New Collection Shares WWII Letters Detailing 9th Infantry Division Soldier's Journey Across Europe

Private Melvyn Kaufman's Correspondence Home Details Combat in France and Germany and Post-War Life

STOWE, Vt., April 27, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Private Melvyn Kaufman sent letters home often chronicling combat across Europe, sometimes one a day when he had the time. In 1982, his daughter found nearly 200 letters in a storage room at her grandmother's home and decided to document Private Kaufman's transition from a nineteen-year-old soldier into a man who developed a "cynical sense of the world while maintaining a selfless love for his family."

In "This Method of Making History England, France, Belgium and Germany," author Kim Kaufman has complied a poignant collection of her father's letters that he sent home from his journey with the 9th Infantry Division during 1943 to 1945, detailing his experiences during training in England, combat through France and Belgium, and his eventual entry into Germany. The book offers a raw look at the day-to-day life of an infantryman who maintained a selfless love for his family while developing a cynical worldview shaped by the bloody battles of WWII.

"Transcribing these letters has introduced me to a man I did not know," said Kaufman. "The one I knew was loud and unmistakenly unhappy. There were times when my father was kind and almost loving but not in the way that comes through in these letters. This man who regularly asked God to bless his family while he was risking his life in Europe is a stranger to me."

Private Kaufman's letters provide a timeless reflection on the human experience of war and history, expressing the disconnect between grand historical narratives and the actual desires of those living through them. He refused higher military ratings because he did not want to be responsible for other men's lives. He cautioned that there are "no heroes in this war" and that public accounts of soldiers' desires to stay in combat are often lies. Following the war's end, he expressed deep disgust with the military point system for discharge, arguing it failed to prioritize those who saw the most combat over those with children or more time in non-combat service.

"I will say this, I am not impressed with this method of making history," said Private Kaufman. "I feel sure that there is some simpler, more tranquil, way of getting a line or two in a history book."

"This Method of Making History England, France, Belgium and Germany: Letters Home from Private Melvyn Kaufman, 1943 to 1945 England, France, Belgium and Germany"

By Kim Kaufman

ISBN: 9781665787703 (softcover); 9781665787710 (electronic)

Available at Archway Publishing, Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the author

Kim Kaufman received a B.A. in comparative literature from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Wash., MLS from the Palmer School of Library and Information Science, Long Island, NY, and a MFA in writing for children and young adults from the Vermont School of Fine Arts, Montpelier, Vt. She has spent a lifetime in the literary world as a rare book dealer, a librarian and a lifelong writer, though somewhere in the early 2000s she made a detour into the restaurant/bar business. In 2011 she and her husband moved to Vermont where they bought lots of land, opened several restaurants and more recently, a cannabis dispensary. To learn more, please visit www.archwaypublishing.com/en/bookstore/bookdetails/864923-this-method-of-making-history-england-france-belgium-and-germany.

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SOURCE Archway Publishing