In 1945, Jim Miller returned home from the war and did not speak about it. He folded up his service uniform, medals still pinned to it, and put it in the basement, where his oldest boy sometimes took it out to play army. 1/7 https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/us/they-survived-the-worst-battles-of-world-war-ii-and-died-of-the-virus.html

He did not speak about it to his wife, not for 64 years of marriage. He joined the fire department. He went to church on Sundays. He did not complain. “He would say, ‘It was not a good time. I’ve had better times.’ He did not embellish,” said his son. 2/7

But there were moments when people were shocked by Jim’s swift instinctive action in a crisis. Once, in his engine shop, the blade flew off a lawnmower and sliced deep into a man’s leg. Other workers ran screaming, but Jim went to the man and bound him up, in his quiet way. 3/7

He was an old man when he began to tell his son what it was like to land on Omaha Beach on D-Day. The roar as he waited in a landing ship for the beach to clear. Then, a 24-hour blur. His son offered to take him back to Normandy, but the father said, “I’ve been there once.” 4/7

Only once did Jim's children see him overcome with emotion about the war. In his 70s, he learned that there was such a thing as Holocaust denial. They had never seen him so angry. He dug out a box of photos and drove them to a local museum, adamant that they be displayed. 5/7

They were photos of concentration camps. Corpses. Ovens. Bones. “He wanted people to remember,” his son said. “Having lived through all the physical issues, the psychological issues, if someone says it never happened, he was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you folks. You have no idea.” 6/7

James Miller died on March 30, at 96, having contracted coronavirus at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home. His photographs are part of the collection at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. May he rest in peace. 7/7