World War II, Mental Health, Alcoholism

One Community Was Changed Forever

TRIGGER WARNING! This article talks about taboo/dark war subjects, sexual assault, and a child’s death during World War II.

Almost 15 years ago I started my journey down a somewhat dark path of military research and war. I dove headfirst into the study of Graves Registration, read hundreds of Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs) and then moved into researching all branches. At the same time I was processing my own emotions from life as I wrote the stories of my family members who died in World War I and World War II. A lot of tears were shed. There were a lot of sleepless nights. I read a lot of emotional, dark, horrific accounts of war.

As my work progressed, I dove into the taboo and dark topics of war, to help bring these things to the light so we can face them. Heal them. That has taken a toll on me. Add to that toll, for many years was being the caregiver to my late Dutch husband which brought up additional darkness, fear, and connections to World War II in Europe.

The last two years I took a big step back from the darkness of war. I did my own inner work and focused on other things. I looked more deeply at my own family patterns and inherited trauma.

That inner work led me back to the darker side of war - those things no one wants to talk about or hear. It began with bringing to light my WWII Navy Grandpa’s schizophrenia and how I was living out his and my grandma’s WWII trauma.

That led to exploring other taboo topics like sexual assault and rape. Murder. Suicide. Mental health issues. Alcoholism and drug use. The things veterans brought home that impacted the family. Things left behind, like children, known and unknown and parts of their hearts and souls.

Today I want to share something I am researching. This deals with a child’s death, a community affected, mental health, Army standards and alcoholism.

My mom sent me a new book The Plot of Shame. It’s about American military executions in World War II and those buried in Plot E at the Oisne-Aisne cemetery in France. This Plot is off limits to visitors.

Now, we tend to label the World War II generation, The Greatest Generation. We tend to assign all dark deeds to the ‘enemy’ of World War II or the Russians. Books have been written about how the Russians and even Allies raped, pillaged, plundered their way through Europe and the Pacific. Of course not everyone did this, but many did, and particularly took out their agression on German women. Many veterans likely died with the knowledge of their deeds quietly tucked away so no one would find out. As Americans, we tend to honor our veterans and assume they were honorable in every way because that’s what media and history books have told us.

Is it actually true? Were they completely honorable and the greatest? Were most?

I’m not here to judge this as I wasn’t there. I’m simply asking questions and inviting you to consider history is not all that has been written. Pick up unit level histories or narratives and you’ll find some darker things documented about the war and particularly what took place during Occupation Duty.

Army Court Martial Research

As I have done some court martial research for clients, the cases have been more about deserters or “minor” offenses. Offenses that put the person into confinement or the brig or gave them a dishonorable discharge. After looking at The Plot of Shame, I wanted to see how deep and dark a court martial file went, so I “randomly” chose someone to research. How many families were impacted due to one or more individuals actions? Flipping through the book I came across a story about William Harrison, Jr.

Harrison raped and murdered a 7 1/2 year old girl in Killycolpy, Ireland while he was stationed there in 1944. Now, there was nothing “random” about me choosing him. It’s always been my experience that when a soldier has something to share, they will get my attention. He did - more for something that was contained in his court martial file about family trauma / epigenetics / inherited trauma - without actually naming that. I’ll share that letter in a separate article. Once again I was surprised yet not surprised that I was guided to learn more about his court martial and therefore, inherited trauma.

I will be sharing select pieces of the court martial at the WWII Research & Writing Center after I move through it, but today I want to talk about the impact of war and family trauma.

Family Trauma

Reading through the file, William came from a family that endured a lot of trauma. His father was in a motorcycle accident that led to the amputation of both his legs above the knee when William was a child. His father was an alcoholic.

His mother was a closet alcoholic. William became an alcoholic as a teenager once he became employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to earn money for his family. William also suffered from amnesia at times and mental health issues. Things that were not “caught” in his physical examination apparently, when he enlisted in the Army.

In the fall of 1944, William raped and murdered a 7 1/2 year old girl named Patricia. The court martial stated he had little memory of the actual event. He had been drinking that day prior to the event as well. Reading articles on various websites about this case, they all seem to report he had an incredible amount to drink prior, yet that’s not what I’m seeing in the court martial from witness testimony or his own. I’ll know more as I continue through the file and testimony though.

RESEARCH TIP! Always read the actual military records rather than what’s copied and pasted into multiple articles online.

In William’s testimony and documents from Army doctors, it seems that William was an alcoholic and had mental health issues. He was labeled psychotic by mulitple Army doctors. YET - most of this was not put into his official military file. There is no explanation as to why. All of these hospitalizations for alcohol, mental health and other issues were documented in various places but not all in his file it seems.

This leads me to several questions and thoughts. I’d always been told and read that the Army was strict on who it allowed in during the early part of the war. Those with some kind of physical issue were last to be called up. Individuals with mental health issues were often not inducted. I’ve also heard that individuals with mental health issues or constant AWOL, Desertion, alcoholism, were also dishonorably discharged.

Why wasn’t William? Why wasn’t he locked up somewhere before he took this girl’s life? Why didn’t his superiors notice the drinking or his mental state? Was the Army so hard up for men to fight that they accepted anyone and ignored the unstable ones?

Flipping through the book The Plot of Shame, William doesn’t appear to be the only one executed who dealt with alcoholism and mental health issues.

Family & Community Impact

As someone who studies family trauma, I wonder how the family coped and how Patricia’s siblings grew up and how they functioned as they grew and as adults. How did the war and this event impact them the rest of their lives? But I also wonder about the impact to the community.

Do we ever consider the community? Often as researchers, when an event happens, we focus on the family, but the community was also impacted. How did this community move forward and heal? How did this event change the way they felt about American soldiers being in their village, town, country? How did this change the way the community interacted with the Allied soldiers?

Now, everything is energetic. If you had family who lived in a war-torn country during World War II, who then emigrated, how did their experience impact your family in the U.S.? How did their silence or denial of events impact you or the family? How many generations were things kept secret before they were discussed? Ultimately, how did this impact the family? Does anyone talk about it?

Telling the Stories of War

Most people, if they discovered a story like this in their family history, would not advertise it to the world. I don’t blame them. There are a lot of emotions tied up in this one event. I would invite people to do the research and explore how this impacted their family. Their community. And ultimately their own lives.

We all carry the remnants of the past within us. Especially those things that are dark, dangerous, tragic, and horrific. We are in a time of awakening on the planet when we at least need to acknowledge these things happened. Do our inner work to release the past. Perhaps even tell the story so others know they are not alone in what their family experienced.

What do you think? Should we be talking about these darker aspects of war? Should we push these things under the rug and ignore them? Should we do our inner work to heal the past so the remnants don’t continue to move through the generations?