From POW to CEO picks up Loet Velmans's story at the end of World War II, when, as a newly liberated prisoner of war, he returned from the Far East to Europe, and shortly thereafter set out for the United States, newly married and with no immediate job prospects. That soon changed when he was hired by John Hill, the founder of Hill & Knowlton, then America's largest and most influential PR firm. Hill, who saw something in this inexperienced young man that others in the firm did not, sent Velmans back to Europe a couple of years later to set up the firm's first overseas office. In telling the story of his worldwide peregrinations and his eventual rise to the position of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hill & Knowlton, Velmans shares his unique perspective on the "culture gap" between nations and the need for U.S. business to address that gap.

From P.O.W. to C.E.O.: An after-war memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Velmans, Loet

Professionals & Academics

van Horton Books

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: Memories of World War II

The World War II survivor recounts his family's flight from Holland to Indonesia when the Germans invaded, his service with the Dutch army, his incarceration in a POW labor camp, and his return fifty-seven years later to the site of his imprisonment. 12,500 first printing.

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: Memories Of World War II

Community & Culture

Arcade Publishing

A World War II memoir of the author's experience as a prisoner of war in Indonesia describes the more than three years during which he and fellow soldiers were forced by the Japanese to build a railroad through the Burma-Thailand jungle under life-threatening conditions. Reprint.

Historical

Loet Velmans was seventeen when the Germans invaded Holland. He and his family fled to London on the Dutch Coast Guard cutter Seaman’s Hope and then sailed to the Dutch East Indiesnow Indonesiawhere he joined the Dutch army. In March 1942, the Japanese invaded the archipelago and made prisoners of the Dutch soldiers. For the next three and a half years Velmans and his fellow POWs toiled in slave labor camps, building a railroad through the dense jungle on the Burmese-Thailand border so the Japanese could invade India. Some 200,000 POWs and slave laborers died building this Death Railway. Velmans, though suffering from malaria, dysentery, malnutrition, and unspeakable mistreatment, never gave up hope. Fifty-seven years later he returned to revisit the place where he should have died and where he had buried his closest friend. From that emotional visit sprung this stunning memoir. Long Way Back to the River Kwai is a simply told but searing memoir of World War IIa testimonial to one man’s indomitable will to live that will take its place beside the Diary of Ann Frank, Bridge over the River Kwai, and Edith’s Story.

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: A Harrowing True Story of Survival in World War II

Arcade

Velmans' compact, exceedingly readable autobiography focuses on his World War II experiences.

Leaders & Notable People

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Velmans, Loet. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Velmans, Loet

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Velmans, Loet. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

From P.O.W. to C.E.O.: An after-war memoir

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: Memories Of World War II

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: Memories of World War II

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: A Harrowing True Story of Survival in World War II

Long Way Back to the River Kwai: Memories of World War II