I’m so glad I made it to Vimy Ridge this Remembrance Day weekend. It was a fabulous experience. After taking in the marché in the Arras town square on Saturday morning we made our way to Vimy Ridge by taxi. The taxi driver was great, tour guiding along the way. He gave us his card so we could call him to get a ride back. Getting there is really only convenient by car. Saturday was beautiful. It was cold and rainy and windy, a perfect fall day. It created ambience. We spent a large chunk of the day there, wandering around, experiencing, trying to imagine, remembering.
The actual memorial towers over the ridge, the white stone contrasting with the lush green grass. It’s huge and powerful. Walking around it and over it, discovering the details was quite moving. It felt like a holy place. There were very few people there on Saturday. They were probably deterred by the weather. It was nice to experience it that way. We visited a couple of the war cemeteries there and saw several more here and there in farmer’s fields, in villages, in groves along the routes between Vimy and Arras. Very impressive. And the sheer number of them is overwhelming. The sheer number of crosses, or gravestones is overwhelming. The French cemetery was interesting. It had a huge section of WW1 crosses and a smaller section of WW2 graves. And apparently under each cross are buried three soldiers. It was massive. There was a German cemetery nearby too.
Someone asked me recently how I felt as a Canadian who also speaks French but is of German background. It’s a good question. I find that I connect with humanity as opposed to a particular nationality. I cry for all people, or perhaps for the inhumanity of war. I remember one year I rode my bike to Strasbourg from my grandmother’s house to meet up with VST summer school in Strasbourg. I joined them for the weekend that year and we went to visit a concentration camp in the Alsace somewhere. I remember being worried about how I might feel as someone of German background, would I feel guilt? I didn’t. I felt incredible sadness for human beings, that humans could do such horrible things to each other, that humans can do such horrible things to each other. So when I remember on Remembrance Day I remember all those who suffer in war, whichever side they may have been on. For in the end, it is all who suffer.
Meanwhile, back at Vimy we continued our experience. One of the amazing things is that the postwar landscape was kept as it was, torn apart and destroyed by war so that we may remember. Over the past 90 years trees have been planted and grass grows over the crater marked land. It looks so beautiful and peaceful now. Birds sing in the trees even amidst the rain.
We walked through the trenches, a section of which preserved as such. These were Canadian observation trenches, facing the enemy lines that were really so very close. On Sunday morning we took a tour of the tunnels, also incredibly moving. It is unimaginable really what these men endured there under the ground for long periods of time in the dark pretty much. Light was so minimal. There is a bit of graffiti carved into the chalk walls. The only piece they are sure is WW1 graffiti is a maple leaf carving with a V underneath it. Very neat.
As we tried to call for our taxi driver to come pick us up, this sweetest 84 year old man happened to overhear our plans and offered to drive us back to Arras. At first I assumed that he was going to Arras anyway but it turns out that M. Devloo does this sort of thing as a hobby. He loves to take care of Canadians. He is often at the memorial centre and helps the tour guides there. (They’re all Canadian university students.) He also goes by the Vimy train station every day at noon to find any lost Canadians. Apparently many take the train to Vimy thinking that’s the easiest way to get to the Ridge. But it’s not. Only, I suppose if M. Devloo happens to be coming by. I very much enjoyed talking to him and he showed us his countryside and various cemeteries with humble pride. When we arrived at our hotel, he offered to pick us up again in the morning. He was also going to be picking up the father of one of the guides. So we took him up on his kind offer. He took very good care of us all weekend. Here's a 2005 site of another blogger who met M. Devloo. Gives you more of an idea of who this man is. The comments too are interesting. http://natalieinfrance.blogspot.com/2005/04/back-to-real-world.html
And here's a newspaper article with picture from his last visit to Canada. http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/index.cfm?sid=62951&sc=98&comments=view
One of the disappointing things, though not really, was the fact that we actually missed the main Remembrance Day service at Vimy Ridge. They hold theirs a week before so that dignitaries who come don’t have to be in two places at the same time. That way the Prime Minister and the Queen, for example, can take part both at Vimy and in Ottawa/London. But we weren’t completely without a service. And though it wasn’t as good as our assemblies at school, it was still special to be there. We stood in front of this huge, overpowering monument in the cold and wind where the wreaths from the week before were still lying. There was a company of cadets I imagine from Canada and England too, some soldiers visiting in uniform. The tour guides led the ‘service’ with the reading of “The Act of Remembrance”, then 2 minutes of silence at 11:00 which was broken by the wailing of an air-raid siren in the town below. That was pretty effective. Then we stood for the playing of the French and British national anthems. The guides then led us in the singing of the Canadian one. I wondered why they didn’t use a recording. They didn’t all agree on a starting note either so that was a bit of an awkward moment. We took in more of the atmosphere. It was different on Sunday with the many people wandering about. Sometimes the sun broke through the clouds lighting the white stone in parts. We saw bits of blue sky here and there.
One of the stories told on our tunnel tour was that Hitler found this monument impressive and made a big speech there once. I found that interesting and not surprising for it is a very powerful structure. I can see why he would have liked it. And architecturally too it fits into that time period. Something else I didn’t know before is that the 290 or so hectares of Vimy Ridge that include the Canadian memorial are actually Canadian land, given by the French government in appreciation. When we drove in on Sunday morning M. Devloo announced “Bienvenue au Canada!” He was so sweet. M. Devloo drove us, and Larry the tour guide dad, back to Arras later in the afternoon. This ended our Remembrance weekend. We picked up our bags and headed for the train station. Next stop is Paris.
3 comments:
'I remember being worried about how I might feel as someone of German background, would I feel guilt? I didn’t. I felt incredible sadness for human beings, that humans could do such horrible things to each other, that humans can do such horrible things to each other.'
A mature attitude, Kerin. I cannot stand it when arrogant people today ask those of German origin whether they feel "guilt" for this or that. Especially someone of British or American background-- IMHO, you should feel very proud of your German heritage because overall, you have contributed far more to the world than your fellow Europeans and, especially compared to Britons or Americans, have been much more forthright about your own history.
I'm Filipino, and the USA in 1900-1902 launched a bloody war with mass ethnic cleansing that killed hundreds of thousands of my people, just as millions of Mexicans have been displaced since the Mexico-American War, but there has never been even a mild apology.
And Britain is worse. My closest friends are Indian and Irish, where the British committed mass murder and genocide of the native peoples during the 19th century. 36 million or so Indians were starved to death when the British seized their farms and taxed their meager belongings in the 19th century, driving food prices to impossible excess while sending food out, just as they had done in Ireland. My ethnic kin, the Malay aboriginal peoples in Australia and the surrounding islands, were all but wiped out by deliberate British policies around the same time. This was after the British had led the world slave trade for centuries-- piously claiming that they abolished it in the 1800's, when in fact they were the worst slave profiteers and other nations abolished it and enforced the abolition before them. Similar to British policies in North America that sought to wipe out native Americans with diseased linens.
IOW, the British in particular (and the Americans to a lesser extent) have much more blood and guilt on their hands, yet refuse to forthrightly acknowledge it, with the British still hoarding looted goods from India within the UK itself. Just as the USA did to the Philippines.
We have great admiration for the Germans in comparison and not only because of a more earnest acknowledgment of history, it's also because outside of the Nazis, your people have given us so much. Kant, Hegel, Diesel, Bach, Kepler, Einstein, Humboldt (learned about him in a geology class years ago), Weber, the Germans basically founded these fields in their modern forms and gave us a modern template.
So never, ever feel guilt about your people or your country's proud and spectacular history. And if anyone, especially an arrogant Briton or American tries to tell you that you should feel guilty, just call them out for the hypocrites that they are.
BTW sorry for the name misspell Karin, typed too fast-- I always try to be careful about that. A happy week to you indeed.
And one more BTW, my best friend and his wife and 3 children recently moved to Germany from Canada. He is a minister himself and plans on continuing his work outside of Frankfurt when he gets there. He and his wife absolutely love it there-- the quality of the cities, the friendly people, the reception to him as a minister. He also works in computer software design, and his new income in Euros doesn't hurt, either. ;)
I'm planning on visiting him soon, and I can't wait. My last trip to Germany brought me in contact with among the warmest people I've ever imagined, and I hope to repeat the experience.
Post a Comment