While we refer to a few books in the discussion that follows, this discussion with my dear old friend Albert Lerman is primarily about his experience as an 18 year old infantryman in World War II.

And when I say old friend, I really mean it. Albert turned 100 earlier this year and Albert’s son Bill, a dear and old friend as well, suggested that it would be timely to have this discussion. Albert was a grunt in the Army, an infantryman, tough, resilient, essential, the backbone of the army, and part of The Greatest Generation.

Carol and I have known and loved Albert for more than 50 years, and he's exemplified The Greatest Generation his entire life. I’m so pleased to have had this discussion with Albert and Bill.

(U.S. forces met allied Russian forces at the Elbe River in Germany on April 25, 1945, effectively splitting Nazi Germany in half and symbolizing the imminent end to the war. In the picture above, Albert is the grunt with the cigarette in his mouth greeting Russian soldiers at the Elbe.)

Albert discusses the drafting of the entire freshman and sophomore classes from Penn into the Army gearing up to fight the war; the hell of war for the soldiers (“you know, the guy beside you, all of a sudden, he ain’t alive anymore. That’s tough. That’s tough”), including the misery of living in foxholes, and for the German civilians as well (“absolutely, war is hell for them too, the people that we flushed out of these houses were women and children“); his war injuries; the historic meeting of U.S. and allied Russian forces at the Elbe River; the preference of the Germans to surrender to American forces (“they were deathly afraid of the Russians”); his extended honeymoon with Evelyn after the war; and his hope for the U.S. to avoid war in the future.

My 2018 discussion with Evelyn, who we all loved beyond measure - Tell Me What You’re Reading No. 32: Evelyn Lerman - Ev's tribute to her Mom, and my tribute to Ev - can be found on Spotify or Apple Podcasts

Books referred to in my discussion with Albert.

D-Day, June 9, 1944, by Stephen Ambrose

The Greatest Generation, by Tom Brokaw

When Time Stopped, A Memoir of my Father’s War and What Remains, by Ariana Neumann

Some of the other WWII books I’ve read.

Roosevelt the Soldier of Freedom, by James MacGregor Burns

No Ordinary Time, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Eleanor and Franklin, by Joseph P Lash

Roosevelt and Hopkins, by Robert E Sherwood

Leadership in Turbulent Times, by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Five Days in London, May 1940, by John Lucas
Churchill: Walking with Destiny, by Andrew Roberts

The Last Lion, by William Manchester

The Conquerors, by Michael Beschloss

From the Crash to the Blitz 1929 1939, by Cabel Phillips

In the Garden of Beasts, by Eric Larson

Hitler's Willing Executioners, by Daniel Jonah Goldhagen

Inside the Third Reich, by Albert Speer

The Brass Ring,by Bill Mauldin

Unbroken, A World War II Story, by Laura Hillenbrand

Hiroshima, by John Hersey

Truman, by David McCullough

The Winds of War, by Herman Wouk

War and Remembrance, by Herman Wouk

#WWII #Veterans #104th Infantry #First Army #First Canadian Army #The Big Red One - The First Infantry Division #General Patton - The Third Army #Terrible Terry Allen.

My interview on October 24, 2025, of storyteller Martha Frankel, a memoirist, essayist, celebrity profiler, book editor and reviewer, and founder and producer of Woodstock’s Bookfests and Story Slams. A condensed and edited version of this interview was published on November 7, 2025, in The Overlook, community journalism serving Hunter, Hurley, Olive, Saugerties, Shandaken, and Woodstock, New York. The full text of the interview can be found on my website, and the interview can be heard on my podcast, “Tell Me What You’re Reading”, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts. (Photo Credit: Dion Ogust)

Writers of the Catskills: In Conversation with Elizabeth Lesser

A series of self-portraits by Catskills’ literary voices

My interview on August 15, 2025, of Elizabeth Lesser, New York Times bestselling author and the co-founder of Omega Institute, the renowned conference and retreat center located in Rhinebeck, New York.

A condensed and edited version of this interview was published on October 17, 2025, in The Overlook, community journalism serving Hunter, Hurley, Olive, Saugerties, Shandaken and Woodstock, New York. The full text of the interview can be found on my website, and the interview can be heard on my podcast, “Tell Me What You’re Reading”, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.