Robert C. Daniels

Select the following links to view the 33 oral interviews that I conducted during the fall of 2005 and late winter of 2006 for the writing of World War II in Mid-America. What are represented in these pages are the interviewees’ stories in their own words. It represents how they spoke during the interviews and what and how they remembered experiencing and living their lives during the World War II years, with no apologies neither made nor intended to conform to the modern concept of political correctness. Any miss-quotes of the interviews, misspellings of personal or place names, or editing, spelling, or punctuation errors are solely the responsibility of the author, who humbly apologizes for any such inaccuracies.

It should be noted that throughout these interviews many references are made to Shaler’s, Shaler’s Rivet Factory, The Rivet Factory, etc. All of these are in reference to The National Rivet and Manufacturing Company in Waupun, Wisconsin, which was a major contributor to the Allied war effort, ultimately making rivets for nearly every aircraft manufactured in the United States for the war. Other re-occurring references are made to both the Prison, which, unless otherwise stated, represents the Wisconsin State Maximum Security Prison located in Waupun, and the Central State, or Central State Hospital, the later referring to the Wisconsin Central State Hospital for the Criminally Insane, also located, up to the time of its closing, in Waupun.

Copies of the actual interviews, in DVD format, are in the possession of the author, the individual interviewees, the Waupun Public Library, and the Waupun Historical Society, Waupun, Wisconsin.

Please consider all of these interviews as copyrighted material. Minor quotes, giving proper reference, are acceptable.

(The interviews are listed in alphabetical order by last name)

Jeanette (Rochon) Babler

Alfred and Verneana (McNeil) Bohnert

Howard Boyle

Tillie (Dykstra) Brotkouski

Doris (Bohnert) Daniels

Bessie (Douma) De Jager

Charlotte (Mehlbrech) Hagen

Josephine (Aarts) Hopp

Gladys (Jolly) Hritsko

Joan Laandal