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Authors! with Robert Edsel

Join us for Authors! with #1 New York Times bestselling author of five non-fiction books, including "The Monuments Men," which served as the basis for Academy Award recipient George Clooney's film.

Join us in welcoming #1 New York Times Bestselling author Robert Edsel to Toledo!

ABOUT THE BOOK:

What happens when you lose your freedom and the people who eventually get it back for you are no longer alive to thank?

Remember Us, by Robert Edsel—#1 New York Times bestselling author of The Monuments Men—opens in the pre-dawn hours of Hitler’s invasion of Western Europe on May 10, 1940, when his forces rolled into the small rural province of Limburg in the Netherlands, shattering more than 100 years of peace. Their freedom gone, the Dutch lived through four-and-a-half years of occupation until September 1944, when American forces reached Limburg, the last portion of Western Europe liberated by the Allies before their advance on Nazi Germany slammed to a halt.

Like The Monuments Men, Remember Us is an ensemble piece; it follows twelve main characters over a six-year span (1940-1946) including Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole, the first member of the 101st Airborne to receive the Medal of Honor; Sergeant Jeff Wiggins of the 960th Quartermaster Company, a segregated Black unit, who escaped the poverty and racism of Alabama for yet another indignity—digging graves; and Frieda van Schäik, a Dutch teenager who falls in love with an American soldier.

In this rich, dramatic, and suspenseful story, Edsel captures both the horrors of war and the transcendent power of gratitude, showing the extraordinary measures the Dutch have taken to thank their liberators. Drawing on never-before-seen letters, diaries, and other historical records, he shows the painful price of freedom, on the battlefields and inside American homes. Remember Us is exactly the book we need—a reminder that grief is universal, that humanity knows no national or racial boundaries, and that we all want to be remembered, somehow, someway, by somebody.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Robert M. Edsel is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of five non-fiction books including Rescuing da Vinci, Saving Italy, and The Monuments Men (also with Bret Witter), which served as the basis for Academy Award recipient George Clooney’s 2014 film. His latest book, Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II, will be published by Harper Horizon on April 29, 2025. Mr. Edsel is a co-producer of the Emmy-nominated documentary film, The Rape of Europa. He has been honored with the Texas Medal of the Arts; the President’s Call to Service Award; the Hope for Humanity Award, presented by the Dallas Holocaust Museum; and the Foundation for the National Archives’ Records of Achievement Award. In 2022, the United States Army and the Smithsonian Institution made Mr. Edsel an honorary graduate of the first Army Monuments Officer Training Program, an idea Mr. Edsel advocated for nearly twenty years. Mr. Edsel is also the Founder and Chairman of the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, recipient of the National Humanities Medal, awarded by President George W. Bush.

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION:

The presentation will include a moderated conversation followed by a brief question and answer.