Federal Standard 595
AMS Standard 595
Readers respond to Barney Ronayβs account of touring Germany for Euro 2024 football games
Barney Ronayβs article resonated very strongly with me (βOn a journey through Germany, the horror of the past lurks close to the surfaceβ, Sport, 22 June). He spoke with clarity on how past horror echoed in his encounters with places and spaces in everyday Germany, from mundane buildings to the seemingly innocent woodland clearing. I too am from a βJewish enoughβ family displaced from Nazi Germany. Our family has those seemingly improbable stories of survival, andΒ I sometimes wonder if I shouldΒ have existed at all.
That Gestapo knock on the door has cast a long shadow and, throughout my βimprobableβ life, has caused me to ask how this terror arose. I wonder what its harbingers are, so we might not make such terror again. But right now we are witness to it. We can all see it raising its grotesquely mundane yet human head, with larger-thanβlife characters encouraging us to devalue and demean those who are different.
Continue reading...Β© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Β© Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images