As part of events marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the International Choir of Deutsche Welle faced the history of the perpetrators. And he sang about peace. And suddenly an elderly man emerges from behind the dunes. Supported by two men dressed in black, he walks slowly towards the beach. Where as a 19-year-old American soldier with the US 456th Mobile Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion he landed on Utah Beach, Normandy, as it is called, in the early morning hours of June 6, 1944. “What’s your name, sir?” I shout at him. “Dennis, Dennis Boldt, 99, of Missouri.” His legs won’t hold him, but he doesn’t stop, he wants to step on the sand of the historic 5 km beach. He gasps, pauses, and continues.

The men in black around him belong to Walk Among Heroes, an organization that offers trips to American World War II veterans to share their heroic stories with others. Sitting in the wheelchair, we surround him, we ask him, we want to know what happened then, in those critical hours, to absorb as much as we can in this so unexpected encounter with history. He, too, with a knot in his neck, bends down and grabs a handful of sand, shaking his head.

“Emotional Climax”

Around him Elena from Uzbekistan, Shingo from Japan, Ivona from Poland, Ina from Ukraine, Francisco from Argentina, Rana from South Korea, Franz from Germany and many others, all members of the Deutsche Welle International Choir. It is a few days after the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings and the choir is taking part in Normandy’s first choral festival as part of this historic jubilee. Dennis Bold asks everyone what country they are from and never gets tired of taking pictures with us always smiling. And when the time comes for him to leave, he is accompanied by our prolonged applause. Small tribute to what he and his comrades in arms offered to the cause of world peace. It is also the message that we, the members of the International Choir of Deutsche Welle, bring to another one of our trips. A message that we “transmit” with songs from all over the world, in the language they were written in and in another language that breaks through barriers, builds bridges, conveys messages and creates friendships, the language of music, of song.

“For me the emotional highlight of our trip was meeting the veteran at Utah Beach,” says Maya Brown, conductor of the choir. “Because I managed to get to know someone who risked his life to free Europe, and us Germans, my family, from National Socialism.” Later that day at the American Cemetery next to the endless white crosses in Colleville-sur-Mer the DW choir sang a capella Von guten Mächten, a religious song he wrote in 1944, the year of the Normandy landings and shortly before it was executed by Nazi, Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The next day in the city of Caen we visited the Memorial museum of the city where the entire operation of the landing codenamed Overloard is presented in detail. The choral journey continued to the churches of Sainte Croix of Saint-Lo and Saint Nicolas of the city of Granville.

“Universal, timeless messages” through music

And we met other choirs, the French Hostofolia with members from Saint-Lo hospital and the Irish Akhali Talr´a. But the highlight was in the Notre Dame Cathedral of Coutances, in this magnificent Gothic church of the 8th century, where all the choirs together, professional and amateur, 250 choristers, as the Choir of Peace, we sang We are the World written in 1985 by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie. “It was a unique night with all these choirs,” said Guillaume Ehm, executive director of Choral Events, an association that has been organizing choral festivals for 27 years, on the DW microphone. “We work with many choirs throughout the year, maybe 80, 90, but it’s not always the case that we meet choirs with so much positive energy. We spent 5 intense days together, but very pleasant because your repertoire, from Africa, to Asia, then to America, your universal and timeless messages, and your kindness, will remain unforgettable for us, thank you very much!”

“The musical highlight for me was the concert in the Cathedral” Maya told us, “holding hands to sing together for peace, like brothers, this shows us that by singing together we can change a lot”. “First a return to the dark pages of history and then this shocking meeting with the choir members under different conditions than in rehearsals” says Andreas Griego, who works at the DW Academy. “For me this was the highlight because I got to know the choristers under different circumstances, and that strengthens the feeling of belonging to a group.” And after the common evening meal in the great hall of the parish the Irish choirs, all of them retired, proved to be more “resilient” not only in the songs of our own African repertoire but also in … dancing. “One of the most emotional trips for me,” sums up Maya on the return trip, “because we had the same special situation as our trip to Greece, to Kalavryta, where as Germans we came face to face with our past as perpetrators, but on the other hand I was very impressed by the understanding they showed.” Thanks to the redemptive song…