World War II artifacts with suburban ties part of Mundelein library exhibit

Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Allies’ critical D-Day invasion of western Europe during World War II, a suburban library is exhibiting local artifacts and stories from the war.

The displays in the vestibule at the Fremont Public Library, 1170 N. Midlothian Road in Mundelein, include authentic and replicated pieces from World War II uniforms, photographs, medals and other historic memorabilia. Also featured are stories about the war, including diary entries from an American soldier taken prisoner by the Germans.

Library officials created the exhibition to preserve the stories of World War II veterans, most of whom have passed away.

“If we start the conversation, we could have more knowledge about many more aspects of that time, and viewpoints instead of accounts from a history book,” library spokeswoman Anna Kong said in an email. “You can get a whole new perspective from personal stories.”

Two local World War II veterans are posthumously singled out in the exhibit: U.S. Marine Cpl. Arthur P. Renkosiak, father of Fremont Public Library Trustee Sharon Smogor; and U.S. Army veteran Frank Fabianski, father of Paulette Stith, a retired teacher at Carmel Catholic High School in Mundelein.

Renkosiak was a tank driver with the 3rd Tank Battalion, which fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 and received a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions there. Fabianski was a cryptographer in the signal company of the 104th Infantry Division, which liberated the Dora-Mittelbau concentration camp in Germany.

Fabianski died in April, just months after returning to western Europe with his family to revisit old battlefields and participate in ceremonies.

The exhibition coincides with the anniversary of the Normandy invasion, in which some 156,000 American, British and Canadian troops attacked the French coastline from the English Channel early on June 6, 1944. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history and a turning point for the war, allowing the Allies to gain a foothold in western Europe and then sweep into Germany by spring 1945.

More than 4,000 Allied troops were killed during the D-Day invasion and thousands more were wounded or declared missing.

The library exhibit is open to the public and free to examine. It will run through June 10.

More commemorative information, including anecdotes from patrons who were related to veterans or remember World War II, is available online at fremontlibrary.org/wwii.