December 2001 - Nr. 12
German Remembrance Day in Kitchener
Never
was it as warm and sunny on a day like this before. We have come to expect
inclement weather with either rain, or heavy clouds and wind, or even frost
and snow on our German National Remembrance Day. Totensonntag, the Sunday of
the Dead, is always associated with heavy skies and dull light, much like
the weather on Good Friday is expected to be. Nothing pleasant is remembered
on such a day. It cannot possibly be warm and sunny, not in Germany, and not
here in Canada either.
Many
such comments were voiced on this day when hundreds turned out to
commemorate all the needless victims of the past through wars and other
sufferings. And now we add modern terrorism to the list.
Perhaps because the weather was so balmy more people than usual turned out. Our German community is aging, at least that part that still has a heavy heart from WWII and the early beginnings here in Canada. It always is astounding to some how we can stand there united in our grief with the enemies of our past, because not all attending fought that war on the same side, but some did. They came here before us and created that community that now is a shining light, an example on how people can live peacefully together despite their different histories. In the final analysis it becomes quite clear that the needs of all people are fundamentally so similar that it is not that difficult to grant someone else the right to exist, to be, to do and to have.
On
this day in Kitchener we saw the mayors of Kitchener and Waterloo lay down
their wreaths side by side.
We
saw MPPs and members of many Canadian Legions do the same. Representatives
of German Canadian organisations like clubs, associations, schools and
churches came together to remember those who gave their lives in conflicts
that shaped the world so long ago. And only recently we were reminded that
our so-called civilisation is but a very thin veneer covering up a
terrifying barbarism.
A
day like this is designed to remind us of our need for peace in this world,
another reason why so many turned out this time. We were given a jolt, a
warning call to remind us of our duty to humanity, to each other. We know
what it is like when the world is on fire. We do not want this to happen
again, ever.
Those were some of the sentiments voiced by various speakers that day in Kitchener. Some of them were delivered eloquently and timely by the newly arrived Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Dr. Ulrich Hochschild. Flanked by two members of the German Airforce he was the first to place the wreath with the colours of our old homeland at the foot of a tall and austere cross on a small hill were heroes were laid to rest so long ago.
And
as the last wreath was laid, the famous song about that good comrade was
sung, and latest when the last sound of the "Zapfenstreich" was
carried away by a gentle breeze in the sunlit cemetery, here and there tears
were wiped away unashamedly.
People lingered as though they had forgotten to say something else, as though not all thoughts were complete. But eventually all met for coffee and other refreshments in the Transylvania Club.
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
