The National Home Front Project records the memories of World War II civilians: men, women, and children whose lives were changed by the greatest global conflict in human history, and whose stories are in danger of being lost. Featured here are just a few of these “home front” witnesses and their stories: an electrician working to transform a Navy gunboat into Harry Truman’s presidential yacht; a young woman recruiting Southern migrant workers for a local munitions plant; a college physics major joining the Manhattan Project; a boy helping his parents buy their first home with war bond savings. Some of our interviewees’ family lives were shaped by wartime losses and traumas for years or even decades after the fighting ended.
Click on the photos below to read about the interviewees and experience their stories through audio tracks and transcripts. Check back as we continue adding more from our collection of nearly 300 oral history interviews from contributors nationwide. And please contact us if you, a family member, or friend have stories to share.
