Stanley H. Davis papers

Collection — Container: Single Folder Collections - 2000 Box 6 (00.0140-00.0177), Folder: 00.0170

Identifier: 00.0170

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains a transcript of an interview conducted with Stanley and Elsie Davis on June 12, 2000. Stanley Davis served in the U.S. Army in the Military Railway Service in the European Theater during World War II. The collection also contains 6 photographs, a photocopy of Stanley and Elsie's marriage certificate, and a copy of Kaiserzeit: Journal of the Imperial German Military Collector’s Association vol. III, summer 1974.

Dates

Created: 1925-2000
Other: Majority of material found within 1939-1946
Other: Date acquired: 02/23/2001

Creator

Davis, Stanley H., 1925-2012 (Person)
Elsie Boehnke Davis, 1925-2013 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to all researchers

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

Stanley and Elsie Davis describe their experiences in Germany during and after World War II. Stanley Davis was born September 26, 1925, in Georgetown, Pennsylvania. Though he was initially turned down due to a hernia, Davis joined the Army on May 21, 1945, just as the war was ending. He was the fifth member of his family to join the Army, following in the footsteps of his older brothers. One of Davis' brothers had been stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed, which Davis said was a time of great apprehension in the family. Davis went to Camp Croft, South Carolina for training and later to Fort Ord, California. Davis trained for an invasion in Japan, but the atomic bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki before Davis was supposed to go to Japan. Instead, Davis reenlisted for three years in the Transportation Corps in the European theater. During his time in Berlin, Stanley met Elsie Boehnke and the two married on December 17th, 1946.

Elsie's family was German-American and was trapped in Germany during and after the war. She was born in New York to German parents. The family moved back to Germany in 1938. Elsie was classified for a time as a displaced person (DP). She discusses her experiences as a DP, focused mostly on rationing, which made it difficult to acquire needed goods. Mrs. Davis discussed the conditions in Germany in 1938-1939. Though her family did not support Hitler or his regime, there was a widespread fear of concentration camps for German dissidents which forced the family to feign support of the regime. She discusses the bombings in Berlin and experiences in East Prussia.

Stanley and Elsie Davis returned to the United States on July 17th, 1948. They share stories of the Berlin Airlift. Elsie's parents were able to return to the United States in 1950 and lived with Stanley and Elsie until they passed away. Stanley Davis died on March 14, 2012. Elsie Davis died March 24, 2013.