Dear Editor,
What did modern day civilization learn in the fight for freedom?
Each Remembrance Day service I wonder what life would be today if it were not for these brave aging wartime heroes.
I think of the many soldiers who gave their all so we could live.
My thoughts slip back to the five dark years (1940-45), living under the satanic tyranny of a ruthless oppressor named Adolf Hitler.
I am reminded of screeching airplanes, bombings, V-1 missiles, ruthless killings, fierce hunger and bitter cold living conditions.
I recall the skeleton figures and hollow faces of people who came begging for food where there was none, and my mother’s eyes swimming in tears when my sister almost died of malnutrition.
I can never forget when our own school was bombed out and we had to walk 30 minutes to a little country school.
One day, after three bombing attacks within the hour, my youngest brother and me escaped from school and kept racing through rocks and debris in the smoldering town, trying to find our parents.
We saw dead people and our friend, Theo, screaming as he was put in an ambulance with a chunk of bomb fragment sticking out of his leg.
We saw our home.
It was not bombed but had holes all over it.
We peeked through the shattered windows. Where was our Mom?
We did find our Mom embracing my four brothers and sister huddled under the kitchen table, all alive.
Dad and three brothers were in hiding already.
Mom hugged us for what seemed an eternity.
May 5th, 1945, was the happiest day of our lives when Allied soldiers rolled in to end five years of living hell under Nazi rule.
The five-year war had snuffed out the lives of 55 million civilians and military personnel.
At times I do wonder, however, that living in a world today where we have been to the moon numerous times; drugs can do everything from providing cheer, to quiet, to murder; modern technologies with internet, cellphones, computers and the use of airwaves placed at our fingertips, yet we have less time to spare to help the needy.
A world where we have trouble sending brutal murderers to jail for life, but are brave enough to kill an unborn baby before it leaves the womb?
Yes, indeed, what did mankind learn?
Gertie Pool, Langley