RADIOApril 11, 2023

Financial expert ANSWERS: Should you pay off your debt NOW?

Carol Roth, financial expert and author of ‘You Will Own Nothing,’ joins Glenn to discuss what our economy could be facing next. We may soon experience ‘inflation like you can’t believe,’ Glenn says, so is NOW the time to pay off all your debt? Roth, who does not provide financial advice but rather gives the information you need to make your own, informed decisions, explains why paying off all your investment debts (like a mortgage) NOW may actually be less beneficial in the long run…

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: So we have Carol Roth on. And this hour of the broad and podcast, we have been talking about the Fed Now system. And how that system by itself is not anything to do with the digital dollar.

However, it does make the digital dollar, should they introduce it, more effective.

And they could settle in realtime, just like Bitcoin now can do.

And so it's important that you know, that this is a needed step for the modern world.

However, I don't trust them on anything that they do.

So when they say, no, this is it. That's all we're doing. Don't believe that. Don't believe that. But understand, the Fed Now system is different than a digital dollar.

We have Carol Roth in. And before we get into this next thing, Carol, I want to share with you an experience I had with a friend the other day.

And this friend is somebody who will like, come to me and say, okay. Better worse, or about the same?

And they don't want to -- they don't want to look at things. Because they were hoping I was wrong. I hope that I'm wrong. I hope we find a way to turn this around. I don't think we're going to, just based on past performance. But we could.

And they've kind of wanted to not be so freaked out by it. And I understand it.

But they said something to me, that I immediately connected with. And I think it's important to say, to you, the audience, that -- because you might go through this. And don't fear it.

There was a time I said, off-air. When we were back -- this was back 2012, when everything was coming clearer on the path that we were on. And I used to say, every day, when I would get off the air, I would say -- I would just burst out in tears, and I would say, I feel like I'm watching my child, smothered in a crib, and I can't do anything. And no one will listen to stop it.

And it is just trauma every day. Because I loved my country. And I saw that we are headed in exactly the wrong way. And no one will do anything.

And this is intentional. And so I went through that period. But I got past it. And I realized now, that is just one of the phases of grief.

You are going to go through grief, as we lose some of the things, that we have always traditionally known.

It's better to do it now. Than it is, when the time comes. You won't have time for the grief then.

People will be grieving. You have to help them.

You have to be logical, and think your way through everything.

So embrace it.

Learn, get your morning over with, so you're strong and back up on your feet, when these things come. Would you agree with that?

CAROL: Yeah. Yeah. I would like to share too, I have gone through that personally. My husband has gone through that personally. This is something that everybody who has been following this, this is part of the process. I called it smothering the baby. For me, it was the train in slow motion, going off the tracks, and feeling like you can't stop it.

And the reality is, we may not be able to stop the train from going off the tracks. But I can't personally take shelter.

That's what you have to do. You cannot panic here.

You have to prepare. And say, what is it that I can do?

I may not be able to stop the huge financial order. That's a huge, tall order. But what can I do in my life? To make myself more prepared? Then if things go badly, at least I know I can get through that difficult period. My family, my friends can do that. And the more people you educate and work with together, on a community level.

I think the more opportunities you're going to have to share, to cope, to work together

So it's really about taking that personal responsibility, and controlling the peace that you can.

GLENN: And I think this is really important.

You bring up the train. I like that a lot.

Because if you're on the train. You need to prepare. You need to secure yourself and prepare for impact.

That is critically important. If you're watching the train. You're not on the train, you see it coming.

You need to say, it blankets. Get a -- call the ambulance.

Get some doctors here.

We need some help. So you prepare, whether we're on it or off it. And that's critical. And I believe that's where this audience is meant to be.

Those people that help others. So let me go back to the fed.

We were talking about what is coming. And honestly, I have had people say to me. Glenn, we can sell our national parks.

I'm like, what? I don't want to sell our national parks. And they said, we're off the gold standard. We're off the oil. But we have all kinds of things we can back a dollar with.

Uh-huh. I don't like probably any of the solutions, they would come up with. However, they have come up with another solution. And it's called modern monetary theory.

And I've explained it in one of my books. I think two of my books. It's important to understand. But the just of it is, the government can spend as much as it wants. And they can print as much money.

Now, you would say, well, what about inflation?

They say, as long as we can control the spending down to the level of the individual, this is why it's never worked. Because they've had to do mass things like, you know, raise the -- you know, the finance rates.

Raise the loan rates. And that just doesn't work, and you're playing. It's not an accurate science. And it's behind the spending.

So you're always playing catchup. Or you're prognosticating. And that's always bad. This, a digital currency. Can actually stop the spending today, on certain products.

It can also then ration today, by the way, having to have some system that everybody has to know.

That's their way out of the inflation, that we are going to have to print, and the fed is going to have to buy, and put on their books.

Do you agree or disagree, Carol?

CAROL: So I will say, that's what they believe to be their way out of inflation perhaps.

GLENN: Oh, yeah.

CAROL: Is I call them MMT magic money tree. It's a theory, that people that believe in unicorns. Believe in.

They say there's an element of control there. That's why, real modern monetary theory has never been tried. And every time it's been tried, it hasn't worked. But they're looking for that element of control. And what you have to understand, imagine that every dollar that you had in your pocket, had a micro chip in it.

And that somebody else could track everything that you do, and regardless, of whether it's that they want control you from a social credit standpoint, or they want to control you from a monetary theory standpoint, they can make the decisions, to let you access that money that is yours. That is supposed to be able to, by the way, a proxy for your productivity.

You know, Glenn, you mentioned, what backs the US dollar? What backs the US dollar, is American productivity and ingenuity.

That's the backing of it. That's what it's supposed to stand for. But every time that you say, okay. Productivity is equal to this unit of money, and then you go and you print more money, well, you just devalued that equation. So that is what they're going to do.

And they're going to try to do that as a conduit to get themselves out of it. Which, by the way, won't work. Because there are things called logic and reason and math.

GLENN: Yes. Yes. But it will give them control. And people will say that's a conspiracy theory.

Let me play something from Christine LaGuardia. From the French central bank. Their Federal Reserve. Listen to this exchange she's having with somebody she thinks is Vladimir Zelinsky.

Listen to this.

GLENN: There are many protests in Europe against the electronic euro. No, the problem is, they don't want to be controlled.

They don't want to --

VOICE: Yeah. But you know what. You know what.

Now we have in Europe, this threshold, above 1,000 euros.

You cannot pay in cash. If you do, you are on the gray market.

So you take your risk.

You get caught. You are fined. Or you go to jail.

But, you know, the -- the digital euro is going to have a limited amount of control. They will be controlled. Right.

You're completely right.

We are considering whether for very small amounts. You know, anything that is around 300, 400 euros. We could have a mechanism, where there is zero control. But that could be dangerous.

The terrorist attacks on France. About ten years ago. And highly financed by those very small anonymous credit cards, that you can recharge in total anonymity.

GLENN: Unbelievable.

So there will be control.

But we're going to let people have like $500, that they could spend, that won't be tracked. But we're not sure. Because that's the way terrorists would use it. That's total control.

CAROL: Let me read you another thing.

This is, by the way, on the White House's website. So I can tweet out the link to it. But in March of 2021, President Biden made remarks to the Business Roundtable. Which is, you know, all of the major company CEOs in the United States

And said, you know, I believe we're at an reflection point in the world economy, not just the world economy in the world.

It occurs every three or four generations. Dot, dot, dot. And now, at a time when things are shifting. There will be a New World Order out there.

And he says, we have to lead it.

The question you have to ask yourself is, who is we?

Because I'm pretty sure, Glenn, that you're not in we, I'm in we, your listeners are not in the we. It's all of those people who are working together, to control, to jockey, to position themselves, to control every finite resource out there. Because they see it.

They have told us, they see this shift is happening. They're working. All these things that are happening, are working. So that they can control every resource. And make sure, you will own nothing.

That is where that comes from.

GLENN: We're with Carol Roth. Carol, you stay with me, one more break.

The number one question that comes in from listeners for you.

Is should I pay off all my debts?

What should I do?

Because if you're right, inflation like you can't believe, is coming through. So what does that mean?

Get that answer from you, here in just a second.

You know the value of a dollar, right?

No, I don't. And I don't know the value of $20. How far is 20 bucks going to get you. My gosh, I went in to buy a roast for Easter. And my eyes almost fell out of my head.

I could not believe how expensive everything -- and that's inflation. That is what is coming, times a thousand.

So when somebody charges you 19.95, for something that actually works, and can make your life better. That is a good deal.

The three-week Quick Start from Relief Factor. It's 19.95. It's a trial pack.

It's not a drug developed by doctors.

Hundreds of thousands of people have ordered Relief Factor. 70 percent of them go on to order more from Relief Factor, month after month. Because it works. Now, here's the thing: Try it for three weeks.

Yes. You will be out 20 bucks. But that will be like a dime soon. It's Relief Factor. Call them at 800-4-Relief. 800-4-Relief.

The 19.95 three-week Quick Start. Relieffactor.com. Feel the difference.
(OUT AT 10:48 AM)

GLENN: Carol Roth is with us now. She's the author of the new book, you will own nothing. It is based on the great reset. And what is coming in our country. It is also a great companion book. Comes out about the same time, with my book called Dark Future.

I show all of the things that are in place, and planning now for the second phase of the great reset. That will boggle your mind.

But she goes down and the bets into the nitty-gritty on what should you do, and what is coming. So let's go there. Because one of the real questions. I hear this all the time. Why don't I just go out and a buy a a bunch of stuff. Because then I could have a loan at a low interest rate, and then I'll pay it off, and then with inflated dollars. That seems scary.

CAROL: Yeah. So people sometimes don't differentiate between the debt that is used for spending, and debt that is used for investing.

There's good and bad debt. You don't want to be taking on debt for your spending, but you want to be able to use it productively for an investment.

If you can get a better return on your investment than the cost you have to pay for the debt, by using it.

One of the reasons people take out debt for a house over time, right?

So that's one of the big questions that I've been getting. And there seems to be a lot of confusion about what happens to debt, if everything goes south, and we end up in hyperinflation. People are saying, we end up in this hyperinflation scenario. Does it make sense for me to pay off my debt now? And so I just want to walk through the thought process on this. If the dollar loses purchasing power, it's actually good for your fixed rate debt. So assuming your house has a fixed interest rate on it, and you have a fixed amount of debt on it. Let's say as an extreme example, the prices of everything doubled due to the dollar degradation. Well, then your debt is really in a sense worth half as much as it is today. In the future.

So you have to be thinking about it, in that sense. Do you really want to take something out of your investments and pay that down, as a solution if your debt is going to have -- you know, be, quote, unquote, worth less in the future on a relative basis. So, again, I'm not a financial adviser.

This is not financial advice. But just giving people things to think through, because your audience is so fabulous. They send me questions all the time. And that is one of the big areas of misunderstanding. Is what should I do?

Now paying down debt from a behavioral standpoint, is always a good thing. Paying down debt on your spending is always a good thing. But something that is for an investment, you know, if you're worried about what happens to it, during hyperinflation, it's actually the inverse of what you're thinking.

GLENN: Carol, thank you. How do people contact you, by the way?

CAROL: Yeah. So CarolRoth.com. There's a contact form there. And then as you had mentioned, the new book, you will own nothing is on pre-order. Companion people are buying yours and mine together. And like you said, most importantly thing is mine does have that action plan.

You learn all the things that are happening, like you learn in your book, Dark Future.

But how to fight back. This is about how we can actually own everything. This isn't a scare tactic.

The idea is to inform and make sure that you own everything.

We want you to still be able to have the American dream.

GLENN: That is so important. Books really do make a good companion to each other. We kind of have worked on them kind of in a way, that way.

CAROL: Yes. Together.

GLENN: So you can understand the big picture. Know what is real, what is not real, and then, what do I do about it?

The book, mine is Dark Future. You can order it now.

Hers is, you will own nothing, by Carol Roth. Order them together, wherever you buy your books.

Carol, thank you so much.

CAROL: Thanks as always, Glenn.

GLENN: God bless.

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.