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Love, Bill: Finding My Father Through Letters from World War II
“The 'Greatest Generation' meets 'Love Letters' meets 'Yentl.'”
Long before she became a museum curator, Jan Krulick-Belin curated memories… photographs and mementos of her father, who died when she was just six. Her mother rarely spoke about him again, until a year before her own death, when she gave Jan a box of nearly one hundred love letters he had written her during World War II. What follows is the true story of the author’s emotional and life-changing pilgrimage of the heart to find and reclaim the father she thought she’d lost forever.
The letters lead Jan on an extraordinary journey following her father’s actual footsteps during the war years. Each letter brings a bygone era to life, while a series of amazing twists, turns, uncanny coincidences, and the kindness of strangers lead to unexpected discoveries from Morocco to Paris to upstate New York. The adventure comes full circle when Jan finds the Jewish-Moroccan family that provided the lonely soldier a feeling of home, fulfilling a wish unearthed in one of his letters. Along the way, she discovers details about her parents' great love story, and learns about the war in North Africa and the horrific fate of the Jews in Morocco, Germany, and France, bringing her even closer to her own Jewish roots. Most importantly, she discovers the man she thought she would never have the opportunity to know.
"Love, Bill" is a testament to the enduring power of determination, love, family, and the unbreakable bond between fathers and daughters.
Long before she became a museum curator, Jan Krulick-Belin curated memories… photographs and mementos of her father, who died when she was just six. Her mother rarely spoke about him again, until a year before her own death, when she gave Jan a box of nearly one hundred love letters he had written her during World War II. What follows is the true story of the author’s emotional and life-changing pilgrimage of the heart to find and reclaim the father she thought she’d lost forever.
The letters lead Jan on an extraordinary journey following her father’s actual footsteps during the war years. Each letter brings a bygone era to life, while a series of amazing twists, turns, uncanny coincidences, and the kindness of strangers lead to unexpected discoveries from Morocco to Paris to upstate New York. The adventure comes full circle when Jan finds the Jewish-Moroccan family that provided the lonely soldier a feeling of home, fulfilling a wish unearthed in one of his letters. Along the way, she discovers details about her parents' great love story, and learns about the war in North Africa and the horrific fate of the Jews in Morocco, Germany, and France, bringing her even closer to her own Jewish roots. Most importantly, she discovers the man she thought she would never have the opportunity to know.
"Love, Bill" is a testament to the enduring power of determination, love, family, and the unbreakable bond between fathers and daughters.
530 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2016
About the author
Jan Krulick-Belin
1 book29 followersJan Krulick-Belin is a museum and art consultant, and art and jewelry historian with nearly forty years of experience at such institutions as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Denver Art Museum, Beaumont (Texas) Art Museum, and Smithsonian Institution. Retired as Director of Education at the Phoenix Art Museum, she still works with museums, art organizations, and private collectors, and serves as guest curator at the Sylvia Plotkin Judaica Museum in Phoenix.
Jan has a bachelor’s degree in art history from the State University of New York, Binghamton, and a master’s degree in museum education from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She grew up in New York City, and currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
She drew on her research skills to delve into her past, creating Love, Bill as a labor of love to fulfill her father’s dream as well as her own.
Jan has a bachelor’s degree in art history from the State University of New York, Binghamton, and a master’s degree in museum education from George Washington University in Washington, DC. She grew up in New York City, and currently resides in Phoenix, Arizona.
She drew on her research skills to delve into her past, creating Love, Bill as a labor of love to fulfill her father’s dream as well as her own.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 23, 2017
In the spring of 1960, five-year old Jan Krulick's father was sneaking from their house in Bell Park Gardens, in Queens, New York. Little Jan stopped him, claiming a hug. "Daddy is sick and has to go to the hospital for a little while," Bill Krulick said.
That was the last time Jan saw her father. After a painful fight with cancer, Bill died. Consistent with that era's mores, his children were not allowed to visit him in the hospital or attend his funeral.
If this were Dickens, little Jan would have grown up in misery and want. Fortunately, Love, Bill is a joyous compilation, for the most part. We are given snapshots of a happy family—despite Bill's death—growing up in a neighborhood full of relatives and friends. Bill's wife, Dorothy, raised her children, saw her grandchildren and moved multiple times to be near her family. Each time she moved, she carried a box of letters, written by Bill during their courtship. Dorothy's worldly possessions dwindled, but the box remained intact.
Upon Dorothy's death, Jan began the search for the father whose death had left a "cavernous hole" in her childhood. She sought out relatives who had known her parents, discovering secrets along the way. Her parents' lives had not been a Doris Day movie. Bill was madly in love with Dorothy, but (Jan learns to her shock) she married another man, Max, while Bill was in the service.
Her search is methodical, but never dull. Using the letters as a framework, she gives us a picture of young Bill, nervous and needy, pleading for Dorothy's love. She fleshes out the scene with military documents and historical references. Interwoven with Bill's story is her own journey, tracing her father's both spiritually and physically, from New York to North Africa to Europe and back.
Krulick-Belin is a museum curator and art historian by profession, and the meticulous provenance she compiles for her father's story enhances it immensely. Generous with her research, she even provides an appendix of references for others who might want to make a similar journey.
Her writing sounds the right tone throughout. Never too flip or maudlin, Krulick-Belin has an innate sense of when to let Bill speak and when to quote other sources. As I read, I found myself cheering her on, totally caught up in her search for the man who had hugged her good-bye in 1960.
There is no happy ending, of course. Bill won't come back, Jan won't have a different childhood. There is, however, a strong sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. And a damn fine read.
by D Ferrara
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
That was the last time Jan saw her father. After a painful fight with cancer, Bill died. Consistent with that era's mores, his children were not allowed to visit him in the hospital or attend his funeral.
If this were Dickens, little Jan would have grown up in misery and want. Fortunately, Love, Bill is a joyous compilation, for the most part. We are given snapshots of a happy family—despite Bill's death—growing up in a neighborhood full of relatives and friends. Bill's wife, Dorothy, raised her children, saw her grandchildren and moved multiple times to be near her family. Each time she moved, she carried a box of letters, written by Bill during their courtship. Dorothy's worldly possessions dwindled, but the box remained intact.
Upon Dorothy's death, Jan began the search for the father whose death had left a "cavernous hole" in her childhood. She sought out relatives who had known her parents, discovering secrets along the way. Her parents' lives had not been a Doris Day movie. Bill was madly in love with Dorothy, but (Jan learns to her shock) she married another man, Max, while Bill was in the service.
Her search is methodical, but never dull. Using the letters as a framework, she gives us a picture of young Bill, nervous and needy, pleading for Dorothy's love. She fleshes out the scene with military documents and historical references. Interwoven with Bill's story is her own journey, tracing her father's both spiritually and physically, from New York to North Africa to Europe and back.
Krulick-Belin is a museum curator and art historian by profession, and the meticulous provenance she compiles for her father's story enhances it immensely. Generous with her research, she even provides an appendix of references for others who might want to make a similar journey.
Her writing sounds the right tone throughout. Never too flip or maudlin, Krulick-Belin has an innate sense of when to let Bill speak and when to quote other sources. As I read, I found myself cheering her on, totally caught up in her search for the man who had hugged her good-bye in 1960.
There is no happy ending, of course. Bill won't come back, Jan won't have a different childhood. There is, however, a strong sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. And a damn fine read.
by D Ferrara
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women
August 19, 2016
{3.5 stars}
What a journey! I feel like I've experienced the whole search with Jan, from the moment her father died, to reading the letters years later, to reading into the romantic heart of her father during WW2, to finding the connections to the photographs he took, and lastly the letter Jan wrote to her father.
What I liked:
-The writing and story flowed like a fiction book, although it is non-fiction. That I applaud greatly! The author has certainly received her father's writing style :)
-The letters were amazing. Almost a little bit too much. I mean, Bill Krulick was so romantic and in a way I felt like I intruded too much by reading them. He wrote such beauitful things! Take this for instance:
"If you were the only one of your sex left in this world, or I the only of mind, would I be the only one for you? You would be for me if there were millions I could choose from. I know that my life would only be complete with you. Do you feel that?
In the face of misfortune and objections, would you in the end overcome them all and become mine? I'm yours now, no matter what the future holds."
-All the amazing connections. I was flabbergasted by how many things Jan found about her father by simply exploring into his letters!!
-Jan's love for her father was beauitful and that focus was a huge focus throughout the book.
-I loved the descriptions of the 1950s and WW2 that the author included into this book. It made you feel the time setting...beauitful!
-At one point there were details about the Jews and I found that insighting in many ways.
What I disliked:
-Several profanities, many of which God's name was used.
-The author had a loose view of Christianity and seemed to mold all religions into one, as well as putting Allah and God as the same.
-There was an odd scene about her father hugging her (but he's dead) that I found a little...odd. Also, several references to her father leading her through the journey and while I get what she means, it was worded strangely at times.
-The author realized that something more was at work than coincidence, but there never was an acknowledgment of God leading her, although she referred to higher powers a couple times.
Truly this was a fascinating book and I'm glad I read it, although I wished the swearing hadn't been in there. I'm impressed with the courage the author went through to search her father's life and to write this book.
*I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*.
What a journey! I feel like I've experienced the whole search with Jan, from the moment her father died, to reading the letters years later, to reading into the romantic heart of her father during WW2, to finding the connections to the photographs he took, and lastly the letter Jan wrote to her father.
What I liked:
-The writing and story flowed like a fiction book, although it is non-fiction. That I applaud greatly! The author has certainly received her father's writing style :)
-The letters were amazing. Almost a little bit too much. I mean, Bill Krulick was so romantic and in a way I felt like I intruded too much by reading them. He wrote such beauitful things! Take this for instance:
"If you were the only one of your sex left in this world, or I the only of mind, would I be the only one for you? You would be for me if there were millions I could choose from. I know that my life would only be complete with you. Do you feel that?
In the face of misfortune and objections, would you in the end overcome them all and become mine? I'm yours now, no matter what the future holds."
-All the amazing connections. I was flabbergasted by how many things Jan found about her father by simply exploring into his letters!!
-Jan's love for her father was beauitful and that focus was a huge focus throughout the book.
-I loved the descriptions of the 1950s and WW2 that the author included into this book. It made you feel the time setting...beauitful!
-At one point there were details about the Jews and I found that insighting in many ways.
What I disliked:
-Several profanities, many of which God's name was used.
-The author had a loose view of Christianity and seemed to mold all religions into one, as well as putting Allah and God as the same.
-There was an odd scene about her father hugging her (but he's dead) that I found a little...odd. Also, several references to her father leading her through the journey and while I get what she means, it was worded strangely at times.
-The author realized that something more was at work than coincidence, but there never was an acknowledgment of God leading her, although she referred to higher powers a couple times.
Truly this was a fascinating book and I'm glad I read it, although I wished the swearing hadn't been in there. I'm impressed with the courage the author went through to search her father's life and to write this book.
*I received this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review*.
August 9, 2016
An amazing and well written story which left me feeling quite emotional. I am so pleased to have had the opportunity to read this book and I would definitely recommend it to history lovers. So much to learn about World War 2 from this book. Thank you Net Galley for my copy.
March 17, 2017
Reviewed by Mamta Madhavan for Readers' Favorite
"Love, Bill: Finding My Father through Letters from World War II" by Jan Krulick-Belin is a collection of heartrending and poignant memories the author has of her father, Bill, which she shares with readers through this book. The author’s love for her father is evident through her words, and she speaks of how she tried to keep him alive after his death so that he would not slip away completely from their memories. The author’s collection of get-well cards from grade 1 kept him in her thoughts and she always looked at these as her last link to him. Fifty years later, another set of letters brings him back into her life by telling her things about her and her father, which her mother was not able to tell her during her lifetime. It is a story of love, romance, family, persistence, patience, discovery, and family ties that will touch the hearts of readers on many levels.
The author puts her father’s memories into words beautifully and this resonates well with readers. The narration is detailed and descriptive, and the author takes readers on an unexpected and remarkable journey of her life. The amazing letters, the spiritual undertones, the Jewish connection, and lastly descriptions of World War II make the book an amazing read. The pictures in the book will help readers connect better with the characters, and the letters written by her father to her mother speak of the love they shared for each other. The author gives a voice to her father’s life and tells readers how he made an impact while he lived, and the way he loved her mother and their family. The memoir has been beautifully executed and readers can feel the love and family bonding clearly through the author's words and expressions.
"Love, Bill: Finding My Father through Letters from World War II" by Jan Krulick-Belin is a collection of heartrending and poignant memories the author has of her father, Bill, which she shares with readers through this book. The author’s love for her father is evident through her words, and she speaks of how she tried to keep him alive after his death so that he would not slip away completely from their memories. The author’s collection of get-well cards from grade 1 kept him in her thoughts and she always looked at these as her last link to him. Fifty years later, another set of letters brings him back into her life by telling her things about her and her father, which her mother was not able to tell her during her lifetime. It is a story of love, romance, family, persistence, patience, discovery, and family ties that will touch the hearts of readers on many levels.
The author puts her father’s memories into words beautifully and this resonates well with readers. The narration is detailed and descriptive, and the author takes readers on an unexpected and remarkable journey of her life. The amazing letters, the spiritual undertones, the Jewish connection, and lastly descriptions of World War II make the book an amazing read. The pictures in the book will help readers connect better with the characters, and the letters written by her father to her mother speak of the love they shared for each other. The author gives a voice to her father’s life and tells readers how he made an impact while he lived, and the way he loved her mother and their family. The memoir has been beautifully executed and readers can feel the love and family bonding clearly through the author's words and expressions.
November 22, 2025
A clearly deeply personal book. Took me a bit to get into it but I got swept along in the end!
September 12, 2016
The English author Alan Bennett stated, “The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you.” Jan has crafted an intriguing way of bringing the reader on a very emotional journey with her as she pieces together the story of her father’s life from her early childhood memories and his own words left as clues in love letters written to her mother. The book expands a collection of what could have been a neglected and forgotten box of personal love letters into a broader cultural and historical context that almost anyone at any age can relate to in many ways. Reading many of the “stage-setting passages” that connect the letters I was constantly transported to various times in my own life and reminded of things I hadn’t thought about in years. As Bennett says, I became flooded with feelings and ways of looking at similar events from my own past or thinking about my own family in similar ways. One of my favorite passages illustrates Jan’s colorful writing style that immediately took me to almost forgotten memories of my own brief life with my father:
“Our fathers teach us about strength, wisdom, and life’s practicalities. When they run along side of our two wheelers for the first time, they know when to hold on and when to let go…..before we learn to stand on our own two feet, we must first learn to dance standing on theirs.”
Exhaustive and extensive background research, photos, documents and oral histories tap into WWII history, genealogy, Jewish culture, religions and life in North Africa – and become the glue that connects the letters together to tell her father’s story and make the journey more personal, relatable and interesting to the reader. Anyone interested in genealogy, American history or Jewish family life will appreciate Jan’s sleuthing, meticulous attention to details and organization as she leaves no stone unturned in this interesting story of not only her father, but how she pulled together the story of his life from the disparate pieces left behind.
“Our fathers teach us about strength, wisdom, and life’s practicalities. When they run along side of our two wheelers for the first time, they know when to hold on and when to let go…..before we learn to stand on our own two feet, we must first learn to dance standing on theirs.”
Exhaustive and extensive background research, photos, documents and oral histories tap into WWII history, genealogy, Jewish culture, religions and life in North Africa – and become the glue that connects the letters together to tell her father’s story and make the journey more personal, relatable and interesting to the reader. Anyone interested in genealogy, American history or Jewish family life will appreciate Jan’s sleuthing, meticulous attention to details and organization as she leaves no stone unturned in this interesting story of not only her father, but how she pulled together the story of his life from the disparate pieces left behind.
June 22, 2018
Jan Krulick-Belin combines a daughter's search for her father, with an exhaustive retracing of her father's path through WWII, and solves some family mysteries her mother refused to disclosed to the daughter. The author takes the reader along as she follows this path from Phoenix to Paris, Morocco, and New York City. The book includes resources for anyone wishing to research military records. Like the art historian she is, the author has curated a story culled from her personal life, included a host of resources, and shown how one grown woman can reconnect with a father she last saw alive when she was only six years old.
June 6, 2017
What a fantastic and heartwarming story! I enjoyed the author's warm writing-style and I felt like I was right there on the emotional journey with her. I also learned many facts that I did not know before about World War II, specifically I had no idea there were battles going on in North Africa! This book is going on my book wishlist for sure.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the Dog Ear Publishing for accepting my request to read this book.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the Dog Ear Publishing for accepting my request to read this book.
November 10, 2016
What an excellent, heartfelt novel about recreating her father's life and how, ultimately he was always with her, just in terms of hereditarily passing on his legacy! I loved it!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews