw Germany's invasion of France before the war even started, and he knew what was likely to happen when they arrived. The Nazis would plunder France's museums and loot the world's art treasures from the Louvre, but Jaujard wasn't about to let that happen. Major artworks started being evacuated from the Louvre in 1938, the year before the war even started.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

On August 25, 1939, Jaujard closed the Louvre for three days "for repairs" and put out and all-hands-on-deck call to pack up the thousands of pieces held in the Louvre—paintings, drawings, statues, vases, tapestries, and more—and put them in hiding. Museum curators, guards, students of the Louvre School, and even employees of a nearby department store helped with the effort.

It was no easy task. Transporting art treasures is an art in itself, since changes in humidity and temperature can damage them.

"They had to improvise, because nothing on such a grand scale had ever been attempted before — and the Louvre was, and remains really, probably the biggest museum in the world,” James Gardner, author of The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum, told the New York Post.

And it all had to be done in secret, without anyone who might inform the Germans catching wind of it. According to The Collector, between August and December 1939, two hundred trucks transported the Louvre's 3,690 paintings and thousands of statues and antiquities. The "Mona Lisa" was among the treasures evacuated, of course. She left the Louvre cushioned in velvet in an ambulance 10 days before the Germans arrived.

mona lisa, louvre, art, world war two Today, the "Mona Lisa" sits safely behind glass at the Louvre.Victor Grigas

Throughout the war, the infamous smiling lady would be moved six times to abbeys and chateaux in the French countryside and a small museum in southern France, each time in a temperature-controlled armored van.

“The ‘Mona Lisa’ was like a resistance fighter who’s always trying to stay one step ahead from the approaching German army,” Gardner told the New York Post.

Items from dozens of other museums were also moved and spread throughout France, hidden in castles, chateaux, and abbeys in remote areas where they weren't likely to be discovered by Nazi invaders. Thousands of pieces all had to be categorized, catalogued, and dispersed.

the louvre, art museum, france The Louvre was first built in 1793.Benh LIEU SONG

When the Germans finally arrived at the Louvre, they were shocked to find it almost completely empty. They stared at frames with no art in them and some reproductions, such as a plaster copy of the Venus De Milo.

Thankfully, Jaujard and the Louvre's art also had a German ally on their side. Count Franz Wolff-Metternich was a German art historian appointed by Hitler to oversee France's art collection. Metternich, however, was not a member of the Nazi party and apparently did not want to see the world's greatest works of art fall into the hands of art-loving war criminals like Hermann Goering and Joseph Goebbels. Jaujard wrote in his diary that Metternich almost seemed relieved to find the Louvre empty when he arrived in 1940. Throughout the war, he used every means at his disposal to keep the art pieces safe while managing to avoid suspicion that he was trying to prevent them from being looted by the Nazis.

- YouTubeyoutu.be

The clandestine conspiracy to keep the Louvre's treasures safely away from Hitler's clutches worked. Though the Nazis stole thousands of pieces of art during the war, largely from Jewish families' private collections, they were unsuccessful in finding and taking the art that Jaujard and his colleagues had hidden.

In 1944, Jaujard was appointed Director of the French Order of Arts and Letters and helped establish the French Commission on Art Recovery. He would later become Secretary General of the Ministry of State in charge of cultural affairs. For his services during the war, he was awarded the Medal of the Résistance and named a Commander of the Legion of Honor.

Not too shabby for a man who dedicated his life to preserving and protecting the world's most beloved artwork.

— (@)

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history

Education

All-female flight crews known as 'Night Witches' bombed the crap out of Nazi targets in WWII

The Germans were terrified of these pilots whose silent planes swooped in like ghosts.

Avgeekjoe/Flickr

The Night Witches were feared by the Germans for their stealth bombing runs.

If you like stories of amazing women, buckle up, because this one is a wild ride.

During WWII, the Soviet Air Force's 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew incredibly harrowing missions, bombing Germans with rudimentary biplanes in the dead of night. The Germans called them Nachthexen—"Night Witches"—because the only warning they had before the bombs hit was an ominous whooshing sound akin to a witch's broom.

The "whoosh" sound was due to the fact that the women would cut the planes' engines as they approached, gliding in stealthily before dropping their bombs. And the Night Witches moniker was fitting, considering the fact that the 588th was an all-female regiment.

Their missions were incredibly dangerous, especially considering how the women were equipped. Most of the recruits were in their late teens to mid-20s, and crew members had to learn how to pilot, navigate and maintain the aircraft so they could serve the regiment in any capacity. They underwent an intensive year of training to learn what usually took several years to master.

The planes they flew were rickety biplanes made of plywood and canvas, which were usually used for crop dusting and training. According to the Wright Museum, a tracer bullet could easily cause the plane to burst into flames, causing some of the women to refer to their aircraft as "a coffin with wings." The planes' top speed was just 90 mph, and the weight of the two bombs and crew they carried meant they had to fly low. That made the planes easily visible targets, so the women only flew their missions under the cover of darkness.

The open design of the aircraft and the fact that they flew at night also meant that the women were fully exposed to frigid temperatures during Soviet winters. According to The History Channel, the planes would get so cold, touching them would tear off bare skin.

Since there had been no women in combat in the Air Force before, they were given hand-me-down men's uniforms and had to tear up bedding to stuff into the end of their boots to make them fit properly. Due to the limited capacity of their aircraft and limited funds, they also were deprived of the modern equipment their male counterparts had access to—radar, radios, machine guns and even parachutes. Instead, they had to use maps, rulers, compasses, stopwatches and pencils to perform their missions. And if they needed to bail out, they just hoped they were close enough to the ground to survive.

Up to 40 two-person crews would be sent out each night to complete between eight and 18 missions each. They would go out in groups of three, with two planes acting as decoys to draw the German searchlights and flack gun attacks away from the third. The one advantage the small, slow biplanes had was maneuverability, so they relied on fancy flying to create a diversion. When the navigator of the third plane tapped the pilot on the shoulder, she would kill the engine and silently swoop in for the bomb drop. The three planes would each take turns in this manner until all three planes had dropped their payloads.

The term "Night Witches" was coined by the Germans, but the women took on the nickname with pride. They had every reason to be proud. They were so feared that any German who downed one of their planes was automatically awarded the prestigious Iron Cross medal.

From June 1942 to October 1943, they flew more than 23,000 combat sorties, collectively logging over 28,000 flight hours and dropping more than 3,000 tons of bombs and 26,000 incendiary shells on Nazi targets. Their bombing raids wreaked havoc on river crossings, railways, warehouses, fuel depots, armored cars, firing positions and other valuable logistical targets. They also made 155 food and ammunition supply drops to other Soviet armed forces.

By the end of the war, the Soviets has lost 32 Night Witches in service. The 588th Regiment was highly decorated; of the 89 Soviet women who received the Hero of the Soviet Union award—the country's highest honor in WWII—22 were Night Witches.

However, when the Soviet Union held a massive victory parade after the war, the Night Witches weren't included in it. Their planes, which these badass women had painted flowers on to add a feminine touch, were deemed too slow.

Learn more about the Night Witches with NBC News Learn:

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Culture

French woman reunites with the American boyfriend she hasn't seen in the 75 years since they fell in love during WWII.

Truly beautiful. If only we could all be so loved.

France 24/YouTube

75 years later, D-Day veteran meets long-lost French lovewww.youtube.com

There are millions of love stories in the world, but occasionally one stands out—like this one.

Falling in love is a universal human phenomenon without a universal definition. It can be a slow-building fire or a flash in the pan. It can happen over years, or over a single cup of coffee. Sometimes it fizzles and fades, and sometimes it lingers for a lifetime.

We all love a good love story. With so much pain and sadness in the world, stories of the enduring power of love lift us up and remind us of the beauty of real human connection.

We also love stories of people living well into old age and having significant experiences in their later years. Such stories give us hope and remind us that anything is possible.

This story of an American man and a French woman who met during the WWII is both, and it will make you believe in the mystery of love and the enduring power it can have.

K.T. Robbins and Jeannine Ganaye fell in love when Robbins was stationed in France 75 years ago, but their relationship would be short-lived.

He was 24. She was 18. He was serving in the U.S. army, stationed in her village in northeastern France. They were both caught up in the trials of war and the triumphs of new-found love.

According to TODAY, when Robbins was transferred to the Eastern Front, he had to say a quick goodbye to Ganaye. They talked of the possibility of him coming back for her. He took a photograph of her with him.

They wouldn't see one another again after that.

Robbins was sent back to America after the war, where he eventually got married and started a hardware store. Ganaye moved on, too, marrying and having five kids of her own in France.

They'd both left WWII with thoughts of reunion. Ganaye had even started to learn English in the hopes that Robbins would return. But life happened, and those hopes had to be abandoned. "You know, when you get married, after that you can't do it anymore,'' Robbins said.

Neither forgot about the other, however. And neither could have predicted that they'd get another chance 75 years later.

Robbins and Ganeye—now Pierson—recently reunited for the first time since the war, and it's seriously the sweetest thing.

He is 97. She is 92. His wife of 70 years has passed way, and her husband has passed as well.

Robbins was interviewed by French a television station for a D-Day anniversary segment, and he shared the photo he still had of Pierson.

He thought maybe they could track down his former sweetheart's family, never imagining that she would still be alive herself—or that she would live within 40 miles of the village of Briey, where they had met more than seven decades before.

In a video shared by France 24, a reporter informs Robbins that Pierson is alive and well, and that she is waiting for him to meet with her. His surprise and joy is palpable as he laughs and kisses the reporter on the forehead.

The video then cuts to the former couple's reunion, and their chemistry is instantaneous. "Jeanine Ganaye," Robbins says, as he walks up to her. The two embrace, and she kisses his face over and over. There are smiles and tears as they sit side by side, holding onto one another's hands.

"I always loved you," Robbins tells her. "You never got out of my heart."

Pierson told the television station, "I always thought about him, thinking maybe he was out there, that maybe he'd come." The two spent several hours together before they had to part once again—but this time with plans for another meeting.

From Your Site Articles

world war 2

Gen Xers are comparing themselves to the Silent Generation and the similarities are uncanny

"Very low key, no fuss or drama sorts of people."

107-year-old WWII veteran gets his diploma 93 years after dropping out of high school

"It's a wonderful thing to graduate."

How a clever French museum director secretly saved the Louvre's artwork from Nazi plunder

When the Germans arrived, they were shocked to find the Louvre emptied of its treasures.

All-female flight crews known as 'Night Witches' bombed the crap out of Nazi targets in WWII

The Germans were terrified of these pilots whose silent planes swooped in like ghosts.

French woman reunites with the American boyfriend she hasn't seen in the 75 years since they fell in love during WWII.

Truly beautiful. If only we could all be so loved.

K.T. Robbins and Jeannine Ganaye fell in love when Robbins was stationed in France 75 years ago, but their relationship would be short-lived.

Robbins and Ganeye—now Pierson—recently reunited for the first time since the war, and it's seriously the sweetest thing.

The real-life love story of Maria and Georg Von Trapp we didn't see in 'The Sound of Music'

People from other countries share 14 things that instantly tell them someone's American

Brit shares the one-word 'dead giveaway' that American actors can't do an English accent

Gen X has been designated the 'worst grandparents.' Sadly, their explanation makes sense.

Why didn't people smile in old-timey photographs? A smile meant something different back then.

Swim coach's reaction when toddler tries to kiss him is a masterclass in teaching boundaries

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world war 2

"Very low key, no fuss or drama sorts of people."

"It's a wonderful thing to graduate."

When the Germans arrived, they were shocked to find the Louvre emptied of its treasures.

The Germans were terrified of these pilots whose silent planes swooped in like ghosts.

Truly beautiful. If only we could all be so loved.

K.T. Robbins and Jeannine Ganaye fell in love when Robbins was stationed in France 75 years ago, but their relationship would be short-lived.

Robbins and Ganeye—now Pierson—recently reunited for the first time since the war, and it's seriously the sweetest thing.