The Death of Franklin Roosevelt - WW2 Documentary Special
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- čas přidán 11. 04. 2024
- He lead his nation through the Great Depression, transformed it into a war-winning titan, and is working to shape the coming postwar world in his image. But today, 4,422 days into his record breaking presidency, Franklin Roosevelt dies. What was his final year really like?
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Hosted by: Indy Neidell,
Director: Astrid Deinhard
Producers: Astrid Deinhard and Spartacus Olsson
Executive Producers: Astrid Deinhard, Indy Neidell, Spartacus Olsson
Creative Producer: Marek Kamiński
Community Management: Jake McCluskey
Written by: Indy Neidell, James Newman & Gaby Pearce
Research by: Gaby Pearce, James Newman
Edited by: Karolina Dołęga
Artwork and color grading by: Mikołaj Uchman
Sound design by: Marek Kamiński
Colorizations by:
Mikołaj Uchman
Daniel Weiss
Adrien Fillon - / adrien.colorisation
Source literature list: bit.ly/SourcesWW2
Archive footage: Screenocean/Reuters - www.screenocean.com
Image sources:
FDR Presidential Library & Museum
National Archives NARA
Soundtracks from Epidemic Sound:
Dark Beginning - Johan Hynynen
Deviation In Time - Johannes Bornlof
Disciples of Sun Tzu - Christian Andersen.
Fly Baby Fly - Fabien Tell
Growing Doubt - Wendel Scherer
Guilty Shadows 4 - Andreas Jamsheree
Last Point of Safe Return - Fabien Tell
Leave It All Here - Fabien Tell
London - Howard Harper-Barnes
Other Sides of Glory - Fabien Tell
Rememberance - Fabien Tell
The Inspector 4 - Johannes Bornlöf
A TimeGhost chronological documentary produced by OnLion Entertainment GmbH.
Where does FDR rank in your league table of US Presidents?
Pretty high.
Non American here but I would say Top 3 Maybe even top 1 (Yes IMO he is better than Washington and Lincoln)
Probably top 6
At the very bottom. No president before or since has expanded the scope of the government or eroded American liberty on the scale that FDR did.
He bats 5th.
The one thing Roosevelt Churchill and Stalin had in common they were all smokers and all 3 died of stroke
Roosevelt - Cigarettes
Churchill - Cigars
Stalin - Smoke pipes
hmmm... fighting Germany is not another?
@@sicily7220 Being a blood thirsty megalomaniac will lead to an early death most cases
@@StephenLuke Since stalin was a heavy tobacco user he smoked all 3 pipe, cigar and cigarette
I quit smoking when the pandemic hit. I got sick and couldn't breathe for 5 days straight that was enough to make me quit. One of the best decisions of my life
Truman: “Is there anything I can do for you?”
Eleanor Roosevelt: “Is there anything WE can do for YOU? For you are the one in trouble now.”
I remember hearing about that at one time
Quite a lot of empathy in her response.
Yenta reply
Eleanor Roosevelt is my favorite president. An extraordinary spirit and human being.
She was an honorary participant in the founding of the United Nations, but was treated shabbily. She then chaired the committee developing the "United Nations Declaration of Human Rights," achieved a unanimous vote for it, and at the end got a prolonged standing ovation.
13:50
I am impressed by the response of the Japanese Prime Minister.
Just shows what a towering figure Roosevelt was, even his enemies respected him.
@@desmondd1984 not all of them
the japanese were attempting to find an honourable way out of the war and were likely attempting 'normalisation'
@@desmondd1984It was more of a Japan thing tbh.
Yeah, Japan was being respectful but still couldn't trust them at the time
This must have been very sad for most of the troops in their late teens/early 20s. A 20-year old soldier only would have been about 7 when FDR was first elected, so he was effectively the only president they ever really knew.
Which is precisely why the Republicans rammed the 22nd Amendment through during Truman's presidency. Nobody wanted to set a precedent for president-for-life with the White House.
Well, we all had known only one British sovereign until recently, and the world still keeps turning now...
And Elizabeth's death affected me as an American and everyone I know
@@patwiggins6969 myself as well
And for 12 yr olds in 1945, FDR was the only president they knew in their lifetimes. By the time they were 35, they had only known just 1 Republican president.
I've noticed that every 2 generations, you'll have an election that leads to one of the 2 main political parties controlling the WH for much of the next 2 generations. Those born in early 1969 only knew 2 Democratic presidents by the time they got to the final yr of their 30s (Carter and Clinton). Those born in the spring of 1897 only knew 1 Democratic president by the time they were 35 (Wilson).
Interesting to note, is when FDR had a rejuvenated day two days before his death, is extremely common. Majority of people suffering from terminal illnesses often report that a day, a week, or a couple of days before their death, will describe feeling rejuvenated, excited, happier, etc. Doctors, physicians, etc still don’t know how this occurs but it happens. Now again this isn’t true for everyone, but for the majority of people with illnesses and nearing their deaths, it is true.
What study are you citing or is this just anecdotal?
@@OneAdam12Adam talk to anyone in healthcare
My bet is that the body knows and the brain starts to release chemicals left and right
@@josejuancerdabarraza3544 DMT.
@@OneAdam12Adam i don't know if there's any research on it but there are loads of anecdotes, i guess that if u can smell smoke, there'll be a fire somewhere close
A common criticism of FDR is that, despite his obvious health issues, he did almost nothing to include his likely successor Truman into the decision making process. Truman was not even briefed on the existence of the Manhattan project. This resulted in a period of confusion and some abrupt policy shifts at a very critical moment in time which definitely impacted how the early stages of the Cold War would play out.
he should have stayed with wallace either way. the dnc has always been fucked it seems. (I lean as far left as possible without being communist but I'll never forgive the dnc for giving us Hillary instead of Bernie which directly lead to trump)
@@victormuzzo7967 bernie shoulda been president. America was robbed.
American historical author David McCullough covers this aspect of FDR'S presidency very well in Truman.
@@victormuzzo7967Wallace was a Soviet loving scumbag. Screw him. If he had stayed on, hopefully he would’ve been blocked domestically as much as possible, but foreign policy would’ve turned into a slogging disaster.
@@victormuzzo7967 I don't want to start a fight in a channel not meant for it, but I gotta tell you: They picked Hillary because there was no way in hell a big enough chunk of Americans were going to vote for Bernie.
One of FDR's most brilliant programs was the Civilian Conservation Corps. It built much of the infrastructure for parks and forests. In doing so, it provided money to millions of families and it trained and prepared millions of young men for military service. The New England Hurricane of 1938 tore up millions of huge trees. CCC groups were brought in to help clean up. The logs were sent to saw mills and the government stockpiled millions of board feet of lumber. A few years later, that lumber was used to build military bases. A personal note: my father crossed the Atlantic 6 times and participated in 6 landings in Europe during WWII. They were attack by Nazis many times. In 1959, he was showing me damage from the Hurricane of '38 in Stonington, CT and said that as bad as things got in WWII, the Hurricane was worse. We were looking at a huge barge that was about a km inland from the shore. Good Luck, Rick
Is your father with the Coast Guard?
@@aaroncabatingan5238 He was before and during WWII. He was CCM on APA 26, The Chase.
An Economist was asked how FDR best helped the USA.
His answer?
"By dying."
FDR's Leftist policies turned a Recission into the Great Depression, per every Economist on Earth.
..save self-professed Marxist, Richard Wolff.
The jobs programs?
An economist touring a jobs program at a roadside saw 2 trackers sitting, but 100 men using shovels.
"We wanted to create jobs, so we sidelined the trackers" - explained the government employee.
The Economist's reply -
"To create a 1000 jobs, why not give them spoons instead of shovels?"
They were “make work” jobs. Read: The Forgotten Man. In-depth detail of Roosevelt’s not so great handling of the economic strife. He was terrible with economics. However, an excellent war time leader.
"Camp Roosevelt" in Fort Valley VA near the headwaters of Passage Creek - now just a picnic ground and trailhead with a few ruins of what used to be barracks and mess hall - I think workers on the nearby soon to be Skyline Drive/Shenandoah National Park were bunked here
When interviewing my grandmother for a school project years ago, I asked her about FDR, and among the things she told me was that the paralysis was never much of secret. It was just never a topic of discussion among her own social circles.
@@JB-yb4wnwhat?
@@doctor_alfa
You haven't watched netflix's Cleopatra, one of the worst "documentaries" ever made by Jada Smith, Will Smith's philandering wife. The core meme is an old "history prof", a black woman saying these priceless words: "I remember my grandmother saying:
"I don't care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was black"".
Which was laughably wrong. There is a Hitler rant on this very thing:
czcams.com/video/5e8tMBtAwpc/video.html
check it out.
@@JB-yb4wnyea using hitler to back up your argument isn't a very good thing
I guess people more respected the idea of not gossiping about one's disabilities back then.
@@doctor_alfa
Check it out: google "cleopatra was black" and it will direct you to Jada Smith's epic failure of a documentary.
He definitely was one of the most influential people of the 20th century, without a doubt. It's a shame he never got to see the end of the war with it being so close in Europe and 4 months away in Japan. I never knew he had paralysis until I began watching this channel and it's incredible he managed to become president and didn't let himself be hindered with his disability.
It was thought he had been stricken with polio at his summer home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada in the early 1920s. He used to arrive there in a US navy destroyer when he was secretary of the navy, it being rather odd to arrive in a part of the British empire, which had the most powerful navy in the world at that time, in an American destroyer. But that is more reflective of the brother and sister relationship Canada and the US have always had since the unpleasantries of the 1800s.
There is a lengthy PBS documentary series produced by Ken Burns called "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History" that dives deep into the histories of Theodore, Franklin, Eleanor and their families. A really fascinating look at one of the most influential families of the early 20th century in American politics. Highly recommended!
Let's be thankful that Henry Wallace Wasn't Roosevelt's running mate in 1944.
As a disabled person myself. I find FDR to be a truly inspiring person. The greatest U.S President in my opinion.
@youngimperialistkii
Me too. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to see the full Allied victory of World War II. 😢💔
He was incredible weak and clueless towards Stalin
A communist makes you proud? Wild
Lol. People still like Stalin? That's very wild.
@@mmartinu327 you simpleton
My grandmother stood beside the railroad tracks in NE Georgia with thousands of others as his funeral car slowly rolled past them on the way back to Washington. Born in 1932, he was the only president she had known her whole life.
My great grandmother was also there that day. Celebrating the departure of a tyrant.
@@billyshakespeare17 He had no trouble winning GA four times handily.
@@billyshakespeare17a tyrant?
Well I feel old. My Mother, who is still living, was born in 1932. He was President elect at the time.
@@richstrobel Yep, my grandmother was born in December 1932 into a family of cotton mill workers.
My mother was a 24 year old 1st Lieutenant in the nursing corp in the USA 3rd Army over in Occupied Germany when Roosevelt died. Ask my Mom how she felt when she heard of his death, Mom said he was the only President she ever knew. He led the country during the great depression and was her commander in chief during World War II. She trusted him It was devastating at the time.
She exhibited, that I witnessed , incredible sadness when Kennedy was assassinated.
13:53 didn't know about the Japanese response. Interesting.
Seriously. That was astonishing in its earnestness
Japanese may be your friend or may be your enemy but the one constant is Respect and Honor in their own form twisted as it may be from our perspective or not.
German propaganda in WW2 often implied Roosevelt was Jewish, and a Belgian SS poster in 1944 entitled "Entente Cordiale!" showed him sitting on a metal sledge with money bags, dragged through a destroyed Europe by Churchill and Stalin, who are both dressed in rags.
@@samsmith2635 "In their own form twisted". How is respecting your enemy twisted?
Yup. You are unlikely to see that kind of response nowadays, no?
Roosevelt's last words "I have a terrific pain in the back of my head".
😢💔
Crazy, Lincoln's were as well.
Kennedy moment
@@SmackheadGamingBruh 😭
@@SmackheadGaming Too soon!
Didn't know about the Japanese reaction to FDR's death.
On another note, the picture of a very frail FDR was the last photo of him, and the painting in the middle was left unfinished after he died. He had sat for that painting when he expressed his last words about feeling pain in the back of his head and then slumped right afterwards, dying immediately.
😢💔
I can't even imagine how painful his last weeks were. The presidency literally ki.lled him.
I respect Japan's prime minister's comment. Even if Roosevelt was the president of Japan's enemy he was still a respectable leader.
During his lifetime, FDR was almost never photographed in a wheelchair, but often with his cigarette. Today, portraits and sculpture often show the wheelchair, never the cigarette.
Yep Propaganda does that
As a Brit, FDR did everything he could to keep us in the fight in the period when it was us against Italy and Germany alone. Lend lease and opening up US factories to us. M3 Stuarts were as good as our cruiser tanks at the time, and more reliable. M3 mediums were better than anything we had in North Africa, if not perfect. Hudsons/P40s/Wildcats/half tracks/jeeps all helped us when a hostile congress would have denied us access to them.
None of which would have helped if you guys had given up, eh?👍
He did all that and it's to his credit. However, he also ensured Britain was taken to the cleaners for that aid. Not quite Crassus-Fire-Brigade level, but it was a hard-nosed deal that worked to the immense benefit of the US at the expense of the British Empire.
@@Splattle101 Should the U.S. have underwritten the British Empire?
@@WhiteCamry No, certainly not! Not when they could inherit it.
Britain DID have a number of other allies, particularly the other members of the Empire like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and India, as well as the Free Polish and Free French forces. While there is no doubt that US contribution was extremely important, let's not underestimate the contributions of the British Empire and its allies and, of course, the Soviet Union.
I don't know if it is your diction, cadence, tone, or whatever, but you bring history to life in a way that is both entertaining and informative. Where were you when I was suffering through my high school history classes? Keep up to excellent work! Please.
Thanks for the lovely comment! We aren't stopping anytime soon.
Don't miss Indy's coverage of the Korean War as well, starting this June: www.youtube.com/@KoreanWarbyIndyNeidell
Strange that of all the months of the war. April 1945 saw the loss of three leaders of major participants. Though not much of the world cried over the other two
Heck, one of them's death was even celebrated by the world.
One was crashed from his game.
One got KO'd in his game.
One ragequitted his game.
"Our victory... You're victory was so close, I wish you could have lived to see it"
(spoilers) also Curtin
*your
God won on April 12
But you belong to Earth…your body, your legs, all decomposed and turned to soil, everything except…your courage. That, you gave to us, and with it, we can rebuild…
The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith. Rest in Peace Mr. President
Love what you said here
Lying POS. Patton should have taken him out.
RIP to one of our greatest presidents. Also, Goebbels and Hitler really thought this was another Miracle of the House of Brandenburg. Spoiler alert: it was not lol
There little feaver dreams never sease to amaze me
By that point Truman was able to win Europe by sheer inertia let alone his actual talents.
He was a terrible president who's legacy is properly remembered as the man who's economic policy's prolonged the global depression and led to the rise of facism
Imagine never being able to see the final victory that you fought so hard to achieve.
The same can be said for millions of others
Abe Lincoln would probably say the same thing from the afterlife because he’ll know that Reconstruction is the second war.
Noticed the Dr limits his health reference to just 1 year.
13:48 Which reminds me the statement from a German general whose name I can't remember: "The best thing after a good friend is a good enemy." Kantaro's statement was very chivalrous.
Didn’t realize he was only in his late 60s when he died. He appeared much much older.
1882 to 1945....so early sixties. And yes he looked horrible
Paralytic disease, smoking and a very stressful life leading a country through WW2 will do that to you.
Yeah. He aged worse than Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tattooine.
Indeed at age 63 he was barely into his mid-60s
Now look at 56-y-o Lincoln in 1865 photos.
My late father in law was American but he lived in Canada close to Buffalo NY and he never changed his citizianship and he said that FDR " Was the greatest Presadent we ever had "
I was talking to my dad last night and he said the public was shocked that such a mild mannered man would drop the atomic bomb. Just a note from someone who lived through WW2. He is 93. Good job, Indy!
Thanks for sharing and thanks for watching!
It's called a public persona, not a surprise since he was stalinist though
@@longiusaescius2537 That is ideological nonsense.
@@jnagarya519 Soviet comprised cabinet moment
@@longiusaescius2537 Truman started the Cold War against Stalin's Russia because Truman was a Stalinist.
The world is stunned at your brilliant "logic".
With the end of World War II coming to a close in this series, will the coverage you created be available on DVDs in the future? I think they would be useful to history teachers from the high school level and college level in teaching the realities of the war.
I couldn't agree more.
No need to put it on DVD. You can download it from here then cut and stitch any of the content you want for lessons. Much simpler, more useful.
We'd love to do a DVD but it's unlikely we will, we are really focused on wrapping up the final months of the war and our new upcoming series the Korean War which you can check out below if you haven't already!
www.youtube.com/@KoreanWarbyIndyNeidell
Its doesn't seem to be on CZcams anymore, but the David Reynolds did a fantastic documentary on FDR. Absolutely humanising the larger than life figure.
Considering his inhuman cruelty and absurd actions, I'd have to call anything that humanizes him fantastic.
@@GusOfTheDorks Specify your comment.
@@caryblack5985 Well let's first test and see if I'm able to even reply to yours. My comments keep getting deleted.
Watch Forgotten History Most Corrupt FDR, youll change your mind about this Stalinist sympathizer President
One of the great statesman of the XX century. We remain in need of spirits such as his in our current tumultuous times.
Interesting note is that a few newspapers also listed FDR in its military obituaries
Presidents are Commanders In Chief in the USA.
Yes. The "New York Times" published a full page list of all the casualties. The first in the list:
"Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Commander in Chief".
He to was a casualty of the war. He gave his life for democracy and the rule of law.
It's amazing to watch the old footage of the train carrying him back to Washington, with so many people lining the tracks, and then the funeral procession in Washington. It just seems like so much more than it is today, probably because it was so well deserved. His accomplishments are inspiring!
Eleanor was his legs, keeping him informed about life for the average citizen. She had great influence on the social programs side.
There is a really nice park and museum in Warm Springs Georgia. I can highly recommend it as worth your time.
I just realized how close he died from where I'm at WTF
I recommend everyone watching this video consider a trip to Campobello International Park near St Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. It offers tours of the Roosevelts’ family summer home and has a visitors centre. It is jointly administered by both the American and Canadian governments. Before he was president he was able to be summer there every year while as president he schedule allowed him only to briefly visit in 1933, 1936 and 1939.
He’s at least top 3.
For me it goes: Lincoln, FDR, Washington. In that order. No others endured such a heavy burden for the nation.
Thanks for highlighting his achievements in war and peace, which he and many millions of others would not live to see
This was a really wonderful summary...as always.
once again.. Bravo
April 15th is the most important day in US history because of all the events Lincoln died, fdr buried, tax day and alot more
I editied out one cause it was wrong
Titanic struck the iceberg on April 14th but sank on the 15th. A British ship but it was on it's way to America and more than 100 Americans perished.
@@richstrobel April 15 is also Jackie Robinson Day in 1947, the 1969 EC-121 shootdown incident in 1969, the 1986 United States bombing of Libya in 1986, the Hillsborough disaster and the death of Hu Yaobang which sparked the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests In 1989, the Air China Flight 129 disaster In 2002, the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, the Notre Dame fire in 2019, and the Indianapolis FedEx shooting in 2021.
The American Civil War did not end on April 15. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia on April 9; Johnston surrendered a larger contingent of military personnel later that month; and there was another large surrender in June 1865 in the Indian Territory.
@@elsanfranfan That is correct!
@@elsanfranfan shit i got mixed up i was thinking about when Lincoln declared the insurrection of Southern states leaving the union (publicly) in 1861 on April 15 and called up 75k milita men my bad
"April 15, 1861- President Lincoln issues a public declaration that an insurrection exists and calls for 75,000 militia to stop the rebellion"- nps. gov civil war timeline
Thank You, quality is it own reward!
Thank you!
Love the clarity of those recordings of his voice.
13:53 well, we have a Jose Paulus, a Smiling-Albert, and now a Kangaroo Suzuki.
Led the country through the triplet disasters of the Great Depression, Dust Bowl, and WW2. Simply our greatest leader.
Read: The Forgotten Man. The policies of FDR expanded the depression, not to mention the two recessions that occurred within the depression. He was a great war time leader. However, terrible with economics.
@@pat5882 Actually his policies did not "expand the depression". I'm beyond fed up with the right-wing Republicans whose only policy is hate, and whose central tradition is the politics of smear.
Excellent special episode Indy & team.
Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching!
Excellent as usual thank you.
Thanks for watching!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Incredible narration, even by Indy's standards. There is not a corner of this planet untouched by the United Nations or the superpower that came into being from 1932 to 1945.
Thanks!
Much appreciated!
Really informative. Well done.
Thank you!
-TimeGhost Ambassador
Thanks for watching!
This is a masterful presentation. I am delighted, amazed and grateful for your work.
Thank you, appreciate the comment a lot.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
What a lovely comment, thank you very much!
His last campaign stop was here in massachusetts at fenway park
If I have learned something from this entire series that would be the fact that FDR was the only descent human being among all the other leaders
He sounds much more tired in that speech than he did in previous ones. You can hear him fading.
these Documentars are so interesting, thank you for making them (:
Truman: What is this Manhattan Project, and why was I completely unaware of its existence?
We'll never know for sure, but I wonder how FDR would have approached the use of the atom bomb? Another great episode from the Time Ghost team!
He presumably knew it was under development.
@@stevekaczynski3793It would be some next-level Illuminati f**kery if the CIC doesn’t. 😅
Thank you all of you for this wonderful documentary this is perhaps your finest work thank you for all of your hard work God bless you all and carry on with the good work
Thank you very much for the comment, and thanks for watching.
Thank you for another interesting and informative video .
You are very welcome and thank you for your comment.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
And thank you for watching!
Wow! I didn't know about the japanese reaction! That has interesting! Thank you guys!
Most people fully recover from even worst case Guillain-Barré syndrome, FDR having that seems to be a far reach imho. The war and the presidency really took a toll on him, to me he looked a lot older than his 63 years when he died.
To anyone interested in learning more about FDR, I would recommend a trip to the Roosevelt Home and Museum in Hyde Park. It ranks as one of the best Presidential homes I've ever toured, and you can enjoy lunch afterwards at the CIA. No, not the Central Intelligence Agency, but the Culinary Institute of America, set above the scenic Hudson River Valley. As for Eleanor Roosevelt, she holds a special place for me as she was on the first Board of Trustees for my alma mater, Brandeis University, where my daughter is currently an undergraduate student.
Interesting story about Truman. He was having drinks with his friend Sam Rayburn when he was called to go to the White House. When Truman arrived, Eleanor told him that FDR had died. Truman, ever the gentleman, said "Is there anything I can do for you, Mrs Roosevelt." She looked at him and replied "Is there anything we can do for you? You are the one in trouble now."
Great reports Indy and friends! Congratulations. Every American should watch it with pride.
It is not an exaggeration to say that lend-lease cut at least a year off the war.
My favorite quote about my favorite President: “He lifted himself from a wheelchair to lift the nation from its knees.”
Hi Indy
Nice special.
Thanks
I very much enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up
One of the greatest presidents, no doubt
Bowels of the Fuhrerbunker. I like that. After all, what do we find in bowels.
Excellent video. Very balanced.
Bravo, Indy, Sparty, Astrid and Team. Best description of FDR’s last days I’ve ever heard.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
December 7, 1941. A date which will in infamy.
..proceeds to lock up Americans of Japanese heritage out of fear they may become spies....
@@Simon_the_penguin The ironic thing is when he made that famous speech, my grandfather on my father's side was enlisting in the Army. Also, my birthday is December 8th,1977.
a good and brilliant man who saved the free world
Love this series, absolutely pragmatic and comprehensive. Truman exceeded everyone’s expectations following an amazing FDR. Thank you for this CZcams gem.
One question: was Churchill’s reason Prosaic?… 🤔
Very well done!
Much appreciated!
I was deleting some old e-mails and I found this one from my mother.
She was 18 in 1945 when Roosevelt died.
"I remember the day as if it were yesterday. I was at Tennessee
Wesleyan. Even though it
was still early Spring, it was a warm day and some friends and I had
gone to the home of a
lovely woman in Athens to swim. She had told us we could come any
time. When we re-turned to the campus, I went to Lawrence Hall, not my
dorm, to a friend's room and, weary
from the exercise and heat, I flopped on a bed and went sound to sleep.
Later, someone came dashing into the room and announced that FDR had
died. I was flabbergasted. He was
like my father. I, although 18, had never known any other President.
None of us could believe
it and we sat around morosely talking in hushed tones about him. I
remember being aware
of the thousands who lined the railroad tracks as his body was taken
from Warm Springs to
Washington. I remember the tears of everyone, including mine, but
especially those of so
many blacks, many males, too, as they prayed and watched the train
slowly moving past where they stood. Of course this was all seen in
newsreels in the movies and in newspapers.
While I was in college, I hardly ever listened to radio. I did not
even have one, but on the day
the Nazis surrendered in Germany, I was standing in a parlor in Ritter
Hall at TWC with my
most dear friend Madame Emmy Land Wolff,[a German Jewish lady] and you
can imagine what this meant to her.
She nearly squeezed my hand off as we listened and tears rolled down
her face. This meant
that in time she could return to her homeland and regain some of the
property and money
that the Nazis had confiscated.
Well, son, thanks for reminding me. Those were momentous
times. That summer of 1945, I went to work for awhile at Oak Ridge,
and on returning home to
Cedartown to prepare for my invasion of UTC and Chattanooga, the bombs
were dropped on
Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the beginning of the present nuclear era. I
was dumbfounded to
learn I had been working to facilitate the making of those atom bombs.
[Mama worked in the typing pool]
In one sense, I owe my life to Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he became
President in 1932,
somehow food became more available, clothes were made available to
those who needed them, and plants and mills began to re-open so that
people could go back to work. As young
as I was, I could immediately see a new optimism and hopefulness among
the people of my
small hometown. I remember jobless young men going off to work in the
forests through the
CCC and jobless husbands found work to do in building, road work, and
other enterprises
through the WPA. I taught in a school in Lakeview which had been built
by the WPA. Suffice
it to say that Roosevelt's optimism and great personality brought about
great changes in the
country, and I never have been hungry again. Thanks for reminding me
that today, April 12,
2005 is the sixtieth anniversary of his death.
He was truly great and
I loved him."
Thank you for sharing that with us, a very fascinating glimpse of how people reacted.
-TimeGhost Ambassador
@@WorldWarTwo Thank you.
@@walterm140heavens bless your mother. i’ll bet no one WANTS to remember Hoover lol.
For some reason, as a grown man, I cannot help but weep whenever I think about Roosevelt in his last months. He is a President that I, nor my father, ever knew. And yet, I weep for the man. He was the Greatest President elected by The People. To tell yourself otherwise, is to ignore the reality of what that man, and those working for him, accomplished.
Thank you.
Thank you
Is the reason FDR's polio didn't factor in much because it was such a common illness back than?
We have to look at history from a factual standpoint and Roosevelt, like all great leaders, did make morally questionable decisions at time. The reigns of power and the horrors of war make it difficult to be the knight in shining armor, and we must admit that such things happened. When necessary, we must criticize. But overall, I think we should view Roosevelt's legacy as a great one, one that we should ask many modern leaders to inspire themselves from, all the while leraning from the mistakes that were made.
On April 12, 1945, the world lost what is arguably one of its greatest lights. We should strive to light many more like FDR.
Very impressive video, to me.
Concise, full of data and put forth in an intelletually, entertaining manner.
☮
Great comentary again!!!
I didn’t even know he was sick!
Not a perfect president but the president we needed for a moment in history
Very well done episode.
Most of the media always seems to pick their favorites and work with them willingly. I see that hasn’t changed.
FDR died on my Dad's 26th birthday while his Army unit was heading toward the end of its war. My Dad was gunner in a new model tank since he was a great shot. He spent over 400 days in combat and would have been 105 today! If only we can be worthy of what that generation did!
A lot of people today need to hear, and live out, his last inauguration speech.
Top five, and perhaps a tad higher. Three is a decent place. Washington (set the example of stepping down, a global first at that level), Lincoln (It's not that he held the Union together, it's that he set the model for government as a force to spread economic wealth and opportunity to all citizens, and that the very wealthy ought not control government) and the FDR and the New Deal, continuing Lincoln's vision. Vox Populi indeed.
Winston Churchill, said of F.D.R., "Meeting him was like opening one's first bottle of champagne".
Indy-Thanks fort such a great video on FDR's life. Adding that FDR might not have had polio, but instead Guillain-Barre was a great point. He is just a much a casualty of war as someone on the front lines. One of his biographers stated that 1944 and 1945 were the hardest since FDR could handle the politics of war, but he had limited influence on the military side. Especially after late 1943 when US Forces began the campaigns that would defeat Japan and Germany in 1945.
FDR RIP😓
(1882-1945). 😢💔
I work at a hotel, and when people from out of the country ask about the people on our money, I tell them that FDR is on our dimes because of the March of Dimes, the donation campaign that helped to fund the polio vaccine.
I was, in my career, a military and airline pilot and I have to admit that his travel schedule as president would have knocked the absolute stuffing out of me--particularly that last jaunt to Yalta. Even when I was young and eager it would have been a challenge.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with his 1930s economic policies, he gave his all during the war.
He gave his life.
Excellent 👌
Thanks for watching 😁
RIP
Franklin D. Roosevelt
(1882-1945)
Hitler's reaction is somewhat amusing, given all the parallels he likes to draw between himself and Frederick the Great (who survived in the 7 year's war in large part due to Empress Elizabeth of Russia's death at Prussia's lowest point, whose successor left the war immediatly), given that Truman basically took over and said "Nothing's changing, Germany still must be defeated at all costs".
During the motorcade tour of New York in October, while reassuring the public of his health, Roosevelt apparently came close to pneumonia and his car pulled into several garages along the route where he was wrapped in towels and surrounded by heaters in order to stave it off, imagine the ramifications if he had succumbed just 6 months earlier.
America and much of the world has forgotten the lessons of WW2.
Dangerously so. We are falling trap to the eternal innocence phenomena. Wanting to ignore anything negative in our history. Just like the commie Russians
World War II is so over-talked about that no one can bring up any other historical example when they’re attempting to comment or rant about any current topic. That said knowledge of World War II, even with that increasingly annoying fact, is still abysmal funny enough.
How have they forgotten?
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Because of the resurgence of Nazism, totalitarianism and unprecedented plutocracy. Destroying everything that Roosevelt accomplished is their highest goal.
@@user-vh3fr3lb8w return of the "America First" idiots. Isolationism is a huge MAGA deal.