h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is partly a follow-on from yesterday's journal, and partly triggered by various conversations about poppies and remembrance.

My paternal grandfather enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces in 1914, wearing the slouch hat and the Rising Sun badge with pride. I have a photo of him in uniform, a studio portrait, taken just before he set off for Perth to embark for Gallipoli. He was being sent to fight the Turks, despite the Turks being no threat to Australia and despite his own Turkish/Ottoman ancestry.

I remember seeing the war memorials in every small town I've visited. The memorials in the Barossa Valley towns stick in the mind; the district was settled by Germans from Prussia and Silesia in the 1840s, and in 1914-18 and again in 1939-45 the young men of the district went off to fight for the King-Emperor. These are German names on the monuments to the Australian soldiers who died in those wars.

As I said yesterday, my mother experienced the end of the Second World War as a child in Europe. She was taking refuge in Germany where it was safe for the remaining members of her family. Meanwhile, distant cousins of the boy who would be my father were meeting their end in quite another sort of camp in what is now Poland.

I grew up knowing that the two sides of my family had technically been bitter enemies a couple of decades before I was born.

The only way we can ever stop the gross idiocy of armed conflict is to remember it, to remember those who fought, and all of those who suffered, whether military or civilian, whichever side they were on. Remember that every single person was just that - a person. A human being.

So please - remember them all... If we forget, we might have to do it all again.

I have found it quite fascinating rading the accounts of the people that rasearchers remember at this time.

It came to me that not only has this been interesting reading, but these are also stories that should be told, be documented, passed on and down

I was wondering if this is something we could put together. No-one would have to write anything new if they didn't want to. Just have somewhere where they are collected altogether



Peanut

That's rather a good idea. I'd be happy to flesh out what I've written on the subject; there are a couple of other individuals who I think deserve to be recorded.

Peanut, that is such a good idea.

Thank you, Ivan.

That's all i have to say, really. Thank you.