The American St Nick
Europe
•
55m
It was 1944 in the small Luxembourg Town of Wiltz. The war had taken a heavy toll as Wiltz had been a center of resistance and suffered brutal reprisals. People were shot in the town square and men were forced into the German army or sent to concentration camps. The German occupation lasted four years before the Germans pulled out in September 1944. After the town’s liberation, Allied soldiers rotated through Wiltz for R&R (rest and recuperation). The 112th Regiment, part of the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania National Guard (known as the Keystone Division), had been sent to relieve troops battling to retake Huertgen Forest. After sustaining heavy casualties they were sent to regroup and rest in Wiltz. The people there had very little and had not been able to celebrate Christmas or anything else during the years of occupation. A few days before Thanksgiving Corporal Harry Stutz told his buddy, Corporal Richard Brookins, “I think we should give this town a Christmas party, A St. Nicholas Day. For hundreds of years here in Wiltz, they had a celebration on the fifth of December, the eve of St. Nicholas Day. A man dressed as St. Nick paraded through the town and gave candy to the kids. Kids here haven’t celebrated St. Nicholas Day for nearly five years because of the war. Some of them have never seen St. Nick at all.” What followed is one of the most heart-warming stories of World War II. Narrated by Tom Kane.
Up Next in Europe
-
Maggies War
We follow 82nd Airborne veteran James “Maggie” Megellas from Wisconsin to Europe where he fought in some of the most savage battles of World War II. “Maggie” is the most decorated officer in the history of the famed 82nd Airborne Division. Narrated by Tom Kane.
-
A Promise to My Father
Re-trace the steps of Holocaust survivor Israel Arbeiter as he returns to Poland and Germany for the final time to look for items buried in 1939 in the basement of his old home in Plock, Poland as the German army advanced.
-
Bob Dole, Italy and World War II
The fighting in the mountains of Italy in WWII was so horrendous that the famed American 10th Mountain Division, customarily found on skis, was called into the fight. One of those soldiers in the 10th Mountain Division was Bob Dole, later a famed Senator from Kansas and Presidential candidate. Do...