10 July 2011

I set my alarm for 7:45am, unfortunately I had forgotten to change time, meaning it was an hour earlier awakening for those in my room. As I was up I enjoyed a strong coffee in the early morning sunshine before everyone joined me.

After breakfast we came together to discuss how we felt as young people today about what we had seen the previous day.

On occasion this week the present owner of CORE has joined us, Jacques Braley, the son of the founder of CORE. He told us his story and the history of CORE as part of the discussion.
 

‘I experienced WW2 as a child, I remember a lot of the details and memories. Its part of my past and I remember the music of the German military parades when in Normandy.
 

‘In 1942 there was a meeting of two people, 1 French and 1 German – everything started then. The French man, my father was 44 years old, and he’d joined a resistance movement, he was not a religious person but was interested in religion, many considered him like a priest. France had lost the war to Germany, a treaty was signed, and a big part of France was occupied by German troops with the two governments communicating.’

Amongst the German troops there was an officer running an electricity firm and had to control the electricity in the region of Normandy, he was a member of a minority religious group and was looking for somewhere to pray and worship with the soldiers sharing his religious and political views.

He was given the address and name of my father, and so the exchange took place and realized very quickly that they shared the same religious and political views against the Nazi regieme and my father rented a room in our house to the officer and some of the military.

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07 July 2011

Another early rising before a day of travelling, one by one all 25 participants turned up in the dining hall to make their sandwich for lunch, as we would be out all day.

Leading up to the exchange the Southend participants have been meeting once a week to conduct research and prepare resources for the trip. One of the things we looked into was Southend’s connection to World War 2 and the role that it played during the D-Day landings.

Today we travelled to Caen Normandy memorial centre for history and peace, to find out more about pre, during and post war, but also to understand further the context behind the history of CORE. (More on this to follow)

When we arrived in Caen we were struck by the enormity and symbolism of the building, and the 15 flags outside, of different nationalities. Presented with audio handsets to guide us around the museum (like a personal tour guide) we ventured into the first section that explained the context leading up to WW2.

As we walked around one thing that really struck a chord with me was the enormity of the loss of life, the atrocity of the events that took place and I learnt more about boats docking from Southend Pier (then HMS Westcliff) during the D-Day landings. There were personal accounts from survivors of concentration camps recalling their experiences that brought out a lot of emotions. 

By the time we broke for a picnic lunch outside the museum, the fresh air was much appreciated, as what we had discovered was a lot to take in.

Shortly after we visited a British Commonwealth cemetery with thousands of graves.

‘I couldn’t believe that the average age (from what we could tell) was about 21, but I saw a few that had men as young as 17, all the boys who have come to France would have been fighting on the front line’. (Andy Williamson, Southend participant)

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