Volkstrauertag (Satis Shroff)

Volkstrauertag (Satis Shroff)

Wreaths for the fallen soldiers,

Speeches for those who didn’t return

To their mothers, wives and children.

Germans show gratitude and humanity,

A welcome culture for refugees;

Others ignite asylum homes.

Every year on Volkstrauertag (Memorial Day) we go to the graveyard in Germany, and we think and pray together for the victims of World War I and World War II, and about the misery, sadness and holocaust. We think about the victims of persecution from the past and present. And dwell upon how valuable freedom and peace are to the well-being of all people in this world.

In a town like Freiburg we still dig up bombs that didn’t detonate, bombs that were dropped by the USAF and the Royal Air Force. Freiburg was razed to the ground in those days. Civilians were killed or burnt in the very bunkers they sought refuge in. In this context, we also have to think of the damage done to London and other cities around Europe by the Luftwaffe.

Bombs rained on both sides, whether in Freiburg, Nuremburg, Berlin, London, Paris, Warsaw, Stalingrad and Amsterdam.  We witness the effect of bombings today in the case of Syrian refugees who come to Europe searching for peaceful settings where they can work, earn money and make a living without persecution till peace comes to their country. But the rightists in Germany, the Pegida and the silent citizens have been consenting the burning of asylum homes.

The fleeing refugees who are already traumatized experience another series of trauma at the hands of people who do not understand their perils and odyssey they already have behind them.