Today is the 60th anniversary of the end of WWII. It is a time for reflection, a time to remember that we had hoped never to see the spectre of war again, a hope, as it turned out, that was forlorn and naive, even as today we wage bloody war upon Iraq. In 1940 Britain underwent the darkest hour in her history,

On September 7th 1940, Hitler launched the Blitz. For fifty seven consecutive days and nights, London was 'ringed and stabbed with fire'. In one night alone three thousand people perished. A school was hit killing four hundred and fifty people sheltering inside.

The Underground became a realm of folklore, of illicit liasons, gambling dens, of people singing and whistling in the dark, too scared to imagine what ruin and destruction waited to assault their senses as they emerged blinking into the poisoned day. And they endured, each and every dark day after day after day. Poignant, wistful but above all hopeful songs took root and flourished in the Underground web, and became symbols of defiance and resilience:

Although the US sold arms and supplies to Britain, the beleaugered British had to wait for two more years before the US finally decided to stand up to the Nazis.

The Nazis felt that they were morally superior, had the right to impose their culture upon others, could violate international law with impunity and have disregard for basic human rights, some of whom, like the Jews, or Gays or Gypsies they thought were less than human and were subsequently degraded, abused and tortured and imprisoned in camps.

It seems that we never do take full heed of history.

yechydda,