We Started a Podcast

About Our Grandfather’s WWII Journey

A few years ago, I wrote about how my sister and I discovered our grandfather Malcolm’s World War II photographs tucked away in an old scrapbook after beginning our genealogy journey searching for the identity of his father. You can read the blog post here.

At the time, I remember saying we should write a book about them someday.

I don’t think either of us realized then how deeply those photographs would stay with us.

What started as curiosity slowly became something much more personal. The deeper we researched, the more connected we felt to our grandpa in a way we hadn’t before. Not just as the man who lived with us when we were kids, but as a young frontline medic moving through war with a camera in his hands.

There was something about seeing the world through his lens that changed us.

The photographs were raw and personal. Small moments. Destroyed towns. Fellow soldiers. Pieces of history frozen in time by someone we loved deeply. And over the years, that feeling never left us.

So after countless conversations, research rabbit holes, military records, and emotional moments sitting with these images, my sister Amanda and I decided to finally begin telling the story the way we always hoped we would.

That journey became Snapshots of WWII.

This podcast follows our grandfather Malcolm Moersch’s path through World War II using his photographs, military records, historical research, memoirs, and eventually travel as we retrace his footsteps and compare the images he captured decades ago with the world as it looks today.

But honestly, this project has become about more than history.

It’s about connection.

Connection between sisters.
Connection between generations.
Connection to a grandfather we still feel close to after all these years.

And it’s about honoring not just him, but the medics, soldiers, and families whose stories deserve to continue being remembered.

Season 1 begins on March 22, 1944 at Camp Kilmer, New Jersey, where our grandfather and the 357th Infantry Regiment Medical Detachment prepared to leave for Europe with the 90th Infantry Division during WWII.

Sometimes history feels distant until suddenly it isn’t anymore.