If after centuries of continuing conflicts it became possible to create a peaceful European Union, surely it is not illusory to dream of duplicating its example in the Middle East and elsewhere.
The recent documentary The Commandant’s Shadow is the gripping story of Hans Jürgen Höss, the son of the barbaric commandant of Auschwitz, who in his old age finally admits the truth of his father’s murders of millions of Jews. His eventual meeting with Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a camp survivor, is atonement matched by her courageous acceptance of reconciliation.
Retaliation and revenge are instinctive human reactions to injustice and victimization. Yet lessons of history show they are an illusory answer, for they only perpetuate the inevitable cycle of violent confrontation.
The aftermath of the First World War is a clear case in point. The intransigent conditions imposed by the victorious Allied nations on Germany would lead to political instability and steadily deteriorating living conditions. Within a mere two decades, a destitute and increasingly frustrated citizenry would turn toward the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, and his promise of a new glorious Reich of prosperity. His rise to power brought about the Second World War, the most destructive conflict in history, causing the deaths of 70 million to 85 million people — around three per cent of the world’s population at the time — including six million Jews in the indescribable horror of the Holocaust.
Yet this time, after the Second World War, the victorious Allies acted with visionary inspiration, giving rise to a socio-economic and political miracle of reconciliation and peace. The catalysts for this rebirth added up to a complement of institutions that marked our world into its future. The magnanimous Marshall Plan — thanks to a generous U.S.A. — led to the reconstruction of Europe, including a destroyed Germany. The United Nations was born, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted. The creation of NATO guaranteed the mutual security of its member states. The State of Israel was founded, and the gradual construction of the remarkable European Union became reality. Out of the ashes of the most destructive war in history arose a new era of conciliation and interdependence.
If after centuries of continuing conflicts, including the destructive horror of the Second World War, it became possible to create a peaceful and dynamic European Union of 27 countries of diverse languages, cultures and ways of life, surely it is not illusory to dream of duplicating its example in the Middle East and elsewhere.
I have a dream, too, but a modest one: a petition titled Paix, Peace, Pax, which the broad reach of social media would promote far and wide. I have little knowledge of social media, which I don’t use regularly, but I know that among Gazette readers there are many adepts of these platforms who might be interested in participating in such a project for peace.
The reality is that the warring sides continue to play a deaf ear to the repeated exhortations of political leaders worldwide. Could a plea by a very large number of citizen petitioners here, there and beyond, the collective grassroots, send a powerful signal that continuing death and destruction leads to more of the same, and must stop? The cause of humanity and peaceful coexistence demands it.
Clifford Lincoln is a former Quebec Liberal MNA and federal Liberal MP who retired from politics in 2004. He lives in Baie-D’Urfé.