Place your cursor over the photograph to view its caption. Click the symbol to enlarge images full screen. Most of the captions are courtesy the Neville Museum, with additional information provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society. Thanks to the Kaftan family and the Neville Museum for help with the photos.

De Pere resident Art Kaftan brought a camera and a gifted eye to Europe in the latter part of WWII and the early part of the aftermath.

He had joined the 328th Infantry regiment and was told he would work as a clerk. After landing at Omaha Beach, he moved into France and then up to the front lines where he joined his regiment. It was getting dark and American artillery was shelling German positions when he arrived. Kaftan remembers:

"We came right up to one of our cannons that was just roaring! Bang! They say 'get out, put up your shelter halves and go to sleep.' The cannon's going wham! We made pup tents and went to sleep. In the morning I woke up to hear a strange sound: errrrrr-bang! They [the Germans] were shelling us! . . . So that's how I joined the outfit."

Kaftan's photographs give a unique, personal view of European life around the end of the war. Many of these pictures were shown in a 2004 exhibit of Kaftan's work at the Neville Public Museum in Green Bay.