As a son of Staffordshire, and one who spent hundreds of hours on the Chase, this resonates with me - I passed the entrance to the cemetery dozens of times, but never entered……as a youth you just don’t do you?
Of the 5,000, roughly 40% are WWI - including four Zeppelin crews, reinterred in four large graves on their own ‘Zeppelin Terrace’.
Naturally many of the WWII graves belong to aircrew too, whilst quite a few are those of POWs who died of natural causes and accidents.
What is significant is that there are good spaces between the gravestones - this is because there are two names on most gravestones with two men buried side-by-side underneath.
Such were the times just 15-20 years after the war, the British government could not be seen to give better (or the same) treatment to ‘the enemy’. When I was a teenager, there were still many blokes who would not buy Japanese or German cars (not that most could have afforded the latter).
Genuine reconciliation took time - particularly as Britain lost the peace.
That is not to say that there were not strenuous efforts on behalf of some to reconciliation during the war itself - certainly during the reconstruction after the Blitz……which brings us to Coventry; the glow of which, 25 miles away, my 7yr old father - still here - was dragged out of bed to witness.
I won’t go on at length, but offer two pieces you may care to read: one about the city’s destruction….
Have you visited the chapel of New College Oxford? There is a memorial to 3 German undergraduates of the college, killed in WW1 and installed in 1930. It was somewhat controversial at the time but absolutely the right thing to do.
With the British ambassador, I attended the 40th anniversary of the bombing in the Kreuzkirche in February 1945. It was a chilling experience to be there and imagine the terror that unfolded four decades ago. The Bishop of Coventry was also there and preached reconciliation. Honecker, however, used the occasion to attack Western imperialism and condemn the installation of US missiles in West Germany.
Brilliant piece Katja 👏👏and I never knew about the Friedhof in Cov , had no idea , I’ve a question which is related, 2 years ago I visited a huge Hamburg cemetery ( last stop before the airport I think ) and in there was commonwealth war graves, some from WW1 , was they looked after do you think ? during 39-45 ? , I do like these relationships between our 2 countries, we have so much in common 👏👏👏
As a son of Staffordshire, and one who spent hundreds of hours on the Chase, this resonates with me - I passed the entrance to the cemetery dozens of times, but never entered……as a youth you just don’t do you?
Of the 5,000, roughly 40% are WWI - including four Zeppelin crews, reinterred in four large graves on their own ‘Zeppelin Terrace’.
Naturally many of the WWII graves belong to aircrew too, whilst quite a few are those of POWs who died of natural causes and accidents.
What is significant is that there are good spaces between the gravestones - this is because there are two names on most gravestones with two men buried side-by-side underneath.
Such were the times just 15-20 years after the war, the British government could not be seen to give better (or the same) treatment to ‘the enemy’. When I was a teenager, there were still many blokes who would not buy Japanese or German cars (not that most could have afforded the latter).
Genuine reconciliation took time - particularly as Britain lost the peace.
That is not to say that there were not strenuous efforts on behalf of some to reconciliation during the war itself - certainly during the reconstruction after the Blitz……which brings us to Coventry; the glow of which, 25 miles away, my 7yr old father - still here - was dragged out of bed to witness.
I won’t go on at length, but offer two pieces you may care to read: one about the city’s destruction….
https://jwthedilettantepolymath.substack.com/p/photo-of-the-week-8f8
…..and another about the reconstruction of St Michael’s Cathedral….
https://jwthedilettantepolymath.substack.com/p/photo-of-the-week-may-4
A very powerful piece on reconciliation. Thanks for your insights Katya
Have you visited the chapel of New College Oxford? There is a memorial to 3 German undergraduates of the college, killed in WW1 and installed in 1930. It was somewhat controversial at the time but absolutely the right thing to do.
With the British ambassador, I attended the 40th anniversary of the bombing in the Kreuzkirche in February 1945. It was a chilling experience to be there and imagine the terror that unfolded four decades ago. The Bishop of Coventry was also there and preached reconciliation. Honecker, however, used the occasion to attack Western imperialism and condemn the installation of US missiles in West Germany.
Brilliant piece Katja 👏👏and I never knew about the Friedhof in Cov , had no idea , I’ve a question which is related, 2 years ago I visited a huge Hamburg cemetery ( last stop before the airport I think ) and in there was commonwealth war graves, some from WW1 , was they looked after do you think ? during 39-45 ? , I do like these relationships between our 2 countries, we have so much in common 👏👏👏