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World War II Days Among Largest in U.S. B y To n i R o c h a nce again, Midway Village Museum will host one of the largest World War II reenactments in America. World War II Days will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 22, on the 148-acre campus at 6799 Guilford Road, Rockford. Both entertaining and educational, World War II Days offers visitors the chance to learn about one of the most influential eras in world history, while witnessing battle scenes play out. World War II engaged the entire world, and its impact is still being felt today. The event includes carefully screened authentic equipment including vehicles, tanks and many other artifacts. “Visitors will truly be amazed as they walk through and view the encampments the reenactors create to depict life as a soldier,” says Lonna Converso, Midway
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Smart Living Weekly
Village Museum director of marketing and social media. “More than 1,200 reenactor soldiers and civilians will participate.” Midway Village Museum has invited several presenters to share their unique perspectives on World War II. Among them, author John Ulferts offers insight through his book, “Always Remember World War II Through Veterans’ Eyes.” “I was teaching through the Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Germany in 1990,” Ulferts says. “We visited concentration camps that really brought home what war was like for so many. At Auschwitz, we saw rooms filled with human hair, toys taken from children. It drives home what was at stake.” From this experience, Ulferts started writing letters to WWII veterans to thank them. Before long, 140 veterans had responded, 20 of them Medal of Honor
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recipients. Based on Ulferts’ correspondence, he decided to write their stories. “One talk will be on daily life during the war and a second will focus on readings from chapters,” Ulferts says. “On Sunday, I will speak on the liberators who freed the concentration camp prisoners.” Ulferts profiles Rockford resident Art Sander, who was shot down over Germany, captured and imprisoned in Buchenwald. “He was captured by Hitler’s SS,” Ulferts says. “Art was one of 68 such fliers singled out by Hitler, who called them the terror fliers.” While war raged in Europe, Africa and the Pacific, the American homefront was deeply involved in programs and training to aid in any and every way they could. In Rockford, the war efforts came closer to home with a little known but
