Woman finds CV of her deceased 100-year-old grandfather and is surprised by his WWII exploits
The woman was extremely surprised by all the achievements she discovered after stumbling upon a CV from the late 1940s.
A woman mourning the loss of her beloved 100-year-old grandfather gained a new perspective on his life and accomplishments after coming across his CV from the late 1940s. The man was Ellsworth Rosen, who wrote his résumé back in the 1940s. However, it only took a few seconds for his granddaughter, 34-year-old Kyra Shishko, to realize the incredible life and career her grandfather had enjoyed.
Rosen passed away on November 21, 2024, at 100 years old, having been an endless source of kindness and wisdom throughout Shishko’s life. “Our parents worked full-time and were very busy, so our grandparents helped raise us a lot, they picked us up from school, helped us with homework, took us to sports practices, etc.,” Shishko said in an interview.
Incredible feats in World War II
Rosen was married to his late wife for 71 years until her passing in 2020, and together they had three children and six grandchildren. He often spoke about his adventures and experiences as a sergeant in the Texas Infantry during World War II. “My cousins, my siblings, and I slept over at his house all the time, and we remember our ‘Papa’ lulling us to sleep with war stories. He was an amazing storyteller, and while we heard many of the same stories over and over, we never got tired of them,” Shishko said.
Born to Jewish immigrant parents from Russia in Connecticut, Rosen’s experiences gave him a firsthand view of the atrocities his grandfather had to endure while liberating concentration camps during the war. “He was a passionate advocate for history and the Holocaust,” Shishko stated.
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“He often spoke about his experience as a Jewish American soldier: when he liberated Dachau, he spoke Yiddish to the prisoners, and they were stunned to see that there were still Jews alive and free anywhere in the world,” she added.
However, when his granddaughter found his résumé, she learned even more about his experiences beyond his wartime service. The CV detailed how he had worked as a war correspondent for Stars and Stripes magazine during the conflict in France, writing articles while stationed in places like Marseille and Geneva.
Additionally, the résumé highlighted Rosen’s deep knowledge of countries such as France, Germany, and Austria, knowledge he had gained during the war. Upon reading these details, Shishko gained a new perspective on how formative those years of conflict had been for her grandfather. “This résumé deeply moved me because I had only known him at the end of his extraordinary life, and it was fascinating to see how it all began,” she said.
“A résumé is a way to define oneself”
Ultimately, Shishko reflected on the personal traits and hobbies her grandfather included in his CV. Rosen described himself as a sociable person and listed his interests as theater, chess, and exercising to stay in shape. “I wasn’t surprised at all that he included ‘sports, chess, women’ on his résumé,” she said.
“He always loved women and was a bit of a flirt. The résumé was a perfect reflection of his personality. Under languages, he stated that he had ‘military knowledge of German,’ which was clearly a bit ironic,” she joked.
“I hope people see a résumé as a way to define themselves. Human behavior is a connecting thread, and people are generally similar, if not also shaped by the times they live in. This résumé is simply the reflection of a 23-year-old man presenting a rough, slightly embellished version of himself on paper, hoping to start a life and make a living,” she concluded.