BAND OF BROTHERS
I've spent my entire day, with a few interruptions here and there, watching the BAND OF BROTHERS marathon on the History Channel. For many, this would be considered a colossal waste of a GORGEOUS day. Not me.
This series is a moving, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning portrayal of what life for the men of Easy Company was like as they battled through Europe during World War II. Growing up, I'd heard very few stories from my grandfather about the war. I believe his coping mechanism was to try not to think about it or dwell on it. However, as he got older, and I became an adult with a sponge-like air about me, he opened up ever so slightly about the horror that was war. I know, for him, it was so painful, he made my grandmother burn all his letters when he got back state-side. As a writer, while I wish there was still some tangible link to my grandparents' life during that time, after viewing these episodes, I somehow understand, if just a tiny bit, why he insisted on destroying any pieces that still linked him to that past.
I'm sad that those stories are dying with the brave men and women that lived them ... not because of any romanticized view of those tales. But because to let those stories die, means someone will forget. The episode that haunts me, even as I write this, is the one entitled WHY WE FIGHT. The Easy Company stumbles on the Landsberg Prison and finds imprisoned Jews abandoned by the Germans, left to die. It was horrifying to watch -- I can't imagine what it was like to live it. To see, first hand, the cruelty one human being can impart upon another ... disgusting as it was see it, I don't believe we should ever forget how close we are all to stepping over the line into evil.
If you've never had the opportunity to read the book BAND OF BROTHERS by Steven Ambrose, or watch the HBO series, I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than so that dark period of history is never lost in the recesses of memory ...
This series is a moving, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning portrayal of what life for the men of Easy Company was like as they battled through Europe during World War II. Growing up, I'd heard very few stories from my grandfather about the war. I believe his coping mechanism was to try not to think about it or dwell on it. However, as he got older, and I became an adult with a sponge-like air about me, he opened up ever so slightly about the horror that was war. I know, for him, it was so painful, he made my grandmother burn all his letters when he got back state-side. As a writer, while I wish there was still some tangible link to my grandparents' life during that time, after viewing these episodes, I somehow understand, if just a tiny bit, why he insisted on destroying any pieces that still linked him to that past.
I'm sad that those stories are dying with the brave men and women that lived them ... not because of any romanticized view of those tales. But because to let those stories die, means someone will forget. The episode that haunts me, even as I write this, is the one entitled WHY WE FIGHT. The Easy Company stumbles on the Landsberg Prison and finds imprisoned Jews abandoned by the Germans, left to die. It was horrifying to watch -- I can't imagine what it was like to live it. To see, first hand, the cruelty one human being can impart upon another ... disgusting as it was see it, I don't believe we should ever forget how close we are all to stepping over the line into evil.
If you've never had the opportunity to read the book BAND OF BROTHERS by Steven Ambrose, or watch the HBO series, I highly recommend it, if for no other reason than so that dark period of history is never lost in the recesses of memory ...
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