Nassau County to mark 80th anniversary of the end of World War II with series of events next year

A weekend-long encampment gathering in Eisenhower Park, armor parades, photo exhibits and a new mural are among the several memorials and events planned next year to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced Tuesday.

"I only saw my father cry on three occasions: When his father died, when my mother died, and … when he was talking about the guys he grew up with who never came home from the war," Blakeman said at a news conference, surrounded by military trucks from the late 1930s inside The Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage.

Blakeman, whose mother served as a surgical technician and father as a sailor in World War II, said the couple seldom talked about their time in the military. "The war was not just abstract. It was real for him," he said.

Nassau County’s World War II Coalition is at the center of next year’s anniversary plans, which include unveiling a 30-foot mural of the Grumman facility in Bethpage, a photo exhibit and candlelight vigil honoring the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust, and a weekend-long encampment in Eisenhower Park. The coalition includes the armor museum, the Cradle of Aviation, the Holocaust Memorial Tolerance Center, the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency and the Long Island Chapter of the Air & Space Forces Association. 

The initiative marks the first time under Blakeman that Nassau is hosting a commemoration for World War II. Nassau County also marked the 75th anniversary in 2020.

Last summer, Long Islanders stood outside the same museum to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day. 

Marcelle Leis, director of the Suffolk County Veterans Service Agency, told Newsday at the time that the ceremony would be one of the last held with veterans from World War II. “We’re less than a decade out,” she said. “Their stories should be heard, because soon we will not have them.”

There are more than 81,000 military veterans currently living on Long Island, Newsday previously reported.

More than 16 million Americans fought in World War II, and about 131,000 or fewer are alive today. Hundreds of those with long-held painful memories live on Long Island, Newsday previously reported.

One such combat veteran, 98-year-old Morton Abuhoff, of Farmingdale, took the stage Tuesday.

"The parents who either lost children during the war or had them come back maimed: They should be the ones to be honored," Abuhoff said, speaking to a small crowd of fellow veterans and news reporters. 

In a statement, he added, "I still have vivid memories of those days — memories of valor, sacrifice, and loss."