“How can life go on?” Reflections on the Holocaust and its Aftermath | The York Historian

GERMANY, Berlin. Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust.

Today, January 27th, is Holocaust Memorial Day. this article takes the opportunity to reflect on remembering the Holocaust, and what still needs to be done. AUTHOR: SOPHIE TURBUTT

Source: “How can life go on?” Reflections on the Holocaust and its Aftermath | The York Historian

The Roman girl buried beneath a London landmark | Flickering Lamps

30 St Mary Axe – better known by its nickname “The Gherkin” – is one of the most distinctive skyscrapers in London.  It stands on the site of the old Baltic Exchange, which was badly damaged by a Provisional IRA bomb in 1992 and subsequently demolished.  It was during excavations taking place prior to the construction of the Gherkin that, in 1995, the skeleton of a Roman Londoner who had lain undisturbed for 1,600 years was discovered.

On Bury Street, on one side of the skyscraper, there is an open paved area with seating and sculptures.  On the side of one of the low, smooth walls that double up as seats is a quite unexpected…

Source: The Roman girl buried beneath a London landmark | Flickering Lamps

Moving a church tower from the Square Mile to Twickenham: the story of All Hallows

Flickering Lamps

It’s a little known fact that more of the City of London’s churches were demolished during peacetime than were destroyed during the Blitz.  As London expanded, the population of the Square Mile declined.  Fifty one of the eighty-seven churches consumed by the Great Fire of 1666 had been rebuilt, but as the City’s population dwindled during the 19th and 20th Centuries, congregations fell and many churches became surplus to requirements.

However, as you make your way along the Chertsey Road in Twickenham, towards the famous rugby stadium, an unexpected sight looms into view: a baroque Christopher Wren church tower.  This is one of the lost City churches, All Hallows Lombard Street, reborn as a suburban parish church.

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U.S. National Maritime Day, 22 May

Pacific Paratrooper

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May 22nd is the date when the American ship Savannah set sail from Savannah, Georgia in 1819 and became the first transoceanic voyage ever made under steam power.  Hence the day was chosen for the date of tribute.

In 2002, the Military Sealift Command held a memorial service in Washington D.C.  Rear Admiral David Brewer III and Gordon England, Secretary of the Navy, tossed a wreath into the Anacostia River at the Washington Navy Yard in honor of the fallen mariners.

Capt. Susan Dunlap & Capt. Robert Burk during ceremonial in Hawaii

In 2013, National Maritime Day was celebrated with picnics and tours at the Port of San Diego; maritime career fairs in Seattle and Baltimore, as well as the traditional memorial ceremonies.

Merchant Marine cap insignia

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For A striking story sent to us from fellow blogger, Argus, we have the story of the N.S. Savannah.

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street holocaust memorials munich – artnet News

The small Holocaust memorials are a common sight across Europe.
Photo: TAZ

Since 1997 many cities and towns all over Europe have placed small brass-plated concrete blocks commemorating victims of Nazi persecution into pavements on the sites of Holocaust victims’ last residences.

While most municipalities have welcomed the memorial project, initiated by the Cologne-based sculptor Gunter Demnig, Munich has resisted the initiative for over a decade as politicians and Jewish groups continue to debate its appropriateness, the newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports.

In 2004 the Munich City Council voted against the project following extensive debates. In an official statement the council announced that it did not want to commemorate the victims “on the dirty streets,” and that memorials should “not be walked over.”

Weighing in on the debate, the Mayor of Munich, Christian Ude, said that he was wary of the “trivialization of Remembrance,” preferring the establishment of a…

Continue reading: street holocaust memorials munich – artnet News.

East Sheen Cemetery and the “Angel of Death”

Until very recently, East Sheen was one of our local cemeteries.

Flickering Lamps

Opened in the early 1900s in a well-heeled area on the edge of Richmond Park, East Sheen Cemetery seems at first to be an entirely typical 20th Century burial ground, its paths lined by stone and marble monuments, sheltered by pine trees.  Sadly, it’s suffered from vandalism over the years and a number of crosses and headstones have fallen or been pushed over.

However, there is a dramatic surprise waiting for visitors to this otherwise unassuming cemetery.

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Brompton Cemetery, an open-air cathedral of remembrance

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A couple of weekends ago, I was invited to attend an event being held as part of the London Month of the Dead at Brompton Cemetery in west London.  The main cemetery entrance is on Old Brompton Road, not far from Earl’s Court station, in that slightly ragged edge of town where Chelsea, Fulham and Kensington meet, and where genteel houses make way for seedy hotels and dreary bedsits with grimy windows.  Behind high railings, and through an imposing gateway, is one of London’s Magnificent Seven cemeteries.

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