LORAN SMITH: History’s biggest despots also its biggest cowards

HENRI CHAPELLE, Belgium — Meeting Bobby Bell brought about one of those serendipitous moments to savor — the result of a referral. Enterprise and referral can foster the most delightful experiences, connecting you with someone who has something to offer, something to say—something of substance which is emotionally uplifting.

“Tomorrow,” Miranda Prevaes had said over drinks with her husband, Sebastian, and their energetic young son, Bas, at the Beaumont Hotel in Maastricht, one of the most delightful stops experienced in many years of travel, “they will be waiting for you at Henri Chapelle.” Miranda had organized an illuminating tour of the American Cemetery at Margraten (The Netherlands) and now was connecting a visitor with officials of other American cemeteries in the region.

Upon arrival at Henri Chapelle, I was greeted by the aforementioned Bobby Bell, the superintendent, who hails from the panhandle of northwest Florida. He is an affable, hospitable, and informative type. If you are taking notes as you walk the grounds of the cemetery with him, it is impossible to keep up.

Bobby knows the history of this cemetery, like Bacchus knew wine. He knows about those who rest here in honored glory. He has a cogent grasp of the history of World War II. He is an expatriate who connects visitors to facts they would not otherwise be introduced to. He constantly toasts the Greatest Generation. He is a proud American.

Effusive and accommodating, he wants all visitors to appreciate the contribution of Americans who paid the ultimate price for victory in battlefields on this side of the Atlantic. We were at a disadvantage but, with uncommon valor and enduring commitment, we were able to take the measure of an enemy who was better prepared, better equipped, and blessed with the advantage of waging war on familiar soil. Hitler viewed the citizen soldiers of America without the resolve to measure up to the task at hand. Happily, history confirms he was wrong.

In order to prove him wrong, 405,399 Americans gave their lives to the Allied cause. There are three Medal of Honor winners buried here. The three Tester brothers, natives of the community of New Victory Tennessee, are buried side by side at Henri Chappelle, and their story offers this poignant historical vignette. Their father, an humble and austere farmer, was notified that a telegram awaited him at the Western Union office in town. Not once, which would be bad enough, but thrice, he drove a horse and buggy to town to learn another son had been killed in battle. Overcome with grief, he cried all the way home. Surely heaven awaits this everyday American. He, too, is a member of the Greatest Generation. We often consider sports figures who blaze athletic trails while making millions of dollars as heroes. They are not, but the parents of the Tester brothers are the heroes who count. They gave up their sons for America’s cause.

Unspeakable tragedy of a different nature is affiliated with Henri Chappelle. Here are buried seven of the eleven black men who were massacred at Wereth, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. The “Wereth 11” happened on the farm of a Dutch family who took them in and befriended them. They fed the black soldiers and provided shelter. Somehow or other as such tragedies take place, the Nazis learned their story. They came and captured the unit and took them out in the woods, tortured them to death, mutilating their bodies.

This was just prior to the Allied advance into Germany, which is worth noting. Had time been on the side of the Nazis, the Dutch family who befriended the black U.S. soldiers would have suffered a similar fate. All of which brings front and center this question. How could anybody be as brutal and inhumane as the Nazis were?

If you think about it, the Nazi mentality was no different from yesteryear’s Ku Klux Klan, which still has sympathizers. Taking the life of another you deem unworthy requires no conscience.

The biggest despots in history were the biggest cowards.