Cyndi's Two Cents

Learn from history

Commentary:

“Those that fail to learn from history, are doomed to repeat it.”

Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister, who led led Britain to victory over Nazi Germany during World War II is one of the powerful men credited with making that statement.  On the desk beside my computer where I am typing this column today is a list of items I don’t want to forget to pack in the suitcase I’ll take with me tomorrow when I board a plane for Dusseldorf, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

This trip to Germany, like several I’ve taken in the past, is for work.  I’ll attend the Bayer Crop Science Future of Farming Dialog and hope to sneak in a long walk along the River Rhine and enjoy some traditional German Sauerbraten, Schnitzel, Rouladen and the best of the wurst.

Many of us have bloodlines that run back to the region of northern Europe where Germanic people originated.   Upon my return to the U.S. after my first visit to Germany I told my parents it is a good thing we didn’t all stay there because we’d have no room to breathe.  The United States is roughly 28 times bigger than Germany.  About 81 million people live in Germany, which is 243 million less than live in the U.S.

We all learned about World War II in school.  We know that Germany was the epicenter for the Nazi party and Adolf Hitler.  I don’t know what German children are taught in school about that time in their history.  I do know that there are regular reminders yet today as construction workers throughout the country often unearth unexploded World War II bombs.  Just a few months ago bomb defusal experts spent an hour disarming a British bomb in Dusseldorf.  Nearly ten thousand people were forced to evacuate a highly populated area so the experts could do their work.

There are many historical sites across Germany where people can go to learn about that dark time in our world’s history.  From the Nazi party rally ground in Nuremberg to the Kehlsteinhaus, a Third Reich-area complex given to Hitler for his 50th birthday, to the Colitz Castle which Germans used as a high security prisoner-of-war camp for officers who were particularly dangerous or were regarded as escape risks, the public has access to all these and more.  If so inclined, visitors may also tour concentration camps and the locations of the bunkers where Hitler lived and ultimately committed suicide.

History isn’t always pretty.  I’m certain there are many emotions felt by the children of those who participated in or turned a blind eye to the horrific crimes committed by those who followed Hitler.

How many of us have ancestors who supported the south during the Civil War?  How many Americans are ancestors of the Buffalo soldiers who fought native peoples of this country? How many of those native peoples who were forced to walk the trail of tears did so with the slaves they “owned”?  Instead of hating one another for what our ancestors did or failed to do, perhaps we should recognize that we have the power together to make a better future for our world.

“In history, a great volume is unrolled for our instruction, drawing the materials of future wisdom from the past errors and infirmities of mankind.”
-Edmund Burke