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On January 29, 2007 around 7 pm, I sat in my room and awoke from a long nap and realized that my homework was due the next day. I picked up my phone and thought quickly, my great-grandmother was the first person who came to mind. Trying not to attract attention from my parents, I looked in my phone book and called the 10-digit number listed under Dorothy Williams. The phone rang and I prayed that she answered, and with just my luck her raspy voice answered “Hello”. When I first only wanted slight information to get me a decent grade on my history project by the end of the phone call I received way more than I bargained for.

My Great-Grandmother Dorothy Williams was born February 12, 1930 on a nice pure lovely day in Saint Louis Missouri. She graduated in the class of 46, she was held behind a year because she switched from a Catholic school to a public high school. Out of her many siblings; her brother Joe was the only one to take part in the war by leaving to be a marine. As she grew up she became a dancer/model and later on became a civil rights activist. She really enjoyed dance and continues to show her dancer moves at family gatherings.

She remembers life during the war because if its complete normalcy in the United States, “The only thing that changed were that solders were constantly roaming the streets.” She also remembers the fun times she had dancing at nightclubs and mingling with the male soldiers. Random factories were built for war effort and a plant that made bullets for the war was built right on Good Fellow. A major thing that changed was that, “They hired a lot of women when the soldiers were gone.” Other than that life was the same. When I Asked, “Were people aware of the Holocaust and the bad things that were happening in Europe before the end of the war.” She replied that many people had denied that the Holocaust ever happened because no one wanted to believe that someone would do such cruel things out of pure hatred and discrimination. People said that the amount of deaths were “exaggerated” and they couldn’t understand, so people just ignored the facts until finally enough proof stated that the Holocaust happened. My great-grandmother states that she was always a believer of the Holocaust but it was so sad that she and many others wanted to forget it. In conclusion, my great grandmother’s life didn’t change much during WW2 and she simply wanted to have fun.