Beatrice Messinger. In front of her the place where her brother Ernest died.
Behind her the place where he was buried.
He heard the
sound of the machineguns, she holds one minute silence
What a different day it was, then. When Ernest David Harrison crawled through snow and clay here in January 1945. A cold and clear night. The rattle of a German machinegun was the last thing he heard, only 21 years of age.
Now his sister gives a speech here, at the Duffelt dike in Leuth, where she is unveiling a monument for her brother this Tuesday. Her name is Beatrice Messinger, a Canadian lady dressed in a lily-white summer dress. The wind blows her grey hair behind her ear.
Where was it? Where did Ernest get killed? Where are his remains?
Questions on which Messinger tried to find answers for all her life. Because Harrison was buried immediately in a field grave, but four days later the Germans flooded the polder. Was his body washed down by the water and maybe later taken by the Waal river?
He is in any case officially ‘Missing in Action’. That he is gone, everybody knows for sure. Especially after reading that letter from Karl Missbach, the German vicar and medical Corporal, who saw everything. After the war he wrote a letter to the Harrison family: he is over there, over there at the bottom of the Duffelt Dike, in the garden of the farm “De Dijkhoeve” that disappeared.
And now here she is. At the other side of the dike with a view toward a storks nest, rustling poplars and behind that: dead trees. That is where her brother heard the machineguns. Behind the piper and the flag bearers, saluting men with berets and white gloves. On the right people from Leuth and the tomato-red parasol, an unintended poppy in the grass.
And when she looks up from the fluttering paper with her speech, she sees that place.
That’s when her voice trembles. Even though it is about 20 degrees warmer now and there were no clay-holes at that time. Even though it is not a winter night but a summer day. But still, if she looked up to the sky she would see what Ernest saw, that night. Bright skies.
What a different day it was, then. When Ernest David Harrison crawled through snow and clay here in January 1945. A cold and clear night. The rattle of a German machinegun was the last thing he heard, only 21 years of age.
Now his sister gives a speech here, at the Duffelt dike in Leuth, where she is unveiling a monument for her brother this Tuesday. Her name is Beatrice Messinger, a Canadian lady dressed in a lily-white summer dress. The wind blows her grey hair behind her ear.
Where was it? Where did Ernest get killed? Where are his remains?
Questions on which Messinger tried to find answers for all her life. Because Harrison was buried immediately in a field grave, but four days later the Germans flooded the polder. Was his body washed down by the water and maybe later taken by the Waal river?
He is in any case officially ‘Missing in Action’. That he is gone, everybody knows for sure. Especially after reading that letter from Karl Missbach, the German vicar and medical Corporal, who saw everything. After the war he wrote a letter to the Harrison family: he is over there, over there at the bottom of the Duffelt Dike, in the garden of the farm “De Dijkhoeve” that disappeared.
And now here she is. At the other side of the dike with a view toward a storks nest, rustling poplars and behind that: dead trees. That is where her brother heard the machineguns. Behind the piper and the flag bearers, saluting men with berets and white gloves. On the right people from Leuth and the tomato-red parasol, an unintended poppy in the grass.
And when she looks up from the fluttering paper with her speech, she sees that place.
That’s when her voice trembles. Even though it is about 20 degrees warmer now and there were no clay-holes at that time. Even though it is not a winter night but a summer day. But still, if she looked up to the sky she would see what Ernest saw, that night. Bright skies.
