THE GERMAN HELMET ON THE BASEMENT SHELF

In this nonfiction account, Burns investigates the unknown history of some mysterious relics from World War II.

The author grew up with three artifacts from the Second World War in his home: a Bronze Star, a German soldier’s helmet, and a banner that was likely used during a Nazi rally. The helmet in particular became a fixture in the author’s own domestic life, a “tacit ornament in the backdrop of my life for nearly 60 years.” They originally belonged to Frank Brunner, an American soldier who served in World War II, and who briefly dated the author’s aunt; following the war, with nowhere to go, he came to live in the Burns home in Worcester, Massachusetts, for a few years. However, the Burns family knew little about Brunner’s past life or of his service in the war, and when he finally left, he effectively vanished, becoming “a microscopic particle of dust in the annals of history.” Burns, though, found that he was keen to figure out more about Brunner and his items; he says that he’d already opened up enticing “portals” into the past when he wrote a book about his father’s days at Boston University, One Dollar (American) Tutor (2024). In this thoroughly engrossing exercise in investigation, aided by “unadulterated fortuity,” the author chases down Brunner’s extraordinary history, reconstructing his valorous service in the war and his troubled life thereafter. Also, he discovers that although Brunner was discharged from the military in 1945, he reenlisted in 1948, and while he was stationed in Germany, he met a Jewish refugee from Austria, Melitta Geber, whom he married. As Burns points out, her own life was nothing sort of heroic—the sort of epic saga that warrants its own book.

Burns’ chronicle can get lost in a dense thicket of detail, which can sometimes become numbing. Also, many readers may find that his account of the publication of the book that preceded this one to be unnecessary. Nonetheless, this remains a moving story about the author’s family history, as well as the ways in which some mysteries can be solved by a combination of hard journalistic work and serendipity. Burns eventually donated the relics to the D-Day Museum in New Orleans, and so he was able to see the helmet transform into a “veritable piece of history,” radiating with personal lore and significance. His writing is intimately anecdotal; he communicates in conversational speech, which feels admirably candid, and even self-effacing at times. Here, for instance, he confesses his hope that his ultimate triumph of detective work will compensate for what he feels were his transgressions as a son: “Dad would have loved this. There were plenty of times over 66 years that I let him down. But this would have made up for some of that.” Overall, this entertaining recollection offers the thrill of discovery, the defeat of mystery, and an affecting account of the ways in which memories never truly die.

An often enthralling remembrance that effectively interrogates the meaning of the past.