Finding My Father's War: Revelations from the Red Cross Diary of an American POW in Nazi Germany

by Robert H. Miller

“This is the remarkable story of my father, Herbert Henry Miller, who was drafted into the army in August 1942.” So begins this book about an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances during World War II. The writer is Herbert Miller’s son, Robert, who discovered his father’s Red Cross war diary at the back of a drawer in the weeks following his 1994 death. Created by the YMCA, the diaries were distributed through the Red Cross to all American POWs as they entered prisoner of war camps. Herbert Miller’s diary was crammed full of his dreams for survival and of the death and destruction he had witnessed as a soldier and a POW. Finding his father’s diary became the catalyst for Robert Miller to learn more about his father’s war. The result is this gripping story that sheds needed light on issues that remain at the forefront of our public discourse the torture and treatment of POWS and the high psychological cost to individual soldiers of going to war.

354 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2009

About the author

Robert H. Miller spent three years researching and writing the story of his father's experiences as a POW in World War II. Soon to be published in its second edition, the well-received book Hidden Hell is the story of an American soldier who greatly suffered as a POW in Nazi Germany.

For the last sixteen years, Miller has worked in advanced LED lighting and technology design centered on the global auto market. He travels extensively in Europe and in the emerging auto markets of China, India, and Brazil. In August 2010, Miller accepted the newly created position of Executive Director of the Patton Foundation. In this role Miller will oversee the foundation's efforts in America to put into practice General George Patton's concerns for the welfare of American soldiers and their families. Miller has been a professional photographer for thirty-six years and has won several international awards.

Reviews

[A.L. Sowards]

Parts of this book were really good and parts were less impressive. More on that later. First, I’ll explain what it’s about. The author was given his dad’s POW diary after his father, Herbert, passed away. Although Robert knew his dad had been a POW, his dad never talked about the experience with his kids. So the author talked to his mom, talked to veterans, went to Europe, and did significant research to tell his dad’s story. Herbert landed on Omaha beach five days after D-day. He fought in France until he was captured in August outside Mortain. He spent the rest of the war as a POW. He escaped twice but was recaptured both times.

I found the early part of the book interesting in how the war had affected Herbert the rest of his life, and how little things, like how there was a gate on every side of their backyard fence and how the fence was made of white pickets instead of wire, started to make more sense to the author as he learned more about what his dad had been through.

The parts about the war from when his father landed in France until capture were less impressive. The author obviously did some research, but it came across as being written by an amateur rather than by a professional historian. The author doesn’t claim to be a professional historian, but I still found that part disappointing.

I was looking forward to what I hoped would be a transcript of the war diary, but that didn’t ever come. The author quoted from his dad’s diary, but most of it was told in the author’s words, rather than in his father’s words. Much of the story of his dad’s POW experience was told to the author by his mother after his father had passed away, so it was third-hand (Herbert told his wife, Eleanore, years after it happened; decades after Eleanore heard it, she told her son). That was the best the author could do, but at times it left holes in the narrative and at times I raised my eyebrows, wondering if Herbert had really gone into that much detail about how he was feeling during specific moments of the war when he told his wife about it decades later in the middle of the night after he woke from a nightmare. Still, the account of Herbert's time as a POW was my favorite part of the book.

Overall, I was impressed by the author’s father. Herbert sacrificed a great deal for his country, and the war haunted him the rest of his life. But despite his horrific wartime experience, he was able to adjust, let go of his bitterness, and become a successful husband and father. The author’s final tribute to his father and the WWII generation was emotionally moving, as was the Robert’s gradual understanding of and increased admiration for his father as he researched and wrote his book.

[Jesse · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, poor execution.

This book suffers from poor design (the photos are either way too small or blown up way too large) and feels very amateur hour. It is obvious the author has no background researching or writing about history, and there are a good many errors and mistakes within the text. The most fascinating and human parts of the book are the excerpts from the author’s father’s wartime diary, which are sprinkled throughout the text. However, that’s all we get are quotes from the diary. Personally, I’d have preferred an annotated reproduction of the diary, along with some background and the included epilogue.