The legacy of Marianne Malarkey McNally

In a time when the world cries out for peace and goodwill, I think of my friend who lived such ideals

Marianne, taking photo, with the rest of us after a day of interviewing for Saving My Enemy: Back row, l to r, me, Matthias Engelbert and wife, Beate. Front row, l to r, Sally, my mother Marolyn, Volker Engelbert and Marianne’s husband, Dan McNally.

THREE MONTHS AGO today my friend Marianne Malarkey McNally died in Salem after 15 years of battling cancer. She was 60.

I came to know her in 2007 when I helped her father, Don Malarkey, write his memoir, Easy Company Soldier. Don, a University of Oregon grad, was part of World War II’s well-known Easy Company and featured in the 10-part HBO series “Band of Brothers.”

I came to know Marianne better in 2019 when she and husband Dan McNally talked me into writing Saving My Enemy. I originally thought the story was too thin for an entire book, but I was wrong. It’s the rare war story with a happy ending, a story about how her father — at an event in Bastogne, Belgium, commemorating the 60-year anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge — befriended a German soldier, Fritz Engelbert, and a friendship blossomed.

Both men had suffered six decades of PTSD, Don, 83, feeling guilt for having killed so many German soldiers, including a 16-year-old boy; Fritz, 79, feeling shame for having believed Adolf Hitler was Germany’s savior. Even though he never killed anyone, Fritz later said, “I did the bidding of a madman. The blood of the Jews is on my hands.”

Over a few beers in a pub, outside of which a gentle snow fell, Don said, “Fritz, you had no choice. You were forced into Hitler Youth. You were given a weapon and sent to war.”

Fritz wept. Later, Don broke down. “I think of that 16-year-old boy I killed every day.”

As translated by his son Matthias, Fritz told Don, “What you said to me, my friend, you must also say to yourself. It is not your fault.”

The former enemies forgave each other, becoming salve for each other’s wounds. Sixty years after they were called to kill each other, they hugged in friendship.

At a visit to a WWII cemetery, they teamed up like schoolboys on a field trip, getting to know each other better, talking to reporters and accepting gifts from Belgian school children who’d drawn pictures representing peace and goodwill. It was Belgium, of course, that had become the horrific battleground for the Battle of the Bulge as U.S. soldiers freed the country from the clutches of German occupation.

Don and Fritz, as seen through the eyes of one Belgian boy.

The Malarkey’s extended family flew to Belgium to meet with the Engelbert’s extended family. After Fritz died in 2015, Marianne invited his sons, Matthias and Volker, to attend an Easy Company reunion in Portland, where they were welcomed into the fold as honorary members. Imagine their fear — sons of a German soldier at a reunion of relatives of U.S. soldiers who had fought against Germany. Imagine their joy when they were introduced to wild applause; not a single person protested their presence.