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Summary: Saving Lives and Winning the War
Review: Fifty years after WWII, it is rare and unusual treat to read a firsthand account of the Allied advance through Hitler's Fortress Europe from D-Day to VE Day. Dr. McDermott's account is based partly from memory, but mostly from the hundreds of letters he wrote his wife during the course of the campaign. A half-century later, Dr. McDermott thought to throw the dusty cardboard box of correspondence away, but fortunately for us, his daughter convinced him otherwise, and he decided to take the letters and write this book about his extrordinary experiences.In the 1990's, our collective memories of WWII are shaped by Steven Ambrose and "Saving Private Ryan." This book rounds out these accounts with another, more thoughtful side of the GI's experience. There are accounts of shelling and blood, but the book focuses on how simple acts of kindness or simple pleasures of normal life -- a French peasant giving a US soldier some apples, or a beautiful sunset over Caen in June 1944 -- assume such poignant meaning and enlarged proportion. Dr. McDermott was one of the first doctors at the scene when the Nazi concentration camps were liberated. His account of the suffering is mournful and harrowing. Throughout the book he talks about Nazi brutality, but it isn't until the final chapters that he sees firsthand to what depths that brutality would sink. For anyone interested in WWII, European History or the Holocaust, I would highly recommend this book.
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Summary: Absorbing, true life stories on World War II
Review: Inspiring pictures of societies in England, France, Germany and Austria in the 40's.Analysis with such a high sensibility and far reaching perspective that they seem written in the 90's. A conscious soldier and doctor at war with honor. Humor instead of truculence proves to be effective to make read and feel. Humorous at difficulties of a sophisticated mind within the hardships of war-field life. Humorous at the many fake sons of Victory, like France or Austria, which lived the following 50 years on the myths of all having been in the Resistance to the Nazis, when actually 30 to 40% of every State in Europe had embraced rightist to fascist ideas. A must for anyone interested in euro-american history, sociology, and collective psychology.
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Summary: It is a wonderful, exciting book that touches your heart
Review: My Grandfather wrote this book and personally I loved it! He has told me about his expierences freeing the concentration camp. I give it a ten, not just because I know him but because I thought it was well put together and I reccomend it to everyone.Even if you can't stand the thought of concentration camps or war it describes to you what really happened as if you were really there. Bahan McDermott (Age 12)
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Summary: Absorbing, true life stories on World War II
Review: My Grandfather,Dr.William V.McDermott,has told me much about his experiences on the Omaha Beach and the terrifying seens in Ebensee. His pictures of the concentration camps help a 13 year old girl like me really understand some of the real meaning of war,although,nobody could ever know what its really like....unless they were actually there. I enjoy listening to his engrossing stories and this book was just a whole new one to catch my breath and fufill my thirst for history and information.
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