Tidigare i veckan trotsade jag och dottern det dåliga vädret och tog bussen från Luxemburg Centralstation till den amerikanska krigskyrkogården, Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial, belägen i utkanten av staden.
En fantastisk vacker plats omgiven av bokskog, men samtidigt blev vi ganska betryckta. Fem tusen gravar är många. Väldigt många. Det abstrakta talet 5000 (döda) blev plötsligt gripbart.
Vi promenerade runt ett tag och jag tog några bilder, bland annat på några gravstenar. En av dessa hade rests över en judisk man – Hyman H Stein – som dödades under Ardenneroffensiven. En googling gav än mer information, och en liten berättelse med en djupare personlig innebörd:
Dear Uncle Hymen, You died
a year before I was born, and
have pursued me all my life.
You were killed while attacking
a German bunker in the Ardennes,
the Battle of the Bulge. You were
wounded twice before.
While still recovering, you
went back to be with your men.
I found in my attic the box
with your medals and the flag of your burial.
En annan person som ligger begravd här är mer känd, närmare bestämt general George Patton. Till skillnad från Hyman dog han av skadorna efter en bilolycka i Heidelberg, ett halvår efter krigsslutet.
Verksamhetsutvecklare med inriktning på webb och nya medier. Statsanställd. Fritidsfotograf och fd arkeolog. Web, development, social web, amateur photographer.
arkland 
Interesting post! The Ashenazic (east-european) Jews have a taboo against naming children after living relatives. Names in general are very important to them; there is a prayer that asks god to ”inscribe our names in the book of life.” There is a superstition that naming a child after a living relative will confuse the supernatural beings that look after our souls, even causing the angel of death to take the wrong person – i.e., the younger person – rather than than the older one who was supposed to have died.
There is a strong tradition, though, of naming children for dead relatives, often grandparents, but others as well. In the ”liten berättelse” that you link to, the nephew named for his Uncle Hymen writes, ”If I am you…” This suggests another reason for/by-product of these naming traditions. It links this generation to a previous one, to its stories and history. In a group like the Jewish people, so committed to maintaining not only its identity, but also its existence over vast distances of time and space, sharing a name with a forbear can be a very powerful thing.
Oh, thanks, that is very interesting. Didn’t know about those naming traditions, quite a different approach to christian traditions.