Earlier this month, two dozen Cincinnati teachers solemnly viewed the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., amidst the opening preparations.

We were deeply moved because this pilgrimage appropriately ended a full day at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. This trip was the final phase of the teacher training course at the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education at Hebrew Union College.

The educators' trip to the nation's capital - the first for most - gave them appreciation of the great value placed on the preservation of freedom and democracy, and of the obligation to confront evil and tyranny. They paid respect to that American generation who altered world history by saving its very soul.

These educators returned to share with their own students the image of an impressive memorial of America coming of age, with valor and idealism.

Another memorial is being constructed to these Americans right here in Cincinnati in a different, but no less impressive, form. In the studios of CET-TV, the quiet heroism of Taylor Feltner, director of production, with the blessings of his chief executive officer, Susan Howarth, compels his staff to videotape the personal stories of the aging veterans for the World War II oral history project for our Holocaust Center.

The same week that the teachers saw the bricks and mortar of the World War II Memorial, Feltner was working with our staff to build, as swiftly as possible, a memorial from the "living bricks and mortar" - the veterans' eyewitness stories. Each testimony is recorded as a treasure.

That week, three men came to CET and proudly told their stories to the camera, preserved for the students of future generations.

A tall veteran with a baseball cap emblazoned with the word "ANZIO" walked into the studio, shyly holding his wife's hand. He explained that the cap itself was the reason he was telling his story. He was shocked when a young man asked him if "ANZIO" was a pizza parlor. He unfolded the story of those fierce months on the battlefields of Italy, and ended with standing aghast at the gates of the Dachau concentration camp.

Another veteran told of serving in a segregated African-American unit. He was tense and upset as he recalled his early years of humiliation, until he laughed with delight at the memory of finally joining the battle alongside all other units as they liberated France and Germany. At Buchenwald concentration camp, he was a member of one of the Army units ordered by Gen. Dwight Eisenhower to witness the mass murder site. Standing alongside black and white U.S. soldiers, he witnessed unleashed racism with his own eyes.

The third veteran was a frail man, his two daughters supporting him on either side. He was so pleased to be interviewed; it was the first time he had been animated since the death of his wife a few months earlier. He held up a picture of an astonishingly good-looking teenager in uniform - and began another story of courage and heroism.

No crowds will congregate or know that a few quiet heroes continue to build a World War II memorial right here out of miles of videotape, volunteering their time, as long as there is a story to be told.

This memorial will also be there for the students and their teachers, long after the World War II heroes are gone.

---

Racelle R. Weiman is director of the Center for Holocaust and Humanity Education.

Want your voice here?

Send your column or proposed topic, 400 words or fewer, along with a photo of yourself, to assistant editorial editor Ray Cooklis at rcooklis@enquirer.com or call (513) 768-8525.