Dear God!
(If There Is a God)

The Collected Writings of
Harry Zeitlin

decorated World War II veteran
Commander, Disabled American Veterans, Broward County, Florida

edited and designed by Stephen Wing

Harry Zeitlin married his sweetheart, Bernice Bernstein, in New York City on a three-day pass after completing Basic Training in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in March of 1942. The morning after his return to base, his unit was shipped across the Atlantic for the invasion of Tunisia. He survived three years on the North African and European fronts with General George S. Patton's 2nd Armored Division— including D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge— and came home to Bernice at the end of the war. Their second child, Dawn Zeitlin, grew up to become my wife Dawn Aquamarine Aura.

The short pieces in this book prove beyond a doubt the truth of the 2nd Armored's nickname, "Hell on Wheels"— not only for the defeated Germans but for the victors as well. Part I, "At War," tells the story of the war from one private's point of view. Part II, "Post-War," describes how his war experiences haunted him for the next 50 years as he raised four children and provided for his family as a salesman and businessman. Excerpts from his European war diary are interspersed throughout, as the nightmare of Harry's war never really receded into memory. (His North African diary was lost when a halftrack containing his belongings was destroyed by shellfire.)

I produced the book both to honor my father-in-law for his sacrifices and to show how the hell of war lingers on into peacetime to be passed on to succeeding generations. Its Introduction is a poem I wrote for his 80th birthday, "The History Professor Turns 80."

available via the PayPal link below or by mail from Stephen Wing, P.O. Box 5379, Atlanta GA 31107, $12.00 postpaid