Rememberance Day has a slightly different meaning to me this year. After being in Europe this summer, particularly taking a city tour in Munich and seeing the memorial at Dachau, I have a slighty better understanding of the realities of how awful war can be. The tour of the concentration camp was probably the most oppressive thing I have ever experienced. Discussing with my students this week, too, about peace and freedom, has forced me to really take a look at what those things are, and what those things mean. I know I take those things for granted. It's good to stop and remember why we are so blessed to have them.
Age shall not wither them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,
We will remember them.
5 comments:
I hadn't seen any pics of that, what a stark and striking memorial. Thanks for sharing, Hillary.
That's a photo from Dachau that I took this summer. You can see more by clicking on the photo.
Yeah, it's pretty troubling. It doesn't make a pretty picture of anything that happened there.
yes, it is good - and important - to stop and remember. thanks for posting this!
Amazing picture and art work. It's very moving...
Wow. It is so sad to think about...
I also visited Dachau, in July 1992. I was visiting one of my 3 tantes (aunts) who live in Munchen and I insisted that one take me there. She didn't really want to but obliged because I was her main Canadian nephew. There were some silly school kids - American or Canadian - who were just goofing around the entire time. They annoyed me immensely. But on our way out there was a teenage girl with what looked like her grandmother. This young girl was crying beyond belief. I don't know if she was Jewish or not. Doesn't really matter. What does is that she "got it". She understood with crystal clarity what can happen if you let evil in the hearts & minds of men go unchallenged.
I, for one, am very proud of what our Canadian soldiers are doing over in Afghanistan. I accept that others in my nation want them to leave. But what these others cannot deny is that if they do so, many poor, helpless, innocent Afghanis will be tortured & murdered, in ways not too far akin from what happened at Dachau.
Thank you for posting the photo you did. Robert
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