Roscoe Brown was born on 9 March 1922 in Washington D.C. With his father being a dentist and his mother a teacher, Brown grew up in an intellectual climate and performed well at school. After he finished his studies with excellent results, he decided to join the American Air Force in 1943.As an African American, Brown ended up at the flying school in Tuskegee, Alabama. Just like the other parts of the American Army, the Air Force was segregated during this time. The flying school in Tuskegee was founded as an experiment to prove that African Americans were not capable of flying airplanes. However, it proved the contrary.The Tuskegee Airmen turned out to be great pilots and would form escort squadrons in Europe. Divided between different squadrons in the 332nd Fighter Group, the Tuskegee Airmen performed important tasks in Europe. Besides attacking different ground targets by themselves, their main task was protecting Allied bombers against the German fighters. Brown finished his training and was sent to Europe in August 1944. As part of the 100th Fighting Squadron he flew a total of 68 missions, with his most successful flight taking place on 24 March 1945. During a very long escort mission with the goal of bombing a German tank factory in Berlin, he shot down a German jet-fighter. Because of this Brown is known as one of the three jet-killers.After the war Brown went back to school to obtain his Master’s degree and later his PhD. He became, amongst other things, a professor at New York University and later director of Bronx Community College. Roscoe Brown died at the age of 94 on 2 July 2016.

Germany

Roscoe Brown

Joe Polowsky wurde am 2. Oktober 1916 in Chicago geboren. Nach dem Schulabschluss begann er ein Studium an der Universität Chicago bis er im Dezember 1942 zur 69. Infanterie Division der U.S. Army einberufen wurde. Als jüngster Sohn jüdischer Einwanderer aus Kiew sprach er auch fließend Russisch. Er gehörte zu der Patrouille unter der Leitung von Leutnant Kotzebue, die am 25. April 1945 bei Torgau an der Elbe zum ersten Mal auf sowjetische Soldaten traf. Das Foto dieser Begegnung ging um die Welt und steht bis heute symbolisch für das nahe Kriegsende. Der Friedensschwur zum Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs in Torgau war für Polowsky bis ans Lebensende prägend. Vergeblich bemühte er sich bei den Vereinten Nationen, den 25. April als „Elbe Day“ zum Weltfriedenstag erklären zu lassen. Aus Anlass des zehnten Jahrestages der Elbe-Begegnung besuchte Polowsky 1955 gemeinsam mit weiteren Kriegsveteranen Moskau. Es folgten zwei weitere Besuche in Torgau 1960 und 1961, bei denen er am Denkmal der Begegnung sprach. Trotz vieler Bemühungen kam es zu keiner weiteren Einreise in die DDR. Zum Gedenken an die Begegnung von 1945 hielt Polowsky alljährlich am 25. April auf der Michigan Avenue Bridge in Chicago eine Mahnwache. Joe Polowsky starb am 17. Oktober 1983, sein letzter Wunsch war ein Begräbnis in Torgau. Es galt, politische Hürden zu überwinden. Nach der Einverständnisgabe des Staatsratsvorsitzenden Erich Honecker fand am 26. November 1983 sein Begräbnis auf dem evangelischen Friedhof in Torgau statt. Die Beerdigung war ein internationales Medienereignis im Beisein amerikanischer und sowjetischer Veteranen sowie Regierungsmitgliedern der USA, der UdSSR und der DDR. Bis zum Ende seines Lebens blieb Joe Polowsky seinen Idealen treu. Selbst mit seinem letzten Willen und schließlich dessen Umsetzung gelang es ihm, während des kalten Krieges ein Zeichen zu setzen, das Ost und West für einen Moment ein Stück näherbrachte. In Torgau erinnert heute neben seinem Grab ein Friedenslauf an ihn, ebenso wie die Polowsky-Friedensrose im Rosengarten des Torgauer Schlosses und ein nach ihm benannter Weg.

United States

Joseph “Joe” Polowsky

In the summer of 1939, the United Kingdom was on the verge of war with Nazi Germany. Because male farm workers were send to the front, the British government decided to establish the Women’s Land Army (WLA). These women became known as Land Girls and replaced the men on the land in order to avoid a food shortage. Between June 1939 and November 1950 over 200,000 women signed up for the WLA. Coming from all walks of life, they played a critical role in increasing Britain’s food production.Daphne Mary Banks, born on 11 May 1922 in Slough, was a Land Girl. In the summer of 1939 she decided to quit her office job in order to join the newly-formed WLA. Driven by patriotism and supported by her parents she went down to the recruiting office in Portland Terrace, Southampton. At that time Daphne’s knowledge of farming mostly came from magazines she had read.As a Land Girl Daphne worked at several farms in the county of Hampshire. On these farms she performed several tasks, from fertilising the fields to trimming hedges. Daphne’s main task was looking after the cows. She fed them, milked them and moved them around the farm. During her stay at the different farms, Daphne always had a private billet in the farmhouse of the family she worked for.After the war, Daphne met her husband and left the WLA. They married in 1947. She had great memories of her WLA days and always recalled them as being some of the best of her life. She died on 14 March 2019.

United Kingdom

Daphne Mary Banks

Lee Miller was born in Poughkeepsie, New York in 1907, where from a young age her father introduced her to photography. After a successful modelling career in the late 20’s Miller decided to go behind the camera herself. During the 30’s she worked in Paris, New York, Caïro and London.At the outbreak of the Second World War, Miller was living in London and working for Vogue. She ignored the plea of her friends and family to return to the United States. When the male photographers of Vogue were send to the front, Miller was offered the position of photographer. One of her first series was photographing women who were active in the army or worked as nurses.As the war proceeded Miller started to do more fieldwork which lead to her being appointed as one of the few female photographers of the U.S. Army. She arrived in Normandy in July 1944, a month after the allied invasion had begun. Her first task was photographing the American nurses near Omaha Beach. During the following months she accompanied the Allied troops who liberated Europe. She was present during the siege of St. Malo, the liberation of Paris and the Alsace region. Miller also produced impressive pictures of the concentration camps Buchenwald and Dachau, alhough her most iconic photo remains the one she took of herself in the bath of Hitler’s apartment in Munich.After the war, Miller had a difficult time processing what she had seen at the Front. She spoke little about it. Her son only discovered much of her work in boxes in the attic, after her death in 1977.

Lee Miller

From 1941 Eugene Pinte, nicknamed Athos, operated out of a small farm in a town called La Gaubertie in the region Aixe-Sur-Vienne. Pinte was in command over several resistance groups in the west of Haute-Vienne. The farm functioned as command centre and from there messages were sent and received. It was also the gather point for supplies that arrived from England via parachute. Pinte insisted his family helped as well. Even his youngest son, Marcel Pinte, became involved in the resistance.Born on 12 April 1938 in Valenciennes, in the northern part of France, the six-year-old Marcel was appointed an important task. As a courier he delivered secret messages to different resistance leaders. Because he was only a small boy, German troops didn’t suspect him. In August 1944, Eugene Pinte had gathered a group of over 1200 men around him. Together with other groups of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) they surrounded German troops around Limoges and tried to stop a German breakthrough. They won this battle.However, for Marcel it didn’t end well. On the early morning of 19 August, one of the sten guns of the resistance fighters went off by accident. Marcel was hit and died. Marcel was buried on 21 August, just before the liberation of Limoges. A large group of resistance fighters was present, including leaders of different movements. During the last drop of supplies on the farm the parachutes were black instead of white. The British did this to honour Marcel. Posthumously Marcel was promoted to FFI sergeant and became the youngest resistance fighter of France.

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Roscoe Brown

Joseph “Joe” Polowsky

Daphne Mary Banks

Lee Miller

Marcel Pinte