First Admira Ismić, a young Bosnian Muslim, killed by snipers trying to escape Sarajevo with her Bosnian Serb fiancé Boško Brkić. This is one of a series of astonishing, meditative pictures of the couple by Safet Zec, part of his 'Embraces' exhibition at the Venice Biennale.
Next I'm going for Sophie Scholl, of the non-violent resistance movement die weiße Rose, the White Rose, in Nazi Germany. Sophie was executed, with others, for distributing leaflets at the University of Munich. She was 21.
Nurse Edith Cavell was executed in 1915 in German-occupied Belgium, for helping allied soldiers escape. But she was known for saving the lives of soldiers on all sides, and before her execution said: "Patriotism is not enough. I must have no hatred or bitterness towards anyone".
Irish journalist Veronica Guerin was murdered for investigating the activity of drug gangs, aged 37. Not all wars are waged between countries. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/irish-gangland-20-years-after-veronica-guerin-1.2698793
Many women died in accidents and explosions in munitions factories, including 35 who died in one incident in Leeds in 1916, and their role was not properly recognised for many years. https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/first-world-war-munitions-factory-35-woman-died-forgotten-tragedy-listed-monument-533940
Gertrude Powicke died of typhus in 1919 in Poland. She had gone with a group of Quaker nurses to care for Polish refugees returning after WWI. In poor conditions, a typhus epidemic took hold and she herself contracted it. http://www.ww1.manchester.ac.uk/gertrude-powicke/
So, so many women who died in the holocaust. Famously Anne Frank, of course. But here I will think of Vilma Grunwald, who managed to scribble a pencil note to her beloved husband before being murdered, and persuaded a guard to take it. 'Into eternity, Vilma'.
It may upset some, but I will end with Heidrun Elisabeth Goebbels. Heide was only 4 when her mother Magda gave her morphine and then cyanide, along with her five other children, in the Berlin bunker. War does terrible things to people. A little girl was not to blame.
Final reflections. War destroys lives across age groups, across nations, across class, across religion. Yet we treat peace lazily, we take it for granted, when we should cherish it as a pearl of great price. Keep those you love close tonight. #NeverAgain #RemembranceSunday
