WE WERE AT NORMANDY - A STORY OF HOPE AND HEALING

On September 18, Rachel Thompson will tell stories described in a remarkable book, “We Were at Normandy,” by Henri Levaufre. It was written with a great deal of narrative assistance by Peter Coppolino and Janet Hensley, who live in Leesburg. In 1944, the citizenry of Normandy had been in the thick of World War II in Europe. They had first experienced the invasion of the German Army onto their shores in 1940, but, then, post-D-Day welcomed the arrival of the American Army as liberators.

As Henri went about his work as an electrician after the war, he became increasingly fascinated by the shards of previous battles and began collecting memorabilia from the conflict. After reading more about the fights that had taken place, he mapped the action, read accounts of the local battles from a variety of sources and began to gather and record what he found.

Over the years, Henri became an important liaison between his French neighborhood and the veterans of the landings, including Germans. Rachel will tell remarkable stories from this book, which is replete with examples of hope, healing and reconciliation.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY:

Marshall historian Rachel Yarnell Thompson, a former high school American history teacher and curriculum specialist, has for 22 years been a student of George C. Marshall at his museum home here in Leesburg, Virginia where he and his wife lived from 1941 until his death in 1959. Her extensive knowledge of Marshall’s life in this small Northern Virginia town has given Thompson a unique understanding of a remarkable leader whose personality was sometimes hidden by his outwardly austere and inscrutable personality. In 2014, the Center published her full-length biography of this famous general titled: Marshall--A Statesman Shaped in the Crucible of War, which has been highly praised.