Thank You, Eddie Hart

In the still, solemn days following World War II, a 22-year-old Dutch girl named Betty Habets-Vrancken made a promise to a young American soldier whom she would never meet but who would change her life forever. Thank You, Eddie Hart tells the story of two families who realized the meaning of honoring those who died for others' freedom. After World War II ended, to show their gratitude for liberating Holland from the Nazis, Dutch farmers donated over 60 acres of land in Margraten to the United States for a military cemetery. The citizens then started an adoption program, in which they would "adopt" the graves of the over 18,000 American soldiers buried in the new Netherlands American Cemetery. Each family then made a promise to visit their adopted grave several times a year, take fresh flowers and contact the soldier's family.

Betty Habets-Vrancken received the name of Eddie Hart, a young soldier from LaGrange, North Carolina. From then, until moving to New York 11 years later, she placed fresh flowers on Hart's grave every year. After she left, her brother Johan took over the care of Hart's grave.

Over Thanksgiving dinner in 2000, Habets-Vrancken met Wilmington producer Brenda Hughes and planted the seeds of a new documentary. Production began in April 2002 in the Netherlands, where, accompanied by her family, Hattie Hart Holloman saw her brother's grave for the first time. It continued in Germany, where the crew traveled to some of the same towns that Hart's G Company blitzed in 1945, ending on the German battlefield in Barby where Hart and many others died April 1945.

Having grown close to Hart's family, Habets-Vrancken often muses about the importance of honoring Hart's memory. "That he had to give his life so young, over there," she reflects. "Many times I think about that, especially when I'm in North Carolina; it's a beautiful state, and then I think about that he could have lived here. And he wasn't able to."

Besides Habets-Vrancken, Vrancken and Holloman, several of Hart's G Company comrades share their memories, including LaFayette Smith of Kinston and Paul Willis, one of the platoon sergeant. Written and produced by Brenda Hughes, the documentary features videography and editing by Wilmington's Adam Alphin, music composed by Charlotte’s Fred Story, narration by North Carolinian actor and WWII veteran Pat Hingle and choral selections sung by the US Army Chorus in Virginia.

Thank You, Eddie Hart is a bittersweet yet inspiring story of a soldier who made the ultimate sacrifice and a family who passed down the legacy of a promise kept.

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