I have begun posting a series of essays
from my recent trip to France on my science blog. I will also post here
the entries that have some religious significance.
On July 13, my wife and I visted the
Musée Historique de Strasbourg. On July 15, we were back in Old Strasbourg at
the Place Kléber (Kleber Plaza) and the Cathedral. What I saw at those times
was immensely moving and significant and may have been my most memorable
experience in France.
The museum documented a thousand years
of history in which Strasbourg, on the Rhine River, was nearly always consumed
in war between places that are now part of France and now part of Germany.
Throughout this time, Strasbourg thought of itself as Alsacian rather than
strictly French or strictly German. And why not? Whichever side it took, it
would be conquered by the other side within a century or two anyway. And while
it was fun to dress up in simulated medieval armor (see photo), there is no
avoiding the fact that this constant state of warfare was gruesome and entailed
unmeasurable amounts of suffering.
Most striking of all were
the centuries of religious intolerance and slaughter. Throughout most of the
history of Strasbourg, as in all other European cities, the Jews were forced to
live in ghettos; near the museum you can still walk on the Rue des Juifs, which
is very narrow just as it was in ghetto days, only it is now clean and free.
Then there was the Reformation, when Alsace was divided up into little
enclaves: Territoires passés a la Réforme (territories becoming Protestant at
the Reformation), Territories restés catholiques (territories remaining
Catholic), Zones où la Réforme a été combattue (combat zones), and (the
smallest of all) Territoires où les deux confessions ont été tolerées (zones
where both “confessions” were tolerated) (see photo).
Inevitably, toward the end of the tour
of the museum, we saw the photos and artifacts of Nazi occupation in World War
II. The French did not simply surrender; they had a heavily fortified Maginot
Line right in Alsace, ready to defend France from a German invasion across the
Rhine. But the Germans invaded Belgium and took over France from the north,
making the Maginot Line useless. In the museum we saw a photo of Hitler
standing at the base of Strasbourg Cathedral, and of big Nazi military displays
in the Place Kléber, which they renamed Karl Roos Platz. There was even a
display about brutal Nazi experimentation on living humans. When liberation
came, under General Leclerc, the Nazi influence was swept away with great
enthusiasm (see the photos).
Here is the part that meant the most to
me. A couple of days later, on July 15, when my wife and I happened by the
Cathedral—there very Cathedral where Jews were oppressed for centuries, and
where Hitler walked—we saw a klezmer band making some of the most joyous Jewish
music you ever heard. Everybody loved this Jewish music and its talented
performers. Take that, Hitler! And take that, you priests who oppressed the
Jews for millennia! Right at that moment, while the lead musician (who played
my old instrument the euphonium) was when I felt, more than ever before in my
life, the joy of international peace, the brotherhood and sisterhood of the
human species.
