Documentary First: Conversations on Documentary Filmmaking

First, we get updates on the distribution phase of The Girl Who Wore Freedom. Second, Christian reveals two new projects she has underway, "Grueling Glory" and "The Brave Dutch". Finally, the act of gaining story rights, self-funding pre-production tours, and building a team are discussed.

To be added to the DVD pre-sale list, email: [email protected]

We’re joined by Jeff Kurtenacker, David Patterson, and Jason comes and goes throughout this episode. We look back on what we’ve learned about distribution, discuss strategies for how to get your film distributed, then recap how Jeff joined the project and how David joined too.

What does it take to make six documentaries after your 81st birthday, without ever being paid for them?

George Ciampa never planned to be a filmmaker. In 2005, after a yearlong fight to get gates put on the American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Belgium, a retired general and a retired colonel asked him whether he had ever thought about taking teachers to Europe to teach them reverence for those cemeteries. George called the assistant superintendent of the Torrance, California, schools his children had attended, recruited four young history teachers, and decided to film the trip. He meant to make one documentary. The emails that came in afterward kept him going for six films over 14 years, all made through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring.

In Episode 121, the last of five conversations, Jason Rugg hosts with Christian Taylor, and George, then 96, walks through every one of his films: from Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless, with its teachers and First Division veterans, to They Will Never Forget, about the Dutch and Belgian families who adopt American graves, to D-Day Veterans Return to Normandy: 75 Years Later, filmed in 2019 with nine fellow D-Day veterans. He talks about the German children he met in the army of occupation, the German mayor who says in one of George's films, "You liberated us," and the people with money who never came through. And he gives his advice to filmmakers: be prepared to work your tail off, often for no money, because the payoff is gratification.

The episode opens with Christian's update three weeks after The Girl Who Wore Freedom's June 1, 2021, release, and how hard it is to read the iTunes documentary chart.

George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98. We are grateful he trusted us with his story.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How George became a documentary filmmaker at 81
• How a campaign for cemetery gates turned into a trip with four history teachers
• The stories behind George's six Let Freedom Ring documentaries
• Why Dutch and Belgian families adopt the graves of American soldiers
• What German children remembered about American soldiers after the war
• George's advice to independent filmmakers about money, hard work and purpose

CHAPTERS

0:00 Film Update: Three Weeks on iTunes

2:45 George's Introduction, in His Own Words

5:01 How George Became a Filmmaker at 81

12:27 The Lesson Is Priceless and Memories of France

15:09 The Mighty Eighth and They Will Never Forget

18:24 America's Finest Ambassadors and a Return to Normandy

21:11 George's Advice to Filmmakers

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What documentaries did George Ciampa make?

George Ciampa made six documentaries over 14 years, starting in 2006, through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring. They are Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless; Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France; Remembering the Fallen Heroes of the Mighty Eighth; They Will Never Forget; America's Finest Ambassadors: Our Armed Forces; and D-Day Veterans Return to Normandy: 75 Years Later.

How did George Ciampa become a filmmaker?

After a yearlong campaign in 2005 to get gates on the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium, George Ciampa was encouraged to take teachers to Europe. He recruited four young history teachers from high schools in Torrance, California, and decided to film the trip. He meant to make one film, but the response led to five more.

What advice did George Ciampa give independent filmmakers?

George Ciampa's advice: be prepared not to make money, and be prepared to work day and night and weekends. You have to believe in what you're doing, because raising the funds is hard. The payoff, he says, is gratification. Christian Taylor adds: talk to the people in your life early, because a film can consume everything.

LISTEN AND FOLLOW

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.fo/e/6a83a6

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@documentaryfirst

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DocumentaryFirst

CONNECT WITH DOCUMENTARY FIRST

All platforms: https://linktr.ee/doc1st

Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylor

ABOUT THE GUEST

George Ciampa

World War II Veteran and Documentary Filmmaker

George Ciampa was born in Boston in 1925 and grew up in Southern California. He served in the 607th Graves Registration Company from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, then spent seven months in the army of occupation in Germany. He later worked for the Los Angeles Times. At 81 he began making documentaries about the price of freedom through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring, including Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless and Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France, and shared his stories with students in the United States, France and Belgium. He received the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98.

Website: http://www.letfreedomringforall.org

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE GEORGE CIAMPA SERIES

• Part 1, D-Day and burying the dead in Normandy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBaBYOxWjg
• Part 2, the Battle of the Bulge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5I8EbJd-A
• Part 3, the army of occupation and Margot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pg8DCBaIUI
• Part 4, Margot again and his life after the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG_KeqThEro
• Episode 215, our tribute to George after his passing, which re-airs Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kdCAStwcI

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• George Ciampa remembered (The Palm Springs Post, 2024): https://thepalmspringspost.com/life-of-wwii-veteran-and-filmmaker-george-ciampa-to-be-celebrated-in-private-ceremony-sunday-in-palm-springs/

How does a newspaper ad man end up making documentaries at 81?

George Ciampa spent his working life selling newspaper advertising, first as a salesman and then for 18 years as special features manager at the Los Angeles Times. In 1963 he broke ground on one of the first condominiums in California, on the day the legislation allowing them was passed, and lost it two years later to a man who had promised to help with the financing. Then in 2005, friends in Belgium called him for help: people were riding bicycles and motorcycles through the American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, where George's company had once buried 17,300 soldiers. He spent a year writing to everyone he could think of, from newspapers to senators, to get gates put on the cemetery. That fight, and a museum in Wheaton, Illinois, led him to start taking teachers to Europe, and at 81 he became a documentary filmmaker.

In Episode 120, the fourth of five conversations, host Josh Lindsay, Christian Taylor and Jason Rugg welcome George back on his 96th birthday. Before the career story, he finally answers the question Episode 117 left hanging: did he ever see Margot, the trapeze star he met in Germany, again? He did, in 1949, in Milwaukee, where she was performing with the Ringling Brothers circus after a fall from the trapeze in New York had broken her back. They kept in touch for a while, but by then, as George puts it, it was "a whole different ballgame."

The episode opens with Christian's update from June 2021: The Girl Who Wore Freedom won best veteran film at the Reedy Reels Film Festival on D-Day, screened at a Beaufort Film Society fundraiser, recorded a town hall for Delta employees ahead of its in-flight debut, and climbed to number 7 on the iTunes documentary chart.

George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98. We are grateful he trusted us with his story.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Whether George ever saw Margot again, and what had happened to her
• How George built one of the first condominiums in California, and how he lost it
• What George did at the Los Angeles Times
• Why George spent a year fighting to put gates on the American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle
• How taking teachers to Europe turned George into a filmmaker at 81
• How The Girl Who Wore Freedom celebrated D-Day 2021

CHAPTERS

0:00 Film Update: Awards, Delta and D-Day 2021

8:06 Happy 96th Birthday, George

10:44 Did He Ever See Margot Again?

17:55 From Newspaper Ads to The Florentine

22:15 Selling Ads at the Los Angeles Times

25:26 Cemetery Gates and a New Career at 81

31:39 Let Freedom Ring and Thanks to Our Patrons

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Did George Ciampa ever see Margot again?

Yes. George Ciampa says he saw Margot again in 1949 in Milwaukee, about four years after the war, when they were both 24. She was with the Ringling Brothers circus. A fall from the trapeze in New York had broken her back, so she had moved to an act on the ropes. They stayed in touch for a while, but nothing came of it.

How did George Ciampa become a documentary filmmaker?

George Ciampa started making films at 81, in 2006. After a yearlong fight to get gates put on the American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle, Belgium, and encouragement from a retired general and colonel who ran a museum in Wheaton, Illinois, he began taking teachers and combat veterans to Europe. His first film followed four teachers; his second, two.

Why did George Ciampa want gates on the Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery?

In 2005, friends who ran a museum near Henri-Chapelle told George that people from the Netherlands were riding bicycles and motorcycles through the cemetery. George wrote to the press and to officials including John McCain and Elizabeth Dole. He was told gates would give the cemetery a "fortress-like appearance." Lights and hedges were added, but no gates.

LISTEN AND FOLLOW

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.fo/e/6a83a7

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@documentaryfirst

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DocumentaryFirst

CONNECT WITH DOCUMENTARY FIRST

All platforms: https://linktr.ee/doc1st

Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylor

ABOUT THE GUEST

George Ciampa

World War II Veteran and Documentary Filmmaker

George Ciampa was born in Boston in 1925 and grew up in Southern California. He served in the 607th Graves Registration Company from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, then spent seven months in the army of occupation in Germany. He later worked for the Los Angeles Times. At 81 he began making documentaries about the price of freedom through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring, including Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless and Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France, and shared his stories with students in the United States, France and Belgium. He received the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98.

Website: http://www.letfreedomringforall.org

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE GEORGE CIAMPA SERIES

• Part 1, D-Day and burying the dead in Normandy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBaBYOxWjg
• Part 2, the Battle of the Bulge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5I8EbJd-A
• Part 3, the army of occupation and Margot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pg8DCBaIUI
• Part 5, his films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokgDr_iAGA
• Episode 215, our tribute to George after his passing, which re-airs Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kdCAStwcI

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• George Ciampa remembered (The Palm Springs Post, 2024): https://thepalmspringspost.com/life-of-wwii-veteran-and-filmmaker-george-ciampa-to-be-celebrated-in-private-ceremony-sunday-in-palm-springs/

Jeff Kurtenacker, the music composer of TGWWF, fills in for Josh Lindsay and Jason Rugg! Christian shares exciting news regarding partnering with Delta and Michelin, and even meeting with Delta Airlines CEO, Ed Bastian, in Atlanta, GA. Then, connections made during film processes are discussed and the latest stats on distribution are shared.

Support us on Patreon!: https://www.patreon.com/DocFirstPodcast

The Girl Who Wore Freedom is out on iTunes and lots of other streaming services. We talk through reviews, strategies, cinnamon rolls, and what it's like to release a film online.

We walk through the marketing plan, going grassroots, asking for ratings and letting reviews help bump the film up in the iTunes charts. The marketing wins and losses, plans for the next film, and discoverability.

Then an update on the Delta deal and what it is like to to build a collaborative team behind the film, and how different that is compared to having a huge investor.

What happens to a 19-year-old who has spent a year burying the dead when the war suddenly ends?

For George Ciampa, the answer was a circus. After the Battle of the Bulge, his graves registration company left the temporary American cemetery at Henri-Chapelle in Belgium and moved across Germany to Eisenach, in central Germany, where he celebrated the end of the war with two bottles of wine, one white and one red. Then the Army sent him to Mannheim in the army of occupation. Away from the dead for the first time in 11 months, he went to the circus Army Special Services put on for the troops, again and again, because of a young trapeze star named Margot.

In Episode 117, the third of five conversations, host Josh Lindsay and Christian Taylor sit down again with George Ciampa, then 95. The episode opens with news about Christian's film, The Girl Who Wore Freedom, before George picks up his story. He talks about the emotional cost of handling the dead every day, the jeep that nearly got him court-martialed, and the nightmares his sisters heard after he came home. He told us he never knew how he escaped what we now call PTSD. Decades later he went back to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and years after that, while making a film in the Netherlands, he adopted the grave of a Jewish American soldier his own age.

Most of all, he tells the story of Margot. Neither spoke the other's language, so George learned "You Are My Sunshine" in German and sang it to her. In December 1945, waiting at Bremerhaven for a ship home, he took a train about 350 miles to Frankfurt to spend Christmas with her family. He borrowed her father's overcoat, took her to an American movie, and said goodbye at the station. Did he ever see her again? George starts to answer, and his hosts stop him: that story waits for Part 4.

George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98. We are grateful he trusted us with his story.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What graves registration units did in Germany after the war ended
• How George met Margot, a trapeze star in an Army circus
• How George coped with burying the dead day after day
• How a jeep traded for a pair of paratrooper boots almost cost him a court-martial
• What George carried home from the war, and what he never could explain
• Why he adopted a soldier's grave in the Netherlands
• What happened between George and Margot at Christmas 1945

CHAPTERS

0:00 Release News for The Girl Who Wore Freedom

5:43 Leaving Henri-Chapelle for Germany

12:39 The Emotional Cost of Burying the Dead

17:20 A Flying Trapeze Artist in Mannheim

25:05 The Jeep That Almost Got Him Court-Martialed

27:27 Nightmares, Memory and Adopting a Grave

34:00 Christmas in Frankfurt With Margot

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What did graves registration units do after World War II ended in Europe?

The work didn't stop when the fighting did. The U.S. didn't want any American cemeteries left in Germany, so at Eisenach, George Ciampa says, the day after Memorial Day services, German prisoners dug up the temporary graves, and each soldier was re-identified by the dog tags on the cross and on the body before being shipped to temporary cemeteries in Belgium, the Netherlands and France.

How did George Ciampa cope with burying the dead?

George Ciampa says the job took an emotional toll, and his sisters heard his nightmares after he came home. He said he never knew how he avoided lasting PTSD. He returned to Normandy for the 50th anniversary of D-Day, and years later, while making a film in the Netherlands, adopted a soldier's grave there.

What was the army of occupation in Germany?

After Germany surrendered in May 1945, American troops stayed to occupy and govern the American zone of Germany. George Ciampa was stationed in Mannheim, where he worked in a salvage company collecting the gear of units going home. In his time off he went to the circus that Army Special Services put on for the troops, and there he met Margot, a trapeze performer.

LISTEN AND FOLLOW

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.fo/e/6a83aa

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@documentaryfirst

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DocumentaryFirst

CONNECT WITH DOCUMENTARY FIRST

All platforms: https://linktr.ee/doc1st

Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylor

ABOUT THE GUEST

George Ciampa

World War II Veteran and Documentary Filmmaker

George Ciampa was born in Boston in 1925 and grew up in Southern California. He served in the 607th Graves Registration Company from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, then spent seven months in the army of occupation in Germany. He later worked for the Los Angeles Times. At 81 he began making documentaries about the price of freedom through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring, including Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless and Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France, and shared his stories with students in the United States, France and Belgium. He received the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98.

Website: http://www.letfreedomringforall.org

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE GEORGE CIAMPA SERIES

• Part 1, D-Day and burying the dead in Normandy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBaBYOxWjg
• Part 2, the Battle of the Bulge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5I8EbJd-A
• Part 4, Margot again and his life after the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG_KeqThEro
• Part 5, his films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokgDr_iAGA
• Episode 215, our tribute to George after his passing, which re-airs Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kdCAStwcI

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• George Ciampa remembered (The Palm Springs Post, 2024): https://thepalmspringspost.com/life-of-wwii-veteran-and-filmmaker-george-ciampa-to-be-celebrated-in-private-ceremony-sunday-in-palm-springs/
• The Girl Who Wore Freedom: https://geni.us/TheGirlWhoWoreFreedom

What was the Battle of the Bulge like for a 19-year-old who had to bring the dead in from the snow?

In the fall of 1944, George Ciampa's unit, the 607th Graves Registration Company, dug in on a farm at Hombourg, Belgium, next to the village of Henri-Chapelle. They stayed four months, through the rain, the mud and the coldest winter anyone there could remember. By the time they moved on into Germany, they had buried 17,300 Americans in that temporary cemetery. When the Battle of the Bulge broke out in December, George and his company went out onto the frozen battlefields to bring the fallen back.

In Episode 116, the second of five conversations, Jason Rugg fills in as host alongside Christian Taylor, and George Ciampa, then 95, picks up where Part 1 left off. He talks about life in a foxhole for two, a V-1 buzz bomb that dropped a chunk of shrapnel at his feet, a V-2 rocket climbing into the night sky, and the Belgian farm family whose 15-year-old son brought him a keg of warm milk. He describes the bodies his company recovered after the Malmedy massacre, the German soldiers caught wearing American uniforms, and the baseball and comic strip questions GIs used to tell friend from enemy.

George also tells the story of the Wereth 11, 11 Black American artillerymen who were taken in by a Belgian family and then murdered by the SS, and how he came to tell it in his first film, Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless, which he made at 81 with four young history teachers.

The episode opens with Christian's film news from May 2021: The Girl Who Wore Freedom's release in Canada, its deal with Delta, and her next project, The Brave Dutch, which begins with John Low, an American airman from Laurel, Mississippi, who was shot down over occupied Holland in April 1944, kept alive by the Dutch resistance for 11 months, and later wrote a short book in tribute to the people who saved him.

George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98. We are grateful he trusted us with his story.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How cold the winter of the Battle of the Bulge really was
• How a temporary American cemetery near Henri-Chapelle grew to 17,300 graves
• How two soldiers lived, slept and stood guard in a foxhole through a Belgian winter
• What it was like to live under V-1 buzz bombs and see a V-2 rocket launch
• How GIs used humor to get through the war
• What graves registration did after the Malmedy massacre
• How GIs caught Germans wearing American uniforms
• The story of the Wereth 11, and how George told it in his first film
• Why only about 40% of the Americans who died in Europe are buried there today

CHAPTERS

0:00 Film Update: Canada, Delta and The Brave Dutch

7:23 The Coldest Winter and 17,300 Graves

13:06 A Belgian Farm Family and a Keg of Warm Milk

18:49 Strafed on Christmas Day, and a Friend Named Tex

20:56 Life in a Foxhole Under the Buzz Bombs

27:03 Four Months on the Frozen Battlefields

30:53 Malmedy and Germans in American Uniforms

38:41 The Wereth 11

41:44 Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless

47:04 Eisenach and the 40% Who Stayed

51:41 Next Time: Margot and a Jeep

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What did graves registration units do during the Battle of the Bulge?

George Ciampa's 607th Graves Registration Company was based at a temporary cemetery at Hombourg, Belgium, next to Henri-Chapelle, from September 1944 into February 1945. During the Battle of the Bulge, they went out onto the battlefields to collect frozen bodies and bring them back for burial. By the time they left, 17,300 Americans were buried there.

What was the Wereth 11?

The Wereth 11 were 11 Black American artillerymen who escaped to the Belgian village of Wereth during the Battle of the Bulge. A family took them in and fed them, but someone reported them, and SS troops marched them out and killed them. George Ciampa's company buried them. Today seven rest at Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery; four were returned home.

How did American soldiers catch German infiltrators in the Battle of the Bulge?

During the Bulge, some German soldiers wore American uniforms behind the lines. George Ciampa says GIs challenged anyone they didn't know with questions every American would know, about Babe Ruth, current ballplayers or the comic strip Blondie and her husband Dagwood. Three infiltrators were caught near his company's area and executed.

Why are only some of the American soldiers who died in Europe buried there?

After permanent cemeteries were built in 1947, families could bring their soldier home at no cost or leave him in Europe. George Ciampa says about 60% came home. So a cemetery like Henri-Chapelle or Normandy holds only about 40% of the Americans first buried in temporary cemeteries nearby.

LISTEN AND FOLLOW

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.fo/e/6a83ab

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@documentaryfirst

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DocumentaryFirst

CONNECT WITH DOCUMENTARY FIRST

All platforms: https://linktr.ee/doc1st

Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylor

ABOUT THE GUEST

George Ciampa

World War II Veteran and Documentary Filmmaker

George Ciampa was born in Boston in 1925 and grew up in Southern California. He served in the 607th Graves Registration Company from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, then spent seven months in the army of occupation in Germany. He later worked for the Los Angeles Times. At 81 he began making documentaries about the price of freedom through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring, including Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless and Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France, and shared his stories with students in the United States, France and Belgium. He received the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98.

Website: http://www.letfreedomringforall.org

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE GEORGE CIAMPA SERIES

• Part 1, D-Day and burying the dead in Normandy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeBaBYOxWjg
• Part 3, the army of occupation and Margot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pg8DCBaIUI
• Part 4, Margot again and his life after the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG_KeqThEro
• Part 5, his films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokgDr_iAGA
• Episode 215, our tribute to George after his passing, which re-airs Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kdCAStwcI

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• George Ciampa remembered (The Palm Springs Post, 2024): https://thepalmspringspost.com/life-of-wwii-veteran-and-filmmaker-george-ciampa-to-be-celebrated-in-private-ceremony-sunday-in-palm-springs/

What was D-Day like for an 18-year-old whose job was to bury the dead?

George Ciampa was a kid from Boston, one of 10 children of Italian immigrants, who wanted to fly fighter planes. He failed the Air Corps eye test twice. Drafted at 18, he was put into graves registration, the Army units that recovered and buried American soldiers. He landed on Utah Beach in June 1944, 10 days before his 19th birthday, and spent the next 11 months gathering the fallen across France, Belgium and Germany.

In Episode 115, the first of five conversations, Christian Taylor and co-hosts Josh Lindsay and Jason Rugg sit down with George Ciampa, then 95. He starts with the deaths that frightened him as a little boy, the family's 1934 drive from Boston to California, and his job building Navy dive bombers at Douglas Aircraft. Then he takes us to England, where his company, the 607th Graves Registration Company, lost 18 men in Exercise Tiger before the invasion, and across the Channel, where a torpedo plane attacked his ship at night.

George describes wading ashore on Utah Beach, burying paratroopers in their parachutes, starting the temporary cemeteries at Sainte-Mère-Église, and breaking down two weeks in, when a lieutenant put a pistol to his ribs and sent him back to work. He explains why only about 40% of the Americans who fell in Europe are buried there today, and why the marble markers in those cemeteries carry no date of birth. Decades later, George became a documentary filmmaker himself, and he spent the rest of his life teaching students about what he called "the high price of freedom."

George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98. We are grateful he trusted us with his story.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How a boy from Boston ended up in a World War II graves registration company
• Why George never became the fighter pilot he wanted to be
• What happened to the 607th Graves Registration Company in Exercise Tiger
• What crossing the Channel and wading ashore on Utah Beach was like
• How the first temporary American cemeteries in Normandy were started
• What it cost a 19-year-old to handle the dead every day
• Why most of the Americans who fell in Europe were sent home after the war
• Why the markers in American military cemeteries show no date of birth
• What George felt walking down his street when he came home in January 1946

CHAPTERS

0:00 Born in Boston, One of 10 Children

4:06 From Aircraft Plant to Graves Registration

9:05 Exercise Tiger and an English Family

13:47 Crossing the Channel Under Fire

17:03 Wading Ashore on Utah Beach

22:00 Temporary Cemeteries and a Night in Paris

26:46 Breaking Down and the Price of Freedom

30:37 The Bulge and the 40% Who Stayed

37:32 Coming Home to a Christmas Tree in January

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What did graves registration units do in World War II?

Graves registration companies recovered, identified and buried American soldiers who died in combat. George Ciampa's unit, the 607th Graves Registration Company, landed in Normandy in June 1944 and started temporary cemeteries as the Army moved across France, Belgium and Germany.

What was Exercise Tiger?

Exercise Tiger was a rehearsal for the D-Day landings off Slapton Sands, England, in April 1944. German E-boats attacked the landing ships, and hundreds of American soldiers were killed. George Ciampa says his company, the 607th Graves Registration Company, lost 18 men that night, and the survivors were kept apart afterward to protect the secret of the invasion.

Why are only some of the American soldiers who died in Europe buried there?

According to George Ciampa, after permanent cemeteries were built in 1947, families could choose to bring their soldier home at no cost or leave him in Europe. About 60% came home. So the graves in cemeteries like Normandy or Henri-Chapelle represent only about 40% of the Americans first buried in temporary cemeteries nearby.

Why don't American military cemetery markers in Europe show a date of birth?

George Ciampa noticed it when he returned to Normandy for the 50th anniversary: the white marble markers give the soldier's name, rank, unit, state and date of death, but not a date of birth.

LISTEN AND FOLLOW

Listen and subscribe wherever you get podcasts: https://pod.fo/e/6a83ac

Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@documentaryfirst

SUPPORT THE SHOW

Join our community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/DocumentaryFirst

CONNECT WITH DOCUMENTARY FIRST

All platforms: https://linktr.ee/doc1st

Christian Taylor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meetchristiantaylor

ABOUT THE GUEST

George Ciampa

World War II Veteran and Documentary Filmmaker

George Ciampa was born in Boston in 1925 and grew up in Southern California. He served in the 607th Graves Registration Company from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge to the end of the war, then spent seven months in the army of occupation in Germany. He later worked for the Los Angeles Times. At 81 he began making documentaries about the price of freedom through his nonprofit, Let Freedom Ring, including Let Freedom Ring: The Lesson Is Priceless and Let Freedom Ring: Memories of France, and shared his stories with students in the United States, France and Belgium. He received the French Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre. George Ciampa died on January 3, 2024, at the age of 98.

Website: http://www.letfreedomringforall.org

ABOUT DOCUMENTARY FIRST

Documentary First is a weekly podcast about the people behind documentaries and how the work changed them. Host Christian Taylor, director of the award-winning The Girl Who Wore Freedom, talks with filmmakers from Ken Burns to first-time directors. Listen Notes ranks the show in the top 5% of all podcasts worldwide.

THE GEORGE CIAMPA SERIES

• Part 2, the Battle of the Bulge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc5I8EbJd-A
• Part 3, the army of occupation and Margot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pg8DCBaIUI
• Part 4, Margot again and his life after the war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG_KeqThEro
• Part 5, his films: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokgDr_iAGA
• Episode 215, our tribute to George after his passing, which re-airs Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9kdCAStwcI

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• George Ciampa remembered (The Palm Springs Post, 2024): https://thepalmspringspost.com/life-of-wwii-veteran-and-filmmaker-george-ciampa-to-be-celebrated-in-private-ceremony-sunday-in-palm-springs/
• George Ciampa on his mission to teach students about World War II (VFW, 2009): https://www.vfw.org/media-and-events/latest-releases/archives/2009/9/wwii-veterans-new-mission-let-freedom-ring-in-american-classrooms

This week was kinda quiet on the film front, so we talk through some of the things that happened, future plans for D-Day film screenings and the future of Christian's filmmaking career.

Then Christian gives us an update on the Delta Airlines relationship and Christian's next film & Living Stories. Christian talks us through her 501c3 organization, what it means for the future and trying to keep things legal.