Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II
Robert M. Edsel, with Bret Witter. Harper Horizon, $31.99 (496p) ISBN 978-1-4003-3781-1
In this poignant war narrative, historian Edsel (The Monuments Men, also with Witter) profiles American soldiers buried at a U.S. military cemetery in the Dutch town of Margraten, as well as the Dutch residents who commemorated them there. The soldiers include Edward and James Norton, twin brothers whose B-26 bomber crashed off the Dutch coast in 1943, and Robert G. Cole, a colonel in the 101st Airborne Division, who was killed by a German sniper. Intertwined are profiles of Margraten’s Dutch residents, who endured hardship and fear under German occupation and were overjoyed when American forces liberated the area in 1944. Chief among them is Emilie van Kessenich, who, after the war, organized for Dutch people to “adopt” each of the cemetery’s graves, so that “no fallen American” would be “left without a mourner.” Through these portraits Edsel explores a wide range of wartime experiences: chaplains penning sermons; tank crewmen trapped in desperate firefights; clandestine resistance operatives spiriting downed Allied pilots to safety; Dutch officials forced to collaborate with the Germans. He also delves into the somber work of the U.S. military’s Graves Registration Service, charged with documenting and burying dead soldiers, a job both gruesomely dispassionate—“SKULL CRUSHED. REMAINS COMPLETE,” reads a typical summing-up of one lieutenant’s demise—and emotionally fraught. It’s an intimate, moving look at the war that extracts deep meaning from the carnage and loss. (Apr.)
Details
Reviewed on: 02/04/2025
Genre: Nonfiction
Open Ebook - 528 pages - 978-1-4003-3782-8