WIX Archives
Re: When is an enemy no longer an enemy, and who decides?
Posted by Steve Young on Fri Apr 12, 2002 01:12:46 PM
In reply top When is an enemy no longer an enemy, and who decides? posted by Karen on Fri Apr 12, 2002 08:36:57 AM
Very thought provoking question. Personally, I am fortunate enough to have been spared the horrors of warfare. I was born 24 years after WWII ended, I watched the Falklands and Gulf conflicts with vested interests, but both were before my time to serve. Like some others have said, I feel no animosity towards the ordinary Germans, Argentines or Iraqis.
I hope the lady I'm about to refer to won't mind me telling this story. Two weeks ago, I had the honour and privelege of talking to a Mrs Emeny, who was minding the escape museum at East Kirkby, whose late husband Ron, a Bomber Command aircrewman, was the last man to have to evade capture and escape occupied Europe through Spain.
She told me some very obviously painful stories about her husband's escape, harbouring by French Resistance workers, and the implications of those actions. Some years after the war, her husband returned to France and learned of the deaths (in reprisals) of many who had helped him to evade capture. Mr and Mrs Emeny's friendships with the surviving Resistance workers have lasted ever since, resulting in numerous visits back to France over the years. She told me something about one of these visits which I still can't truly come to terms with.
Some years ago, they attended a dinner in France. Many of the French men and women around the table had been tortured, one at the hands of Mengele, while of course Mr Emeny had been shot down. When she told me about this, she told me that she had felt guilty for being the only one around that table who had "not been touched by the war". A very brave and modest lady.
Following his escape, Ron went back into service and survived the war, but sadly, he passed away late last year. Mrs Emeny spoke to me for about 20 minutes, and I came away feeling very humbled.
What point am I trying to make? Maybe it's just that those of us who have never lived through such a brutal, full-scale, TOTAL war, will never understand how it is possible to still regard people as enemies so many years after the event. I hope we never have to.