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Michael Simms: Rumor of War | February 24, 2022

Michael Simms (Author): This is a first draft I wrote on the morning of Thursday, February 24, 2022, after my wife Eva and I heard on NPR that the Russians had invaded Ukraine. For Eva, who is German with family and friends living in Westphalia, the news was difficult to bear, recalling the stories she’d heard as a child about the bombing of her hometown of Siegen during the war and the hardships her family suffered in those years, including the leveling of Siegen on December 16, 1944, by the British. Siegen has a rich architectural history with roots that go back to the Bronze Age, and Eva grew up watching the city being rebuilt. The idea that Europe would again be at the edge of self-destruction is horrifying.

I’ll say it again and say it differently because the horror of war must never be forgotten. The boy hid beneath the stairs when the Good Guys came to…

Michael Simms: Rumor of War | February 24, 2022