11.11.11

The ninety third Armistice Day. Last Sunday we went off to church in Frankfurt. The Alter S Nikolaus Kirche in the Lutheran town centre parish had a service at 1115 which seemed like a good time to those who were having a weekend off. We were in for a bit of a surprise as the service took the form of hymns and prayers surrounding a talk and a discussion. The parish calls this sort of service a Gesprachsgottesdienst - 'a conversation-liturgy' and was in many ways what we would think of as a Christian study group. It was a bit of a challenge for our German language skills!

Frankfurt Old Town before WW2

The talk was given by a visitor from a charity called Zeichen der Hoffnung which works in Germany to foster better relations and understanding between Poles and Germans, healing the wounds which remain after the Second World War. The work began in a practical way, sending money and help to survivors of outrages, but now it seeks to work to foster good relations and understanding.

The discussion in church was in many ways courageous, raising issues of reconciliation in the light of the siting of concentration camps in Poland and the other horrors of the war.

In the small group present the four of us from England were noticeable, and the Pastor was kind to translate for us some of what was going on. Frankfurt was the subject of a massive raid by the RAF on March 22nd 1944 which destroyed the medieval old town and in which over 1,000 people died.

Wartime destruction
 

Sitting in a church which had, along with many other medieval buildings been subsequently restored or rebuilt, one was acutely thankful for the work of reconciliation. We prayed together for that to continue also between our countries. Thanks to my teachers that I was able to respond to the Pastor's graciousness in praying in English with a word of prayer in German. 

How much those who gave their lives for freedom, and suffered so much in the European wars of the last century, would rejoice to think that Haileyburians, German and English, had met over the weekend and celebrated together their common roots in the school and the society, and that things are now so much changed. 

Haileyburians of today continue to play their part in the conflicts of the world. The tragic roll of those who have paid for their commitment with their lives has grown in our time.  Our prayer must be that the conflicts of today will similarly come in the end to the triumph of peace and reconciliation over the forces of hatred and violence.

The Cloister tablets have recently been cleaned and restored
partly with a grant from the Society 

In the first 100 years of Haileybury, ISC and USC, 9% of Old Boys
lost their lives on active service