This is a long one, and might qualify as a PM, except for its importance,
to everyone --

You have given a picture which has jogged my childhood memories, Uli.
Even though I was a child, during the war, I knew several German-Americans, both children (of course), and their parents. Also, Italian-Americans.
Both groups had their particular anxieties, during those days, and I only learned their fuller extent, as I grew up. My childhood friends, gradually, opened up to me, over time.

Just a few anecdotes:

I used to get into lots of fights with German and Italian kids, from
a couple of blocks, away. Some years later, I met one of them, and
asked him why they usually started them. His answer was that his
parents were overly-severe with him, and he figured it was because
their neighbors used to give his parents a bad time (verbally), for
being from Germany.

On the other hand, other German-Americans did quite well. Our (Methodist)
church's choir-director (and wife), who were from the Rhineland,
were all but worshiped by the congregation. He directed a first-rate
choir, and all knew it. He, also, proudly had one beer, at the end of
each week!

The head air-raid warden (yes, we had them, and Providence had a number
of drills, complete with all lights out, searchlights scanning the skies,
and sirens wailing) was from Germany. A comical fellow, from my view,
who used to speak English, but used German sentence construction ("Make
the lights out!", he'd shout, if some were tardy.).

I received a German officer's (soft) cap, as a souvenir, from my uncle
(He served with Gen. Patton.). Don't know if he beat the fellow to the
draw, or just found it on the field. Years, later, when in Germany as
an American soldier (1961, 1962), I got to know a Univ. of Erlangen
law student, who taught German to the dependents of the GI's. I, also,
took a course from her, to brush-up. She was from Frankfurt, and had
a mother and sister living there. She told me that she had lost her
father, an officer, during the war, and he fought on the western front
(Most of the civilians I met said their relatives fought on the eastern
front.)

I kick myself, to this day, for not having checked inside the hat-band,
for a "final" letter to the family. Even though it would have been an
almost infinitesimally-small chance of one being there, and, especially,
to her family, I would have not hesitated for one second to return the
letter and hat to them. Unfortunately, the cap seems to have been misplaced,
or discarded; but, I still nag my extended family, from time to time, in
the hopes I can locate it.

Uli, even today, closure is still possible, for everyone's families -- on
both sides of the war. It just seems to require lots of patience, and
a sense of moral obligation.

Enough . . .

---

We who served, we remember. We remember, and honor, those who went before us, who set the standard, who led the way for us to follow. And long after the last of them gets their Final Orders, we will remember. Remember, and pray that if/when the time comes, there will be others like them. like us, who will stand up and fight for what is right, what is good, so that everyone can live in peace and freedom.

Donald, that is eloquently written.

Peace on earth.

We who served, we remember. We remember, and honor, those who went before us, who set the standard, who led the way for us to follow. And long after the last of them gets their Final Orders, we will remember. Remember, and pray that if/when the time comes, there will be others like them. like us, who will stand up and fight for what is right, what is good, so that everyone can live in peace and freedom.

Donald, that is eloquently written.

Peace on earth.

+1

---

The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

We who served, we remember. We remember, and honor, those who went before us, who set the standard, who led the way for us to follow. And long after the last of them gets their Final Orders, we will remember. Remember, and pray that if/when the time comes, there will be others like them. like us, who will stand up and fight for what is right, what is good, so that everyone can live in peace and freedom.

Donald, that is eloquently written.

Peace on earth.

+1

+2

---

David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

We who served, we remember. We remember, and honor, those who went before us, who set the standard, who led the way for us to follow. And long after the last of them gets their Final Orders, we will remember. Remember, and pray that if/when the time comes, there will be others like them. like us, who will stand up and fight for what is right, what is good, so that everyone can live in peace and freedom.

Donald, that is eloquently written.

Peace on earth.

+1

+2

+3

---

rOZZ
Music
Pictures

Even those of us who have never served in that way, remember. There was a ceremony yesterday at the Menin Gate in Ypres to mark the beginning of the First World War (BBC). This is a huge marble structure listing (along with one other memorial) all those from the Commonwealth (then of course the Empire) who died in the Ypres Salient during the First World War but whose final resting place is unknown. There are a lot of names. I visited the memorial a few weeks ago:


The gate and moat seen from the town wall.


A wall filled with names.


The dedication.


This is the only such memorial where there is a last post ceremony every evening.

Ypres. That was where chlorine gas was used, as counseled by Fritz Haber, a Nobel prize winner. The story is told by Kurt Mendelssohn, a German physicist, in his book "Rise and fall of German science". When the German General Staff understood that the Blitzkrieg had failed, they asked the two top German scientists, Walter Nernst and Fritz Haber, for help. Nernst, a Prussian, advised the use of N2O, a gas used for anesthesia, while Fritz Haber advised chlorine gas. He was accepted. His wife, Frau Professor Haber, asked him not to put science in the support of war. He did not heed, and she killed herself with her husband's pistol. But Haber was a good German and went to the front. When Hitler came to power, Haber, as a Jew, had to flee to England and was welcomed by the English scientists.
Tullio

---

Ypres. That was where chlorine gas was used, as counseled by Fritz Haber, a Nobel prize winner. The story is told by Kurt Mendelssohn, a German physicist, in his book "Rise and fall of German science". When the German General Staff understood that the Blitzkrieg had failed, they asked the two top German scientists, Walter Nernst and Fritz Haber, for help. Nernst, a Prussian, advised the use of N2O, a gas used for anesthesia, while Fritz Haber advised chlorine gas. He was accepted. His wife, Frau Professor Haber, asked him not to put science in the support of war. He did not heed, and she killed herself with her husband's pistol. But Haber was a good German and went to the front. When Hitler came to power, Haber, as a Jew, had to flee to England and was welcomed by the English scientists.
Tullio

Things like that should never be forgotten :( Thanks Tullio, and Michael too, for the very moving pictures.

May we learn peace, someday.

Lets hope so CC