Erwin Franzen

by Erwin Franzen
Luxemburg, Europe
April 29, 2008

From a message I wrote recently to a grandchild of the famous WWII General George S. Patton, Jr. (who is interred in the US military cemetery where I work and which also holds the graves of some 5,000 of his soldiers):

... I think the most worthy goal is to work for peace, which means first of all to help people to believe in peace -- world peace, that is. Humankind has lived with war throughout the history we know, and because of that most people nowadays don't seem to believe world peace is possible -- unless a heavenly Savior comes down to earth and uses supernatural powers to establish it (by force?). Too many people think it's naive to believe that humankind can build a peaceful world, and any effort in this direction is doomed. Your grandfather fought in the two world wars and he could surely see how the outcome of the first one led almost directly to the second one, and he also foresaw that the second one could lead to a third one. He needed war in a way - to prove himself as a soldier - but he also needed peace for his family. He did not get a chance to see the peace that has now lasted 60 years over all his battlefields in western Europe. His son, your father, followed in his footsteps in war but he also saw the peace, and he consolidated the gains made by your grandfather in southern Germany after the war by building a friendship with former enemies. Your generation of the Pattons has really grasped the value and meaning of peace, and I think there is something big there on which you can build real faith in peace -- and inspire others to believe.

We cherish freedom, and the saying goes that it is not free. But does war give us freedom? Does war make us secure -- even if it is a war our soldiers fight in distant places? Are those places really so distant anymore in this day and age? Can we always rely on the west's overwhelming military superiority to ensure our freedom and safety and prosperity by taking war to other lands and keeping it away from our shores? Is that good, right, just? Can we label other people as "evil" or as "barbarians" or "rats" and then utterly destroy them, and go on to live in peace with ourselves? Hitler and his gang tried that with the Jews, for example... Luckily they were stopped and defeated before it was too late. However, ideas similar to theirs continue to proliferate in different guises and in insidious ways. We have to guard against that by promoting peace.¨

Not long ago our agency (which maintains American military cemeteries) adopted a "new" motto: Time Will Not Dim the Glory of Their Deeds -- which is something Gen. Pershing said after WWI. I think WWII came to dim somewhat the "glory" of those deeds -- because it showed that regardless of their own value the larger cause for which they were done (the war to end all wars) was lost. And other wars since then have dimmed the "glory" of the deeds done in WWII. But is "glory" the true message of our cemetery? Does glorification help to promote peace, freedom - all the things we cherish most?

Many American visitors to our cemetery also like to visit the (nearby) German (military) cemetery, and some of them find it drab and uninspiring compared to the beauty of ours. It is the final resting place of those who fought on the side that lost the war. But the idea behind the German cemetery is to promote peace. In all the literature of the German war graves commission (Kriegsgräberfürsorge) I find one theme that is emphasized: peace.

I wish our cemetery could also help to inspire people to believe in peace.

Further THOUGHTS ABOUT WAR:

From a message to a friend on 15 February 2007: … I am not an absolute pacifist but I do believe wars are very, very serious business and cause so much unpredictable upheaval and so much suffering that every effort should be made to avoid them. Virtually every war sows the seeds for another because there are always loose ends and problems inevitably created by the way the war is fought that ultimately lead to other wars. The unresolved problems of World War I led to World War II, and unresolved problems created or exacerbated by WWII have led to many smaller conflicts around the world that are even now still playing themselves out — and sowing seeds for further conflicts. It is too easy for people to talk about war and even to send others to fight wars when they themselves and their families face no or little danger of becoming victims of those wars. I have very little experience of war myself but I have been close enough to wars, both directly and through meeting survivors, to at least take them very seriously. I feel that far too many people in the west don’t take war seriously enough. … [this is mainly because the west, especially the United States, possesses military power that is so vastly superior to anything almost any potential foe can muster that it has no need to fear serious retaliation for any attack it decides to launch].