I was only a kid, how would I know what to do? ~Private Vittorio Zippi

On this episode of Argot: Audio Short Stories from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Collection, WWII veteran Vittorio Zippi of Jeannette, Pennsylvania grew up in the mostly Italian community of Crabtree and was among the first to be drafted into the army during WWII.

“Would you shoot the Italians?” asked his officers. “Hell yes if they were shooting at me,” Vittorio replied. “But they’re my cousins, you know,” he added, proudly recognizing his ancestry.

The army was suspicious and questioned his American loyalty; that hurtful mistrust stayed with Vittorio for the rest of his life.

LISTEN TO THE STORY
https://wp.me/p8nTyT-2kr

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Don't miss episodes of the Argot Podcast by The Social Voice Project.
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Stefano Ballini ... See more

Coming Soon! On episode 42 of Veteran Voices: The Oral History Podcast, we talk with Italian filmmaker Stefano Ballini who visits the US to screen his second documentary about the effects of war, pain and memory on the soul of veterans from WWII and Vietnam, featuring Pittsburgh veterans Al DeFazio, Harry Van Riper, Ed Blank, George Haught, and Ben Wright.

WATCH THE FILM TRAILER
https://vimeo.com/273502128 ... See more

We are looking for local oral history projects throughout Western Pennsylvania and beyond.

After a decade of doing oral history, we at The Social Voice Project are like Farmer's Insurance, we've seen a thing or two.

So, whenever we give talks about the importance of oral history--capturing, preserving, and sharing the voices and stories of our time--we stress a few things we've learned over the years:

1) Oral history matters. These important recordings give voice to our experiences and heritage; they are as valuable to local history museums as any inanimate artifact.

2) Oral history projects tend to be poorly managed and they come and go quickly. Funding is scarce and there's not much interest by the public. To make matters worse, after most projects fail, their recordings seem to vanish with them.

3) Nobody from the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, or any big city history museum is going to rush in and do oral history work for small towns and communities. That's why local historical societies and museums have to take the lead and become active centers of community storytelling, making oral history work an ongoing part of their museums' historical programming and public outreach efforts.

As part of our effort to value and promote oral histories in our region, we put together a listing of local projects in our region.

If you know of oral history projects (on any subject) that should be listed, please let us know.

CHECK OUT LOCAL ORAL HISTORY PROJECTS
https://thesocialvoiceproject.org/public-history-matters/oral-history-collections/ ... See more

We celebrate Father's Day by remembering a story told to us by the late Alex Sopka of Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, whose stern Russian immigrant father, gassed during WWI, was not supportive of Alex's eagerness to join the army in WWII.

LISTEN TO THE STORY
https://wp.me/p8nTyT-8d

This audio short story is an episode of Argot: Audio Short Stories from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Collection, a production of The Social Voice Project. ... See more

The Social Voice Project works hard to safeguard its media content from unauthorized and inappropriate use on the internet. We want our podcasts, oral history interviews, and associated images, videos, and text to be shared with the public, but this media is owned by The Social Voice Project and the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Initiative (Farkas Collection); it is not in the public domain. Appropriate attribution is required in most cases, and we reserve the right to enforce our copyright protections.

TRANSLATION: We're tired of having our hard work and talents ripped off. ... See more

This is historic beyond measure! The last surviving African-American D-Day veteran. Today Henry was featured on CNN.

Henry Parham served with the 320th Anti-Aircraft Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only all-black unit to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Henry served in a segregated army, where African Americans were treated as second-class citizens. But to this native of Greenville, Virginia, segregation in the military was simply a way of life, one he had grown used to in the Jim Crow South.

On a hot, late-August day in 2012, ninety-two year old Henry Parham visited with us in the Gettysburg Room at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum–a grandiose space dedicated to the African American soldiers’ experience during the Civil War. The room is where each month we conduct our Saturday interviews with local veterans; it’s large, opulent, and convenient for our recording set-up. As one of the few African American veterans we’ve interviewed, Mr. Parham’s presence in the Gettysburg Room was not only serendipitous, but historically significant.

Watch and listen to his unique story as one of the few African American soldiers to have participated in the Normandy invasion. ... See more

Army Captain John S. Williams of Ridgway, Pennsylvania served as a medical doctor with the 104th Medical Battalion of the 29th Division. Shortly after his daughter Ann was born, he was killed at Normandy in 1944 when his Jeep struck a mine as it rushed to the wounded on the front lines. Ann never knew her father, except through the nearly 1,000 letters he’d written home to the family.

Recorded in 2012 in Brentwood, Pennsylvania. ... See more

Lucky Man | Fran Rifugiato

We commemorate Memorial Day by honoring the late Fran Rifugiato of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who shared with us his deeply moving story about his buddy Charlie, killed in action during WWII.

LISTEN TO FRAN'S STORY
https://wp.me/p8nTyT-8p ... See more

Lucky Man | Fran Rifugiato On this episode of Argot: Audio Short Stories from the Veteran Voices of Pittsburgh Oral History Collection, WWII veteran Francis Rifugiato of Pittsburgh shares a story about the death of his army buddy Charlie and his own fortunate life, as originally told in May 2012 to.... ... See more

"One of the saddest things we can do to our WWII veterans is to fetishize them as 'heroic bad-asses,'" says Kevin Farkas, award winning veterans oral historian and founder of The Social Voice Project.

"Our interviews with hundreds of veterans reveal a much more nuanced and ordinary depiction of WWII veterans. Not everyone who served in WWII lives up to Hollywood's image of John Wayne. Some who served were cowards and convicted criminals. Most were not battlefield heroes. After the war, many found solace in work, alcohol, drugs, and forgetting the inhumanity they were forced to endure on the battlefield."

The true story of Private Eddie Slovak disrupts our tendency to hero-worship anyone who served during WWII, especially the officers who sometimes made wrong decisions. These were human beings unavoidably caught up in the circumstances of the time. Sometimes they got it wrong.

"In our experience as oral historians, elderly veterans are not apt to recall their mistakes," Farkas says. "The general public may not want them to. We're comfortable with softening history. We're all too comfortable perpetuating the myth that all WWII veterans are heroes. In reality, they are not."

This media short produced by Kevin Farkas reminds us that history is not always unilateral. It is always under interpretation, as it should be.

Was the execution of Private Eddie Slovik "justice or legal murder?" asks Nick Gozik, eyewitness to the firing squad. Was Slovik a hero? Some believe so. You decide. ... See more

WHEN FRANCE COMES CALLING

True story: Not long ago the French Consulate to the United States contacted us at The Social Voice Project, asking if we could help verify that Mr. Prestia had served in France with the 45th Infantry Division.

The French government wanted to present Guy with the distinguished Legion d’Honneur, the highest French order of military merit, established in 1802 by Napoleon Bonaparte.

But the Consulate had a problem. The award required detailed, official documentation in Guy's Army record that placed him in France during the war.

"I was in France with my unit," Guy told the Consulate. "We came up through the south, not Normandy, and headed straight for Germany. We didn't stay long."

As the ambassador scribbled notes to himself to aid his research, Guy humbly added, "After all these years, I don't know if that counts for anything."

Of course, we think it does. In total, the men of the 45th Division endured more than 500 days of combat throughout Europe, much of it under that hard-edged leadership of General Patton. Being in France is part of that story.

And we know that after leaving France and crossing into Germany, the men of the 45th were among the first to liberate Dachau. Despite their battle hardness, they were unprepared for such inhumanity. It was terrible, almost beyond belief. Many soldiers, through the tears and vomit, now understood the importance of their service, Guy recalls.

"It never leaves you,” he laments, thinking of those who perished and the stench of death that still lingers in his memory.

By any measure, Guy Prestia's meritorious service during WWII deserves our recognition. His story deserves to be heard, which is why we are sharing this oral history interview with the public.

As for the Legion d’Honneur, the French are still working on the paperwork.

FOR MORE VETERANS ORAL HISTORIES
https://wp.me/P8nTyT-aC ... See more

During WWII, Guy Prestia of Ellwood City, Pennsylvania was among the first Army troops to reach Europe through North Africa, Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio. From...