Dresden

I guess if there is a theme to these last two days, it is the devastation of war. We are now in the city of Dresden, the scene of the most controversial bombing the Allies did during WWII. The initial death toll was thought to be in the hundreds of thousands. It has been revised to somewhere around 50,000 - but those were civilians, mainly women and children. It is still a great loss of life. The city lost some of its most important and historic buildings, too. Since it is in eastern Germany, it was not rebuilt as cities were in western Germany. It has only been since reunification in the past 15-20 years that some of these buildings have been restored and rebuilt.

We toured two amazing churches. The first, Frauenkirche, was completely destroyed and has only recently been rebuilt. The second was the Catholic Church in Dresden. It had a special chapel with a contemporary Pieta (weeping Mary holding the body of the crucified Christ). The sculpture has become a memorial for all who were killed in the Dresden bombing and fires. The plaques on the walls are written in German, but Niko translated them for me. They say something to the effect of, "We can all be like Mary and weep for those who have died. We can all be like Christ and give our lives for others."

What's been so extraordinary about this day and yesterday at Buchenwald is that we are experiencing this history with our Germany "family." Niko has been our exchange student/son for almost three years now, and his parents are becoming our very good friends. We see what our countries have done to one another, but it does not diminish the bond we have now. It seems as though this is the way forward, the way to peace. I want a world where Mary does not weep anymore.