I went on vacation to Missouri a couple of weeks ago. One day we went to my father’s Alma Mater. There is a monument there from when Winston Churchill came and spoke at the school. Obviously, this made the school very famous. The speech came right after WWII in a very positive time in our nation. Winston Churchill came to America and spoke of what had surpassed and what was to come. He spoke of an Iron Curtain developing in the European nations. A curtain that would divide free thought and Communism/Socialism.
Of course, at the time it was not completely understood the meaning of his words. After World War II, the spoils of war had to be divided between the Allies. Germany was one of the countries that was wanted by both sides. The Allies wanted to set up a democracy while the Russians wanted to add it to their ever-expanding empire. Not to many years later, the world was facing exactly what Churchill said. A curtain was indeed created though it was not made of iron, but of concrete. In Berlin a wall was created that literally divided the city in two: a side of democracy, and a side of communism. That wall divided families, friends and all of German society for 30 plus years.
Imagine living in a city, only to find out that on August 16, 1961, you cannot go across a border to see your parents. They were on the communist side of the wall and the Russian controlled side had decided to close off from all outsiders. On that day you would find out that you would probably never see your family again. Even letters were not an option. They were shut off from radios, mail, television, practically any form of communication that would connect them to the outside world. Anyone attempting to defect from the Communist side would be shot on sight. Barbed wire fences and mine fields were just a few of the things that kept them in.
The wall would finally come down in 1989. With the fall of communism, families could finally be re-united after 28 years of separation. This was a huge moment in the history of the world. It perfectly captured the power of democracy. Freedom will always win over control.
Once that wall fell in 1989, a few pieces of the wall were purchased from Berlin and brought to my father’s College. This piece of the wall at his College still stands today as a reminder of what we once faced as a human race.
You may say, “What’s the big deal, it’s a piece of concrete”? I would agree to a point. When I first approached it, there was nothing spectacular about it. It is a standard concrete pylon wall. It is probably 10 feet tall and each section was about 4 feet wide. It is not what makes up the wall that makes it imposing; it is the emotion it brings that goes beyond itself.
The first side I saw was a blank concrete wall. I then walked to the other side and saw something that startled me. It was covered with German graffiti. Graffiti saying everything from statements opposing the communist government too shouts of freedom. I read a sign placed next to the wall that explained why this is. The people on the free side of the wall could walk right up to it and do whatever they wanted to. The people on the other side however, they could not get anywhere near the wall without getting shot. Many people did try of course, and the many of them failed.
Although the communist side was blank, it carried the blood and pain of many people. It was almost as if the blank concrete was shouting out what they could not say. Their cries for freedom are even heard today. This simple concrete wall, this divider of worlds, this very thing is what explains the differences between freedom and oppression.
But there is a truth to the statement: if you forget the past, you are doomed to repeat it. We must never forget the tragedy of WWII and the almost 50 years that followed it. We must move on as a race of beings that let people make their own decisions.
I don’t want to take my grandchildren to memorials of things I lived through.
