To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Des Plaines historians are highlighting the contributions of the women and children who stayed at home while men left to fight abroad.
The Des Plaines History Center opened an exhibit last week called “World War II: Des Plaines and the War against Fascism,” full of photos and objects donated to the center by residents.
As part of the center’s monthly Coffee Talk series, curator for the center, Philip Mohr, delivered a presentation on this period in Des Plaines history alongside several others.
“(Des Plaines) had a strong presence in the war, both on the home front and in the armed forces, and we have a lot of material in our collections on the topic,” Mohr said.
As public memory of the era fades, and as the people who lived through these events continue to pass away, Mohr said he and his colleagues at the center believe it’s important to continue to remember the time period and perpetuate an understanding of the war and its effects at home.
What made Des Plaines’ home front particularly interesting from a historical point of view, Mohr said, is how the workforce in its factories shifted during war time.
While the men were away fighting, Des Plaines’ women took over more positions in both the Benjamin Electric Manufacturing Company factory and Douglas Aircraft Company factory.
“Society in general had to be innovative in regard to child care because the women working in the factories, a lot of them had children, and, of course, the fathers were at war,” he said.
As a result, the Douglas Aircraft Company, currently the site of today’s O’Hare International Airport, opened a child care facility for the benefit of its female employees who were busy building war planes in the factory.
Newsletters from the Benjamin Electric factory, which moved out of the city in the 1960s, featured a drastically changed company roster pre- and post-U.S. involvement in the war.
“Before the war, in the machine shop, it’s men, and in the assembly room, it’s women,” Mohr said. “And after, you see women in both of those roles.”
But women weren’t the only ones who contributed to the war effort at home.
In December of 1944, superintendent of Maine Township High School, Frank Holmes, challenged the school’s 1,600 students to sell $500,000 worth of war bonds over the course of two weeks, said Shel Newman, a member of Park Ridge’s Historical Commission.
The high school students then went on to raise $551,000, he said. In honor of their efforts, the Douglas Aircraft Company named one of its planes, “The Maine Flyer.” Converted to today’s values, the students managed to raise more than $7 million.
Despite the fervent patriotism of many of the city’s residents, the exhibit also revealed moments of understanding and even kindness between Des Plaines residents and those who might be considered their enemy.
In fact, the city’s rich German heritage benefited the prisoners held at Camp Pine, a German prisoner of war camp in Des Plaines.
The POWs were treated with generosity and even formed friendships with the city’s residents, Mohr said. Many of the prisoners didn’t want to return to their war-torn country, though very few were allowed to stay in Des Plaines after the war, he said.
Jack Thomas, a Des Plaines resident who served in the Pacific during the last few months of the war, said he received benevolence and respect from the Japanese. Following the end of the war, while he was stationed in occupied Japan, Thomas said he had many positive interactions with the country’s inhabitants.
“What I learned from being in Japan is that war is ridiculous,” Thomas said. “They were all great people.”
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