Eighty years after the guns fell silent in Europe, a small upstate New York community is working to ensure the faces of those who fought in World War II are never forgotten.
More than 600 black-and-white photographs hang in the Mechanicville District Public Library, most of them portraits of teenagers, all taken in the same corner of the same place: Siciliano’s Restaurant.
“It looks like these guys could walk out of the photos today,” said Chris Carola, the program organizer behind efforts to preserve the collection.
The man behind the camera was the restaurant’s owner, Charles Siciliano. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, whenever a service member walked in, Siciliano put them in that corner and snapped their picture. All branches of the military are represented. The photos hung in his restaurant for decades.
“Word got around town to all the service members, ‘Hey, Charlie’s taking pictures up at his bar. Head up there,’ ” Carola said. “By the end of the war, he had hundreds of these photos.”
The range of uniforms tells a story of its own.
“A lot of them came back from boot camp briefly and had their picture taken, so they don’t have a lot of insignia — no campaign ribbons, they haven’t been anywhere yet,” Carola said. “Other guys have chests full of medals and service stripes. That gives you an idea of, wow, that guy probably saw some stuff.”
According to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, no collection like this exists anywhere else in the United States in terms of its size, quality and longevity. Many similar collections have been lost or discarded over the years.
“All those other collections, they were lost or tossed out,” Carola said. “But Charlie Siciliano’s collection is still with us.”
For brothers Michael and Louis Marcelle, the collection is deeply personal. Their parents — Louis and Lucille, who were dating at the time — are both in the photos. So is their uncle Rocky, who went on to fight in the Battle of the Bulge. He was wounded three times. The third time was fatal.
“We never met him. We never knew him,” said Michael Marcelle. “Our parents didn’t talk a lot about the war. My dad didn’t talk about his brother being killed during the war. But we’re learning more, too.”
Their mother is one of only four women in the entire collection, an Army nurse who served in the Pacific.
“It’s an honor,” said Louis Marcelle Jr.
“We’re also very proud,” Michael Marcelle added. “Proud to help represent all the people that were involved in this.”
Now that Siciliano’s Restaurant has closed, the photos are housed at the Mechanicville District Public Library. Keeping them in good condition has become an important mission for the local community.
“It’s kind of like a family photo album of one community’s greatest generation,” Carola said. “These were guys who came back from the war and were butchers, and bakers, and bartenders, teachers, lawyers, doctors, Little League coaches, volunteer firefighters. They were the fabric of our community for decades and decades. It’s nice to do something nice for them.”
The National World War II Museum reports that as of earlier this year, fewer than 50,000 of the more than 16 million Americans who served in World War II are still alive.
The library is currently raising funds to purchase museum-grade frames for the photos, as the current frames are deteriorating and can no longer support the images for display.
Carola has been giving informational sessions at the library to raise money and awareness. His first talk drew nearly 100 people.