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Religion Above and Below Deck in World War II
January 26, 2013
7 p.m.
On a cold winter night in February 1943 an American troopship would be torpedoed in the North Atlantic. Panic gripped the men as the ship quickly listed to its side and started sinking. Four chaplains -- two Protestant ministers, a rabbi, and a Roman Catholic priest -- worked to calm the scores of green soldiers and helped them escape the doomed ship. The four chaplains gave up their own life preservers to those GIs without them and stayed aboard the doomed ship. In the distance, survivors reported seeing these four chaplains united in prayer as they disappeared into the frigid sea.
The Four Chaplains became a major symbol of ecumenicalism and sacrifice for the nation. Their story is emblematic of a larger story about the role religion played in the life of World War II GIs, especially for those in the Navy. In this talk, Professor Piehler will examine the religious life of American sailors and officers in World War II, featuring research from his current book project. In contrast to earlier wars, the United States went to great lengths to ensure the American GI had access to chaplains and could freely exercise their right to worship according to the dictates of their conscience. During the war 2,934 chaplains strived to meet the needs of sailors and Marines ashore and afloat.
About the Speaker
G. Kurt Piehler became Director of the Institute of World War II and the Human Experience and Associate Professor of History at Florida State University in August 2011. He is author ofRemembering War the American Way (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995, reprint ed., 2004) and World War II (Greenwood Press, 2007) in the American Soldiers' Lives series. Piehler is editor of The United States in World War II: A Documentary Reader (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013) and also co-edited The United States and the Second World War: New Perspectives on Diplomacy, War, and the Home Front (Fordham University Press, 2010), The Atomic Bomb and American Society: New Perspectives (University of Tennessee Press, 2009) and Major Problems in American Military History (Houghton Mifflin, 1999). He served as associate editor of Americans at War: Society, Culture, and the Home Front (Macmillan Reference/Gale, 2005) and consulting editor of Oxford Companion to American Military History (1999). Piehler edits two book series: World War II: The Global, Human, Ethical Dimension (Fordham University Press) and Legacies of War (University of Tennessee Press).
Prior to becoming Institute Director, Piehler held academic positions at the City University of New York, Drew University, Rutgers University and the University of Tennessee. In 2008, he served as Fulbright Lecturer in American Studies at Kobe University and Kyoto University. As founding director (1994-1998) of the Rutgers Oral History Archives, he conducted more than 200 interviews with veterans of World War II. Many of these interviews can be found on the Internet at oralhistory.rutgers.edu. His televised lecture, "The War That Transformed a Generation," which drew on the Rutgers Oral History Archives, appeared on the History Channel in 1997.
Piehler is currently working on a book examining the religious experiences of American servicemen and servicewomen in World War II. For this project, he has received research grants from the American Jewish Archives, Mary Baker Eddy Library, Presbyterian Historical Society, Rockefeller Archive Center, and the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center. His article, "World War II and America's Religious Communities" appeared in The Cambridge History of Religions in America in 2012.
Born in Nyack, New York, Piehler attended public schools in the Fresh Meadows neighborhood of Queens, New York City, and later Mount Arlington and Roxbury, New Jersey. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Drew University, he holds a master's degree and doctorate in history from Rutgers University. He resides with his family in Tallahassee, Florida.
About the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience
The focus of the Institute on World War II and the Human Experience is collecting and preserving the memories of the men and women who participated in all the military branches, service with the Merchant Marine, Red Cross, USO, workers and volunteers on the Home Front (e.g., ship-building yards, defense plants, YMCA and other clubs) during the WWII era and the immediate post-war period (i.e., 1939 - 1949). With over 6,000 collections and growing, The Institute on WWII has items from individuals and units presenting all states and a few from other nations. The Institute is one of the nation's largest repositories on World War II. In 2001, Tom Brokaw donated countless items sent to him while writing his three books on "The Greatest Generation." Click here to visit the website.
Join us after the lecture for a shrimp boil on the docks!
$5 Donation
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103 Water Street
Apalachicola, Florida 32320
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