Why We Need to Remember that War Is Hell

" . . .But the greatest monument to unnecessary mass killing by the Allies was built with the blood and bones of Dresden, what Johnson calls “the greatest Anglo-American moral disaster of the war against Germany.” Pedro Gonzalez 

The ruins of Dresden, 1945

Pedro Gonzalez

No one living bears any responsibility for the actions committed by others in the past, least of all for the folly of the world’s elites. It is, however, our duty to recall the real cost of war.

 "As British bombs fell on the German port city of Kiel, Karl Berchim scrambled with reckless self-abandon to usher as many women and children as he could into a schoolhouse that had been converted into a shelter. Berchim was a member of the Luftwaffe, the aerial warfare branch of the Wehrmacht during World War II.

"Just as he secured a group of civilians in the bomb shelter, a massive piece of ordnance dropped by the Royal Air Force found its mark near Berchim, killing him instantly. Because of his actions and sacrifice, a little girl named Elise was saved from obliteration. Because Elise lived, she grew up, married, and had a son. That son eventually had a daughter who is now expecting her first child—my child, by my wife, because of the heroism of her great-grandfather, Karl Berchim.

"I don’t care that Karl stood “on the wrong side of history” in life; he died a hero, striving to protect the life and liberty of civilians. For all we know, he was an American born in the wrong place.

"According to Dennis Saffran, however, Karl and the rest of the war dead cannot be regarded except with scornful indifference. We may as well strike his name from the memorial book in the townhall of Kiel.

" 'I have absolutely no problem with the killing of German civilians in World War II,” wrote Saffran as the United States toed the line of war with Iran, urging Americans to get over their queasiness at the thought of killing civilians, “even in cases where hindsight may see it as ‘unnecessary.’” In other words, even if you could prove to Saffran that civilians were needlessly slaughtered, he would have absolutely no problem with it." . . .

In 2001 we had good friends, Hans and Herta Borm, who attended our church in Santa Maria, CA. They were both survivors of the war in Europe; Hans, a five-times wounded veteran of the German army and Herta, a citizen of the much-bombed Magdeburg. They were both stoic about those years and commented little until after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks. The group conversation was about the Muslim's desire to simply kill people and suddenly the Borms memories burst forth as they brought up Dresden. They agonized over this bombing of such an historical, cultural city that had not been touched by bombers until they said "We were beaten! The war was about over and there was no need for this! They only wanted to kill Germans!"
The pain of this act haunted Hans and Herta the remainder of their lives.  The Tunnel Dweller