cold war – Merrilyn Thomas

Remembering Dresden reconciliation

Posted on February 14, 2020 by Merrilyn ThomasMay 29, 2020

Dresden Anniversary Fifty-five years ago, when the world was divided into East and West, communism and capitalism, I went to the city of Dresden with a group of other young people from Britain. We were full of idealism about a peaceful world, a world where people of all countries could live in harmony with one another. We were doing our bit against chauvinism and hate – even if those thoughts were poorly formulated in our young minds at that time. We went there to help rebuild a church hospital which had been partially destroyed during the bombing raid of February … Read more …

Legacies of Nazi Persecution book wins Wolfson prize

Posted on June 14, 2019 by Merrilyn ThomasJune 14, 2019

Professor Mary Fulbrook’s latest book argues that thousands who were complicit in the Holocaust evaded justice following the end of the Second World War.
Reckonings: Legacies of Nazi Persecution and the Quest for Justice has just been awarded the Wolfson History Prize for 2019.

Peace and Reconciliation – How Far Have We Come?

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Merrilyn ThomasJuly 5, 2018

Young people’s desire for peace and reconciliation remains as strong as it did sixty years ago when the German organisation Aktion Sühnezeichen was founded. At that time the aim was to send young volunteers to work in countries that had suffered during the Second World War. Today the organisation sends volunteers around the world and has broadened its mission to include fighting racism, discrimination and social exclusion.

Dresden Bombing Anniversary

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Merrilyn ThomasMarch 1, 2018

This week marks the 73rd anniversary of the British and US Second World War bombing raid on the German city of Dresden. The attack was controversial at the time and has remained so throughout the decades. Thousands of civilians died in a firestorm. There are questions about the morality of targeting civilians and about the need for the attack in February 1945 when the war was almost at an end. Soviet troops were only a few miles from the city which was crowded with refugees.

Anniversaries 2018

Posted on January 8, 2018 by Merrilyn ThomasJanuary 8, 2018

2018 – a year of anniversaries. Prague, Paris, Chicago, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy. Names and places that resonate today. All of these will be talked about and read about this year, fifty years on from assassination and riots. For me, a year of personal memories.

Coventry – a good choice for our troubled times

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Merrilyn ThomasJanuary 8, 2018

Some people seem to be scratching their heads, asking themselves why Coventry has been chosen as UK City of Culture 2021. British people that is. What doesn’t seem to be realised is that Coventry is an international city, its name resonating with people around the world. Its message of peace and reconciliation is heard by thousands in other countries and has done so since the building of the inspirational new cathedral consecrated in 1962.

Paul Oestreicher – an inspirational peace campaigner

Posted on December 2, 2017 by Merrilyn ThomasDecember 7, 2017

Paul Oestreicher has played a significant role in my life every since I first went to East Germany in the 1960s to take part in the Coventry Cathedral project of reconciliation in Dresden. At that time, I did not know him, or know of the behind the scenes role he had played in enabling this project to take place between Britain and East Germany – two countries on the opposite side of the Iron Curtain. Paul was a leading Cold War peace campaigner and has continued to espouse this cause, renewing his call for a peaceful world in a speech … Read more …

Annihilation: The Dresden Bombing Raid

Posted on February 9, 2015 by Merrilyn ThomasDecember 10, 2017

This year the Archbishop of Canterbury will be one of the many who will gather in Dresden to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the bombing raid on the night of 13/14 February. He will preach in the city’s cathedral, reduced to a pile of rubble in 1945 but now magnificently restored and dominating the Dresden skyline once again. Its rebuilding was a controversial decision. Some say that the ruin which remained after the raid served as a fitting reminder of the horrors of war – a memorial to all who died. For many years the ruined cathedral provided a meeting place for those who came to remember. I was one of them. The gold and pastel coloured interior of the restored building could not be further away from the gaunt greyness of ruined Dresden.