Is this our generation's World War 2? Is it the event that, in the future, we will use to place everything we do in time's perspective? If we do, then everything we do may later be prefaced by expressions like, "Before Corona," or "After Corona" or "During Corona." Our children and grandchildren may groan out loud when their parents or grandparents utter one of these adverbials while these little darlings think to themselves, "Here they go again" Corona, Corona, oh yawn, yawn." And what a shame!
Certainly, although I have few regret in life, one of these few is that I did not take the opportunity to listen to the stories of the war generation. I don't beat myself up about it. After all, I was busy growing up and so were my friends and, consequently, we showed little or no interest in old stories of community spirit, the white cliffs of Dover, of love and loss. I do now.
But isn't this always so? If the words World War 2 gallantly flew over the white cliffs of my childhood, I suppose that the word, "Plague" contaminated the late medieval meal table in the same way. The tragedy or the blessing (depending on your point of view) is that the young don't look backwards when they are in that blissful state of youth. And nor should they! But these young people will grow older and History is not just about boring dates! I am pretty sure that parents today will later recall 2020 and see it as a milestone - before Corona and after Corona - in the same way that their parents' generation referred to "before" or "after" the war. Just be aware!
Age can bring some rewards and one of these is a sense of perspective and an understanding of the importance of History. This is not to suggest that you live in the past but if we are to understand and appreciate other generations, we need to develop an understanding and empathy with regard to their Corona, WW2 or plague. Just imagine!
Imagine the situation in this medium-sized town in Germany in 1945. Imagine yourself walking through the streets of this place and then you can imagine and feel the huge impact the war had on those who lived through it. It isn't rocket science. Just think and feel!
On 25 March 1945, US troops marched into the city pictured here. Before the war, the town of Darmstadt had around 115,000 inhabitants. By the end of the war, that number had fallen to 51,000 people and most of these were living in cellars. Furthermore, with no cinemas, no restaurants etc, public life had come to a standstill.
So, have you ever asked yourselves how on earth a city like this got back on its feet? Imagine! Who led the reconstruction of life in the city? It should be no surprise that so many of the officials and politicians in Germany after 1945 were ex-members of the Nazi party. It is easy to condemn this but who else was going to lead the reconstruction? And make no bones about it, the tasks these people in Darmstadt faced were daunting. Seventy-eight per cent of the city centre had been destroyed. Out of around 35,000 households, 16000 were uninhabitable and 6000 were badly damaged. Three million cubic metres of rubble lay in the streets and there were severe food shortages and the threat of contagious disease. When schools reopened in October 1945, there were almost no teaching materials.
This was the experience in one German city, but similar things were happening in Bad Kreuznach, Wiesbaden, Worms, Bingen, Bonn, Koblenz and the rest of the country. And don't forget the cities of London, Manchester, Naples, Rome, Rotterdam, Moscow et, etc. How awful and how tragic and inhuman that the children of these re-constructors should react to stories of their parents' achievements with a yawn before slouching off to listen to Elvis on their record players.
But, if there is a lesson to be learned here, it is that parents should not expect their young children to be interested in their lives. That interest will develop as surely as night follows day but the children may well find that their parents are no longer around to answer their questions. Such is life. Such is tragedy and such could be the next novel you decide to write.
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