HANDS ACROSS THE RIVER

The City of Torgau located in  Norhsachen, Saxony, Germany  is where the American Army met the Russian army on the 25th April 1945. They clasped hands across the Elbe and started to squeeze the rest of Germany. In 2009 I was driving through Germany with Duncan MacAskill,  and we visited Trogau. We drove towards the town centre and found ourselves by the memorial. It is a very Russian monument, including inscriptions in German and English. It is dedicated, “To the glory and honour of the Red Army and the allied troops for their heroism and hard won victory over fascist Germany”. “Here on the Elbe on April 25, 1945, the forces of the First Ukrainian Front of the Red Army linked up with American forces.” Across the road is a more modern monument, a wall with a bas relief depicting a Russian soldier shaking hands with a civilian and something to do with thanks, inscribed at the bottom.

On display, there is a photograph of the bridge as it was in 1945 after the battle. The field on the east bank is the same now as it was then, clear and green. The river’s flow is steady, unchanging. There is a calm stillness in the air save for the distant sound of traffic across the bridge.

Torgau Bridge 1945

East Bank of Elbe opposite Torgau

Memorial

New Bridge 2009

There are many memorials in Germany. There are many memorials throughout Europe, throughout the world. There are over 56,000 war memorials in the United Kingdom alone. What is it we are likely to forget about a war that requires so many reminders? Never again. Never again. two words repeated again and again, an unattainable undertaking as every undertaker knows.