Dear Reader
Clearly we agree, this is the busiest time of the year, and if a
new unexpected wrinkle turns up then we can easily go into
overdrive. We had to postpone our publication by a week due to
serious illness within our small team and the many events –
together with the demands that come when someone gets seriously
ill, are practically overwhelming. Yet somehow we always muddle
through. Fascinating how that works! We always rise to the
occasion. Mankind is indeed very resilient. Necessity dictates
the actions and the urge to survive makes miracles possible.
After a quiet summer the fall and early winter present us with a
lot of activities, both communal and in the field of the arts.
But this year we heard of a very special occasion, one I would
have loved to share with my father. For him the news came much,
much too late; but it is good that this occurred, even though it
was highly overdue. I guess “better late than never” would be
applied to this situation. My father passed away nearly 30 years
ago, and much too young. He did not hear of the falling of the
wall and the subsequent unification of Germany, something he
believed would never happen, but it did. He also believed that
the Americans would never ever admit that all was not right what
happened to German prisoners of war on the Rhein-Wiesen, where
he was one of the many thousands that suffered from the extreme
treatment of the American’s which James Bacque wrote so
eloquently about in his extremely well researched book “Other
losses”. He was one of the lucky ones; he survived and lived to
see another day, and meet eventually me, his daughter born just
before the end of the war. His health took a severe beating
during this ordeal and in the end it became the reason for his
early demise.
How happy would he be about hearing that someone in the US is
taking responsibility for that infamous past? I really do not
know, but I do know that he held a grudge against his captors
for a very long time. Whatever came out of the USA, he looked at
with scepticism.
I wonder if this reconciliation that occurred only now between
Germany and America would have brought a closer relationship and
a better one between the two nations if it had happened earlier.
I personally welcome this official attempt in righting a big
wrong. It even handles for me the upsets I experience when
academia discusses coldheartedly whether Germans have the right
to feel pain and grief about their personal losses, as has
happened here in Toronto at the University of Toronto. It
handles for me residue upsets caused by the many incidents of
the past accusing me of being a Nazi, even though I was born at
the very end of the war. Having a German accent seems to have
been enough for some people to do that.
Along my time in Canada I made many friends of many different
cultural and religious backgrounds, also those of the Jewish
persuasion. Like me all those people use not their emotion to
assess a situation or characterize an individual, but they do it
on inspection of facts and personal experiences. We grant the
other person the right to their own choices, we value every form
of life, regardless of background, creed or colour. That is why
we came to Canada. That is why we love this country, because it
takes on those who look for freedom from a past or present that
was/is unbearable.
This reconciliation, this apology will lead to even more
progress in establishing a lasting peace between Germany and the
USA. There is already a
Proposal for peace 66 years after the end of hostilities of
World War II.
I was thinking of this when we
 congregated at Woodland Cemetery
in Kitchener for the Remembrance Day event and I am thinking of
it again now before Christmas. This is a time when we express
our wishes for Peace on Earth and Good Will
for all Mankind.
With that in mind I wish all of you and all of us a Happy
Christmas - Frohe Weihnachten!
Sybille Forster-Rentmeister
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