Ironically, silence is hard to come by in European cathedrals. Houses of brilliant art and architecture, thousands flock in order to catch a glimpse of any old church’s breathtaking splendor. During the trip, I have joined with these masses of people to visit of worship as a way of paying homage to my Catholic roots. Sitting on an old wooden pew gives me time to reflect on the lessons of the day, often wrestling with tough and complex issues of the horrors of war and its memory.
While walking through the massive Cologne cathedral, a new wave of thoughts struck me. I began imagining the cathedral as it would have been in 1933, the year the Nazis were democratically elected in Germany. In this daydream, the cathedral was full of people going about their day without interruption. Either unaware, apathetic, or supportive of the new Nazi minority in the Reichstag, these ordinary men and women oversaw the rise of one of the most atrocious regimes in history.
After lingering on these thoughts for a while, I began looking at the hundreds of people around me. I asked myself, “Are these people any different from those in 1933?” I initially thought yes, how could they not be? Each of person in the room has lived in a world engulfed in the memory of the evil Nazis, with the lessons of what an apathetic public can produce. Despite this, I was still unsure of any country’s capacity to remember. The Normandy Scholars course taught me that memory is dynamic. Unfortunately, the dynamic nature necessitates forgetting. This forgetfulness of a nation was exemplified in a story from our guide today. Speaking about the refugee crisis in Germany, she mentioned how many of the older, east Germans scolded those who opposed sheltering refugees. These people, specifically Russian Germans, had lost everything in the late 1940’s but overcame the immense fear tied with being a refugee and prospered in Germany. Despite this community’s cries for generosity, there are many who have forgotten Germany’s past.
While this pales in comparison to forgetting the horrors of the Holocaust, it should cause anyone to give pause. As members of a democratic nation, only our scrutiny and good will stop tyrants from rising to power. I hope that our world will remember this and that the people I shared the cathedral with will be different from those in 1933.