Fighting Fascism in Europe: The World War II Letters of an American Veteran of the Spanish Civil War (World War II--the Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension, 1) [ハードカバー]

This book kept my interest cover to cover. Lawrence Cane is obviously the epitome of a soldier and family man, the essense of the American service man in W.W. 2. From basic training thru the occupation of Germany,he was a man who had not only to fight for his place in the war ,but then to fight the war from the first wave to hit the beach on Normandy,to the liberation of the concentration camps, to time spent in the rebuilding of Germany in Eisleben.

Many years ago, when doing research for my graduate thesis on those heroic Jews who went to fight Hitlerism in Spain, I came across the name of Larry Cane. While I was able to make contact with many vets in the Lincoln Battalion, sad to say, Mr. Cane had passed on before I had a chance to contact him. His obituary told of his valor, and of his idealism, and while he was, yes, a member of the Communist Party USA while in Spain and serving heroically in the United States Army in World War II, Larry Cane had the intellectual honesty to walk away from the horrendous Stalinist sewer once he was aware of its true evil.

His son is to be profusely thanked for releasing this correspondence of a man - yes, a Leftist, but whose Jewish background, perhaps even more so than his CP affiliation, made this man - a decision to fight evil and oppression and believe in the unity of all mankind. Cane writes movingly of the D-Day Battle, of coming across emanciated Jewish concentration camp survivors in Germany, of his pride in America, of being a Jew, and yes, of being a Communist and pride in the Soviet Union as the ally that it was (of course then being unaware of what a murderous fascist Joe Stalin really was). He writes of the common soldiers that he served alongside with, and there is correspondence from some of them that attest to Cane's own bravery in battle. And he writes of his love of his family and of the baby son who now has been able to bring this unique correspondence to publication.

Larry Cane earned the Silver Star and a Battlefield Commission to the rank of Captain in the United States Army for his heroism on the battlefields of France after D-Day, and for his role in helping to smash the Hitlerian evil. A worthy read for all Americans interested in our "Greatest Generation" - and in the unique experiences of those who bravely chose to fight Hitlerism in Spain before the world recognized what was at stake for all mankind.

this book is sensitively written and full of fascinating details, which bring the history alive.