Lawrence Beck
Interesting vignettes. Nice work, Joe.
2020-11-06

Christopher Fernie
Dear josephus,

I found this poem very moving and, as a new 69 year old, can relate to the personal memories of wartime and post-war events.

Like you, I had a relative- my maternal grandfather- who was rejected for military service on medical grounds. When told about this many years after his death, in 1922, I thought that it was very bizarre that he had been deemed too ill to kill, or be killed!

My late father served in World War 2, albeit for a few months. He lost his arm at Dunkirk and was evacuated back to England where he recovered but would not see action again - much to his disappointment, having been an avid enemy of fascism since the Spanish Civil War. (He had tried to join the International Brigade in Manchester but my mum wouldn't let him!)

Lastly, when I first got married in 1976 my wife and I lived in a large old house in Salford that had been converted into apartments. We lived next door to Mr and Mrs Hammelberger, an elderly Jewish couple. We enjoyed good relations with them, respectful and mannerly.

When we were leaving our flat to move elsewhere. we knocked on their door to tell them of our departure and to wish them both well for the future. Mrs Hammelberger came to the door and listened to our farewells. Before we left. she recounted how she and her husband had had to leave their native Germany in 1938 after months of Nazi threats, including the visit to their home by the Gestapo and being threatened with her own bread knife by one of the visiting officers.

My wife and I expressed our disgust about what had happened to them only 40 or so years earlier. But we both realised that no detached sympathy, however well intentioned, could ever erase the dreadful experiences of our Jewish neighbours.

We duly removed to another part of the city and never saw the Hammelbergers again. But that last encounter had made me understand why my father was so desperate to go to war against Nazi Germany.

I miss my dad and my Jewish neighbours, all connected to the story that must continue to be told.

With best wishes,

Chris
2020-11-06