The Juno Letters

Monday, 6 October 2014. I am in Normandy on a STIWOT Battlefield Tour. I am on Juno Beach on this wet and stormy morning. My interest in the Canadians in Normandy is known for years with my STIWOT colleagues. I read and write articles about it. Today my colleague tells about the actions on the beach, stories I have known for years. I take advantage of the moment to walk over the beach alone. All by myself, with only the sound of the surf. However one can never really be alone on that beach. The film in the Juno Beach Center later that day will confirm this. The title: "They walk with you". I know the stories, the names, the faces... On the beach tears fill my eyes.

At ten o'clock the museum opens. While my colleague continues telling I stand at the small stairway next to the entrance with another colleague. Peering through the window one can just see the museum shop with its books. Juno Beach Center is always the place to look for new books on my favourite subject. I point out some books to my colleague that were on my wish list. Books I searched for in Normandy and on the internet but were difficult to find. Here these books stand neatly in a row.

When the door of the museum opens I am the first to enter. The museum always starts with an introduction in a replica landing boat. I ask the Canadian students that work there if I can enter the museum through the exit. Amazed and not understanding faces gaze at me but after I explain that I have seen the film several times as well as the museum this,of course, is allowed. I walk through the museum, most things I already know: Dieppe, Juno Beach, Buron, Le Mesnil-Patry, Carpiquet, Caen, Verrières and Falaise...

Despite my shortcut I remain in the museum longer than planned. The bus is about to leave and I still need to visit the book shop. I finish the list in no time but I see new books that I did not know yet. I see a new book "The Juno Letters" and read the back: "Letters discovered in a tin box hidden in the foundation of a small cottage in Normandy reveal a terrible secret." That was enough for me to buy the book. Of course I walk out of the museum with a pile of books in my hands.

Back in the hotel I look again at the cover. It says in huge letters: "A Historical Novel". Unfortunately not true or historically accurate and I already regret the fact that I bought the book.Back in the Netherlands the book is shelved under the pile and it is the last book that I read. It begins in the First World War when a U.S. Soldier(!) gets to know a German prisoner of war. The German soldier turns out to be French. Since 1871, the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine were part of the German empire. As happened in World War Two, inhabitants of these provinces were conscripted into the German Army.They get to know each other and after the war they maintain a correspondence with each other. I almost threw the book aside but decided to read on anyway.

In World War Two, the Frenchman, Antoine, finds himself in Normandy where the local Normans treat him with suspicion. He is, after all, an Alsatian which was part of Germany until 1918 and which was again annexed to the Third Reich in 1940. He continues writing letters to his American friend but unfortunately he can not send them to the U.S.A. any longer. He hides the letters in a tin box and years later the box is discovered in Courseulles-sur-Mer. The mayor of the town traces back the grandson of the American soldier with the aid of internet. His name is Lawrence Hewitt and the mayor sends the letters. Hewitt starts to investigate the letters, the stories and Antoine. It describes fairly well how one can try to find out what has happened with only tiny pieces of information. Most trails end dead and sometimes the finding of information is more by hit than by wit.

Fiction as it may be, the story describes historical facts. The only error I was able to find was that Kurt Meyer was placed in the 21st Panzer Division in stead of the 12th SS Panzer Division Hitler Youth. For a person with mainly interest in Juno Beach the story starts rather slowly. The story, however, is written so well that I finished it in one go. I recommend the book to any person even remotely interested in World War Two. Unfortunately the book is not easy to buy unless you like e-books. Should you ever run into the book, do not hesitate and buy it immediately. At the end of the book tears once again filled my eyes.

ISBN: 9780989443470