On this Veterans Day, I remember my grandfather who served as a medic in World War I. He was in France when the Armistice that ended the war went into effect at 11:00am on November 11, 1918. This was the origin of what we now commemorate as Veterans Day. Last year the film maker Peter Jackson produced an amazing documentary about World War I called “They Shall Not Grow Old.” Using today’s technology, he was able to restore 100 year old films to look like current footage. The result is vivid images of both the enormous devastation of war and its impact on the lives of those sent into battle. The short video from the documentary posted below focuses on how British soldiers came to see their German enemies as fellow human beings as they guarded German prisoners. This is in stark contrast to the dehumanizing images of Germans as portrayed in Allied propaganda. Below the video clip is an example of this kind of imagery that is necessary in any war in order to justify killing an enemy. In the video British veterans of this war share the following words about getting to know their enemy, “They were decent sort of people and thought a great deal of their children…The general agreement when we were talking to Germans was how useless war was and why did it have to happen.:
On this Veterans Day as we remember the lives lost in all of our nation’s wars, I hope we can listen and learn from these veterans. The best way to thank a veteran is to work for peace by refusing to dehumanize any person or nation regardless of who the enemy is at any given time. As we see in all of our nation’s wars, the enemy who is demonized today very often becomes the ally of tomorrow. Better to follow the way and power of Jesus that calls us to love our enemies instead of killing them.
