‘Remember Us' Review: Tending Sacred Ground

The most poignant emotion that war evokes is remembrance. How do the survivors—the soldiers, the mothers and fathers, the children, the brothers and sisters—sustain the memories of those killed on the battlefield? And what happens to that battlefield once combat has finished? These are some of the meaningful themes that readers will discover in Robert Edsel's 'Remember Us.' Mr. Edsel, whose books include 'Saving Italy' (2013) and 'The Monuments Men' (2009), is especially knowledgeable about the intended and unexpected destructiveness of military combat.
The chaos of war upends any carefully laid plan, interrupts expectations, makes maps useless and, yes, deforms terrain. Nothing is as it first existed; no premise is assured on a battlefield. Consequently, to remember is the best we can do to give meaning to the horrors endured by both combatants and their civilian survivors. This book enjoins us not to forget, but to recall with patriotic calmness the price of those deaths.
Most of Mr. Edsel's story takes place in Margraten, a small Dutch village that survived German occupation, and Maastricht, a nearby urban center. Both are situated near where the borders of Germany, Belgium and Holland intersect. The Dutch and Allied voices that come to us from this account plead that we not forget such geographical vulnerability. Proximity can breed suspicion, which often leads to conflict.
During World War II, American and Allied forces were thorough in recovering and burying every fallen trooper in the fields surrounding these now pleasant towns. The most moving aspect of remembrance in this small region of Europe, the author recounts, was the decision of the Dutch citizens, following the war, to 'adopt' the grave of a fallen Allied combatant. To this day they continue to care for them. (No similar attention to German soldiers was found throughout the same area. Now—almost a century later—Germany is officially searching for evidence of its own forgotten through an organization known as the Volksbund, or the German War Graves Commission.)

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

17 hours ago

• Yahoo

German camp memorial offers Russian tour to mark 'forgotten victims'

A memorial for the Nazi-era concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany is set to offer a guided tour in Russian on Sunday to commemorate the site's "forgotten victims" from the Soviet Union. The camp, which was liberated by the British Army in April 1945, is well known as the place where Jewish schoolgirl Anne Frank died during World War II. However, it also included some 20,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were forced to work in the camp after July 1941. With insufficient accommodation available, the men lived in open fields and sought shelter in makeshift huts and caves. More than 14,000 of them died of cold, hunger and disease in the winter of 1941-42 alone. To mark the 84th anniversary of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, a 90-minute tour is to be offered in German and Russian, leading from the memorial site to the nearby prisoner of war cemetery. There are 19,580 people buried in the cemetery, with historian Katja Seybold working on creating a list of the names of those who died. Almost 13,000 of the names have been identified, the researcher said. Interviews with surviving prisoners of war can be listened to at the Bergen-Belsen Documentation Centre. Interest in the fate of the prisoners of war is growing, said Seybold. Many Ukrainians who have fled to Germany in recent years have also visited the memorial and the cemetery. The prisoner of war camp closed three months before the site's liberation by the British Army. According to Seybold, this may explain why the fate of the prisoners of war was left untold for so long. A total of some 70,000 people lost their lives at Bergen-Belsen. Around 120,000 men, women and children were interned in the concentration camp between 1943 and 1945, around 52,000 of whom died.

3 days ago

Japan's royal couple mourn A-bomb victims ahead of Hiroshima's 80th anniversary

TOKYO -- Japan's Emperor Naruhito paid respects to atomic bombing victims in Hiroshima as the city marks the 80th anniversary of the tragedy later this year. Naruhito, accompanied by his wife, Empress Masako, bowed deeply at the cenotaph for the atomic bombing victims and offered bouquets of white flowers. The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century aggression in Asia. Naruhito has repeatedly stressed the importance to remember and keep telling the tragedy of the war to younger generations. Naruhito and Masako were also to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to observe exhibits, including those featuring Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots organization awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize. The couple were to meet atomic bombing survivors, or hibakusha, and those born after the war and trained to tell the stories on behalf of those who can no longer do so. Naruhito is making his third trip to mourn the war dead this year. In April, the couple visited Iwo Jima to pay tribute to about 20,000 Japanese and nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945. Earlier this month, Naruhito also visited Okinawa to mourn about 188,000 Japanese, half of them Okinawan civilians, and about 12,000 Americans, killed in the Battle of Okinawa. Naruhito accompanied his daughter, Princess Aiko, underscoring his wish that she would learn the hardships of the Okinawan people and share their stories with younger generations.

Yahoo

3 days ago

• Yahoo

Japan's royal couple mourn A-bomb victims ahead of Hiroshima's 80th anniversary

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's Emperor Naruhito paid respects to atomic bombing victims in Hiroshima as the city marks the 80th anniversary of the tragedy later this year. Naruhito, accompanied by his wife, Empress Masako, bowed deeply at the cenotaph for the atomic bombing victims and offered bouquets of white flowers. The atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, destroyed the city, killing 140,000 people. A second bomb dropped three days later on Nagasaki killed 70,000 more. Japan surrendered on Aug. 15, ending World War II and its nearly half-century aggression in Asia. Naruhito has repeatedly stressed the importance to remember and keep telling the tragedy of the war to younger generations. Naruhito and Masako were also to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum to observe exhibits, including those featuring Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots organization awarded last year's Nobel Peace Prize. The couple were to meet atomic bombing survivors, or hibakusha, and those born after the war and trained to tell the stories on behalf of those who can no longer do so. Naruhito is making his third trip to mourn the war dead this year. In April, the couple visited Iwo Jima to pay tribute to about 20,000 Japanese and nearly 7,000 U.S. Marines killed in the Battle of Iwo Jima, fought from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945. Earlier this month, Naruhito also visited Okinawa to mourn about 188,000 Japanese, half of them Okinawan civilians, and about 12,000 Americans, killed in the Battle of Okinawa. Naruhito accompanied his daughter, Princess Aiko, underscoring his wish that she would learn the hardships of the Okinawan people and share their stories with younger generations.