WW1 veterans

[lethargic_man]

livredor and I were having a conversation a while ago about how many supercentenarians there are in the world, and how we both think about Armistice Day commemorations involving WW1 veterans laying wreaths, but this hasn't actually been the case for a while, as they're mostly dead now and the remainder are too old.

Consequently I was surprised to see an article on BBC Online today describing WW1 veterans laying wreaths to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Britain's declaration of war on Germany. There were four of them, and they were aged 103, 104, 106 and 108.

I take my hat off to them for making the effort.

Comments

[liv]

I heard that story on the radio and was reminded of the same conversation. Yay synchronicity.

[troo.livejournal.com]

And people in this country worry about not enough holocaust survivors still alive to tell their stories to school kids who should learn about their past. *ho hum*

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

That's the wrong way of thinking. You can't do anything to prevent the fact that sooner or later, all Holocaust survivors are going to be dead. Now is the time to be converting your learn-from-the-Holocaust programmes away from necessarily relying on the living.

[troo.livejournal.com]

Oh, they are. Videotaping interviews, writing new text books.
It's more that only recently(*) telling the story has become a common practice, and then they realized that there aren't as many survivors left alive. Quite a few died young.
What gets me is that war veterans start out older - a child younger than 14 wouldn't be a soldier (probably), and there was no such discrimination against jewish children. And still there aren't many left anymore.

(*) Until Eichmann's trial the holocaust was a taboo subject, and it took even longer before it became a subject of discussion and education.

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Until Eichmann's trial the holocaust was a taboo subject, and it took even longer before it became a subject of discussion and education.

Funnily enough, I learned this just last week from an article in the JC (http://www.thejc.com).

[troo.livejournal.com]

Yeah - nowadays they even talk about why it became a taboo in the first place.

[justinep.livejournal.com]

. o O ( you two know each other? Small world indeed )

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

I know troo through afp (news:alt.fan.pratchett), way back in the middle of the last century.

How do you know her?

[troo.livejournal.com]

He and my bf move in the same circles...

A mud called A2 - I assume?

[troo.livejournal.com]

She. She.
I don't know what came over me. It's the heat - must be influencing my brain.