Â鶹Éç

It’s the very generation who, 75 years ago today crowded into public places, threw their hats in the air, kissed strangers and danced in the streets that today is shielded from the rest of us, remembering this day at home. Much has been said in relation to the pandemic about the resilience needed of a population in a time of war, although, as someone who was born long after the second world war ended, I have not really felt persuaded by the comparison.

The confrontation with the evils of fascism and Nazism meant for them six years of deprivation, violence, fear and grief. And the end of the war, so longed for, much imagined, much anticipated, brought huge joy and relief, but also a whole new set of complex reunions, and decisions about what to do next. The country to which serving men and women returned wasn’t the same as the one they had left.

I have found myself wanting to listen to the generation who were there hearing the resilient optimism of Tom, now Colonel Tom Moore, and 100 year old Dabirul Islam Choudhury walking in his garden, 90 year old Margaret Payne walking up her stairs, and many others all raising money for people in need today. And as I have listened, I have heard, not so much a bellicose jingoism about the past but an understated, extremely moving determination to remain thankful today for the gift of living when so many they knew haven’t had these years to live.

Beating swords into ploughshares, the work of peace making, as described in the Bible, is hard won work, a victory in itself. And it’s the practical wisdom of the New Testament that says the blessing of God falls on those who make peace; not those who wish for peace, or hope for peace or talk about the importance of peace.

Today we remember the day that the war ended in Europe. But the immense gratitude we must feel for the generations who fought for freedom will be best expressed by our own commitment today to confront any ideology that dehumanises and demonises through a dogma of control and coercion. And to confront those tendencies whenever we find them in ourselves.

Etty Hillesum died at the age of 29 in Auschwitz. Her diary is with me as I listen for the words of those who knew that war’s reality.

we could fight war…she wrote … by releasing each day, the love which is shackled inside us, and giving it a chance to live.

Show less