Merci Theresa et Dan du fond du coeur pour cet émouvant témoignage de votre journée sur les traces de nombreux résistants dont ton père Dan.
I became very emotional as I was reading your pieces. I too, as a now American citizen, am very sad and angry, when I see all the awful and despicable things that are happening here. I am glad to see that in spite of it all the memories of what we (French) owe to the courage and unselfishness of so many Americans continue to be remembered deep inside the French countryside.
Merci pour le lien du Chant des Partisans qui me bouleverse chaque fois que je l'entends.
Poignant and beautifully told. Thank you Theresa - and thank God for Don’s dad and his courageous countrymen and French Resistance fighters who helped save the world. We could use them today.
I cried reading Don's Part 1. But I cried again reading your beautiful and inspiring piece. It's amazing how the French are still so grateful. We learned that from our guide when we spent the day in Normandy. The stained glass windows in the churches depicting Allied paratroopers. I'm also so glad you related the events to what is happening here. Merveilleuse!
Theresa, your beautiful words, descriptions, and tears strike deep. It is profoundly humbling to hear how the French people honor and remember all of those who fought, risked their lives, and died. The contrast between what is happening here in the U.S., the greed, inhumanity, and cruelty being unleashed, could not be greater. Thank you and Don for telling these stories at a time when we dearly need reminders of the best of humanity. We need to hold tight to the spirit of Don's Dad, and scores of other brave American and French people, to continue to stand up, speak up, and resist!
As a grandchild of a Resistance member, this story brought me to tears. As a child I did not ask questions about her service and it was only after her death that the details were told to me. I am proud of her service and that those ideals have not been forgotten many years later.
Your grandmother must have been an amazing woman. If you have any information about her life or service that you can share, I’d love to hear more. Women of the Resistance are my history crush.
I - we - are having to use so much dark humor and depend on cold facts to survive this massacre of democracy happening in our country that I was completely caught off guard by that “of course, we would play the Star Spangled Banner”. To think that another country would still consider the valiant efforts of one of their Allies while we are now an example of Fascism for Dummies. I grateful for their remembrance.
Your tears were merited, Theresa, and the instances that prompted them beautifully recounted. What a contrast, as you so effectively point out, between what our country was and what it is becoming/has become. (Your crying provides a wonderful thematic thread and often acts as a moving metonym of sorts, too--just loved your prose, which always does justice to your rich, thoughtful substance). And I envy you and Don for being able to be immersed in this Resistance history and French WWII history. As Don illustrated in his post and yours indicates as well, place enables the mind to conjure up pasts and make them present.
I have always been so drawn to history and view places often in terms of the past. When we drove to Georgia every year before I turned 7, I would try to imagine the landscape as it was 200 years before (Traveling via US1 pre-95 made this doable), and having just started reading Moby Dick when my family stopped in New Bedford, and I saw the church with the pulpit shaped like the bow of a ship made a novel that I probably would have struggled with come alive for me. When I was quite little, the Civil War held my imagination--especially since my father was from the North and my mother from the South; those trips down South (as well as Sunday day trips) often entailed stops at battlefields. Yet, later, WWII history--primarily the European front--took and kept its hold on me. When I played with Barbies, my dolls lived always in the past, frequently as pioneers on covered wagons going west, but also in other scenarios, too.
So moving! We are “experiencing” this time in history by watching A French Village on Amazon Prime. So intense and thought-provoking, especially as we see so many parallels of history repeating itself in the U.S. and around the world. Just one word of warning- once you watch the first season for free and are irrevocably hooked, you must pay for seasons 2 and 3, but not 4,5 6. Each season is about $30. Michael found a 3 month special subscription to MHZchoice for about $5.60/mth, so we are watching as much as possible. We’re now in season 6 and so many are getting tried and executed for collaboration with the Germans. The show is exciting, complex, and heartbreaking with the most talented actors and incredible character development before, during, and after WWII. I have definitely improved my French by watching it with English subtitles!
That’s one of our favorite shows. It was suggested by one of my French teachers here and Don passed along the suggested to Michael. I don’t remember paying for it, though.
What an incredible experience - I thoroughly enjoyed both your and Don's recounting of this personal journey and touchstone connecting your family story with French history, which is inexorably linked to American history in so many ways. If it hadn't been for French military aid in the mid-18th century, Americans today might well be speaking with British accents.
I also enjoy the B-24 connection, as my Dad was an USAAF B-24 flight tech in the Pacific Theater. I remember as a boy sitting on the floor by the bookshelf paging through his seven volume USAAF B-24D service manual produced by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego where he went to school before deploying. I loved the beautiful full color illustrations featuring a cartoon character who served to illustrate everything a B-24 mechanic should NOT do. His name was Lester Boner. I'm not kidding!
Here's a link to a set that was recently for sale - a very rare full collection with the coolest leather carrying case I've ever seen. My Dad's manuals were thumb worn and grease stained, and the bag was beat to hell. I wish, wish, wish, I had it now.
Thank you for this touching account of your experiences, and for the reminder that the sacrifices of those who came before--Don's father, or my own--were real, meaningful, and worthy of honour.
Recent memorials in Nice, celebrating its liberation, gave reminders, too, of the occupation, the departure of the Germans, and the difficult period between their departure and the arrival of American forces. It made me more aware of the many plaques in places and on buildings throughout the city where lives were lost by those who resisted. We must also not forget.
Thank you for sharing your experiences Theresa. It is incredibly heartbreaking how much suffering occurred during war time. Your story is an important reminder to all generations that life and liberty needs to be cherished.
Merci Theresa et Dan du fond du coeur pour cet émouvant témoignage de votre journée sur les traces de nombreux résistants dont ton père Dan.
I became very emotional as I was reading your pieces. I too, as a now American citizen, am very sad and angry, when I see all the awful and despicable things that are happening here. I am glad to see that in spite of it all the memories of what we (French) owe to the courage and unselfishness of so many Americans continue to be remembered deep inside the French countryside.
Merci pour le lien du Chant des Partisans qui me bouleverse chaque fois que je l'entends.
Poignant and beautifully told. Thank you Theresa - and thank God for Don’s dad and his courageous countrymen and French Resistance fighters who helped save the world. We could use them today.
As I read your poignant words, I cried (with you).
I cried reading Don's Part 1. But I cried again reading your beautiful and inspiring piece. It's amazing how the French are still so grateful. We learned that from our guide when we spent the day in Normandy. The stained glass windows in the churches depicting Allied paratroopers. I'm also so glad you related the events to what is happening here. Merveilleuse!
Theresa, your beautiful words, descriptions, and tears strike deep. It is profoundly humbling to hear how the French people honor and remember all of those who fought, risked their lives, and died. The contrast between what is happening here in the U.S., the greed, inhumanity, and cruelty being unleashed, could not be greater. Thank you and Don for telling these stories at a time when we dearly need reminders of the best of humanity. We need to hold tight to the spirit of Don's Dad, and scores of other brave American and French people, to continue to stand up, speak up, and resist!
As a grandchild of a Resistance member, this story brought me to tears. As a child I did not ask questions about her service and it was only after her death that the details were told to me. I am proud of her service and that those ideals have not been forgotten many years later.
Your grandmother must have been an amazing woman. If you have any information about her life or service that you can share, I’d love to hear more. Women of the Resistance are my history crush.
Another beautiful story. Amidst the tears, you’re fortunate to be in a place that appreciates the values that the USA used to espouse.
I - we - are having to use so much dark humor and depend on cold facts to survive this massacre of democracy happening in our country that I was completely caught off guard by that “of course, we would play the Star Spangled Banner”. To think that another country would still consider the valiant efforts of one of their Allies while we are now an example of Fascism for Dummies. I grateful for their remembrance.
Your tears were merited, Theresa, and the instances that prompted them beautifully recounted. What a contrast, as you so effectively point out, between what our country was and what it is becoming/has become. (Your crying provides a wonderful thematic thread and often acts as a moving metonym of sorts, too--just loved your prose, which always does justice to your rich, thoughtful substance). And I envy you and Don for being able to be immersed in this Resistance history and French WWII history. As Don illustrated in his post and yours indicates as well, place enables the mind to conjure up pasts and make them present.
I have always been so drawn to history and view places often in terms of the past. When we drove to Georgia every year before I turned 7, I would try to imagine the landscape as it was 200 years before (Traveling via US1 pre-95 made this doable), and having just started reading Moby Dick when my family stopped in New Bedford, and I saw the church with the pulpit shaped like the bow of a ship made a novel that I probably would have struggled with come alive for me. When I was quite little, the Civil War held my imagination--especially since my father was from the North and my mother from the South; those trips down South (as well as Sunday day trips) often entailed stops at battlefields. Yet, later, WWII history--primarily the European front--took and kept its hold on me. When I played with Barbies, my dolls lived always in the past, frequently as pioneers on covered wagons going west, but also in other scenarios, too.
La Marseillaise hasalways made me cry, too. And even more now that our American democracy is so battered and bruised.
I tear up when they sing it in Casablanca
So moving! We are “experiencing” this time in history by watching A French Village on Amazon Prime. So intense and thought-provoking, especially as we see so many parallels of history repeating itself in the U.S. and around the world. Just one word of warning- once you watch the first season for free and are irrevocably hooked, you must pay for seasons 2 and 3, but not 4,5 6. Each season is about $30. Michael found a 3 month special subscription to MHZchoice for about $5.60/mth, so we are watching as much as possible. We’re now in season 6 and so many are getting tried and executed for collaboration with the Germans. The show is exciting, complex, and heartbreaking with the most talented actors and incredible character development before, during, and after WWII. I have definitely improved my French by watching it with English subtitles!
That’s one of our favorite shows. It was suggested by one of my French teachers here and Don passed along the suggested to Michael. I don’t remember paying for it, though.
What an incredible experience - I thoroughly enjoyed both your and Don's recounting of this personal journey and touchstone connecting your family story with French history, which is inexorably linked to American history in so many ways. If it hadn't been for French military aid in the mid-18th century, Americans today might well be speaking with British accents.
I also enjoy the B-24 connection, as my Dad was an USAAF B-24 flight tech in the Pacific Theater. I remember as a boy sitting on the floor by the bookshelf paging through his seven volume USAAF B-24D service manual produced by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego where he went to school before deploying. I loved the beautiful full color illustrations featuring a cartoon character who served to illustrate everything a B-24 mechanic should NOT do. His name was Lester Boner. I'm not kidding!
Here's a link to a set that was recently for sale - a very rare full collection with the coolest leather carrying case I've ever seen. My Dad's manuals were thumb worn and grease stained, and the bag was beat to hell. I wish, wish, wish, I had it now.
Aux armes, citoyens !
https://www.historicflyingclothing.com/en-GB/ww2-usaaf-manuals/usaaf-b-24d-service-manuals---complete-set-c-w-case/prod_17477
What a wonderful memory of your dad. Thanks for sharing it.
A lovely piece. (I cannot listen to le Chant des partisans without sobbing.)
Thank you for this touching account of your experiences, and for the reminder that the sacrifices of those who came before--Don's father, or my own--were real, meaningful, and worthy of honour.
Recent memorials in Nice, celebrating its liberation, gave reminders, too, of the occupation, the departure of the Germans, and the difficult period between their departure and the arrival of American forces. It made me more aware of the many plaques in places and on buildings throughout the city where lives were lost by those who resisted. We must also not forget.
Thank you for sharing your experiences Theresa. It is incredibly heartbreaking how much suffering occurred during war time. Your story is an important reminder to all generations that life and liberty needs to be cherished.