Sunday 9 October 2016

Visit to Bebra - how can I do it justice?

Bebra ("place of the beavers") is in one sense remote - a distant heavily forested place, and a quiet rural community of eleven small settlements, set in fabulous rolling countryside. But, it is just round the corner from Wartburg Castle, where Martin Luther took refuge, following the fallout from his excommunication.  Also the scene of more recent events, including the execution by the Gestapo of Adam von Trott for his involvement in the assassination attempt on Hitler in 1944, and the deportation and killing of many Jews from within the community itself, as recorded on a simple plaque in the square by the Town Hall.

So the half century of Twinning of the two communities, a post world war II gesture of conciliation, is more than the jollifications of Kermes, the harvest festival which brought us here.