A light in the darkness

In a recently published book on Dutch war monuments (Ruurd Kok, Denken Over Herdenken. Oorlogsmonumenten in Nederland), one chapter is devoted to some monuments that have been erected in the Netherlands not to honour but to mark the death of German soldiers on Dutch soil in the Second World War. Since the 1990s Germans have been known to attend Dutch memorial-day services, especially in the border regions where historical cross-border relationships have pretty much returned to what they were. However, the erection of monuments for fallen German soldiers and airmen has proven to be a bridge too far for the bulk of the Dutch population, which, especially for the Dutch Jews, is understandable.

The best known of these monuments stands in the town of Riel in North Brabant. There rests a smallish sculpture of an 18-year-old German soldier, Karl-Heinz Rosch, with a toddler under each arm. The children depicted are two Dutch toddlers whom he carried to safety during shelling by the Allies in September of 1944 (Operation Market Garden). Not many minutes later he was killed – in the same place the children had been playing – and now lies buried in a German war cemetery. The committee that had the sculpture made in 2008 could not get permission from the local Riel municipality to place it on public lands. That’s why it now stands in the front garden of a private home on the town’s main street. An elderly sister and brother, the toddlers whom Rosch saved so many years before, were present at the unveiling of the monument. Relatives of Rosch were invited to attend but they declined, sending flowers instead.

What prompted Karl-Heinz to pick up the children and carry them to safety? A simple act of humanity, a love of children? Did he have siblings that age? In all wars there are acts of humanity, kindness and self-sacrifice that are a shining light in the darkness that is war and need to be recognized no matter by whom they are performed.