More than 80 years after American servicemen and women gave their lives to liberate the Netherlands from Nazi occupation, Dutch families continue to express their gratitude through a unique grave adoption program that honors and preserves the memory of the fallen for future generations.

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Courtesy of Harper Horizon, an imprint of HarperCollins Focus.

Courtesy of Harper Horizon, an imprint of HarperCollins Focus.

Now, just in time for Veterans Day, Robert M. Edsel, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Monuments Men, brings that extraordinary story of gratitude, remembrance, and grace to a new generation with the paperback release of Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II (Harper Horizon, November 10, 2026).

But for Edsel, the story did not end with the book.

Inspired by the remarkable tradition chronicled in Remember Us, the Forever Promise Project launched in 2025 to connect American next of kin with the Dutch adopters who have spent decades honoring the memory of their fallen loved ones at the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten. The project is a partnership between the Monuments Men and Women Foundation, recipient of the National Humanities Medal awarded by President George W. Bush in 2007, and the Dutch Foundation for Adopting Graves American Cemetery Margraten. Its goal is to finally realize the vision of the Dutch program’s founders: a personal connection between Dutch adopters and the families of all 10,000 Americans buried at the cemetery or memorialized on the Walls of the Missing.

The results have been significant. Before the project began, next of kin of only 1,200 of America’s fallen were known to be in contact with their respective Dutch adopters. In just one year, the Forever Promise Project has nearly doubled that number to 2,400. Additionally, more than 500 American next of kin have been identified and contacted, with the hope of connecting them with their loved ones’ Dutch adopters.

Americans who believe they may have a relative buried at the Netherlands American Cemetery or memorialized on its Walls of the Missing can search the database on the foreverpromise.org website. There is no cost to families or adopters who participate.

“For more than 80 years, the Dutch have made certain that every American buried or memorialized at the Netherlands American Cemetery is remembered,” Edsel said. “Their extraordinary example reminds us of something profoundly human: we all want to be remembered somehow, someway, by somebody.”

A PROMISE BORN IN WAR

The Margraten Grave Adoption Program was established in February 1945, before the war in Europe had ended. Dutch citizens volunteered to adopt the grave of an American service member, visit their grave, and when possible, correspond with the service member’s family in the United States. By May 1946, every one of the nearly 18,000 American graves then at Margraten had been adopted.

One of the driving forces behind that effort was Emilie Michiels van Kessenich, a Dutch mother of twelve who believed the relationship between the Dutch and the Americans should extend beyond the cemetery. In September 1945, she wrote President Harry Truman seeking help establishing what she called a “lasting tie” between the people of Limburg Province and the American families whose loved ones had given their lives for Dutch freedom.

That spirit of personal remembrance lies at the heart of Remember Us.

The book begins in the pre-dawn hours of Hitler’s invasion of the Netherlands on May 10, 1940, and follows Americans and Dutch citizens whose lives collided during the liberation of Europe. Among its central figures are Lieutenant Colonel Robert Cole of the 101st Airborne Division and a Medal of Honor recipient; Sergeant Jeff Wiggins of the 960th Quartermaster Company, who was assigned the wrenching task of burying fallen servicemen; and Dutch teenager Frieda van Schäik, whose love for an American soldier remained with her for the rest of her life.

Remember Us: American Sacrifice, Dutch Freedom, and a Forever Promise Forged in World War II by Robert M. Edsel with Bret Witter will be available in paperback nationwide on November 10, 2026, from Harper Horizon.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert M. Edsel is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of five nonfiction books, including Remember Us, Rescuing da Vinci, Saving Italy, and The Monuments Men, which served as the basis for the 2014 film starring and directed by George Clooney.

Edsel is Founder and Chairman of the Monuments Men and Women Foundation. His honors include the Texas Medal of Arts and the Foundation for the National Archives’ Records of Achievement Award, among others. In 2022, the U.S. Army and Smithsonian Institution made him an honorary graduate of the first U.S. Army Monuments Officer Training Program, an initiative he had advocated for nearly two decades.

ABOUT HARPER HORIZON

Harper Horizon is a Nashville-based imprint of HarperCollins Focus focused on stories, values and diverse voices of Americana and beyond.

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