From left: Two parks officials; Kaitlyn Dykes, Chief of Interpretation at Fort Miles; Ed Paterline, President
of Fort Miles Historical Association; Al Hoffman, Fort Miles volunteer; and Gail Pietrzyk, JHSD Archivist
By Marla Brown Fogelman
Photo Credit: Marla Brown Fogelman
—
At first, the dimly lit hallway of the former WWII bunker that houses the Fort Miles Museum at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes, Delaware seems like an unlikely venue for displaying selections from the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware’s (JHSD) World War II exhibit: “Voices of Service from the Jewish Community.” Yet this traveling exhibit, featuring letters and items from the JHSD’s “Dear Mollye” collection, also displays the unlikely story of one woman’s morale-building war effort on behalf of her community.
From 1941–1945, Wilmington Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) office manager Mollye Sklut took on the role of clearinghouse and community connector, exchanging correspondence with almost 350 WWII Delaware Jewish service members—the kids she knew who had gone, in what seemed like a New York minute, from playing basketball in the Y gym to shipping out
to distant lands and battlefronts. She gave them information about their hometown buddies, tried to keep up their spirits, and shared some of their correspondence in a local publication, the Y Recorder, which was published twice monthly from 1942–1945. According to several reports, she wrote about 50 letters to “her boys” each week, and they, in turn, consistently expressed their love and appreciation for her efforts.
Although centered on one community, the letters in the “Dear Mollye” collection represent what JHSD archivist Gail Pietrzyk has described as universal themes as well as encompassing a unique type of WWII resource. For decades, however, the “Dear Mollye” story was little known outside the Wilmington community.
Now, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Seaside Jewish Community member Al Hoffman—a volunteer at Fort Miles—in collaboration with Pietrzyk, Fort Miles personnel, and others, the “Voices of Service” exhibit—displaying letters, stories, and artifacts from seven Delaware Jewish service members—is now available to a larger and more diverse audience.
As Hoffman said, “It was a combination of interests of the museum and JHSD that made it work. Fort Miles Museum has long had an interest in temporary exhibits (this is their first) and JHSD had an interest in expanding their reach to Sussex County.”
Hoffman, who has been at Fort Miles for four years, first became interested in bringing the “Dear Mollye” collection to the museum after attending a Seaside community talk by Chazz Salkin, former Director of the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation, and seeing a display of the “Dear Mollye” panels. From there, as Hoffman said, “Lots of effort went into making it happen.”
Both Hoffman and Pietrzyk have done much of the heavy lifting, both literally and figuratively, to facilitate this installation. One early decision involved placement of the exhibit, originally to be put into the art room. But, after finding the space too cramped, Hoffman said they moved the panels and display case into the hall for “more prominence and better lighting.”
Currently positioned against a wall not far from the museum’s entrance, the exhibit comprises four large panels featuring hometown heroine Mollye Sklut, then in her 30s, and seven WWII service members—Artie Blatman, Lou Brown (my late father), Jack Coonin, Sid Feldman, Sam Geller, Joe Lichtenbaum, and Ralph Tomases (my childhood dentist!)—along with photos of the Y basketball team and other period pieces. In addition, audio recordings help to make the exhibit a more interactive experience.
Between the pairs of panels, a display case holds a range of wartime memorabilia, including Airman Sid Feldman’s pin from a bomb with a tag on which he wrote: “Pulled from a bomb on a mission to Germany on Aug. 9, 1944. Dropped on behalf of Mollye and it was good.”
What was also striking to me, personally, was seeing my 19-year-old father’s U.S. Navy photo at the bottom of the fourth panel, along with Purim greetings he had sent to Mollye from Guam. In all the conversations I’d had with my dad about his service in WWII, I don’t recall him talking about writing to Mollye. I also wonder if he had any knowledge of Fort Miles’s importance as an East Coast defense installation during WWII. But I think he would have been pleased to be featured here at a real war museum, along with other Jewish boys from Wilmington. And pleased that there has been a lot of interest in the exhibit. “There are lots of people spending time with it, and people coming specifically to see it,” Hoffman said.
The JHSD has digitized all the letters in the “Dear Mollye” collection and many can be found online. But in this underground bunker, Battery 519, among rooms filled with guns, artillery, and materiel, I believe that this small exhibit offers an illustrative and very human counterpoint—highlighting the bravado, fears, humor, and longings of Jewish American boys who went to war and how one woman kept them connected to their community.
