February 27, 1944
February 27, 1944 Continuation of No. 6 Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, Our boys finally had their baseball game with our friends the rival hospital. The latter expected us to be easy pickings, and, after our pitcher walked the first three men purposely, they were even more convinced that it would be a cinch. Imagine […]
February 26, 1944
February 26, 1944 No. 6 Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, Everything has been purty slow during this last week. Bill Kuzell and I had a rushing business for some days there, everything in that line has calmed down and we could consolidate our three wards into one if we so desired. Have felt fine, […]
February 19, 1944
February 19, 1944 No. 5 Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, When it rains it pours – and it has been doing just that of late, (i.e. on and off with occasional startling snow) – I wrote that we had finally gotten an ENT man – yes, but that isn’t all. We got another new Capt. […]
February 17, 1944
February 17, 1944 No. 4 Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, The weather here has been rather invigorating of late, that is, if one has guts enough to stay out in it – it’s nice and crisp and the wind that comes down off the snow on the mountains kind of freezes your exposed parts. But, personally, […]
February 12, 1944
February 12, 1944 No. 3 Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, This week our basketball team didn’t do so badly. They won a game for a change and then proceeded to give the M.P.’s a good fight, only to lose by a few points. However, that M.P. game was really not much of a basketball game, […]
February 8, 1944
February 8, 1944 Conclusion of No. 2 Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, You should have seen me the other night. Not having slept well, and having been up rather late for several nights in a row, I decided that I would take some sodium amytal and go to bed early and get a good sleep, […]
February 5, 1944
February 5, 1944 No. 2 Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, Gee, I didn’t realize that so much time had elapsed since my last epistle to you, but I have really been kept plenty busy. Tho’ most of the hospital has been going along pretty much on an even keel, I, for some reason or other […]
January 28, 1944
Unbeknownst to René, on January 28, 1944, Yvette Baumann Bernard (his second cousin) and her husband Jean-Guy Bernard were arrested by the Gestapo in their apartment in Paris. Both held senior positions in the Resistance, and Yvette, who was 25 years old, was 8 months pregnant. In an interview in 1980, Yvette recounted what happened […]
January 26, 1944
January 26, 1944 Palermo, SicilyConclusion of No. 1 Dear Folksies, You’ll be interested to know that we have had weekly medical conferences here, the job of presenting the conferences being alternated between hospitals. Our last one was a really good one, given by Mattie, Bret, Wally and Frank. Heard one at another place […]
January 21, 1944
January 21, 1944 Palermo, Sicily No. 1 Dear Folksies, Things here continue pretty much the same except that once again we have some boarders. How long they will be with us, we know not. They are just female and I had to move three of my wards-full of patients down from the second to the […]
January 20, 1944
No letter from René today, but here’s the letter René Sr. wrote on January 20, 1944 in response to his son’s letter dated January 10. Dear Jr., My heart bleeds for you, knowing what it has and must mean for you. It has gone on for so long, it does not seem possible that […]
January 18, 1944
No letter from René today, but here is the letter that Lois wrote to René’s parents on January 18, 1944.{Click on the letter to enlarge.} The notation in the upper left corner indicates that it was received in San Francisco on January 27 – a week after René’s father penned his response to René’s January […]
January 15, 1944
No letter from René today, so here’s an excerpt from the journal of Dr. Philip Westdahl, dated January 15, 1944… We were greatly shocked by the sudden death of one of our nurses — a most popular and previously healthy girl. She complained of a headache somewhat suggestive of migraine, which became so severe […]
January 10, 1944
January 10, 1944 Not numbered Palermo, Sicily Dear Dad, Knowing you as I do I sort of imagine that you have been doing a bit of thinking about the underlying reasons for my admittedly rotten correspondence in the last three and a half weeks. I’ve not only written so little in quantity but I […]
January 9, 1944
January 9, 1944No. 71 (conclusion) Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, We spent a full day and two nights in Catania and had fun wandering around the town during the daytime. I had figured that the boys would enjoy themselves and do better by going off in groups of twos or threes, but strangely enough we […]
January 8, 1944
January 8, 1944No. 71 (continued) Palermo, Sicily Dear Folksies, The trip with the boys was quite a success. We took just one truck and there were 14 boys and myself. Left here at 6:30 A.M. on Monday and returned at 2 A.M. on Thursday, all rather tired but having had a fine time. We […]
January 1, 1944
No letter from René, but on January 1, 1944, Dr. Philip Westdahl takes stock of what the 59th has accomplished since they set up their unit in Casablanca in January 1943. He notes that the largest group of medical cases treated were: (1) malaria, (2) hepatitis and (3) diarrhea. He also reflects on the patients […]