Shared Remembrance

Ricky Yates is the Coordinator of English-language Anglican worship at the Frauenkirche in Dresden. In January of this year, the Director of the City Museum in Kralupy (a town situated 16 kilometres north of Prague) wrote to the Director of the City Museum in Dresden, with the following request. He was planning a commemorative ceremony on 22 March to mark the 80th anniversary of the bombing of Kralupy. He wrote that since a large number of German citizens also lost their lives in those bombings, he would like to for a large Easter candle to be lit for all the victims during the ceremony. He asked for the candle to be donated by a German city that had suffered a similar fate, hence his request to the city of Dresden. This would be an act of reconciliation and shared remembrance.

Ricky writes: ‘The Director of the Dresden City Museum sought the help of the Frauenkirche who arranged for the production of the requested candle. Then, just over a week before the commemorative ceremony, I got an email from Maria Noth, the CEO of the charitable foundation that runs the Frauenkirche, asking whether I would be willing to travel to Kralupy, representing the Frauenkirche, and present the candle on their behalf. Her reasoning for doing so was because of my strong ties to the Frauenkirche, because I live in the Czech Republic, and because of originally coming from Coventry and its experience of aerial bombing.’

The candle with ‘Peace be with you’ in
German and Czech © Ricky Yates

Kralupy nad Vltavou is a city with a population of around 20,000, situated on the Vltava river, north of Prague. On 22 March 1945, it was subject to a devastating bombing attack by USAF planes. The two reasons given for the attack were the presence of an important oil refinery and the city being a key railway hub. The aim was to disrupt the ongoing Nazi war effort. The first wave of bombers successfully hit the refinery, setting an oil storage tank on fire, from which erupted a very large cloud of thick black smoke. This left the follow-up wave of bombers with very poor visibility to see their targets. As a result, further bombs were dropped fairly randomly, hitting residential areas of the city.

Of the 1,884 buildings in the city at that time, 117 were completely destroyed and another 993 were seriously damaged. 248 people lost their lives in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of whom 145 were Czechs. The remaining victims were mainly German soldiers. The devastation was so great that Kralupy earned the nickname of ‘Little Dresden’. The allied bombing of Dresden, with the massive destruction of its central area including the Frauenkirche, and the death of around 25,000 people, had taken place only five weeks earlier on 13–14 February.

‘The Commemorative Ceremony took place in the Roman Catholic Kostel Nanebevzetí Panny Marie a sv. Václava, amazingly one of the few historic buildings not destroyed in the bombing. The ceremony began with the sounding of a siren followed by the playing and singing of ‘Kde domov muj?’, the Czech National Anthem, which I managed to sing completely. Then I was invited to light the candle, assisted by Hana Matoušková, a ninety years old survivor of the bombing.’

With Hana Matoušková following the ceremony
© Ricky Yates

‘The ceremony continued with a speech from the mayor, the singing of the song ‘To Místo’, which had been especially composed for the occasion, and prayers led by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Plsen. There was a poetry reading and an interview with the artist Martin Frind, who had produced a painting entitled ‘Rekviem/Requiem’, containing all of the victims’ names.

For me, one of the most moving parts of the ceremony was the reading by two local teenage girls, of all the names of the victims. Several times, the same name was repeated twice and occasionally three times as many Czech men have the same name as their father and Czech ladies, the same name as their mother. A reminder that whole families were eliminated – two, or even three generations. The reading of the names was then followed by a one minute silence.

In conclusion, I have to say that I felt very honoured to be asked to take part in this Commemorative Ceremony, representing the Dresden Frauenkirche. On my emails, I sign myself as ‘Coordinator of English-language Anglican worship in Dresden’, because that is what I do but it isn’t an official position at the Frauenkirche or within the EKD. Likewise in the Church of England, I function purely by holding ‘Bishop’s Permission to Officiate’ (PTO). My Archdeacon kindly says that he regards me as the Chaplain of Dresden, but I’m not, as Dresden isn’t a Chaplaincy. However, my involvement with the life and ministry of the Frauenkirche has been extremely meaningful. Taking part in last Saturday’s ceremony was one additional moving experience.’

Read the full story on Ricky's blog