Germany Memories

I was lucky enough to live in West Germany for five years from 1972-1977 when I was aged 7 to 12 when I was my most adventurous and curious. My father was stationed at Lahr which is in the Black Forest located in the south west corner of the country. We were 20 minutes from the French Border and the Rhine River. Despite two incidents in the last century when they kinda went off their nut, the place is a really magical land with old world people and is truly the heart of Europe. Their cultural contributions over the centuries are too numerous to mention and they are a people who love life and have a reverence for their past that I always found unique. Europe's way of integrating the new while holding onto the old is fascinating to me and really needs to be experienced by North Americans. It would give us a better perspective on the way different people see the world and its problems. These photos are spectacular representations of the kind of fairytale landscapes you could see with only a short drive in any direction. This country dark past are fully responsible for my humanist beliefs and my unique understanding of evil and the darkest aspects of humanity. Its to their credit that a child from Canada can be taught about the Holocaust not from books...but from his father taking him to an actual concentration camp (Dachau - where nothing that happened there is sugar coated) and making sure that he knew what occurred in that evil place. When I say 'never again' I mean it from my heart. No one who sees the ovens is ever the same again. The true gift of Germany to me though is that I could also see the goodness that resides in all people despite their past and be redeemed in my belief that while evil exists it can never triumph for long. There is hope in that. So think of that while you look at these great pictures.