An American man who has dedicated the past eight years to interviewing as many World War Two veterans as possible is looking for former soldiers and Resistance fighters in France to continue the project.
So far Rishi Sharma, 26, has interviewed more than 2,600 veterans in the US (at least one in every state), Canada, the UK, France, Australia and New Zealand.
He aims to interview a veteran from every single one of the Allied forces and is the founder of the charity Remember WWII.
Mr Sharma records his interviews and then sends a CD to the interviewee, for their “great-great-great-grandkids to hear their story, but also see their mannerisms”.
Interviews typically last a few hours, although sometimes they stretch to days and even a week in rare cases.
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Resistance fighters' stories
Although his grandparents were not US veterans, he still feels a close connection to these men.
“They are my idols. I think they are the most amazing people and generation in the world and they are so humble,” he told The Connexion.
In France, he wants to interview as many Resistance fighters as possible, as well as ex-soldiers, to gain the perspective of people risking everything, even their families, on their own territory to fight for their country.
For example, Mr Sharma had the honour of interviewing Léon Landini (pictured), the last surviving member of FTP-MOI, a Resistance group mostly made up of foreigners, including Missak Manouchian.
There are no official numbers on how many French World War Two veterans are still alive. On July 3, 2023, the last veteran of D-Day, Léon Gautier, died.
“One thing I have noticed interviewing French veterans is that, without being ungrateful or anything like that, they do not feel as appreciated as US veterans, who get a lot more attention on a regular basis,” he said.
His interest in interviewing veterans started in 2016 at school in southern California where he grew up.
“I did not have the most friends so I had a lot of free time and I was a voracious reader,” Mr Sharma said. Having read many World War Two books, he decided to visit the local retirement community where he had been told many veterans lived.
“I just wanted to be a groupie basically. I had no intention of recording our conversations. I just wanted to hang out and thank them, maybe play some catch.
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US veterans speak
“I spoke to the woman at the front desk and asked to see ‘the heroes’. She looked at me like I was crazy and went to get the director. I realised that it would come across as weird if I asked to just hang out with these people, so I decided to say I wanted to interview them,” he said.
The director was enamoured with the idea and took him to personally meet each of the 25 veterans that lived there and they all agreed to be interviewed.
That night, Mr Sharma returned home and cried: “I broke down in front of my mum because I felt the pressure of the world on me, as I knew I had to do a good job and interview them well.”
This had a profound effect on his mother, who bought him a $500 camera kit from Costco for the interviews. For the next two months, he went to interview the veterans after school.
From there it started to snowball, as the veterans would put him in touch with other veterans and news organisations started to take notice of what he was doing.
Mr Sharma would sometimes skip school as he believed he was learning more from veterans and had found his calling.
“I think the veterans found it cathartic to talk about their experiences, especially because they did not want to pile on to their loved ones and families with depressing stories. So having me, a genuinely interested young person, was probably quite relieving and enjoyable for them,” he said.
“I do not see them as elderly people, I see them as that 18 or 19-year-old kid who put their life on the line for freedom.”
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Mr Sharma does not have a salary and lives a frugal life to maximise any money he has for interviewing veterans, such as rationing his meals.
He has nicknamed himself the ‘homeless historian’ as he often sleeps in his car and rarely goes home.
However, he is adamant these personal sacrifices are worth it to preserve as many memories as possible.
“In essence, I am helping them live forever, and no one deserves it more than the greatest generation in history, in my opinion,” he said.
Remembering the sacrifice
In his first ever out-of-state interview, Mr Sharma drove 10 hours to Oregon to speak with a Medal of Honor recipient who had jumped onto a grenade in France to save four people.
Despite his mother packing warmer clothes for him, he had taken them out of his bag, not realising how cold it could get. When nightfall came, he soon realised his mistake but was able to put the situation into perspective.
“As I was lying there, turning the car on for some heat every now and then, I thought back to a veteran I had interviewed a couple of weeks previously, who had fought in a winter offensive in one of the coldest winters in the previous 50 years," he said.
“This man developed frostbite and his toes were amputated.
“In my car, I realised that I could not complain about anything. I thought: ‘My toes might be a little cold but they are not getting amputated and no one is trying to kill me.’ It is definitely one of the biggest lessons I have learnt from these veterans, that perspective of how blessed we are.”
He raises money through donations and “the kindness of American people”, most notably raising $140,000 in a Gofundme after appearing on a famous Sunday breakfast show in the US.
This kindness is also evident in the veterans themselves. “One thing I have noticed is that no one ever forgets their buddies. They keep those memories with them all their lives.”
Readers wishing to watch some of the interviews can find them at Mr Sharma’s Remember WWII YouTube channel, which has amassed over 20 million views in total.
If you know a World War Two veteran who would like to be interviewed, in France or elsewhere, you can contact Rishi by emailing rishi@rememberww2.org or calling or texting him on Whatsapp: +1(202)-315-8743.
