Jump with French Photo: US Army Africa
Eye - 11 March 2011
From paratroopers to simple gifts
Any blankets?
Conscientious objectors can end up in the most extraordinary situations in wartime, our Friend Mary Penny reminds Eye.
While doing a ‘spring clean’ of papers, which included some from the end of the second world war, Mary found a fascinating article, with hand-written words at the bottom: September 1944. It tells the story of a bizarre incident in France on D-Day:
‘The AFSC (American Friends Service Committee) report that German and British officers and the Press have expressed wonder at the dropping of unarmed medical assistants, who were conscientious objectors to war, with the first wave of paratroopers on D-Day. A captured German officer made this report: ‘When the thunder of British ‘planes filled the air and down on French soil tumbled hundreds of British paratroopers, I scattered my men where the paratroopers had landed and warned them they must be swift and ruthless. I then set off to kill my own personal Englishman. What happened when I found the first Englishman is the reason I say your people are mad. I lifted my revolver and fired at him twice. The two shots missed and the British paratrooper dodged behind a tree. But, instead of firing back, he cried out in German: “Tell me, Herr Officer, have you fellows any blankets I can borrow?” “Who are you? What’s all this nonsense?” I asked. “I am a conscientious objector,” he said calmly. “Then what are you doing here?” “Oh, our blankets dropped into a marsh and we’ve got wounded, including a couple of Germans, in a cottage up the road, and I’m looking around for something to keep them warm. Can you help me?” The British truly are mad – stark, staring, mad. But it is a glorious kind of madness just the same.’”
Reusing Quaker books
The idea of giving books away free was a feature of World Books Day on the 3 March. It has also been brought to Eye’s attention by our Friend Beth Allen. She tells us of a dilemma which, we hope, some Friends may be able to solve.
Beth writes: ‘I’m trying to simplify our life and cut down on things. Most of it I can take to local charity shops. Some books crammed on to our shelves can go too – novels, children’s books, atlases, travel books. But what can I do with my Quaker books?’
Some I can’t bear to let go. The copy of Christian faith & practice given me when I was sixteen, signed by Brian Livesey, then our Monthly Meeting clerk. Those that are working tools, marked up, tagged and sometimes falling apart. But there are many that I have read and don’t need to keep. Many of these are slim – Quaker thinking is often expressed in pamphlets rather than tomes. I could list them all on Amazon, but that’s a lot of hard work, and how would I know what price to ask for them? And who would know enough about them to look for those particular ones?”
Beth hopes that someone might be able to sell them and give the proceeds to Quaker work. She also suggests that there be a Book Recycling Centre – maybe at the Yearly Meeting Gathering – where people could bring surplus Quaker books, and perhaps other religious, Biblical, and spiritual books, which others could look through and donate what they feel they are worth. Can Friends help?
Simple Gifts
Eye encourages Friends to listen to Soul Music on BBC Radio 4 this week. Thomas Swain, clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, will speak about the Shaker song ‘Simple Gifts’. The programme airs on Saturday 12 March at 15.30 and can be listened to again on the BBC iPlayer for up to seven days after the broadcast.
