Remember Us
American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and A Forever Promise Forged in World War II
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٤٫٧ - ١٣ من التقييمات
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- 14٫99 US$
وصف الناشر
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Amazon Editor’s Pick
“An intimate, moving look at the war that extracts deep meaning from the carnage and loss.” – Publishers Weekly
What happens when you lose your freedom and the people who eventually get it back for you are no longer alive to thank?
Remember Us, by Robert Edsel—#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Monuments Men—begins in the pre-dawn hours of Hitler’s invasion of Western Europe on May 10, 1940, when his forces rolled into the small rural province of Limburg in the Netherlands shattering more than 100 years of peace. Their freedom gone, the Dutch lived through four-and-a-half years of occupation until American forces reached Limburg in September 1944, the last portion of Western Europe liberated by the Allies before their advance on Nazi Germany slammed to a halt.
Like The Monuments Men, Remember Us is an ensemble piece that follows twelve main characters over a six-year span, zeroing in on ordinary people including Frieda van Schäik, a teenager who falls in love with an American soldier; Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole, the first member of the 101st Airborne to receive the Medal of Honor; and Sergeant Jeff Wiggins of the 960th Quartermaster Service Company, who escaped the poverty and racism of Alabama for yet another indignity—digging graves.
Drawing on never-before-seen letters, diaries, and other historical records, Edsel shows the painful price of freedom, on the battlefields and inside American homes. In this rich, dramatic, and suspenseful story, he captures both the horrors of war and the transcendent power of gratitude, showing the extraordinary measures the Dutch have taken to thank their liberators. Remember Us is exactly the book we need—a reminder that grief is universal, that humanity knows no national or racial boundaries, and that we all want to be remembered, somehow, someway, by somebody.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
مراجعات العملاء
America !
Excellent in every way. This is a story about Americans and the impression they made on people who only had faith and hope to cling to. It is a compelling piece of history about those we honor today, Memorial Day, and those who never forgot them!