Australia's preoccupation with the centenary of World War I means the rapid thinning of the ranks of the World War II generation is being ignored, speakers at Friday's Victory in Europe symposium at Canberra's Australian War Memorial said.
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"That's definitely happening; there is a real risk the men and women from World War II will be overlooked in the focus that has occurred over the past few months in the marking of this centenary," Peter Rees, the Canberra-based author of Lancaster Men and Anzac Girls, said.
Associate Professor Peter Monteath, from Adelaide's Flinders University, said the adoption of Gallipoli as a national creation myth was out of step with the European countries touched by both conflicts.
"Australians see Gallipoli as a nation-forming experience; many European countries have a different perspective," he said.
"If you take Russia, the memory of World War II is much more central to Russian identity than World War I. France and England are perhaps a little more even (in the weight given to both conflicts)."
The University of Western Australia's Mark Edele said the last opportunity to acknowledge the members of what is called "the greatest generation" was slipping away.
"In many ways 70 years of victory in Europe, then 70 years of victory in Asia in September, nearly goes unnoticed in Australia because everybody is focused on the Anzac memorial," he said.
The AWM's Dr Karl James, the senior historian who hosted the symposium, said while there had been 20,000 Australian World War II veterans three years ago, that number would fall rapidly, as most were well into their 90s.
"They will slip (away) before us pretty quickly I feel," he said. "It is a risk (they could pass away unacknowledged). It is quite timely, with the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, to pay our respects to the men and women who fought and who lived through it, even on the home front."
Of the seven Australian World War II veterans who travelled to France for an international V-E day commemoration this week, the youngest was 90 and the oldest was 97.
V-E Day, celebrated on May 8 in every country except Russia, which observes it on May 9, marks the signing of an unconditional surrender by Germany in 1945.
Australian soldiers fought in the Middle East, Greece and Crete. Australian aircrew took part in the Battle of Britain and the bombing of Germany and Royal Australian Navy ships played key roles. Of the Australians who served in the European theatre, 28,000 were killed, wounded or taken prisoner.
Dr James said the AWM would be working to strike a balance between commemorating the events of both wars in the months and years to come.
"From next year we start to look at the 75th anniversary of major World War II events (such as the outbreak of war)."
A specialist in World War II history, he said the conflict had played a much greater part in shaping Australia than World War I.
"At the end of World War I, all Australians had a sense of national identity, a sense of Anzac, but we were (also) very much a society in grief and mourning."
World War II left more tangible changes than heartbreak and loss.
"One in seven Australians have served in uniform. It was a watershed in thinking about the role of women. Indigenous Australians have served in great numbers (and) we had a much more sophisticated relationship with Britain and the United States."
Australia had also been transformed from a country that had never produced a locally designed car in substantial numbers to a nation that designed and built planes and built landing craft, guns and other sophisticated equipment in large quantities.
"World War II made the Australia we recognise today," Dr James said.
