This little piece is about a heroic event 75 years ago which nobody in the UK knows about, except me. OK, I might be wrong, there might be one or two, but to all intents and purposes, I am unique, because I marched there, with 300 others, and banners and marching bands too, on the 70th anniversary.
‘Not in Berlin, not in Hamburg, not in Muenchen, not in Koeln, not in Dusseldorf, nor in any other place in the whole of Germany was there a single public act of communal defiance against Hitler, only in Mossingen’.
On the 31st January, 1933, the working people of Mössingen refused to recognise Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany and marched through the town to let their opposition to him be known. It is said that they did so on the grounds that they were certain that he would take Germany into another catastrophic war. If so, they were right.
Let’s remember the heroism of this little place, where they faced their fear and did it anyway. A terrible vengeance was wrought upon them and they suffered for it badly. Especially now, in this age of Trump and Farage, we should not forget this place and what it represents, which is dignity and sense.
