Today we have a live radio program on Christmas music from 12 countries in Europe. The transmission is done by the E.B.U. I am at the last hour listening as I write this.

I was driving home after having driven my husband to his work I heard the transmission from Dresden Frauen Kirche. The famous church that was destroyed with a lot of the city in the spring of 1945.

My pictures from a tour in August 2008

The Frauen Kirche Dresden

Inside the Frauen Kirche

The Frauen Kirche Dresden

The Frauen Kirche. The black stones replaced

Only after the reunion of East and West Germany this church was raised from the ash. 

What struck me was the love that came via the music. Some of songs were traditional German Christmas songs and old songs in Latin. Then different English Christmas songs performed by a boy’s choir sounding exactly like it was the song in English by English performers. They also did a Swedish song in very distinct Swedish. I felt that they just wanted to say that

 We have forgiven the Allied  for the terrible bombardment as we know that Hitler ignited the crisis and the second World War  and had caused so much death and destruction in many countries.

Hearing this transmission did something to me to I experienced a new love for Germany and the German people. Growing up after the war I was used to not liking Germany. I was taught German at school for five years, but I was not keen on learning it. Today when I heard the speaker tell us about the program I understood every word she said.

I am glad to say that I found the link to the music here.

This year it was 70 years ago that Dresden was destroyed and 25.000 people were killed. I have heard that experts are not agreeing on the number.

“Fotothek df ps 0000348 Ruine der Frauenkirche gegen Rathausturm” by Deutsche Fotothek‎. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 de via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fotothek_df_ps_0000348_Ruine_der_Frauenkirche_gegen_Rathausturm.jpg#/media/File:Fotothek_df_ps_0000348_Ruine_der_Frauenkirche_gegen_Rathausturm.jpg