RADIOApril 21, 2025

From Death to Life: The Miracle That Transformed a Skeptic’s Faith

Do miracles still happen? “Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles” host Billy Hallowell joins Glenn to tell some of the shocking stories he has heard while working on the CBN documentary: “What we found really blew my mind.” Hallowell explains what miracles are from a Christian perspective, tells the story of a man who was dead for 40 minutes and came back to life after a prayer, and how he believes we should deal with the miracles we don’t see.

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: You know, I have -- when we started TheBlaze, we started with a bunch of people that were really unknowns. And we have seen so many people leave here. And go on to unbelievable things.

I mean, most people don't know.

Will Cane, he started his career here. Pete Hegseth began his career at TheBlaze.

Buck Sexton, started his career, at TheBlaze. And Billy Hallowell.

Billy worked with Dan Andros, who used to be a writer of mine. He was our head writer for a long time.

Just fantastic writer. All those years at Fox. It was Dan that was writing all those things. And he left to go to CBN. Oh, Christ needs me!

Whatever.
(laughter)
And Billy Hallowell used to work at TheBlaze, and he did the same thing. Oh, I've got to go. Christ needs me. And so he's working at CBN now as well. You can find. What is he going to be talking about, at CBN.com/supernatural. Billy, welcome to the program. Glad to have you here.

BILLY: Glad to be here. Thanks for having me. You bet.

GLENN: You bet. Okay. So why did you this do, and what did you find?

BILLY: You know, it's crazy. We went around the entire country, waiting sidelines not just minor miracles. But claims that tumors disappeared. Paralysis disappeared. And really, that the lie was this feeling. There's a lot of people out there who don't think miracles still happen.

Right? Even people who are Christians who think, eh. I don't know if God is still moving.

So we wanted to go out and test that. And we wanted to see, are miracles still happening? And I will tell you, what we found really blew my mind.

When we went into this project, I thought, okay. We are going to go into this. We are going to do this, and it will inspire me. It's not going to change me.

I walked away. And you know this, Glenn. I'm a Christian. I've been a Christian my whole life. And I walked away completely transformed and challenged by the insane things that we encountered.

GLENN: Okay. So, first, define what a miracle is.

BILLY: Okay. So miracle, there is a wide range of that things miracles qualify as. Right? You have the small miracles, the things that we as Christians, or people of faith feel God doing in our lives.

Right?

Those can be miracles. But you can't really prove them. Then you have the big miracles. The things like, hey, this guy was dead for 40 minutes, and somehow came back to life. Which, by the way, that's one of the stories. That you talk about, that we encountered along the way.

You know, we were looking at miracles in this documentary, that were 30,000-foot huge things.

Things that have scientific backing. That have doctors involved. That have really evidence, right?

And so miracles, again, they could be a wide range. But we wanted to look at those big ones. And we could say, okay. Is there proof?

How close can we get to actually proving that these things happen? And, by the way, you have to go into these stories skeptically. Because I don't think any of us should just go out and say, oh, yeah. Whatever you say, we believe. We really wanted to provide the evidence along the way.

GLENN: Okay. So tell me. Tell me some of the things you found.

BILLY: All right. So let's talk about the guy who was dead for 40 minutes. This story, when it came across our desk. We did a ton of research. Dug into it.

Jeff Markin is a guy who wasn't feeling well. Went to the hospital. He had a heart attack.

He dies essentially inside the hospital.
They call a doctor. An emergency doctor room in.

They're trying to revive him. They spend 40 minutes, trying to revive him. They pronounce him dead.

This guy is on the gurney, on the way to the morgue. Dr. Chauncy Crandle, who is the doctor in the room that day.

He leaves the room. He assumes, oh, well, this is over. The guy dies. He will move on with his day.

As he's walking in the hallway, this doctor feels God say to him, go back and pray over that body. Go back into the room. And he ignores that, because he thinks that's insane.

He feels the prompt again. Coming back to that room. And he's like, well, I'm a Christian. I better listen to this. He goes into the room. You can imagine, the nerves from the doctors. They're thinking this guy is nuts. He's going to come in and pray over this dead body that we've already declared dead.

And so he starts praying over the guy. And all of a sudden, he starts saying to the other doctors, shock him one more time. And they're like, look, there's no way we're shocking him again. Because we tried for 40 minutes, and he's dead.

And so they end up doing it. Bays tells them to do it. And immediately, this guy gets a perfect heartbeat back.

Again, they tried for 40 minutes, and got nothing.

GLENN: Jeez.

BILLY: Now, the nursery is saying to the doctor, what are you doing? Now he's going to be brain dead after this. What's so crazy about this story, this man, Jeff Markin had a near death experience, which I'll hold off on that. You can watch it in the film. While this was going on. But he ends up two days later, waking up completely fine. We interviewed him in this film. And so it's those kinds of stories. I mean, there's multiple miracles in there, and again, these are not just claims. We have medical documentation. So that's the kind of stuff we were dealing with in this documentary.

GLENN: So you know, Billy, the amazing thing, we all have -- we all think that God doesn't talk to us. He doesn't talk to us.

I don't hear him. But he does. And it's those things, usually like that doctor, that we think, that's crazy. And you just dismiss him because you think it's you.

And if you obey them any of times. And then you realize, oh, wow. That was amazing. I tinder around and did that. Because I was told to. And that turned out to be an amazing thing. I mean, not as amazing as that usually.

But you start to discipline yourself to listen.

And it happens more and more often.

Or maybe you just notice it more.

But he does speak to us.

And it requires us, to not dismiss it as our stupid little voice in our head, saying, you know, go back and pray over him.

What?

That's stupid. No. Why would I?

Right?

BILLY: Well, and being open to it.

GLENN: Yes. Right.

BILLY: Because the thing that struck me in all of this. Right? And after we finished investigating the supernatural miracles, and we were looking at the story, all of these people, they had to fight for miracles. Like the other three stories that we cover in this film, none of them went to a prayer event and got healed on the first try.

It was ten years of praying and struggling. That opens a lot of interesting, theological questions, which we do deal with.

We deal with not getting the miracle. Because, look, we all die eventually. Right? Even Lazarus, who was raised from the dead. He died again. So eventually, the miracles run out.

But to your point -- I mean, I'll even share for me, and I think this was a miracle. I was really upset about a diagnosis my daughter had. Scoliosis. I was in my car. And I'm driving, and I'm crying out to God, what are we going to do? Give me a sign that this is going to be okay.

And, Glenn, you know I live in New York. There aren't a lot of Bible verses on this. I literally look up as I'm praying, and the truck in front of me has a verse speaking about God comforting us and how it will be okay. In that very moment, I would say that's a miracle. And I think that's more like what most of us deal with day in and day out. And I think that's how God will often communicate with us.

GLENN: Let me be real -- let me ask you something, Billy.

This is a very personal thing.

I have -- I had been praying really hard, over my children.

And there are some things that just -- I just don't understand.

And I'll pray.

And, you know, I'll see no result.

And it has really hurt my faith. At weak points.

It has hurt my faith.

Because I've thought. And I haven't thought about him.

I've thought about me.

I'm just not the in sync with him enough. I'm not worthy enough. You know what I mean? Have you ever felt that way?

BILLY: Yeah. Absolutely.

I think -- I think in all of this, especially when we're not getting an answer. And, you know, I saw this in the film. I've seen it in my own life. There is this tension that we have to live in. And I think it's really hard because we're human beings. This tension of, I'm going to trust God, that I believe, until the day I die, if I'm terminally ill or my kid is struggling with something, you know, I'm going to believe for healing or for better decisions or whatever the issue is, because I believe it's possible. And God can do anything. I will believe that until the very last minute, while at the same time, and this is where this gets hard. Having the trust that if that thing does not happen, if the healing does not happen on this side of eternity, that I'm going to trust God and be okay with whatever that plan is. Those two things are really tough. It's really hard.

GLENN: Yeah, it's really tough. Really tough.

BILLY: But that's the death to self. That's the death to self, that we're called to kind of live in. And I struggle with that all the time. I think we all do.

And, by the way, I mean, if any of this actually helps. That doctor in that emergency room who brought that, who prayed over that body. His son died of leukemia, a couple of years before that.

And he fought for a miracle, and didn't get it for him. And now this guy, he's able to have those two things.

Right? That radical trust. That really helped me actually. Seeing that this guy didn't get a miracle for his kid. And yet, still believes it's possible.

GLENN: It's remarkable when you see people who are WHO can actually live with this happen.

My daughter, you know, she's been with all kinds of doctors. She's had brain surgery and everything else. And I've prayed over her, so many times, to get her seizures to stop, and they just don't. And they're relentless. And she'll say to me. Dad, I'm not worried about it.

I'm not worried about it. And she's really tired of them.

I'm not worried about it.

Lord will heal me when I'm in heaven. He is going to heal me. And that faith is just remarkable. Just remarkable.

BILLY: Profound. Wow. Yeah. It is.

No. You know, as a parent, you know. And something like that, scolioses. You know, what I mentioned with my daughter. That is not a terminal illness. And I kept saying, thank God it's not something worse. The struggle watching your kid go -- and by the way, we were going through this as this film was going on, and a lot of this, as I've been talking about it in promoting it.

It dawned on me. On how good God was, in this particular circumstance. But just watching your kid struggle in suffering. You know, my daughter went from a normal 6-year-old playing to being in a brace, 21 hours a day. And, you know, not being able to do certain things.

And you watch your kid suffer. And it is a profound challenge. And that is where we have to rest in that trust, right? In believing that the miracles are possible.

In knowing again, that we may not get them.

In the case of my daughter, you know, she's out of her brace, and they can barely detect scoliosis now. We had a real miracle, honestly.

You know, and I have been so grateful for that. But recognizing that there are other things that we haven't had that in our lives. And it is tough. It is really tough.

GLENN: I want to talk about some of the other things that you found in the documentary. And you started exploring -- thought it originally was going to be a three-part series. And I want to ask you why you didn't do that. Why you're focusing on the miracles. Because it was miracles, heaven, hell, angels, and demons. Which I find fascinating. But we'll talk about that coming up in just a second.

GLENN: I got out of my patrol car. And I slipped. I went from having a promising career as a neuroscientist to having a medical death sentence.

VOICE: I said, there was nothing else that we could do. There was no heartbeat.
(music)

VOICE: Are miracles real? Do they happen today? Let's investigate.

VOICE: A lot of skeptics will say, well, miracles are impossible. Why? Because it violates the lays of nature. You can't violate the laws of nature.

VOICE: People have prayed for me, and somehow I felt like this power had just zapped me.

VOICE: When I woke up, she says, can you do anything that you couldn't do before? I looked at my hand, it was clutched. I said, hand move. Another doctor came in, and he said, what's going on in here? He's dead. It's over.

I said, shock him one more time.

VOICE: Well, maybe it happens. Maybe it doesn't. Let's look at the evidence.
(music)

GLENN: So tell me the story about the -- the guy who apparently was paralyzed. Couldn't do anything. And how that miracle happened.

BILLY: Yeah. Yeah. That Bryan Lapooh. That story blew me away. They lived out in New Jersey. He was a cop. And it's so crazy how this story happens.

The guy is a police officer. He's walking on the ice. He slips. He breaks his neck. Slips and falls. Breaks his neck.

And ends up in a ten-year nightmare.

Basically, you know, he ends up paralyzed on half of his body. As a result of the injuries and the surgery that he needs to have.

The doctors says, oh, he will be fine.

He was not fine.

Had no hope of recovery.

Nobody had actually recovered from what he had. And the damage he had. So during these ten years. He and his wife Meg, they start going to prayer services. And they start trying to heal. Very similar to what we were just talking about.
They're not getting healing. Nothing is happening.

And he gets to the point to where he's like, look, I don't want anybody touching me. I don't want anybody praying over me.

I am done. And his wife says to him.

And this is why it's so important, that we encourage people.

You know, when people are no longer encouraged, and they don't want to move forward. The wife says, look, let's go to one more of these events. Let's just get them to pray over you one more time.

He says, no. She says, yes. Just do it for my birthday. It will be my gift. And so he says, fine. We'll go.

They go to this event. And it's at that event, that he gets his healing. That his hand opens up for the first time.

He walks out of that event, without his brace, for the first time in ten years. And we interviewed him.

He no longer has a brace. And his condition is completely healed. And it's remarkable bays it's on film. It's on camera. The moment he was healed on this conference.

Somebody captured it on a cell phone.

And so you see stories like this, and it just blows you away. Because the persistence in the faith. And the fighting, ongoing, grief, that this was possible.

And, you know, in this case, he got that healing.

GLENN: There's -- there's so many people that will capitalize on this. There's so many frauds. Did you cover any of that?

BILLY: Right. You know, we didn't get into that. Because when we actually did the vetting for these stories, we made 100 percent sure that before a camera turned on or we went anywhere. That we knew -- at least compelling stories.

We went in skeptically. We tried to poke holes and look. But we knew that these were people. These people can't even get through their story, by the way, crying.

You see this through the film.

They are so overjoyed and moved and transformed. So we made sure that we tackled those stories.

But you're absolutely right. I mean, there's a lot of people, when it comes to near death experiences. All these things. They will make things up to make money.

But none of these people were in that camp. And we made sure of that.

GLENN: So you were going to do it as a series, and you were going to do into demons and angels and everything else. Are you still going to do that? Why did you not pursue that? Why did you just go with miracles?

VOICE: Yeah. Yeah. You know, so CBN. Christian Broadcast Network. It was greenlit as a three-part series, thirty minutes each.

And when we started filming miracles, which is episode one. Like day one. We knew. We were like, you can't tell this story in 30 minutes.

I mean, these stories need to be told, and we need to spend time on them.

And with culture, what is happening right now, in this culture. We have college students flocking to hear about God.

GLENN: It's crazy.

BILLY: We have these moments. Despite the culture crumbling, right? At the same time, we wanted to write proof to people. And so we ended up shipping this into a three-part film series. So the second film will be investigating the supernatural. Angels and demons.

And that is underway, right now.
We've started work on that.

We started filming that, and it's going to be the same approach.

You know, we want to go in, and show people. Is this real?

What do Christians believe? What does the Bible say? Is this true?

And it's obviously a difficult topic.
Angels and demons. It's a little hard. But, yeah. We are planning on doing it. Yep.

GLENN: Billy, thank you very much.

I appreciate it. Billy Hallowell. I went you to see this special. You can find it at CBN.com. CBN.com.

That's a Christian broadcasting network. CBN.com/supernatural. Kind of a perfect thing to watch this weekend with your family.

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.