“History can be a bore,” [Brian] MacConnell, 87, a WW II pilot] says plainly while sitting in the bright kitchen of his Regal Heights home. “My hope is that being a live part of the history of the Second World War might increase their interest.”
MacConnell is one of more than 700 Second World War veterans across the country who have participated in The Memory Project: Stories of the Second World War, a growing digital archive of veterans’ personal stories and memorabilia.
The project, run by the Historica-Dominion Institute and funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage, hosts “digitization events” across the country, giving every living Second World War veteran the chance to share their personal experience of the war.
The project’s staff record audio, scan love letters and photos and take pictures of personal artifacts to upload to a digital memory bank, which is used as a resource for students, teachers and Canadian history buffs. The personal accounts can be browsed by name, place of deployment or a specific battle.
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