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10 | SEPT. 6 —SEPT. 19, 2013 | www.ReporterNewspapers.net
WWII veterans are a ‘precious
asset’ not to be forgotten
About all Lee Weinstein can remem
ber now is that he was jumping up and
down with excitement.
He was only 5 years old at the time.
Now, nearly seven decades later, he says
that moment of overwhelming elation is
his only personal memory of World War
II. He recalls how his whole family cele
brated in 1945 when news came on the
big console radio in their Atlanta home
that the war was ending. Even at 5, he
felt the thrill.
Weinstein now isn’t even sure wheth
er that broadcast reported V-E Day or
V-J Day, whether it marked the end of
combat in Europe or against Japan. But
he does recall that everyone in his fam
ily welcomed the report. The war had
touched them all. “My grandparents
had two sons and one son-in-law serv
ing,” he said.
Soon their soldiers could return.
But Weinstein worries that the sol
diers who served in World War II and
their first-hand memories of
the war are disappearing.
Put bluntly, the soldiers
who fought in Europe and
Japan are growing older and
dying. Weinstein, who this
month oversees his first meet
ing as the new command
er of the Atlanta World War
II Roundtable, jokes he was
chosen for the job at age 73
because the group wanted
younger leadership. He says
an important part of his new
job is making sure veterans in
their 80s or 90s have a chance
to pass their stories on to an
other generation.
“The World War II veterans are here,
and they are a precious asset,” he said
one recent afternoon during a chat at his
Sandy Springs home.
“That’s what got me going. I’m very
proud to be an American and enjoy the
freedoms we have. These guys didn’t give
us new freedoms, but they preserved
our existing freedoms by beating Hitler
and the Japanese. Hitler wanted to take
over the world. It was extremely impor
tant that Hitler be defeated ... and they
might be speaking Japanese in Hawaii
except for what [World War II soldiers]
did. They need to be honored for what
they did.”
The Roundtable organized in 1986 as
a way to collect and share experiences of
World War II vets.
The group now claims 250 mem
bers from across north Georgia, Wein
stein said. About 100 of them are World
War II veterans. The Roundtable also
includes veterans of American conflicts
in Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well
as history buffs such as Weinstein who
never served in the military.
In the past, Weinstein said, Roundta
ble members primarily gathered for lun
cheon meetings where they heard from
veterans or historians, took part in cere
monies or pa
rades honor
ing veterans,
and support
ed programs
for veter
ans. Wein
stein thinks
members of
the g rou P
can do more.
“We’ll get
veterans and
send them
out to the
schools,” he
said. “Were going to get the word out
to youngsters.”
When he was a youngster himself,
Weinstein took an interest in a differ
ent American conflict. His family lived
in the Morningside area of Atlanta, and
his neighborhood provided proof of the
city’s role in the Civil War. His teach
ers in elementary school were the grand
daughters or great-granddaughters of
Confederate veterans, he said. “History
was a big, big thing,” he said.
He found other, more tangible, con
nections literally in his own back yard.
He unearthed minie balls, the coni
cal bullets used during the 1860s. He
still keeps a set he dug up preserved in
a small frame.
His boyhood interest in the Civil
War turned into adult participation in
Atlanta’s Civil War Roundtable, where
he is a past president. There, he met oth
er history fans who introduced him to
the World War II group.
As commander of the Roundtable,
he hopes to expand the organization’s
speakers program by dispatching vet
erans to public events and into mid
dle school and high school classrooms
where they can tell their stories. “I think
it’s better to hear it from someone who
went through it,” he said.
They’ll have the chance to “meet with
classes and tell them why World War II
was important, and why it was impor
tant that we won.”
And perhaps those another gener
ation will discover something worth
jumping up and down about.
JOE EARLE
Lee Weinstein, commander of
Atlanta World War II Roundtable.
AROUND
TOWN
JOE EARLE
