On Tuesday 6 December, St Nicholas Day in the Grand Duchy (or Kleeschen, in Luxembourgish) was celebrated by the US Embassy in Luxembourg with the screening of the documentary film "American St Nick".

The 65-minute documentary is set initially in 1944 and tells the story of the men of the 28th Infantry Division of the US Army who arrived into Wiltz (which had been liberated from the Nazis two months previously) that November. As they saw how the locals had suffered, a number of the American GIs organised a Christmas Party on 5 December, primarily for the children, and cooked doughnuts and passed around chewing gum and chocolates. They borrowed some robes from the local parish priest and one of their men, Richard Brookins, dressed up as St Nicholas, with a long flowing white beard, a mitre on his head and a staff.

However, the real story told in the film only just starts here as the true signifance of this act of kindness was never lost on the inhabitants of the town in the north of Luxembourg. Richard Brookins was eventually tracked down in the mid-1970s and, in 1977, was invited back to wiltz to recreate the happenings of that special day in 1944. He was revered by the locals and only then did he himself start to realise what effect his, and his colleagues', act of kindness had meant. Since then, he has been back a number of times, including in 1984, 1991, 1994, 2004, 2009 and 2014, the last being the 70th anniversary of the event in question.

In the first of those trips back he donned the garb of St Nicholas and sat in a US Army jeep which followed the same route as in 1944; in fact, the town follows the same route every year since on 6 December for their St Nicholas procession. And in 2104, a wooden statue was unveiled in his presence, of him as St Nicholas in 1977.

Richard Brookins was just 22 years old back in 1944, and worked as a cryptographer in the 28th Infantry Division.

The media of film, along with the book by Peter Lion, will help preserve this special piece of intangible cultural heritage that is so important for the people of Wiltz. This emotional tribute has captured the history an emotion which can now be passed through generations.