RADIOFebruary 05, 2024

DEBATE: Should America elect a modern-day Franco?

Glenn has been hearing growing calls on the right for America to elect a modern-day Francisco Franco. But he warns that if you know the FULL history of this Spanish dictator, you might think twice. Glenn and Stu “debate” the alleged “pros” and cons of Franco. Many have touted Franco’s love for his nation and apparent positive effect on tourism. But he also executed over 100,000 people and buried them in mass graves, abducted babies from families who disagreed with him, enacted Martial Law, seemed just fine with thinning out the Spanish population, and persecuted Protestants. So, Glenn has some words of caution for those on the right who may consider themselves Franco fans: “He was an evil dictator who committed atrocities…that is NOT America.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So for some unknown reason, I said hey, let's do a debate on the good things and the bad things about Franco, Stu immediately said, I want to do the pro-Franco stuff. Because he's -- I didn't realize this, Stu. You're a big fan of Franco.

STU: No. This is all fraudulent information. And you would like that to be known. That he at that Glenn is lying as usual.

GLENN: That's not what America is hearing right now. But we'll go with that little lie of yours. So we looked at.

And I wanted to get somebody to debate the other side, like Stu. Because, you know, he's pretty thorough. He's a fact-based guy. And so I thought, let's get him. Because the facts are I think you can verify this. The facts are overwhelming in Franco's favor.

STU: I would not verify that. Actually, I feel the opposite, frankly.

GLENN: Really?

STU: Yes. And maybe we should start with, why?

Why would we be debating the positives and negatives of Franco? What would be the purpose of that, and why would that occur, in 2024?

A week before the Iowa caucuses.

Why are we talking about Franco of all people?

GLENN: Well, Francisco Franco, you might remember him. He was the head of the Spanish state.

He was what you might call a dictator.

And a lot of people now, it seems, in America, are starting to say, you know, we should have somebody like Franco. That just comes in. And stops all this nonsense.

And I'm thinking to myself, no. No.

We shouldn't have somebody like Franco.

Unfortunately, a lot of the people that are debating this. And are -- who are cozing up to the idea of an American Franco, are conservatives. And I don't -- you either don't know who Franco is, or I wouldn't classify you as a conservative, but maybe that's me.

Maybe that's just me.

STU: And I, of course, feel the opposite. I feel that he was great. And did a great job in his --

GLENN: Right. That's so convincing, Stu.

STU: In his 36 years of being a dictator. I think that's an appropriate amount of time.

GLENN: Yeah. So you're doing a great job so far.

Okay. So here's the thing. Some of the stuff we gathered. Polling, for instance, shows that he's not so bad, to many of the people in Spain.

And in Italy. You know, neither was Mussolini.

You know, as long as you went along with him.

Some of this stuff, comes from the Madrid Center for Sociological Research. A government research center, showed that the majority of the Spanish public now acknowledged that Franco did both good and bad things.

Now, I'm going to ask for a definition of the word bad, because I'm not sure -- I mean, the term bad does that include extermination camps, Stu, or not?

Do you think?

STU: I'm typically of the opinion that they're universally bad. Extermination camps. Never a good idea.

GLENN: Okay. But is that maybe -- I don't know. A significantly understating the -- the badness of extermination camps, or genocide. Or crimes against humanity?

STU: I consider them suboptimal, Glenn.

GLENN: Suboptimal. All right. Okay.

See, we have the right guy to debate the Franco side.

Should we like to start, or should I start?

STU: You go ahead, Glenn. You have that tough task to make Franco look bad.

GLENN: I know. I know.

Okay. So now both sides of the debate. Both good and bad, Franco. They will admit that he committed massive atrocities during the Spanish Civil War.

His nationalists raped Republican women and shaved their heads. They rounded up half a hill people. And put them in concentration amps. A large portion of these prisoners did forced labor or made to fight in Franco's army. And he executed another 100,000 people during the war.

So right off there, I think, I don't think I'm on the Franco train.

STU: Really? The train is an interesting --

GLENN: Well, I thought so.

STU: Use there.

You know, again, I will attempt my best here.

Franco, at least when you're thinking of the Spanish people, at least half of them. Specifically, you did keep them out of World War II. By kind of remaining neutral. Somewhere right.

STU: Now, some might note, you didn't get invaded. You were less likely to be invaded by Hitler. When you did things that Hitler didn't mind all that much. Which was not necessarily a positive. But I am telling you, it's a positive, that, hey, he remained neutral in World War II. And didn't get invaded.

GLENN: Okay. All right. Okay.

But he was busy for a while there in his own Civil War, and the public affairs officer for Franco's forces told an American reporter, quote, you know what's wrong with Spain? Modern plumbing. In healthier times. Spiritually healthier. You understand.

The plague and pestilence. They could be counted on to thin the Spanish masses. Now with modern sewage disposal, people just multiply too fast. And the masses are no better than animals, you understand.

You can't expect them not to become infected with the virus of bolshevism. After all, rats and lice carry the plague. So he had a good understanding of servant to the people.

STU: Sure. You could say that. However, we've all become so indoorsy these days. You know, when it's 32 degrees, we don't even go out to outhouses anymore.

The outdoor plumbing was a better approach.

GLENN: Was it?

STU: Yes, much better. And I think we should go back to that.

GLENN: So get rid of modernity, like toilets.

STU: Yeah. Modernity, that's an interesting word. I feel like we've used that with the Russian figures over the past few years. They said, get rid of modernity as well.

GLENN: We have. And some Christian nationalists as well.

STU: Well, what you're not talking about was foreign investment was encouraged, and tourism was promoted.

And by 1962, per capita income for the nation's 33 million people reached 300 dollars per year.

GLENN: Holy cow. Holy cow.

STU: So, I mean -- you didn't point that out, when you -- imagine how went, if we could have gone to outhouses.

Probably would have doubled that number.

GLENN: I hate to throw a monkey wrench into the deal. I wasn't really concentrating on the tourism.

STU: Okay.

GLENN: Because after -- after the war. Franco was responsible for the torture, murder, and -- and covert burial of an additionally 114,000 Spanish citizens.

He just -- he just targeted people, Republican loyalists. Atheists.

Jews. Intellectuals. Liberals. Academics. Protestants. But you can see the Protestants. You know.

Anarchists, freemasons, socialists. Catalent, and Basque nationalists. Communists, homosexuals, and trade unionists.

So -- and they just -- they opened up mass the braves all around Spain. And relatives couldn't mark the forgave or anything else.

They just dumped them in, or covered them with dirt.

STU: Say what you want.

But we wouldn't have this nationalist problem, if it wasn't for all this indoor plumbing. And I think Franco nailed that, by the way.

GLENN: Right. Right.

STU: But you did mention an interesting word there.

Communist. You see, he was an anti-Communist.

He was an anti-socialist. He opposed a lot of the things that we oppose today.

Which somehow is supposed to be a reason enough to love the guy. And that's why I'm making this positive argument for Franco.

GLENN: So wait.

STU: But he did oppose communists it's true.

He did oppose socialists. Of course, I don't want to point out some of the other figures in Europe at the time.

Who also hit that standard and maybe -- are not thought of so positively.

GLENN: Wow. It sounds like you're not convinced he's a good guy.

STU: No. I just told you he was against Communists.

GLENN: Now, let me see if I can flip Stu on this one. You know, the children from Republican families were taken. And they weren't killed.

They were just abducted. Renamed. And given to supporters of the Franco regime.

An estimated 300,000 babies were also stolen from hospitals. And undesirable parents. And then they were sold to approved families.

STU: Have you heard any of the dumb names, parents are naming kids these days? They should be captured and renamed. That's the only way we could save our society today.

Yes. And Franco is one of the few people, who knew that.

And I'll tell you this, Glenn.

He did promote strong Spanish national identity. And culture. And this seems to be honestly what people --

GLENN: But he was kidnapping babies.

STU: Seems to be -- yeah. Sure.

And opposing indoor plumbing. But it seems to be what people do like. Just like me. Who is arguing the pro Franco side.

Is that he did have a bit of a -- he had a national streak, which has some equivalent here in the modern movement on the right.

And also, he did -- (cut out).

Hmm, well, I mean, if you had a good name, then maybe you would change your opinion once the government assigned you your new name. Which was much, much better than your old name. I will say though, you know, Glenn, once he aged. See, here's the thing.

People look at this and say, look, did Franco do some bad things?

Sure, some people will say that. But they will also note that it was a trying time.

A difficult period after the war.

And he -- and the country was collapsing. He needed to act in that way. And once he paged -- he did release and relax some of those rules.

Police -- you know, beating people over the head for no apparent reason.

Declined by like, I don't know. 13 percent or something.

And he did allow some free market reforms.

Now, some would point out, hey, maybe he would put the free market reforms in because they're good. You don't just wait for 30 years of a dictatorship before you do those things.

GLENN: Yeah. Yeah.

STU: But, hey, later on in life. He aged. And he calmed a little bit. And isn't that wonderful?

GLENN: Well, still didn't allow any freedom of the press. But also, he -- I mean, employment. If you were unemployed, you could get a job. If you were a Franco supporter. But people were required to get a -- a certificate of good behavior from local officials.

So you could get a job, which kind of sounds like what we don't want to happen here.

STU: Well, I mean, some would say that. There's certain people out there, that would make claims.

GLENN: I think -- I think while you're making very good points. I think I will just leave it at this.

Only Cambodia, known for the killing fields.

Only Cambodia has more mass the braves and anonymous victims, than Franco's Spain. So...

STU: Well, anonymous victims because they rejected their new names.

GLENN: Right. Thank you. Well, Stu, I -- I mean, I thought you made a lot of good points on Franco. Because there's a lot of them out there, as you well know.

STU: Well, you know, I'm a passionate supporter, apparently of Franco.

GLENN: Yeah. You almost slipped there and said Hitler.

STU: Well, no, I didn't. But I know what you mean.

Too many similarities there to be ignored.

I don't -- look, we had -- we had a lot right, I think in this country, you know.

And I feel like we're at the point where we want to throw a lot of the things that we did correctly, out the window.

Because we perceive this as a period of things not going our way.

There's a reason why we've been a country that has been this powerful for a long time.

Those principles are the ones that got us here. And it just feels like if we were to go back and embrace them a little bit, maybe we wouldn't need to have a 40-year dictatorship.

GLENN: I don't know. Those can be fun.

The -- for the dictators, usually.

The -- the -- what's happening to us, right now. And the reason why Franco. People are starting to say. We need a nationalist. And a religious dictator.

No. We don't. We need one as much as Iran needs one.

You -- oh, wait a minute. They already have one. Oh, I'm sorry.

So some other country other than Iran. We don't need that. We shouldn't want that.

That's a very deprave danger to anyone and everyone.

Because that's a dictatorship, that can just eliminate those whom they deem problems.

I don't want that on the left. I don't want that on the right. I don't want that here, there, or anywhere, Sam I am.

The reason why this is happening is because things are becoming uncontrollable. The -- the government has gone so far awry, that people believe that only an unconstitutional dictator can save the country.

And that's not true. All you have to do is return to the Constitution. If you return to the Constitution, all of it comes back.

Now, you can't give everybody the freedom that they think they have now. Like, I have the right to go in and -- and loot stores.

No. No. That won't stop, until you start enforcing the local laws and the laws of the Constitution.

Once you do that, we fix ourselves

People are overthinking all of this stuff.

You're going need to a very, very unpopular president. Or a president during a war, that's why everybody wants a war so much.

That is able to do things under a War Powers Act. Which is terrifying to me.

I would much rather have a president come in, and just say, I'm a one-term president. But I am going to put everything on the table. And I'm going to get rid of this huge administrative state.

It's gone. I don't want it. It's not constitutional.

Once you get past some of those things. It's amazing how you fix your town. You fix your state. You fix your country.

I don't understand why especially conservatives are talking about Francisco Franco. He was an evil dictator. That didn't do some bad.

He committed atrocities.

And every dictator commits atrocities. Because they force people into compliance.

That is not America.

The ONE “forever war” Glenn Beck supports

This Fourth of July, Glenn Beck reveals the only “forever war” he supports. It’s the war Americans have been fighting since our nation’s founding, and we must continue the fight…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Two hundred forty-nine years ago, I think it is tomorrow. Right? Is tomorrow the second, or is it the first?

What day is it today?

So it was 200 -- 249 years ago, tomorrow, that somebody sat alone, in a -- in a one-room hotel room.

And scratched out the words, when in the course of human events. Those are the first six words of a document that is so dangerous!

Still today, so revolutionary.

It was whispered in those candle lit rooms by men who knew. Knew. That if I signed this document, that's a death warrant.

I'm dead!

I'm dead.

But in the course of human events, shh.

Jefferson wrote them!

33 years old. Adams would later say, you do well to revere Jefferson. But he didn't write alone. Basically, I was there too.

And so was Ben Franklin. The ideas were forged in the minds of men like Franklin, who is old enough to know better. And Adams, who was stubborn enough, not to care. And they weren't perfect men. But I love this about the left. They try to make you think.

That you think are perfect. I don't think they were perfect! I mean, Ben Franklin used to walk around naked in his house a lot. That shows, I mean, for as smart as that guy was. It shows, maybe he had a lack of mirrors. But they weren't perfect!

They owned slaves. They argued. They compromised.

How does that make them different than us?
I mean, we should be able to relate to them!

What is it that we tolerate right now?
What is it that we compromise on?

What is it -- what are our failures that future generations are going to go, these people just didn't get it? Perhaps what we should notice is that they, unlike most of us. They were willing to gamble their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

For something that had never, ever been done before. Something entirely new!

The idea that rights don't come from a government, or from a king, or from a parliament.

They don't come from the majority voting. Everyone has certain rights.

You know, for all these people who are, you know -- going in Macy's, and burning down towns. And then stealing clothing. And they're like, because I've been oppressed!

And you can't -- I've got rights, you know.
Yeah. Yeah.

You know who the first people were, to articulate those rights?

You know the only country that actually has stood for those rights?

And we're imperfect!

That idea came from the Founders, that you say you hate.

But the actual rights come from God, which you dismiss!

Think of this. Just ponder this for a second.

That all men are created equal! That their rights are given to them, by a creator.

It's not a political assertion. It's a genius. That's eternal truth!

That's theological dynamite, lobbed straight in to the thrones of Europe.

All over the world, it's still dynamite.

They knew what they were doing.

And I don't mean like, they knew what they were doing.

They had it. No. They knew that the British crown had the largest military force in the world. And these guys, they were farmers. They were printers. They were lawyers. They were a ragtag collection of intellectual and idealists, facing down an empire, where they said, the sun never set on the British empire. Meaning, the colonialism was everywhere!

You could not escape England. And yet, they declared it. We're leaving, without apology!

And they said that when a government becomes destructive of the ends of liberty, life, and the pursuit of happiness, it's not only the right of the people, it's their duty to throw it off!

Wow. And you know what is amazing? That's not rebellion.

That's -- that's not revolution. That's -- that's responsibility.

That -- that kind of language today, that would have you flagged, shadow banned. Labeled an extremist. In most countries, disappeared!

But that is the foundation of what we call America. The American experiment. And it's that. The American experiment.

And it's just that, an experiment. We didn't know if we could get it right. And we haven't gotten it right. But isn't it worth experimenting?

Isn't it worth trying to get that concept right?

When you fail on that concept, you're like, eh. That's a stupid idea.

That's not a stupid idea. That's the greatest idea of all time.

Why are so many people willing to just quit?

The experiment is self-rule. It's not perfect.

Never has been. Slavery. Jim Crow. Internment camps. Assassinations.

My God! Forgive us, for what we have done.

But at the same time, what nation has done more to correct its own errors?

What people have shed more blood, not for conquest, but for freedom.

Twice in the last century, we crossed oceans. Not to claim territory. But to liberate that territory!

Our sons and daughters fought and bled on foreign soil to push the darkness back, to fight against Naziism and fascism and Communism. And here we are. Here we are today.

After 249 years tomorrow of that experiment, standing at the lip of the very abyss, those men feared.

A godless chaos, rising in the east and a cold atheistic utopia, clawing at the foundations of the Western world. Islamism and Communism, two ideologies that have killed tens of millions of people. Now dressed all in new robes, selling old lies.

And we can't even teach a child where their rights come from. We have replaced Jefferson and Adams with TikTok influencers and bureaucratic groupthink.

We're raising generations to not even know the truth about their own identity.

But to question their identity. And they could be, oh, you're a funny, funny colored unicorn today. What do you want to be tomorrow?

We don't teach them anything about truth, or their inheritance, most importantly. Their inheritance. What good are hot dogs and fireworks, if the soul of the nation is up for auction? What is the meaning in Fourth of July, if we have forgotten the why? If we don't even call it Independence Day anymore. Most people don't even know who we fought against for independence.

They think we fought for its independence! Most people think we fought the South!

And yet, we'll light the sparklers, or blow our fingers off, because we're just that stupid.

This Independence Day weekend, would you do me and yourself and your country a favor, and read the words out loud. Speak the words out loud.

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands, which have connected them with one another.

And to assume among the powers of earth, the separate, but equal station, to which the laws of nature.

And nature's God entitle them.

A decent respect to the opinions of mankind, requires that they should declare the causes, which impair them to the separation.

What are they saying?

Look, we want to be decent people.

We want to be decent people.

And we have to separate them.

But we believe it's only right that we tell you why we have to separate. And it's not because of all the bad things you've done. We'll get to those later. It's because we're different. And you don't understand. You have been telling us all of these things, we no longer believe in. We hold these truths to be self-evident. That all men are created equal, and they're endowed by their creator with certain inalienable. Unchangeable rights.

And just among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

That to secure these rights, government are his instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

My gosh. Read those words. And let your children hear what thinking and courage sounds like.

That to secure these rights, I'm telling you, the king, who thinks that your government was given to you, by God.

And you are the ruler.

And you will tell everybody what to think, what to do. What to buy. What to sell. What to tax. What not to tax. Who gets land. Who doesn't get land.

No, no, no. Government are his instituted among men, deriving their powers, their just powers, from the people. And that government is only there, established by those men to protect the rights that God has given each of those men.

Let them feel the chill, that runs down the spine, when Jefferson writes, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the government, or from the governed. Let them hear the words, of -- of responsibility. What responsibility sounds like, with courage and freedom. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these rights, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it.

And to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their a lot of and happiness.

In other words, you have the right, you have the responsibility to stop tyrants. And if the government has gone bad, to throw that government off.

But reconstitute a government, that will do a better job at protecting those rights. Not to form a communist government.

Not to do anything else. But you want a new government?

Fine! Let's find the way to make men more free. This is not a metaphor. This is a declaration of war on tyranny in all of its forms.

I mean, I said, yesterday, freedom isn't free.

It was paid for by somebody's blood. But you have to remember, they paid for their freedom, not for our freedom, necessarily.

We -- there comes a time, we have to pay for our freedom. And God forbid, that it comes down to blood.

But at least shake off the apathy. We -- we must renew this promise of this experiment of America.

We need to fight for it as well. An out-of-control government that seeks to rope us into forever wars, over and over again. We're all against forever wars. I'm against it.

I hate them.

But there is one forever war, that is required in a free society. A different kind of forever war.

A war against ourselves, a war against human nature in each of us. Because of human nature, we get fat. We get lazy.

We get tolerant of abuses. Let your children hear you speak these words. And when you speak them, ponder them yourself.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate, that governments long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils are sufferable than to right themselves, by abolishing the forms in which they're accustomed.

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a sign to reduce them under absolute despotism.

It's their right. It's their duty. To throw off such government. And provide new guards for such future security.

In one paragraph, we make the point twice. And they tell us, look, we've studied people.

We know you're going to get fat and lazy and apathetic. And you won't want to do stuff for transient causes. Because this is really not good.

But when push comes to shove. And everything is moving towards absolute despotism. Absolute tyranny. Then you must stand up.

I ask you to ponder this. This particular part, when a long train of abuses and usurpations. Prudence will indeed dictate that governments long established should not be exchanged for light and transient causes.

And accordingly, all experience has shown, that mankind is more disposed to suffer while the evils suffer, than to right themselves.

Aren't we exactly the same people, that their experience was talking about?

Aren't we the people that are more disposed to suffer, than to right ourselves? Because we're too comfortable. Or we're too afraid, just to stand up and simply say no to lies.

No!

There is a difference between men and women.

No! Communism is to be feared. It's killed over 100 million people, in the last 100 years.

No!

Muslims aren't bad. Islamism is!

It's evil. No!

You can peacefully protest, any time, any place. And I will fight to the death for your right to do that.

But when you start burn cities down to the ground, no!

We're just a few days away. And we have marked our 249th birthday. Maybe. Just maybe, this year, can we stop asking what America was, and start deciding what America will be?

Where it just slips quietly into history. In the dark of apathy and ignorance.

Because the only thing more dangerous than tyranny is the people who have forgotten what it took to break its chains.

THE GLENN BECK PODCAST

We need REAL jobs in America — Trump should do THIS now!

It is clear we need to create more productive, high-paying jobs for American citizens. But that doesn't mean bringing back the same exact jobs of the past in massive numbers. It means creating and supporting jobs of the present and future that will better the lives of Americans. Glenn Beck and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts break down exactly what this entails and how President Trump can make it a reality.

Watch Glenn Beck's FULL Interview with Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts HERE

The most INCREDIBLE World War II story you’ve NEVER HEARD

One of the biggest American World War II cemeteries in Europe is in a small town in the Netherlands, where thousands of Dutch people continue the tradition to this day of “adopting” a fallen US soldier and checking in on his family. “The Monuments Man” author Robert Edsel joins Glenn Beck to tell this incredible story, which he documents in his new book, “Remember Us.”

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: Robert, welcome back to the program. How are you, sir?

ROBERT: Great to talk to you!

GLENN: It's great to talk to you.

Can you remind me? You were on with us, after Monuments Men. And you talked about this great service that is still going on, where people that -- they were still looking for paintings and pieces of art, that had been taken by the Nazis.

And if I remember right, didn't somebody in our -- our own audience reach out to you, and say, I think we found one of those paintings?

ROBERT: Yes, sir. Absolutely.

The Glenn Beck audience. And Glenn Beck, you yourself deserve a lot of credit.

Because I hadn't walked out of your studio last time. You know, in Dallas at Las Colinas.

Headed back to our office at Monuments Men and Women Foundation office, before someone in my office contacted me and said, we've already had a lead, as a result of your interview with Glenn. And it turned out someone whose aunt had been given two paintings during World War II.

She had worked for the government overseeing Germany, and these two paintings were missing.

We were able to identify who the rightful owner was, and get them back.

So it's a great thing that you performed. And, you know, it's a magnificent conclusion, though obviously a very difficult part of history.

GLENN: What was it like to give that back to the family?

ROBERT: It was a deeply moving experience. We -- the foundation found and returned more than 30 works of art, from paintings to documents, ancient books. Tapestries, to museums. Individual collectors, and so on.

And, you know, when we see, oftentimes, the people just stand there, and they cry.

They don't even know what to say. Because they may have worked 50 or 60 years, trying to find some work of art that's been missing. And they haven't had leads. And to -- to see us standing there, with something that belongs to them.

Not asking for anything in return. Don't charge anybody for doing it. Because we feel like everybody who went through World War II already paid enough.

Words -- words just fail. It's just pure gratitude.

GLENN: I can't wait for you to tell this new story.

Tell me the story of the care takers. The care takers of --

ROBERT: Well, it's a story that found me, just as Monuments did.

I have written about -- in the Monuments Men, I told the story of two Monuments Officers who were killed in combat, one British soldier and one American, Walter Huchthausen. And Huchthausen was killed. He once did a last casualty at war. He was killed in the last month of World War II, and is buried in the American benevolence, American cemetery, in Margraten in the Netherlands. I knew that story, and I had made mention of a young girl who was harbored in September '45, asking for the address of his mother, wanting to write her and tell her, that she walked 5 miles, several times a week, from her house to the American military cemetery. It was called then. To put flowers on his grave. Because her family knew them. And they were grief-stricken to know that they were killed.

And I knew that story too. I mentioned that. And then in 2015, the nephew of Huchthausen wrote me and included a photograph of this elderly lady with this crown of white hair. And he said, here's a photo with Frida, and I couldn't place who this was.

I had no idea who it was. And I realized, my God, this is that 19-year-old girl that is still alive. So I flew to England. She married a British soldier after the war. And I went to meet with her. She started showing me photographs of when the American -- Americans liberated her area of the Netherlands.

And all these American soldiers that they knew.

And she said, you know about the American military cemetery.

She said, have you been there?

And I said yes. And she said, so you know about the great adoption program?

And I said, what? She said, the great adoption program.

I said, I have no idea what you're talking about. So I started doing some research on this. And learned, at the end of World War II, our largest World War II cemetery in Europe, was not Normandy. It was the Netherlands American cemetery, where 17,800 boys and a few women buried at this cemetery by May 1946.

And by that time, every single grave had a Dutch person, a local person, who volunteered to be an adaptor of that brave.

Go out there on the first death date of the soldier, Veterans Day, Memorial Day.

And if they had the contact information for the next of kin, send them a photograph of the grave.
And a letter.

Because they realized, it was okay to adopt the bodies of dead boys.

But where the real need was, was to reach across the ocean, into the American homes and try to assuage the grief of the families.

And they knew some of these boys. And I found it the most heartwarming, uplifting, and certainly unique conclusion to a World War II story that I think has been written.

GLENN: So are they still some of them still doing this?

ROBERT: Not some. In fact, there were about -- in 1940, 748.

American families were given the choice to have their loved ones sent home, or to be left overseas in a military cemetery.

The Army had no idea, how many -- how many families would want their boys sent home, and as a consequence, they couldn't tell how many cemeteries they would need.

We thought almost everybody would want to have the families sent home. But it turned out not to be the case. So about 61 percent came home. About 39 percent stayed in Europe, which was about the numbers from World War I.

Although, the numbers in this area, in the Netherlands were higher.

The -- the graves that are there now.

There are 10,000 boys there. And four women.

8300 graves. 1700 names on the walls of the missing.

Every one of them has an adaptor for 80 years.

All those graves have been adopted, without interruption.

There's a waiting list of almost a thousand people in the Netherlands, to become a doctor. This is a -- not just a --

GLENN: This is --

JASON: A privilege. Because they take their kids out to the cemetery. They turn the cemetery into a classroom. And you go out there. And, yes, there's a somber element. They're instilling in their kids, you're able to think, and say what you want to. Because of the freedom that was given to you, by this American girl or boy. And we don't do that in our country anymore.

GLENN: So this is one of the most incredible stories that I've -- I've ever heard.

And I'm shocked that the world doesn't know this!

Is -- have you -- is there anything like this, anywhere else in the world?

JASON: No. We couldn't even find a comp of any nature.

There are -- that is not to say, the people in Normandy area, don't care about Normandy and other cemeteries. They do, of course. As do the Belgians in other cemeteries.

But there's no place that created an organic great adoption program, during the war, in January 1945!

These people in this area of the Netherlands were so grateful, having been neutral in World War I.

And having not lost their freedom for 100 years!

And they didn't like it!

And when the Americans liberated them in September 44. I'll never forget this woman Freda. This elderly woman I met, looked at me, the first time I interviewed her. I knew her for eight years. The last eight years of her life.

I delivered a eulogy two summers ago. She looked at me, there were the eyes of the 19-year-old. And she said, when I saw that first tank over the hill and I realized, we were saved.

I looked at my dad, and I said, Papi, these American boys come all the way across the ocean to say this. And there were tears in her eyes.

Because they didn't -- they couldn't imagine how we could have moved that equipment across -- across the ocean.

And why we would have cared so much.

So there isn't anything like it.

But January 45, these people in this little town of Margraten.

A mile from the cemetery, organized a meeting of the town leaders. The town who got 1200 people.

And they were trying to find an answer to the question: How do you thank your liberators, when they're no longer alive to thank? And they came up with this idea of this great adoption program, and it's a story that I tell, following the lives of about 12 different American combat soldiers.

Bomber recipients.

Tankers.

Because we don't know that story.

We don't what knows to an American story, when they're killed on the field of battle.

Because it's depressing.

We move on to the next scene in a movie.

Well, I want people to know, you started your program with freedom is not free.

It's ugly.

Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what the cost is.

Let's talk about the stripping line that the body goes through, and the removal of dog tags, one being put in the mouth, if there's still a head. And the other being nailed to the cross, because they don't have time to stencil the names on yet.

Let's talk about that, and let people know, it's not just a Marvel movie. Or a gang war.

This is real. This is painful. And, of course, at the end of the war, when we Americans declare victory, and move on with our lives, there's millions of family members in the United States, whose lives will never be the same.

So it is -- it's still happening today. It's still happening today.

GLENN: The name -- the name of the book is Remember Us.

And take us -- I mean, because that's really kind of the -- the -- the beauty of it.

Take us through the rest of the book, just briefly.

It starts with what?

ROBERT: Well, I follow -- I began what a nice life was in the Netherlands. Until May 10, 1940.

And the Netherlands does not get much attention from World War II, and yet everybody has heard of Battle of the Bulge. And Battle -- those are all within 50 miles of what we're talking about.

They happened around there. Of course, World War II, in western Europe, begins right here in this area. Because the German tanks roll across the border.

So I cover the life of these 12 different Americans. I interviewed all their family members. Some make it through the war. Some don't.

You read the book, you realize who makes it, who doesn't. But their lives converge around this area of the Netherlands. And when post-world War II stories end, with the war being over, remember us kicks into a transcendent moment when the Dutch come up with this idea of this great adoption program. The Americans refuse to provide the names and addresses of the next of kin.

So they're foiled with trying to achieve their ultimate objective. Which is to try to contact all the American families.

And frustrated, there was -- one of the key figures of the book.

A woman who is the mother of 12 children.

Who takes it upon herself. She's a woman of action.

She writes president Truman. And pleads for him to get involved.

When that doesn't work. She gets on the first airplane, she's ever flown on. She leaves her kids behind.

She flies to New York. Lands in LaGuardia Field.

She goes to Washington, and meets the members of Congress. Including a young guy from Texas, named Lyndon Johnson.

Who says, young lady, you need to go to Texas. Because there are so many military bases there.

She flies to our hometown. And lands in Lovefield.

In June of 1946. And is met by two family members. And for five weeks, she lives with American families, that lost somebody during a war.

And to each of them she says, leave your boys with us. When the election comes.

We will watch over them, like our own forever.

And they have done that. Now, today, these 10,000 Dutch doctors only have contact information for 20 percent of the American families.

They couldn't ever get the others.

GLENN: You're kidding me. Where is the list? Do you have a list?

ROBERT: Yeah. The Monuments Men and Women Foundation entered into a joint venture with the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves.

Not charging anybody for this. And we have created a website called foreverpromise.org.

And on that website is a list of all 10,000 men and women, more women that are buried at the cemetery, or whose names are on the walls missing.

And it's a searchable database. We're asking people to go and see. Do you have someone you know, or a relative, who is buried there.

And if so, we have a short questionnaire. What's your relationship? Are you aware of this great adoption program? Are you in contact with your adopter? Would you like to be? Would you allow us to share your contact information?

I connected a lady from Richmond, Texas. Saturday night. To her -- to this young Tammy, that's the adopter of her brother.

She's 93 years old.

She was in tears. At the thought when she leaves this world, there will be someone there to watch over her brother.

And that's what we're all about is this connecting.

GLENN: Rob, I have to tell you.

You've really done something with your life. I mean, I know you don't need me to say it.
But what a great job you have. And what a great service you have done for so many years.

Thank you so much.

Please, look this up.

The forever promise project.

You can find it at foreverpromise.org. Foreverpromise.org. Robert Edsel is the author's name. The book is Remember Us. It's a perfect read for this week.