Local filmmaker makes World War II short film to honor his grandfather

Mark Frederick never knew his grandfather, who served in World War II, but he knew he fought in one of the fiercest battles in U.S. history.

His grandfather was in the Fourth Infantry Division, a unit that fought in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest in 1944. This was the longest battle fought on German soil during WWII and cost the United States Army an estimated 33,000 lives killed or wounded. Frederick says, "The Battle of the Hürtgen Forest is not well known, it's often foreshadowed by the Falling Battle which was the Battle of the Bulge, so a lot of people in America do not really know about the history of the Hürtgen Forest and who fought there and what happened."

His grandfather didn't share his experience with anyone in the family, but the lack of knowledge about his legacy left a lasting impact on Frederick, "Not knowing what your own grandfather went through can be tough. Not knowing his story makes me want to tell a story."

An Altoona-native and Penn State Altoona graduate who has had a passion for history and cinema since he was in eighth grade, Frederick is creating a WWII short-film about the struggles of combat and futility in a battle that, he says, is often overshadowed in history, "There’s a lot more to history than a textbook. Historical documentaries, you know, archival footage and everything is very, usually very dry and and they just kind of list the facts and I really just wanted to touch on that human story that’s often absent in things like that."

He wants to tell a story of survival, portraying the miserable conditions that front line soldiers found themselves in from a squad-level perspective, "It's five months after the D-Day landings and the allies are currently going through Europe and they finally get to the Belgium-Germany border and they run into the Hürtgen Forest. And there really is military significance to the forest. There's no objectives, that's just where the enemy is. So the U.S. Military says, 'Okay, we're gonna go in and we’re gonna clear these Germans out.'" He adds, "It’s really more an intimate tale of common often fearful young soldiers and they're pretty much inexperienced, they're they're really green recruits which makes this situation in the Hürtgen even more dangerous."

Frederick has been a WWII reenactor for six years. He reenacts the Fourth Infantry Division across the state, allowing him to feel closer to his "Pap" and see the power behind using local terrain and local actors in telling this story. He explains, "A lot of reenactors and people from the community have contacted me saying, 'Hey, you know, my grandfather or father fought in the Battle of the Hürtgen Forest' and they go on to tell me their story and they wanna get involved in the project."

All of it fuels his fire to put this short film into action, "I want the audience to feel like they are in the middle of it, that they are there with these guys, fighting alongside them...History is not always black and white. It's the story of people, it's a human story and so I wanted to bring that feeling to the audience and have it be more personal."

Frederick is fundraising this summer and plans to shoot the movie in November 2020, followed by a release date in 2021. For more information on how to get involved, please visit Hürtgen's Facebook page, Instagram page, and website.