European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 04, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Monday september 4. 1989 the stars and stripes Page 9 Coventry Dresden recall forgive Coventry England a even today almost 49 years later there is a stillness at the heart of coventry1. Here stand the skeletal remains of its 700-ye.ir-old Cathedral destroyed with the rest of the City Center on nov. 14. 1940. In the longest deadliest single bombing raid inflicted by Adolf Hitler on a British City during world War ii. There were no military or Industrial targets in Ca thedral Square just buildings shops and people 568 of whom were killed. If Coventry represented a new 20th-Century strategy known As total War the allies showed in february 1945 How far total War could go when they bombed the equal la Unior catering German City of Dresden killing 135.0 50 people. On sunday the 50th anniversary of Britain s Decla ration of War on Germany worshippers in Coventry and Dresden came together through a bbl radio linkup and forgave each other once again. The War Germany started set the world alight and destroyed your  pastor Christof Zimmer of the when enemies have become friends when both sides have faced up to their own sins they can. Lay aside the Burden of  Ulrike Birkner Kerciu Kircho in Dresden told the 500 Coventry worshippers Over a Loudspeaker in the new Cathedral built nut to the ruins of the old. We Are not minded to shake off the Burden of our guilt. But you have  Canon Michael sad Grove replied from Coventry we Loo need to be forgiven. We will not forget the firestorm that killed so Many thousands of your peo  father forgive intoned the congregation in Cov entry. Vater  came the answering murmur in German from Dresden. The ruins of Coventry Cathedral were tidied up Long ago and the remnants arranged in rows under the open sky truncated pillars the lopped off winding Stair Way to a pulpit now leading nowhere. Only the 295-foot Steeple survived intact pointing skyward like a demonstrating Finger for the tourists who wander about in awed silence. Before the inscription father forgive stands the replica of a Cross of two blackened wooden beams lashed together in 1940 by a Catholic caretaker who pulled them from the ruins in a spontaneous gesture of remembrance. Coventry today is a City of 303.000. A distance of 90 Miles from London. It is Best known now for manufacturing the luxury Jaguar car. It found the strength to forgive in the words of pro Vost Dick Howard who declared in a broadcast from the Cathedral ruins on Christmas 1940 we Are try ing hard As it May he. To banish All thoughts of revenge to make a Kinder simpler More Christ childlike sort of world in the Days beyond this  preaching in Coventry Cathedral the. Rev. Ulrike Birkner of Dresden said it was Christ s example that gave men like Howard the courage to make them selves unpopular by offering to  when enemies have become friends when both sides have faced up to their own sins they can accept forgiveness and Lay aside the Burden of  she said. Birkner who was born in Dresden shortly after the War and went to College in the English City of birding Ham recalled As a child taking Long Streetcar rides with my parents through Miles of ruins with Only the Tower of St. Anne s Church still standing just like the Tower of your Cathedral Here in  she remembered her Uncle a Foreman on a Dresden reconstruction site bringing Home Young volunteers from Coventry who had come to help rebuild Dresden. In a Sermon in Dresden Canon Paul Oestreicher of Coventry Cathedral acknowledged the difficulty of forgiving. When the War was practically Over and this City crowded with refugees. British and american bombers turned it into a raging inferno in which More men and women and children died than even in Hiroshima. I can t forget that Many of my father s jewish family were killed in German Gas Chambers said oct Traci Char who was born in Germany and fled Here in 1939. No we can t take our Friendship for granted on this anniversary. Without god s gift of forgiveness offered to us and owed to each other we would t be  from the ruins Friendship above. Up. Botox a Walls Spires und toners and piles of rubble were All thai remained above of Coventry Cathedral after the 1940 bombing. Below worshippers rather in the rebuilt Cathedral sunday against the backdrop of Graham Sutherland s tapestry of Christ. They were joined by radio with a congregation in Dresden knit Germany in recalling die devastation of world War ii. And after the sen ice Dresden s Rev. Ulrike Bir Kiwi and Coventry s Canon Michael sad Rore clasp hands in a gesture of Friendship in the ruins of the old Structure