A story worth telling

Kyt · Nov 17, 2008

The Sault Star - Ontario, CA

Harold Soderlend's war story is brief.

But two people capturing images and stories of Sault Ste. Marie veterans hope local residents can see Soderlend and read his story for a long time.

The Saskatchewan native is one of 65 men and women from the Sault and area photographed by Victoria Santana and interviewed by Rev. Phil Miller as part of a Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25 project that started in 2006.

It is on display until Jan. 17, at Sault Ste. Marie Museum.

"It's worth telling the story for remembrance purposes," said Soderlend of his decision to become part of Santana and Miller's project.

A pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, attached to 603 City of Edinburgh Squadron, Soderlend was shot down while on patrol over the Sea of Crete on Aug. 30, 1944.

He and the navigator of his Bristol Beaufighter were picked up in their one-man dinghy by a German patrol boat two days later. The retired Helen Mine geological engineer spent the rest of the war at a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany.

When she first pitched her idea to Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25 president Walter Wallace, Santana had no idea her plan to visually document veterans would become as big as it has. Now, there is talk of a coffee- table book.

"After the second session, I realized that I had embarked on something that was, I don't know, I just felt a great responsibility, I guess is the right word," she said.

"I just felt like I had stepped into an arena that really opened my eyes. It's been a remarkable project that has gone way beyond what I had originally wanted to do."

She credits working with Miller, who has a long-standing interest in military history and close ties with the city's veterans, for encouraging her subjects to share experiences they may have otherwise kept mum about.

"For a lot of these individuals, it's sort of like confession in a way," she said.

"Some of these stories that we heard, I don't know if they would have come just to me."

Miller remembers one interview that left all three in tears.

"The story that he had told us, he said when he'd finished it, that it was the last bit of information he ever planned to share with us," he said.

"He had resolved in his own mind coming in the door that he was not going to say anything about that particular moment. It was so personal and so touching. I wished I had it on tape."

Santana used vintage Roloflex and Hasselblad cameras, popular with photographers in the 1940s and 1950s, for her black-and-white shots.

"I wanted most of the portraits to be very simple. I didn't really want them to be too elaborate or too involved," she said.

"I left it up to them to give me whatever they felt comfortable with and just left it at that."

About a half dozen of the veterans, including businessman Murray Davis, have died since their photographs were taken.

Santana and Miller are considering working with more veterans, but cash and time are factors. The federal government chipped in $25,000 to Branch 25 for the photo project and a DVD featuring local veterans that was distributed to city schools.

"It will not be long before we will lose this living legacy of history, of folks who did what they did so that we can bitch about the government today," said Miller.

"The ability that we've got to stand here and complain is on the backs of those who lie in foreign graves. Their story needs to be told. It's personal. It's anecdotal.

"The guys at the war college can study the tactics and the generals' minds, but war was personal. War had a personal face. Those men and women are the face of history in our midst."
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Antipodean Andy · Nov 17, 2008

Will see if Soderlend is mentioned in Nesbit's book as well.

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A story worth telling

Kyt Άρης

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