79 years ago Freising was bombed. The Protestant Church remembered the victims of that time. For the pastor, this is also the order of the day.
Freising
- 79 years ago was the day that still accompanies Freising's history today like a dark shadow: On April 18, 1945, the city was the target and victim of a bomb attack. Time to pause and remember.
When Pastor Heiko Blank remembered April 18, 1945 in the Church of the Ascension on Thursday, when he explained what had happened 79 years ago in Freising, when he remembered in words that got under your skin how at 2:53 p.m The bombing of the cathedral city began, and when the church bells rang at exactly that minute, the 30 or so people in the church were thinking about the victims of that time. More than 200 women, men and children died in Freising in this attack in the last days of the war. The area around the train station and the industry located there were reduced to rubble. Also the Church of the Ascension of Christ. Only the tower rose into the sky like a silent memorial for peace.
Commitment to peace is the order of the day
While the bell called for peace on Thursday, people's thoughts were not only about the past in 1945. The peace prayer and the words of Pastor Heiko Blank made it clear to everyone that 79 years later, the war was frighteningly close and the commitment for peace is the order of the day. And so one of the many intercessions of this devotion was: “Lord, we pray for the countless victims of the wars of this world, for the refugees, the hungry, children, women and all people who are helplessly exposed to the wars.”
There was a world map in front of the altar. At the beginning, Heiko Blank invited everyone to either silently place a burning candle on it or to read out loud their own prayer for peace. While District Administrator Helmut Petz and Second Mayor Eva Bönig as well as City Councilor Werner Habermeyer silently positioned a peace light on the world map, City Councilor Charlotte Reitsam did so with the words: “Lord, give us faith, love and hope in these times.”
One thinks of the people who refuse to serve in the military in Russia
One by one, women and men stood up to give their candle a place in the world and to say aloud their prayer for peace. “I pray for everyone who refuses military service in Russia. Bless them and encourage them in their will and striving to serve peace,” said Martin Honold, who has helped organize the peace prayer in the Church of the Ascension on the first Monday of every month at 7 p.m. since the beginning of the Ukrainian war. At this monthly meeting a song was created, “Shalom Ukraine”. Martin Honold also presented this on Thursday together with the believers.
Many people still had the words of Pastor Heiko Blank in their heads, as he had initially recalled the bombing 79 years ago. “It was a Wednesday, a pleasant spring day. Many farmers were in town because of the weekly market.” The bombs fell from 2:53 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. “The extent of it was devastating.” And even though only a handful of people remembered this attack so many years later, the peace service was still an important and touching symbol against forgetting.