THE COMMUNITY ARCHIVE
Photo Gallery - 1940s
The 1940s in Detroit brought about great change in the Maltese community. Hundreds of Maltese sons left home to fight with the United States military during World War II. Back home, the Maltese community not only banded together to support those young men, but to help raise funds and goods to send back home to Malta. For many in the community who only arrived in the USA in the 1920s, so many had families and friends still in Malta suffering through the war.
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After the war, Detroit welcomed a new wave of migrants who left the now destroyed Malta to join their compatriots, bringing new blood and new growth to the Maltese-Detroit community. But the story was not just that of new migrants, it also was a story of growing affluence as the earlier Maltese joined the country in the post-war economic boom. The little cottage "up north" and a home in the suburbs became increasingly common within the community. For a segment of the community, the post-war 1940s witnessed a true acheivement of the American Dream.
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To learn more about each photograph, click it to access it's archival data.