June West Brandt lost her big brother in World War II. But she remembers him well. He was kind. He painted. He loved to play boogie-woogie on the piano.

Lisa and Guido Meijers remember him too, even though they never met him. The Meijerses are a Dutch couple. They visit his marker at a cemetery in the Netherlands about once each month. 

Many Americans who fought in World War II died far from home in Europe. In the Netherlands, people visit these graves. One cemetery has thousands of American graves, plus markers for soldiers whose bodies were never found. Each of these has a Dutch visitor. There are more people who want to visit than graves!

 “It’s wonderful for me to know that someone is there,” says Ms. Brandt, who is 93. Her big brother was six years older than she.

Germany’s Nazis occupied the Netherlands for about five years. Then Allied Forces liberated the country. The Meijerses want to remember and to say thank you.

“We just really feel how extremely important it is to remember these things and to honor the sacrifices these people made for us,” says Mrs. Meijers. 

Found: World War II Diary!

City explorers in Hong Kong find an old, 80-page diary. Who wrote it? Lam Ping-yu, a Chinese officer who crossed the world to serve with Allied forces in Europe. Mr. Lam wrote about a top-secret military operation. The secret? D-Day.

On June 6, 1944, the Allies would invade Nazi-occupied France. It was to be the biggest sea, land, and air armada in history. D-Day happened indeed. It led to the end of the terrible war in Europe 11 months later.