Unknown Soldier Cross. Photo by Visserp (2013). PD-CCA-Share Alike 3.0. Wikimedia Commons.

Posting this blog on the fifth of each May has become a tradition for me.

Liberation Day (also known as Freedom Day) for the Netherlands (Holland) was 5 May 1945. Canadian forces along with other Allied forces were able to obtain the surrender of German forces in the small Dutch town of Wageningen. This led to the complete German surrender and liberation of the country. The Netherlands was one of the last European countries to be liberated. Two days later in Reims, Generaloberst Alfred Jodl signed the document for the unconditional surrender of the German armies.

Thank You

We’d like to thank everyone who contacts us regarding our blogs. We get correspondence saying how much they like the blogs as well as the occasional e-mails pointing out errors. Both of these are very much appreciated. We’ve made friends with other authors from around the world as well as others who relay related stories and comments. We stay in contact with people who run non-profit organizations dedicated to preserving the memories of those who fought the Nazis. So, please keep those e-mails coming! It’s critical to NEVER FORGET.

Netherlands American Cemetery (Margraten)

There is a cemetery near Maastricht. It is the final resting spot for 8,301 American soldiers and a memorial for 1,722 men missing in action. They were the casualties of Operation Market Garden (17–25 September 1944) and other battles aimed at liberating Holland. Operation Market Garden was a failed Allied attempt to liberate Holland while on their march to Germany and Berlin. Other military cemeteries are located nearby for the British and Canadian men who did not survive the battle. Learn more about Operation Market Garden here. Read More May 5, 1945

Fifteen years after the end of World War II, William L. Shirer published his epic book, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. I purchased the book almost forty years ago through the “Book of the Month Club”⏤remember that organization? (Believe it or not, BOMC still exists.) I just finished reading it and there were many topics from ninety-years ago that pertain to today’s world. Today’s blog captures one of those subjects.

American author and journalist, William L. Shirer. Photo by anonymous (c. 1961). PD-U.S. Government. Wikimedia Commons.

William L. Shirer (1904−1993) was an American journalist and war correspondent. He was an eyewitness to the rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazism during the 1930s. He started as a print journalist and worked for Universal Service until 1937 when he was fired from the William Randolph Hearst news company. Edward R. Murrow, European manager for CBS, immediately hired Shirer to open a bureau on the European continent. (Murrow worked out of the London office and wanted a correspondent located in Europe.) Shirer’s office was in Vienna but most of his reporting was done onsite from Paris, Berlin, and Rome. After Dunkirk, he personally followed behind the movement of German troops to report on the war. As the Nazis continued to pressure him in 1940 to report inaccurate information, Shirer suggested to Murrow that his tenure in Nazi territory was about over. Right about the same time, Shirer learned the Gestapo was developing a case against him for espionage which carried the death penalty. In December 1940, Shirer left Germany and did not return to Europe until 1945 when he covered the Nuremberg trials. Read More Diplomatic Lessons and Warning Signs,