DDGM Messages for 2005-2006

What does it mean to us, people who are so far removed from the devastations of war. We are very fortunate to live in this beautiful country we call Canada because neither of the world wars were fought in our country. Much went on in it but the devastation that so much of Europe experienced, we were spared. The death of so many of our young men and women was certainly an extremely high price to pay for the freedom they so desperately protected.

The footages of the history films that show the horrors of war are almost unbelievable to us as we watch in anguish over the inhumanities committed by other humans to their fellow man. The trench warfare in the first world war, was certainly beyond my belief as the pictures showed men in five foot deep mud holes with all their gear on, no place to sleep and never knowing when they may be told to climb over the edge to attack. When they went over the top they had to crawl through the bodies of the men who went before them. The gun fire from the enemy never ceasing as they made their way through mud holes, barbed wire and passing by their comrades who may have been wounded and in need of help, with no way to get them back to the safety of the trench.

Can you imagine any time in your life when a rat travelling in a trench you were calling home would look to you like a feast fit for a King? What about a sparrow seeming like a turkey dinner? There are many other things about the First World War that I could recount but I need not go on, as there is nothing pleasant to say.

However there is nothing to compare to what happened in the Second World War. The Regime of the Nazis and Hitler and the holocaust are unparalled to anything we can compare it to today. Millions and millions of Jews were put to death in the concentration camps by the order of Hitler. Many of the better-looking women were sterilized and put to use by the officers of the German army. The footages of the accounts of this whole ordeal are not something for the weak of heart. The site of the men and women clinging so dearly to their children while in a gas chamber waiting for all of them to get in before the door was closed for good is a frightening experience for me. The sites of the mass burials of the Jews and their withered, weightless bodies almost made me sick.

I recall many years ago talking with a Jewish gentleman about what truly went on in Germany and Poland as he was there and in a concentration camp for two years before the war ended. I could never understand for a long time when I called on this farmer, why he was so hard to talk with until one day he wanted to talk. What he proceeded to tell me took me completely by surprise? I had no idea what this man had endured. Worshipful Master may I be so brave as to ask you what you weigh? This gentleman said he could not even begin to describe to me the heartache and pain he endured for two full years. He said to me "take close look at me and guess what I weigh." I said probably 190 pounds. "Very close" he said. Now imagine what you would see if you were to remove 110 to 115 pounds from my body. He went into the camp at 187 pounds and when the war was over he weighed 77 pounds. The only way he had survived was by drinking the urine of the collective group for the liquid for their nourishment for there was no food. He went into more detail about the lice, the stench of the camp and the fact that most of the time they had no clothes to keep them warm and could not believe how any of them survived. I need not go on with the description of this man's torment. Many of the things he told me, I can barely believe. By the time he was finished he was in tears but seemed much relieved to have had some one who he could tell his story.

Many of you My Brethren already knew much of what I have talked about and can probably relate some of your own personal experiences to the Brethren.

Remembrance Day is with us for a reason. It should not be taken lightly because of the supreme sacrifice so many have made to give us the freedom we enjoy today.

Remembrance Day my Brethren, "Lest we Forget."