Verzich, Mildred, 1993 July 21, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Alternate Format: Recorded interview and transcript available online.

Biography/History: Mildred (Vitas) Verzich was born in Chicago, Illinois on July 16, 1914. She was raised in Butler, Wisconsin, and attended school there until she was fifteen years old. When she was fifteen, her family of eleven moved to Milwaukee, and she never went back to school. Her parents, who were both ethnic Serbians born in the former Yugoslavia raised their nine children to be strict followers of the Serbian Orthodox church, and the church was a central part of all facets of the life of the Vitas family. From the time that she was old enough to get a job, Mrs. Verzich was occupied with a variety of industrial jobs in the Milwaukee area. She worked in a dress factory, and also worked for Allen Bradley and for General Electric. During the war, she worked both with parachutes and bomb bay doors. She also worked as a volunteer in the church and for the Red Cross, sending packages to Europe and rolling bandages for use in the war. Three of her siblings were in military service during World War II; two brothers and one sister. After the war, she was married in 1947, and widowed in 1956. She and her husband did not have any children. She continues to live in Milwaukee and is active in the Serbian Orthodox church.
Scope and Content Note: Mrs. Verzich speaks of many topics of interest during the course of her interview. Of most relevance to the war and the wartime period are her discussions of the service records of her siblings, and of her attempts to remain in touch with them. She tells a story of the attempted recruitment of her sister into the diplomatic corps because of her ability to speak Serbian. She also tells stories that her brothers wrote to her during the war or told her after they returned home. Mrs. Verzich also tells of the work that she did during the course of the war, and how she felt about the tasks that she undertook, and the varying nature of her different jobs. She also speaks extensively on her feelings towards war and World War Two in particular, specifically how the war affected her and her community as a Serbian. She mentions her family in the old country, and the feeling in the community in the period prior to the United States' entry into the war, when the former Yugoslavia was already involved in the European war. She discusses her feelings for her parent's homeland and the impact that travelling to Yugoslavia has had on her, in addition to mentioning the impact of the current war among former Yugoslav states. Among the other topics that she discusses are: the impact of Pearl Harbor on her and her family, the importance of the Serbian Orthodox church to her and her family before, during and after the war, her reaction to the death of Franklin Roosevelt, and her opinions of the nature of people in general.