This Business of Fighting: A Human Face on WWII

A few years ago, Arnie Pritchard inherited the World War II army footlocker of his father, Anton (Tony) Pritchard. It turned out to contain hundreds of letters and other family papers from Tony’s service in the Army and in the United Nations’ refugee program in postwar Europe. 

From these letters Arnie has created a story. “This Business of Fighting”, focused on Tony’s time in the front lines in Europe. It portrays a young man dealing with everything from raw fear to his role as a leader, to his exposure to a world both wider and more brutal than he had known. Tony wonders how he will respond to his first combat, crawls through the freezing woods of the Ardennes under enemy fire, and sees crowds of escaping forced laborers wandering the roads of Germany as the Nazi regime was collapsing. 

About the Presenter

Arnie Pritchard has a Ph.D. in European history, and has been an amateur storyteller for about twenty years. His current focus in mainly on “This Business of Fighting”, a story based on his father’s letters home to his parents from World War II. The story gives a street-level view of one of the great catastrophes of history, in a way, which combines Arnie’s historical and storytelling interests. Arnie also coordinates a story-sharing group at the Institute Library in his home city of New Haven.