Emile Engles' family was very surprised by the German invasion. The children were forbidden to accept anything from the Germans. In World War 1, the Germans would use poison in candy. On the second or third morning of the war, a German soldier asked to see the children and give them candy but they were still in bed. They had been trained to be polite but not to answer any questions. The Germans who came in moved inside of Belgium and the Belgian Army surrendered. The French surrendered shortly thereafter. Afterwards, there were no longer German garrisons in the villages. The villagers were extremely patriotic. At school, the teacher gathered the children and explained that anyone who went to talk with the Germans would be punished. As the school week ended, they would all sing the national anthem and other patriotic songs. It became increasingly dangerous to do so, and in 1942 the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: Geheime Staatspolizei or Secret State Police] came in. They wore civilian clothes and would patrol the highways. After that, anything Belgian was forbidden. One day, the teacher said to take their history books and cut all of the pages regarding World War 1 out of it. He told them to do it carefully as the day would come when they would put them back in the books.

Emile Engles was born in April 1932 in a small villages south of Bastogne, Belgium called Warnach. The most important thing he remembers is that his father was a lumberjack and tried to have a small farm. His mother had five children in total and she provided the food for them as there were no supermarkets with prepared food. At age six, Engles went to school and was in school when the war began. There were two or three families who had radios around 1938. When walking and listening to them, he heard Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] speeches to the Germans. The people understood German very well. There were World War 1 veterans in the town as well, so they were afraid right away, even two years before the war started. The people were very patriotic and had suffered during World War 1. His mother was 18 years old and working in Arlon when she witnessed Germans, in the first days of war, shoot three Belgians. His father was 17 and was forced to dig trenches behind the German lines in France. Everyone was involved and suffered. The Belgian Army mobilized and had decided the main lines of resistance would be inside the country due to the large frontier. Inside the village was an outpost and when the Germans invaded, it was demolished. The army pulled back to Eben Emael [Annotator's Note: Fort Eben-Emael, Belgian fortress between Liège, Belgium and Maastricht, Netherlands].

Emile Engles' parents took care to tell their children that when dealing with the Germans, and particularly the Gestapo [Annotator's Note: Geheime Staatspolizei or Secret State Police], to say nothing. Their own World War 1 experiences had taught them to be this way. Engles current wife's family had a large farm. His father-in-law would hide Allied airmen in his barn. He had horses and carriages and he would carry ammunition to spots in the forest. One person was a traitor, everyone was never far from a tragedy. Engles does not clearly recall hearing of the American entry into the war. They did hear Swiss radio broadcasts that would give an international point of view by René Paio on Wednesdays. They also heard the radio broadcasts by the British. Being in the country, families had their own garden and at least one cow and some pigs so food was not really a problem. Chocolate was different. Getting oranges from the Red Cross or Switzerland was only a few times a year. Engles witnessed the crash of two Flying Fortresses [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. In one instance, four parachutes opened. In the other, five did. He learned later after the war that the little points of light they saw in the sky were courageous Americans. The Americans would try to get damaged aircraft back over Belgium before bailing out. They knew they would be tortured by the German civilians. Statistically, there was an 80 percent chance that they would be taken to Switzerland or Spain by getting out over Belgium. In Spain, they would be put in prison camps for a few months and then transferred to the American Embassy. Since Switzerland was surrounded by Germans, they would have to remain there.

Emile Engles did not see Germans much until the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945], since the Germans did not occupy the country in a traditional sense at first. The nicest day of Engles life was D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944]. He was at school that morning. The teacher had four or five students being disciplined when someone knocked on the door. The teacher went out and came back with a bright face. He said, "they are landing in Normandy" and showed them on a map. The classroom stood up and started praying for the soldiers. [Annotator's Note: Engles gets emotional.] Then they all ran home. He told his parents to turn on the radio and then they all started wondering when they would come. They also heard General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and 34th President of the United States] and Charles De Gaulle [Annotator's Note: French Army General Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, President of France from 1958 to 1969] on the radio. Waiting for their liberation was long and they did not understand they delays. They heard of the difficulties around Caen, France but did not know how difficult it was to fight in the hedgerows. After four years, it seemed very long. Engles does remember the liberation of Paris in August and then Brussels, Belgium on 3 September 1944. On 10 September, Americans came into their village. It was a nice day in their life. It was a Sunday with nice weather and early in the morning. A villager had ridden his bicycle to the next village and came back excited. Engles and others ran to the highways were the underground fighters were there awaiting the Americans. The resistance fighters made them move farther away. Engles could see the pathfinders of the division with black face in a ditch making reconnaissance. Engles' uncle shouted "Vive l’anglais!" He was answered with "no British, Americans", so he said "Vive l’american!" The columns of Americans came in then and they appeared very tall to Engles. He went along shaking hands and getting candy. The Americans were all smiling. They went through the village and headed to Germany. Engles knew then the war was not far from being over.

Being liberated by the Americans in World War 2 makes Emile Engles work to make the young men's sacrifices kept alive in memory. His eldest daughter found the survivors of a Flying Fortress [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] that crashed in Warnach, Belgium. The nine survivors were invited by the community to visit. Just before this interview was the anniversary of the crash and his daughter did a phone conference with the last surviving member of the crew. After liberating his town, the Americans went on to take part in the Battle of Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. Entering Germany, the Americans came across an obstacle line [Annotator's Note: the Siegfried Line; defensive wall built by Germany in the 1930s] that Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had created. General Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: US Army General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and 34th President of the United States] had a large front and had to pick four main points to make offensives. This five to seven weeks gave Hitler time to reorganize with heavy tanks and SS [Annotator's Note: Schutzstaffel, the German paramilitary organization] troops. Hitler's problem was knowing where to commit. Should he attack the Russians who were approaching Berlin or against the Allies. He chose the Allies and decided to seize the harbor at Antwerp, Belgium to keep the Allies from getting resupply. This meant crossing Belgium. Hitler's generals knew they did not have the capacity to make it to Antwerp. They said they could make it to the Meuse River. Engles recalls that the battle in their village lasted about three days. The memory is related to the emotion. The heavier the emotion, the longer the memory. He remembers everything. They were basically at peace because the front was in Germany. In mid-December [Annotator's Note: December 1944], civilian refugees came in asking for someplace to sleep and get food. They were saying that the Germans were coming back. There was a regiment of an airborne division, the 5th Parachute Infantry [Annotator's Note: 5th Fallschirmjäger Regiment], there. They stayed one week in the village before Patton's [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.] army arrived. The villagers had no electricity, so they did not have radio news. They had no newspaper either. The weather had been cold and foggy but one day it turned clear. Then the Allies began shelling the village. About 15 people gathered together in a house for shelter. Engles saw a fleet of Allied airplanes headed in the direction of Bastogne, Belgium. That was his last view before going into the house where he saw three Germans in white suits with a ladder, forward artillery observers. Engles and the others went into the cellar.

Emile Engles said that as long as his parents were calm under enemy fire, he was not very afraid. Sheltering in a cellar during artillery shelling, they had food and more. The artillery fire on the village was the first attacks. About ten Germans took shelter where Engles and the others were also sheltering. They heard the Germans saying that they had pushed the Americans back, but they were coming again. After the war, Engles had a chance to meet one of the Americans from the first attack. He would come Christmas nights regularly and attend Mass there. Engles calls himself a civilian veteran. The Americans commandeered the house where Engles was after defeating the Germans who were there. The Americans came into the cellar where they were hiding and ordered the civilians out. They did not understand English and were not sure if it was Germans or Americans. The most courageous of their group was a woman who went upstairs and saw it was Americans because of the uniform. She wanted to kiss him, but he threw her out of the room. Everyone came out and was searched. An American who spoke French came and talked to them. This was their second liberation and it was Christmas night [Annotator's Note: 25 December 1944]. The priest took Engles to the church across the street where Engles noticed the roof was gone. There were about a dozen American soldiers there praying quietly. The priest and Engles went to the altar and sang. What he did not know at the time was that there were three German artillery observers still in the steeple. Some days later the Germans surrendered. Engles says that nobody was lucky in this battle but that's war.

After being liberated in Warnach, Belgium for the second time, Emile Engles' father went to look at their family home. He reported back that their barn was destroyed, and their cows had been killed. Americans were in the house trying to keep warm. A couple of days later there was a fight in their house. The Americans had never checked the cellar and there were three Germans there. The Americans brought the prisoners to the center of the village. The Germans thought they were going to be shot and the villagers were shouting to kill them. The Americans did not kill them though. Engles' village contained around 50 or 75 houses. Each village was about the same. For each house there was one American killed or wounded. In his village, ten Americans were killed and 40 were sick or wounded. He feels this is an underestimate of the casualties of the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945]. One civilian was killed and three wounded. Twelve of the 50 houses were totally destroyed. Engles and his family went back to their house but his grandmother, uncle and family, lost their houses so there were 12 people in four small rooms. They had no milk for the younger children. The first problem was survival. Eventually they would receive things from the United States like clothes and more. He expresses his gratitude to the women in American who made these efforts of solidarity.

When the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or Ardennes Counteroffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] ended, Emile Engles and his village were mostly interested in surviving. They needed wood for heat and the forests were filled with shells and mines. They did not have school for the entire next year. They suffered most from the lack of power when the war ended. Power was not restored until two years after the Bulge. This meant they had no news of the general situation. V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] came unexpectedly then. Suddenly, the war was over. The villagers made tremendous fireworks. It was a very happy occasion though there was no one there from the Allies to thank. Engles recalls that on the first day the Germans occupied their village during the Battle of the Bulge, he asked his parents if he could take a walk through it. The Germans had pieces of American uniforms on because they had no winter coats. They also had American vehicles that also still had the white stars on them. They would move as if they were Americans retreating. The children of the village saw them bring back two of their dead. The children were happy but could not show it. The corpses were in the church cemetery. Engles recalls that when they went to mass the next day his sister was using her foot to "shoot" the German corpses. [Annotator's Note: Engles gets slightly emotional.]

Emile Engles demonstrates his gratitude annually in Belgium for the Americans liberating them. He talks of the markers along the European highways that represent the movements of Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. Engles has been in the United States three times. He feels there is still much to be done. [Annotator's Note: Another person off screen asks about a church in Bastogne, Belgium.] An example of the gratitude of Belgium occurs in a church in Bastogne. This church has three clocks that chime each hour with the first lines of the American national anthem. At the half-hour, is "The Symphony of the New World" by Antonín Dvořák [Annotator's Note: Antonín Leopold Dvořák, Czech composer, 1841 to 1904]. This happens 24 times a day. [Annotator's Note: The offscreen person tells a story of being in Europe on 11 September 2001.]