For him, the Americans have always been heroes. It is not sure today.

For eight decades, Henry Mennon looked at the Americans as heroes. They twice liberated his small Belgian hometown, from the German profession – the second time, when he was 8 years old, hours after shrapnel was killed from the bombing, his father was killed.

The image of the American forces that shows the gums for local children is a memory that they have carried with him since then. He devoted more than 30 years to re-tell the story of the war as a guide for tourists who flow to this angle of the Luxembourg border, eager to get to know the last major German attack on the Western Front.

But this month, Mr. Maijnan, 88, said that he was uncomfortable because he expected his battle on Saturday morning in the round of Baston, south of Havalig.

It was not long ago The catastrophic meeting Between President Voludmir Zelinski from Ukraine and President Trump in the Oval Office, the matter came because Mr. Trump was presenting a reconciliation tone towards Vladimir F. Putin, the leader of Russia.

Mr. MIGNON is usually depicted as heroes and talks about strong ties between this part of the world and the United States. He said this time did not know exactly what he was thinking about the relationship.

“I feel it changes,” admitted in the days before the tour.

Mr. MIGNON has been exposed to US foreign policy before – during the Vietnam War, sometimes across the Middle East. He said that the ongoing events and his fellow guides prompted a new level of distress. Like many Europeans, they felt their long admiration for trembling in the United States.

He said that some of the guides had thought about stopping the tours of American groups completely. Mr. MIGNON has never thought of this, but he worried about what he would say completely as he drops students and teachers from North Carolina about Bastogne. Will it again emphasize the close relationship between Europeans and Americans? How can he do this when modern America, from his lane in Belgium, looks less heroic?

The sun was high, and waited for the march sky in a shiny blue like Mr. MIGNON, consistently, with white hair and wearing a Yanxiz hat, for students to gather in Baston City Square. Belgium flags, the European Union and the United States gently stumbled behind it upon arrival, as they prepared bags of Belgian chocolate.

Mr. MIGNON began a joke about his name, which means “little and gentle” in French. Then he released his tour, explaining how Germans occupied Baston in most of the war. It was liberated by the Americans in September 1944. But then, in December, the German forces recovered the city, which was released by the Americans again during the battle of bloating.

The Band of Roths TV and TV program in partogne, and as soon as the students took out of their tourist bus, Mr. MIGNON whispered the driver in realistic locations related to the viewer. I tell them the true stories of Easy Company, the battalion on which the book and the series focus on.

He explained to students that Baston is still an “American town”, where the bell tower plays the opening notes of “The Star Spangled Banner” every hour.

After the students were raised outside the bus and to an underground basement dedicated to war death – below a memorial bearing the names of American states – Mr. MIGNON described them “his war.”

Remember the day when he was suddenly rejected from the school with a promise to be allowed to return soon. It will be more than a year.

He described the German border who filled his home from the basement to the attic, as it grows gradually less good with the continuation of the war. He told Kaif, on the last day of the second occupation, the American soldiers transferred him away in a pocket car from his burning home, which he set in the cross when they recovered the city.

Mr. Mignon said that his family “lost everything”, in the war, and that the Americans helped return them to their feet.

After the war, Mr. Menon finished the school, studied military history in Brussels, and eventually became an officer in the Belgian army before he retired to this small city in Belgium Francophone, where he became a guide.

During the tour, Mr. MIGNON spoke the way it is practicing for a person reciting a dark story hundreds of times, and perhaps thousands. No comment on Mr. Trump or about the extent of America’s military involvement in Europe 80 years ago with the position it is increasingly taking. He said he decided that the tour was about the celebration of old warriors in the past, not the United States at the present time.

The Americans have avoided themselves talking about politics during their journey, which started in France and will continue in Germany. “My responsibility as a government teacher is to teach how the government works and is supposed to work.” “Better than them graduation and I don’t know how to vote.”

Thomas Boiro Suzmont, who helped organize the tour through various world war sites across Europe, said the Europeans who faced him were “shy” about removing current events.

“We have never believed that this alliance would be in danger,” said Mr. Boyreau-Suzémont, of the European relationship and the United States. “People were shocked,” added.

The issue of Mr. Menon was sliding at the final station, Quiet pine forest Which hides the fox once once used by the easy company.

There, he used his reed to refer to the mockery on the ground that American soldiers dug to receive the vicinity of the shells and ammunition while spending the winter and nights in an attempt to defend Baston and the decline in German forces. He explained that the trees were public expenditures new growth, and that they were not present to “monitor” the fighting that happened here once here.

Students, who were politely listening, turned into a pulsar while telling stories in his English language, which is highly displayed; The holes seemed to resonate with them more than the rest of the round. When Mr. Boyreau-Suzémont suggested that it was time to leave, Mr. Mignon objected loudly. The group has not yet seen the most important and best preservation fox.

“Run,” Insist. I will run.

The group ended with a tour of those holes.

But when someone invested in the past, Mr. Mignon could not completely dispel the present. In the bus riding, with just minutes remaining, his intention to not talk about modern events is slid.

It was describing May 8, when Bastogne celebrated victory on Europe, with celebrations that held in honor of its American shortcomings. Today, May 9 is located in Russia, due to the difference in the time zone. He thought about what it would be this year.

“Maybe your boss will be present in Moscow after that,” he said, mocking silence on the bus. “With his friends, Putin, Xi Jinping and Kim Jong.”