Lest We Forget

My fellow Hearts supporter and esteemed blogger Adullamite wrote a wonderful piece on 1st July commemorating a battle during the Great War. http://adullamite.blogspot.com/2008/07/1st-july-1916.html

In 1916 there were sixty thousand casualties and twenty thousand dead in one horrific day of a conflict that must never be forgotten. Heart of Midlothian Football Club's connection to that battle - McCrae's Battalion - is honoured every Remembrance Sunday, along with others who gave the ultimate sacrifice to their country in a moving service at Edinburgh's Haymarket War Memorial.

In this increasingly frenetic and consumer driven, power crazy and greedy life, it's all too easy to forget those of a different generation who gave their lives so that we could have the country we have today. Similarly, the stories of those who were the victims of atrocities during both world wars must continue to be told so that a civilised society can ensure it never happens again.

I'm heading off to Poland on Friday for a long weekend to sample the delights of Krakow. Not so long ago, Poland was behind the so-called Iron Curtain that, during the Cold War and the days of Soviet Union power and communist suspicion, gave the impression of a cold, oppressed people living in poverty and at the mercy of their communist rulers. Times have changed, of course, and now Poland is part of the European Union.

Part of my trip will be a visit to Auschwitz and Birkenau where hundreds of thousands of Jews died at the hands of the Nazis in concentration camps during the Second World War. It promises to be a moving experience.

There are only a handful of old soldiers still alive who fought in the First World War and the numbers of those who served in the Second World War and of those who suffered unbearably at the hands of the Nazis are diminishing also. But as the years go by, we must always remember those who gave their lives in order that we can enjoy the freedom we have today.

Their sacrifice should never be forgotten.