Four mourning figures by Professor Emil Kreiger, 1956.

Frozen Bees

Wicres Route De La Basse German Military Cemetery, France.
P. Ferguson image, September 2007.

False Peace

Tuesday…oh gosh…the cold…willing myself towards coffee hopeful of a fireplace (that I already know is not there)…the beverage (you are [I am] about to enjoy is extremely hot) turns to near iced coffee. Mitts, wooly hats do little to hold my warmth…and from a film watched days before returns one line from Frau Behnke…They fell…like bees in the freezing cold. I know this day is truly not that bad but cold bites my person now – a steady chomp on stilling the circulation…as blood ebbs slowly and extremities crave its life warmth. Like bees in the freezing cold…(the line describes the fallen) it is one of the sustaining lines from my first viewing of Babylon Berlin (Season 1: Episode 3 ~36:07).

German Remembrance wreath returns to the earth near Hawthorne Crater, Somme, France.
P. Ferguson image, September 2006.

Often, I have written about my desire to find the peace in my wanderings of conflict as I search for healing, memory and remembrance one step at a time. Frau Behnke’s words will affect this search, my thoughts forever edited to include this voice. I will reappraise my footsteps…ask more questions on the trail…what will appear with her words as reminder?

Remembrance at German Fricourt Cemetery.
Cast iron remembrance at Fricourt German Military Cemetery.
P. Ferguson image, September 2006.

Frau Behnke speaks to Inspector Rath of her Helmut lost to the Great War

Behnke
Were you in the war?

Rath
I followed my brother to the front. Then I came back alone.

Behnke
So, you know what it’s like to wake up in the morning…alone.
To hate the silence and the birds too. All that false peace.

German Great War graves at Langemarck.
Langemarck…44,061 German soldier burials…25,000 soldiers buried in a mass grave.
P. Ferguson image, September 2004.

…false peace…an important reminder, for any day, that no matter how we sculpt and paint the past for easier digestion hurt remains within the deep and supple layers of our engineering of the decay. My encounter with Behnke’s past on this cold frozen bee day…reminds me that, within the peace I search, remain the percussions of conflict. The wounds remain somewhere in society…with persons and landscapes…in words and perceptions. Silence…birds…tranquility…birdsong all I find pleasant…and yet this day I am re-reminded…what one finds gentle is another one’s nightmare.

Oh gosh it is cold…I sip the iced blend once hot, but like frozen bees the blend has fallen prey to this day’s reality.

Four mourning figures by Professor Emil Kreiger, 1956.
Guard figures, solitary in their memories, at Langemarck German Military Cemetery, Belgium.
P. Ferguson image, September 2004.