Are you looking for a Serial Number or Service Number for someone who is buried overseas in an ABMC cemetery? Here is one place you can look!
© 2018 World War II Research and Writing Center
Are you looking for a Serial Number or Service Number for someone who is buried overseas in an ABMC cemetery? Here is one place you can look!
© 2018 World War II Research and Writing Center
Are you looking for information on family members who died or are still missing from WWI, WWII, Korea, or the Vietnam War? I can help you find that information. Learn more in our short video and schedule your free consultation today to discuss how we can help you Find the Answers.
© 2018 World War II Research & Writing Center
If you have been following the articles and videos for the last week or so, I have been bringing up some strong questions. Questions which make people stop and react – positively or negatively. My point of view is that we should be looking at the other aspects of our family and military histories. What we discover can help us move forward and create a better, happier life. It also helps clear the past of negative energies.
I have spent a lot of time the last decade looking at the darker parts of my family’s history and the military history we have. I have helped many clients look at this as part of their research or writing projects. We all come out of the project changed and ready to create something greater for ourselves and our families. Are you ready to create something better?
Ask us how we can help you learn more about your family’s past – going deeper than the basic facts.
© 2018 World War II Research and Writing Center
Last weekend Johan and I traveled to the Dutch/German border near Aachen and spent a few days exploring WWII history and contemplating family history. I did a lot of writing on this trip. Musings. Questions. Concerns. Joyful things. All of this was captured in my journal.
One thing that keeps showing up the longer I am in Europe on this trip is that history keeps repeating itself. We are not doing enough to stop this.
In September while at the unveiling of a new WWII memorial in the Netherlands, during a speech someone said something to the effect that the Dutch have lived in relative peace for almost 75 years. The current young generations have no idea what it is like to live in fear or hunger. They in many ways take their freedom for granted as if this is how it has always been and this is how it will always be.
Wrong attitude.
The Dutch seem to be the only European country (that I have witnessed) consistently educating their youth on the history and events of WWII. I can say that having kids in American schools, they are not being educated on any of this beyond 5 minutes here or there. My boys know about our family’s history and sacrifices because I take time to explain it. They know how things work in other countries because I explain it. Knowing American schools are not educating about the past in a way that we can stop the division, anger, hate, and war in the present or cause our kids to QUESTION everything, stirs a lot of emotion in me. Rather than question, students are being taught to follow the crowd like sheep and buy into everything the media, government, school, church, etc. tells them is “truth”.
In the Netherlands, the school children participate in commemorations and other events so the history is alive. In other countries in Europe it seems to be covered up, changed, ignored, slid under the carpet.
Case in point, we watched a National Geographic investigative program on Mussolini the other night after we visited the Nazi Training Facility at Vogelsang in the German Eifel. I have not studied Italian history beyond early family history for a client so was unaware that Mussolini was in power so long in the 1930s and Hitler modeled himself after Mussolini. Then the historians in the program made an important point – when rulers are losing power or the country is going to hell, they create a DISTRACTION. That distraction is war.
Mussolini took his country into war with Ethiopia and won yet lost. WWII began and eventually Italy, who originally sided with Hitler, lost that connection and became an Allie. From the program and what I’ve heard, Italy does not educate their youth the way the Dutch do. There is a rise in Fascism today because people want a new Mussolini. They seem to have no concept of what happened in the past to bring him to power, the destruction he caused, and his downfall and the state of Italy afterward.
Thinking about all we have seen in the last two months in Europe, the programs I have watched, the places we visited, the history I read, the clients I have been working with, I did a lot of writing on this topic before we visited Margraten, the Netherlands American Cemetery for WWII. In this sacred place I wandered the graves, visited some specific soldiers, was snagged to stop and talk to others, and contemplated all of this. Having family members who fought, were changed, or died, in WWI and WWII, I do not understand why we keep forgetting the past. Why we continue to carry the sins of the fathers around like they are ours. Why we are so afraid to bring our family darkness to the light and explore it. Forgive it. Release it. Find closure.
Some of my thoughts are contained in this video. Some invitations and questions for YOU are also here. Have you taken the time to consider these things? What roles have your family members played in the past – whether WWII, WWI, or even before that, to continue looping history? Do you think it is time to let these things go and stop carrying them in our families?
Additional reading: for background on this trip and where some of my questions came from, you are invited to read the other articles I wrote where I touch on these topics.
Are you ready to explore your family’s history or military history? Explore our services and educational materials to learn more.
© 2018 World War II Research & Writing Center
Johan and I visited Vogelsang, a former Nazi Training Facility and Tourist hot spot/wedding venue during the 1930s and early 1940s. Standing in this place now, looking out over the beautiful fall Eifel National Park, and knowing the history of this place, was hard to wrap my head around.
The National Socialist Documentation Center, which we visited and saw the exhibit, “The Master Race”, offers these questions on their website:
After we viewed the exhibit and walked most of the complex, I had no answers to those questions. I only had more questions and uncertainty about the world and the humans who inhabit it.
One thing we have to remember, especially in this day and age is that We did not commit the sins of our fathers but we carry them in our DNA. What would it take for us to release this burden we carry that is not ours? What would it take to stop using energetic words that cause us to take on the energy of others like saying, “I’m embarrassed or I’m ashamed or I feel guilty” when we have no reason to take this on because we are not the ones doing whatever we are apologizing for. Maybe most importantly, what would it take for people to stop acting like sheep and following the pack and believing everything they are told? What would it take for more people to wake up and start questioning everything?
How might our world change? Could we stop the war, anger, hate, division, and all the other negativity in this reality?
My invitation to you is to start looking at the darker sides of your family and military history. Bring those things into the light and release the shame, guilt, sadness, negativity, darkness, horror, whatever it is that is stuck there. Let it go. Forgive. Move on to create a better future.
Would you like help researching your family or military history? Would you like to explore the darker sides of your history to clear and release the past?
© 2018 World War II Research & Writing Center
I am often asked how to reconstruct a military service file. In this short video I talk about this. Be sure to scroll down to see the additional resources to help you accurately reconstruct military history. You might be surprised to discover reconstruction is not what a lot of people tell you it is.
Additional Resources
Pick up one of our research books on Kindle or Paperback from Amazon. We have the only books on the market that teach you how to research any 20th century war. The strategies, records, and tools that we teach you for WWII research apply to WWI, Korea, and Vietnam.
Take one of our online courses available at WWII Education.
Educational Articles on Research
© 2019 World War II Research & Writing Center
Learn more at Finding the Answers Journey after watching the video.
© 2018 World War II Research & Writing Center
12 October 2018, Johan and I attended the annual Stichting Never Forget Them Airborne Commemoration in Heteren. This was my third year to attend. It is held at the 101st Monument close to the Crossroads, just behind where 506th PIR Bernard Tom was KIA on 9 October 1944.
I have been researching Bernie for more than a year and writing his book. His family gave Johan his letters and some from family & friends. I hope to release the book at the 75th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden in 2019. Bernie jumped into Holland and fought here for a few weeks before he was killed. Since much of my client work is not for airborne, but other units within the Army, Navy, Army Air Forces, Marines, and Coast Guard, researching Bernie’s records have been interesting.
The commemoration in Heteren was basically the same as the last three years. The founder, Martin Veggelers read a speech as he does each year. The mayor spoke. School children read poems. Sadly, doves were not released this year. I wonder if that was due to the fact that there was a firing party that fired a salute. I guess the noise would have scared the doves. The usual wreaths were laid by the foundation, the town, various groups, and school children laid poems and flowers by the monument. Last Post was played and of course the American and Dutch National Anthems as the flags were raised.
The commemoration was well attended as it is each year. You can read about the 2017 Commemoration here.
This year, on The Island, near Crossroads and the monument, is an enormous WWII re-enactment camp. Johan and I visited Friday afternoon for a few hours. Men were still setting things up, re-enactors still arriving after a week of work, but for the most part, there was a lot to see. I took a short tour and then spent some time talking to a lot of people. Apparently word had gotten out I was going to be there and several people were waiting to speak with me. That is always nice. I met old friends and new ones and gave a lot of research advice. I wonder how many more stories will be told now.
© 2018 World War II Research & Writing Center
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