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julesjonesHere in Manchester the sun is setting on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, bringing this season of remembrance to a close. It will almost certainly be the last Armistice Day in which we have a living link to that first Armistice Day, to those on the front who heard the guns fall silent at the eleventh hour 91 years ago. Since last year's remembrance, the last handful of those living in the UK have gone. There are today but three still living verified veterans of the Great War around the world. The war to end all wars, which didn't.
Those men and women have seen more than one war since. Small wars, large wars. Wars which really were over within months, but more often wars which dragged on for years or decades. Monday saw the anniversary of two major turning points in two major conflicts which sprang from the unfinished business of the Great War. It was both the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hate and hope on the same day, and perhaps that was not entirely a coincidence.
Lest we forget, for those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.
Those men and women have seen more than one war since. Small wars, large wars. Wars which really were over within months, but more often wars which dragged on for years or decades. Monday saw the anniversary of two major turning points in two major conflicts which sprang from the unfinished business of the Great War. It was both the 71st anniversary of Kristallnacht and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Hate and hope on the same day, and perhaps that was not entirely a coincidence.
Lest we forget, for those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.