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While getting ready to board our plane in Atlanta about a week ago, my phone rang. The call was from a woman who had some very interesting news. Unfortunately I couldn't talk long because we were in the security check-in line. She promised to get back with me and sure enough I received the following email this week. Very excited news indeed!
Note: I will be including some artwork that she shared with me shortly.
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Dear Marion:
Following up on our (very) brief telephone conversation a few weeks ago, I
wanted to congratulate you on your website and to share with you information
about a collection of WWII materials of Joel Alin Minkoff, who served in the
Headquarters and Service Company of the 540th Combat Engineer Regiment. My
brother-in-law is the son of the late Sgt. Minkoff, and I recently began the
process of cataloging and better preserving the collection. I was stunned by
the quality and quantity of materials, and convinced him that this was a
treasure trove that needed to be safeguarded. At this point, however, I'm just starting to get a handle on this fantastic collection.
One of the pages in a scrapbook looks like it might have been cut out from
Overseas with the 540th. It's entitled "Mink's Page" and reads as follows:
"From the Windy City, U.S.A., into the Army came a young fellow named
"Mink." He did have a name - it was Joel Minkoff - but nobody bothered with
anything that long. Mink was an artist, and a damn good one at that. He was
assigned immediately to Intelligence Section of Regimental Headquarters and
continued always in that Section. According to the Book, Mink was a
topographic draftsman - and he could do that. He could work a neat design.
But Mink's forte was art, particularly poster art, and in that he more than
excelled. Mink did a day's work at his drafting board: overlays, graphs,
charts. Then when the routine was out of the way he settled down, at the
same drawing board, to do posters, or "leg" art, or to decorate V-Mail forms
for the men, address a package or a letter home, or design a new air-mail
envelope cover. On this page are three bits of Minkoff work (1) and (3)
Security Posters, one warning against careless conversations over the
telephone and the other about careless language over a drooling chin. In the
center is a design of Mink's depicting the Amphibious Engineer."
A bit of biographical information that I've gleaned thus far: Joel was born
in Chicago in 1918, began drawing at age 3, and attended the Chicago Academy
of Fine Art on a scholarship before being drafted in early 1941. He started
out in the 58th Field Artillery Brigade, H.Q. Battery, at Camp Forrest, TN,
but by September 1942, his mail was addressed from Camp Edward, with Hq. &
Hq. Co. of the 532nd Engineer Shore Regiment. Haven't determined exactly
when he was made a corporal, but in February 1944 he was promoted to T/4. He
had a 30-day furlough to get married in late 1944, and returned to duty in
early '45. After being hit by a strafing German aircraft, he returned to the
USA for treatment at Halloran General Hospital, Staten Island, NY, and Bruns
General Hospital in Santa Fe, NM (where he received his Purple Heart,
according to another newsclipping). I don't have the particulars, but I also
learned his younger brother Leo was KIA in the ETO - a landmine. After the
war, Joel worked as a commercial artist. He has 3 sons, and died in October 1982.
According to some of the other newspaper clippings, "Mink's" art appeared in
both Stars and Stripes and Yank. However, a lot of the items are V-mail
sketches, calendars, brochures and drawings for and about the men of the
540th. He drew the typical odes to the female form, but he also gained some
notoriety for elaborately decorated envelopes he created as part of letters
home to his sweetheart, mother and family. There are also a number of
photographs - primarily from North Africa, Italy and France - and V-mail and
letters home. The collection spans from 1941 basic training through his
recovery in army hospitals stateside after he was wounded in Neuenstadt,
Germany in either Feb. or March 1945, and his long-awaited return to
civilian life.
I've included a few scans so you can get a sense of the collection. Some of
the oversize items won't fit on my scanner bed (ie., "Anzio Annie" as a
comely female nude holding a shell) and I've barely started on the photos,
but you should get a sense of what's here. Hopefully you'll be as excited as
I am over the materials, and we can discuss "next steps" in bringing the
collection to a wider audience.
Sincerely,
Susan Sacharski
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