Today is Volkstrauertag in Germany, and a special service was held at Peterskirche, the University of Heidelberg church, to commemorate all of the professors who were forced out of their positionsby the Third Reich and suffered great hardships including being sent to concentration camps. A rough translation from various websites is this, with a more detailed description here, in Deutsch.
This Memorial Day is a state memorial in Germany and is one of the "silent days". Since 1952 it is celebrated two Sundays before the first day of Advent, and commemorates the war dead and victims of the tyranny of all nations.
The primary memorial ceremony is held each Memorial Day at the German Bundestag. Generally there is a speech by the President in the presence of the Chancellor, the Cabinet and the diplomatic corps, with musical performances including playing the national anthem and the song I Had A Comrade.
After the service which included reading the biographies of several of the professors, the university leadership led a recession outside to the courtyard shown above where two wreathes were placed in remembrance of both the professors who were purged as well as students who were also expelled.
In Silence, Remember
3 comments:
The U.S. benefitted mightily from German persecution of Jews. Jewish technical geniuses headed for the hills, namely to the U.S.A. German loss was our gain. Think what the outcome of WWII might have been had Hitler not scared off his nuclear and rocket science talent.
Of course you are exactly right BB. There are some great stories and books documenting how far along the Germans were in this area of research, and how the Nazis basically did think that it had any wartime applications - especially if developed by Jews.
Thanks, Doug. I really like your post and also the one about the conference.
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