As World War II fades into history and the numbers of those who lived through it and can bear witness about it decline by the hour, the lessons of that era seem doomed to be forgotten. Generations have grown up without learning much beyond a few days in history class and a few WWII films.
But every American family around back then has stories and lore about relatives who served. There might be an uncle who fought in the Battle of the Bulge and never talked about it, a sailor who survived the sinking of his ship and other kin who sailed, flew or marched into combat and never came back, leaving only letters, a few photos and a shrinking generation of people who remember them.
Later generations find themselves hard-pressed to discover all that history that’s been lost.
“The Green Box: At the Heart of War” is a documentary about a son’s search for the father he barely knew, a B-24 co-pilot whose own memories he and later his widow kept in an Army Air Force green box in the attic of the house the son grew up in.
It’s a fascinating family detective story that turns up eyewitnesses to the air battle in which Lt. Robert “Bob” Kurtz’s plane was shot down over Ehrwald, Austria in 1944, descendents of the B-24 named “Sugar Baby’s” air crew who knew Kurtz and his impact on their lives, a Tuskegee Airman who flew a P-51 charged with protecting that bombing mission to Friedrichshafen and a tour guide to the memorial to the infamous Stalag Luft III, “The Great Escape” POW camp in Poland
And it’s a love story, recounted in letters and photos, a story Peggy Kurtz would never tell because she’d “tear up” and son Jim Kurtz learned never to ask.
Martin Sheen narrates Jim Kurtz’s quest to learn about his dad (which Jim turned into a book), and filmmakers Holly Barden Stadtler and Victoria Hughes show us the love letters between his parents. Dad had been drafted and was in training when Pearl Harbor happened.
“Keep your chin up, honey,” he wrote her.
There was a trip cross country, hitchhiking, to be with Peggy for part of her pregnancy and a couple of years of letters before Bob’s August, 1944 date with fate. And then, months of silence as the Russians advanced close enough to Bob Kurtz’s POW camp that the Nazis rounded up the 11,000 prisoners for a “death march” to prevent their liberation.
It’s great family history of the sort that tens of thousands of families experienced over 80 years ago, movingly remembered or recreated for this film, another reminder of the history that’s passing away around us as we forget its hard-won lessons.
Rating: unrated
Cast: Jim Kurtz, Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson, Gerd Leitner, Jane Spontak Donovan, Debra Jezowski Beson, General Charles McGee, narrated by Martin Sheen.
Credits: Directed by Holly Barden Stadtler and Victoria Hughes, scripted by Victoria Hughes, based on the book by Jim Kurtz. A Dreamcatcher Films production coming to PBS in November.
Running time: :56
