Why did the Chicken crossed the Road?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

DR. PHIL: The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

GEORGE W. BUSH: We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL: Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road...

JOHN KERRY: Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.


DR SEUSS: Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.


ERNEST HEMINGWAY: T o die in the rain. Alone.

GRANDPA: In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

ARISTOTLE: It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.


JOHN LENNON: Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES: I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@##***(C% ........reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN: Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON: I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

AL GORE: I invented the chicken!

COLONEL SANDERS: Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY: Where's my gun?

Ο νέος πόλεμος της Κριμαίας Που και γιατί χρειάζεται να προσεχθεί η όδευση του αγωγού South Stream

Ο νέος πόλεμος της Κριμαίας Που και γιατί χρειάζεται να προσεχθεί η όδευση του αγωγού South Stream


Του πρώην Βουλευτή Έβρου Χρήστου Κηπουρού

Οφείλω μια μεγάλη χάρη στο δίδυμο των Σημίτη και Παπανδρέου. Με ενέπνευσαν με τη στάση τους να γράψω όχι ένα αλλά δύο πολιτικά βιβλία για τους αγωγούς. Το πρώτο, είναι συμβατικό. Έχει ως τίτλο «Αγώνας για τη γεωοικονομική Δημοκρατία». Το δεύτερο, ηλεκτρονικό, με τίτλο «Σημειώσεις Πολιτικής Γεωοικονομίας». Αφορμή, ο κατ΄ ευφημισμό ονομασθείς Ελληνοτουρκικός αγωγός Προύσας {Καρατζαμπέυ}-Κομοτηνής {1} αφού το φυσικό αέριο που θα καταναλώνουμε ως χώρα, συμφωνήθηκε από την προηγούμενη Κυβέρνηση να το πληρώνουμε στην Άγκυρα, αντί βέβαια για το Μπακού, μια και λέγεται ότι είναι Αζέρικο. Πριν λοιπόν από όλα απεκάλυπτα αυτό που οι πρώην απέκρυπταν επιμελώς. Και που το έκαναν, με την αμέριστη συνδρομή των Μέσων. Από τα ενεργειακά ρεπορτάζ έως τα πολιτικά. Δηλαδή τα λογοκριτικά.

Κάτι το οποίο ενέτεινε το ενδιαφέρον μου να επεκταθώ, ψάχνοντας την ευρύτερη γεωοικονομική χωροταξία ολόκληρης της Ευρασίας. Προϊόν αυτής της προσπάθειας ήταν μεταξύ άλλων, ο Εύξεινος Αγωγός. Μια μελέτη του 2003 που με μεγάλη χαρά, οφείλω να ομολογήσω, είδα μετά από τρία τέσσερα χρόνια, να αρχίζει να συζητιέται ως North και South Stream. Αναδημοσιεύω μάλιστα με την ευκαιρία του σημερινού σημειώματος το χάρτη που είχα κάνει τότε, και βρίσκεται έκτοτε στην ηλεκτρονική σελίδα του Δημοκρίτειου Πανεπιστημίου Θράκης {2}. Ευτυχώς, γιατί οι διανοητικές ληστείες στην Ελλάδα, δίνουν και παίρνουν.


Δεν διεκδικώ δάφνες ή αξιώματα. Και την όρεξή μου από τη Βουβή Βουλή την πήρα. Η χαρά είναι αλλού. Βρίσκεται στην αρμονική σχέση των επεξεργασμένων σκέψεων και των συναισθημάτων που μόνο αυτή οδηγεί στην παραγωγή. Και βρίσκεται επίσης στο πολιτικό και στο ηθικό δικαίωμα να μιλώ. Αυτό άλλωστε και έκανα πάντοτε. Ένας λόγος περισσότερο τώρα, που οι εξελίξεις επιβεβαιώνουν τις προτάσεις μου. Μπορώ λοιπόν αλλά και οφείλω να επισημάνω άλλη μια φορά, το κενό που υπάρχει στο σχέδιο του αγωγού φυσικού αερίου South Stream. Γιατί σε πολλούς χάρτες που δημοσιοποιούνται, φαίνεται να παρακάμπτεται η Θράκη. Κάτι που στην ουσία, τη θέτει υπό την τουρκική ενεργειακή ομπρέλα. Καθόσον τα 750 εκατομμύρια κυβικά μέτρα αερίου που συμφώνησε επί Σημίτη να αγοράζει η Ελλάδα από την Τουρκία, διαμέσου του αγωγού Προύσας Κομοτηνής, χρησιμοποιούνται από το εργοστάσιο παραγωγής ηλεκτρικού ρεύματος, που βρίσκεται στην Κομοτηνή! Οπότε, οι όποιοι συνειρμοί και συμβολισμοί δεν έχουν την ανάγκη ιδιαίτερης φαντασίας. Τα γεγονότα είναι ομιλητικότατα.
Αυτό λοιπόν που οφείλει η κυβέρνηση με το σχέδιο του South Stream είναι να μην παρακαμφτεί η Θράκη. Ιδίως σήμερα που μετά από σιωπή τεσσάρων και πλέον ετών, ο Καραμανλής επέλεξε να μιλήσει για πρώτη φορά περί εισαγωγής φυσικού αερίου από την Τουρκία. Ίσως για να πέσει στα μαλακά το θέμα, εν μέσω της ευφορίας για την υπογραφείσα ενεργειακή συμφωνία του αγωγού South Stream. Ίσως και λόγω τύψεων από τα πρόσφατα εγκαίνια του αγωγού Προύσας Κομοτηνής, στους Κήπους, όπου έχανε τα λόγια του, δίπλα στον ακτινοβολούντα ικανοποίηση Erdogan.


Γιατί έστω τότε, όφειλε ο Έλληνας πρωθυπουργός να πει: «Ναι στον αγωγό Κασπίας Ευρώπης, τον I.T.G.I , ναι και στο τμήμα Προύσας Κομοτηνής αλλά η Τουρκία όπως η Ελλάδα να αποτελέσουμε χώρες διέλευσης. Transit Countries. Και όσες ποσότητες αερίου χρειαστούμε για την ελληνική κατανάλωση να τις προμηθευόμαστε από τις παραγωγούς χώρες, καταβάλλοντας απλά επιπλέον τέλη διέλευσης». Και όχι βέβαια να κινείται η Ελλάδα επί της πεπατημένης των πρώην και να επεκτείνει την εξάρτηση της από την Τουρκία και προς άλλες ενεργειακές μορφές, όπως η ηλεκτρική ενέργεια. Και μάλιστα να βαφτίζονται όλα αυτά διασυνδέσεις. Με άλλα λόγια, Γεωοικονομική Δημοκρατία αντί γεωοικονομικού κεμαλισμού, μετά των ομώνυμων εξαρτήσεων, που αυτός σχεδιασμένα προωθεί, αρχίζοντας από την στρόφιγγα στην Προύσα, και το κατά το δοκούν άνοιγμα και κλείσιμό της.


Αυτά και άλλα πολλά γράφω στα βιβλία μου και στα άρθρα. Αυτή όμως τη στιγμή με ενδιαφέρει άλλο. Το όλο ενδιαφέρον επικεντρώνεται στις συζητήσεις των μεικτών εξ ειδικών επιστημόνων επιτροπών για το South Stream. Εκεί, όπου οφείλουμε ως χώρα να θέσουμε τα υπέρ της όδευσης Βάρνας-Αλεξανδρούπολης πλεονεκτήματα. Αυτό διότι επί ικανό τμήμα, από το ύψος δηλαδή του Burgas έως την Αλεξανδρούπολη, ο αγωγός του φυσικού αερίου, όσο και ο ομώνυμος πετρελαιαγωγός -ανεξάρτητα αν εγώ δεν είμαι θιασώτης του- θα τρέχουν παράλληλα, ο ένας δίπλα στον άλλο. Οπότε και η Θράκη θα διατρέχεται από τον αγωγό South Stream αλλά και τα κόστη του θα είναι μικρότερα.


Εκείθεν, παράλληλα με την οδική Εγνατία, από τον Έβρο έως τη Θεσπρωτία, μπορεί πολύ πιο εύκολα και με μικρότερο επίσης κόστος να κτισθεί η Ενεργειακή Εγνατία. Από τη μια ο I.T.G.I. και από την άλλη ο South Stream {Εικόνα. 1}. Στη συνέχεια, από τα παράλια της Ηπείρου έως τις απέναντι ακτές της Ιταλίας, θα ακολουθήσουν οι υποβρύχιες ζεύξεις. Τι πιο λογικό άλλωστε και πιο συμφέρον από το να προταθεί αλλά και να κτισθεί όλο αυτό το σύστημα. Η μητέρα Εγνατία με τους δύο αγωγούς γιους, που θα λείπει μόνο το ζευγάρι της. Ο ομώνυμος ηλεκτρικός σιδηρόδρομος. Επίσης και κάποιες νεότερες τεχνολογικά συγγενείς, όπως η Νουμερική Εγνατία.


Τώρα θα πρέπει να καταλαβαίνουν όσοι μας προπηλάκιζαν και μας διέγραφαν, όταν τη δεκαετία του ΄90, κάναμε αγώνα για την Εγνατία οδό. Και που τον συνεχίζουμε, μέσα από την ενεργειακή, αλλά και τις υπόλοιπες εκδοχές. Δεν περίμενα βέβαια από τους παλιούς μου συντρόφους να μιλήσουν ή να γράψουν κάτι σχετικό με όλα αυτά. Πότε μήπως έγραψαν; Κρίμα που είχαν και αξιωματούχους που διετέλεσαν επίτροποι στην Ε.Ε. και δη στην ενέργεια. Γιατί και που έβγαλαν εκπροσώπους να σχολιάσουν τα της Μόσχας, με τα όσα είπαν, ότι δηλαδή δεν υπάρχει ακόμη μια ολοκληρωμένη εικόνα κλπ., έδειξαν ότι δεν είχαν να πουν τίποτε. Άλλωστε και τι να έλεγαν; Ότι ο αγωγός φυσικού αερίου Προύσας Κομοτηνής που τόσο προπαγάνδισαν, αποδείχθηκε τελικά ότι ήταν περισσότερο ένα τουρκικό σχέδιο παρά Αμερικανικό; Ότι, όπως έγινε ήταν σε κάθε περίπτωση, ένα εξωελλαδικό σχέδιο; Ή ότι υπέγραψαν την αγορά από ένα κράτος-μεσάζοντα αντί να ζητήσουν, όπως θα όφειλαν, από την Τουρκία να αποτελέσει Transit Country και όχι προαγωγό. Τουρκιστί, Davaci. Ή να εγκαλέσουν σήμερα την κυβέρνηση γιατί δεν θέτει θέμα για την παράκαμψη της Θράκης από τον South Stream;


Τέλος, υπάρχει ένας ακόμη λόγος για τη διαμέσου της Θράκης διέλευση. Σχετίζεται με τη Γεωοικονομία και τη Γεωιστορία της ευρύτερης περιοχής κατά το δεύτερο μισό του 19ου αιώνα, που απετέλεσαν μετά από τον Κριμαϊκό πόλεμο την αιτία ίδρυσης από Ρώσους μηχανικούς της Αλεξανδρούπολης. Η οποία αν είχε κτισθεί από πριν και είχε αποκτηθεί η δια αυτής προσπέλαση στο Αιγαίο, σαφώς και θα ήταν διαφορετική η έκβαση του πολέμου. Ας μην επεκταθώ και στην προ αρκετών δεκαετιών Ρωσική πρόταση για τη διάνοιξη διώρυγας στη Θρακική ξηρά. Ενός θαλάσσιου By pass των Δαρδανελίων. Ο Έλληνας πρωθυπουργός μπορούσε να τα υπενθυμίσει όλα αυτά. Θα κέρδιζε η ίδια η Γεωοικονομική Δημοκρατία. Και η Ρωσία αλλά και η Ελλάδα. Θέλω να πω δηλαδή ότι ο νέος πόλεμος της Κριμαίας που ήδη άρχισε, μπορεί να μην έχει την έκβαση του προηγούμενου. Άλλο Αλεξανδρούπολη, άλλο Σεβαστούπολη. Τρόποι και διπλωματικοί κανόνες για να εκφραστούν όλα αυτά, υπάρχουν. Και μάλιστα αποτελεσματικά. Και όχι μόνο να εκφραστούν αλλά και να εφαρμοστούν επιτυχώς, γιατί και οι άλλες πλευρές, δεν πρόκειται να καθίσουν με σταυρωμένα τα χέρια.

__________


Σημείωση {1}, Χρ. Κηπουρός, Νέος γύρος στη μάχη του Φυσικού αερίου, βλ. εφημερίδα Επενδυτής, 18 & 19 Αυγούστου 2001. Επίσης του ίδιου, Αγώνας για τη Γεωοικονομική Δημοκρατία, Εκδόσεις Γόρδιος, Αθήνα 2002. Βλ. επίσης την εικόνα 1.

Σημείωση {2}, ο. π. Σημειώσεις πολιτικής γεωοικονομίας, βλ. ιστοσελίδα Δημοκριτείου Πανεπιστημίου Θράκης, ΔΠΘ, http://alex.eled.duth.gr/kipouros/ Επίσης βλ. «Αγωγοί, παραγωγοί και προαγωγοί στην Ευρασία», εφ. Επενδυτής, 25 Αυγ. 2007. βλ. επίσης την εικόνα 2.

Pascha in Dachau 1945

The Souls of All Are Aflame

By Douglas Cramer

In 1945, a Paschal Liturgy like no other was performed. Just days after their liberation by the US military on April 29, 1945, hundreds of Orthodox Christian prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp gathered to celebrate the Resurrection service and to give thanks. The Dachau concentration camp was opened in 1933 in a former gunpowder factory. The first prisoners interred there were political opponents of Adolf Hitler, who had become German chancellor that same year. During the twelve years of the camp's existence, over 200,000 prisoners were brought there. The majority of prisoners at Dachau were Christians, including Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox clergy and lay people.

Countless prisoners died at Dachau, and hundreds were forced to participate in the cruel medical experiments conducted by Dr. Sigmund Rascher. When prisoners arrived at the camp they were beaten, insulted, shorn of their hair, and had all their belongings taken from them. The SS guards could kill whenever they thought it was appropriate. Punishments included being hung on hooks for hours, high enough that heels did not touch the ground; being stretched on trestles; being whipped with soaked leather whips; and being placed in solitary confinement for days on end in rooms too small to lie down in.

The abuse of the prisoners reached its end in the spring of 1945. The events of that Holy Week were later recorded by one of the prisoners, Gleb Rahr. Rahr grew up in Latvia and fled with his family to Nazi Germany when the Russians invaded. He was arrested by the Gestapo because of his membership in an organization that opposed both fascism and communism. Originally imprisoned in Buchenwald, he was transported to Dachau near the end of the war.

In fact, Rahr was one of the survivors of the infamous death trains, as they were called by the American G.I.'s who discovered them. Thousands of prisoners from different camps had been sent to Dachau in open rail cars. The vast majority of them died horrific deaths from starvation, dehydration, exposure, sickness, and execution.

In a letter to his parents the day after the liberation, G.I. William Cowling wrote, 'As we crossed the track and looked back into the cars the most horrible sight I have ever seen met my eyes. The cars were loaded with dead bodies. Most of them were naked and all of them skin and bones. Honest their legs and arms were only a couple of inches around and they had no buttocks at all. Many of the bodies had bullet holes in the back of their heads.'

Marcus Smith, one of the US Army personnel assigned to Dachau, also described the scene in his 1972 book, The Harrowing of Hell.

Refuse and excrement are spread over the cars and grounds. More of the dead lie near piles of clothing, shoes, and trash. Apparently some had crawled or fallen out of the cars when the doors were opened, and died on the grounds. One of our men counts the boxcars and says that there are thirty-nine. Later I hear that there were fifty, that the train had arrived at the camp during the evening of April 27, by which time all of the passengers were supposed to be dead so that the bodies could be disposed of in the camp crematorium. But this could not be done because there was no more coal to stoke the furnaces. Mutilated bodies of German soldiers are also on the ground, and occasionally we see an inmate scream at the body of his former tormentor and kick it. Retribution!

Rahr was one of the over 4,000 Russian prisoners at Dachau at the time of the liberation. The liberated prisoners also included over 1,200 Christian clergymen. After the war, Rahr immigrated to the United States, where he taught Russian History at the University of Maryland. He later worked for Radio Free Europe. His account of the events at Dachau in 1945 begins with his arrival at the camp:

April 27th: The last transport of prisoners arrives from Buchenwald. Of the 5,000 originally destined for Dachau, I was among the 1,300 who had survived the trip. Many were shot, some starved to death, while others died of typhus. . . .

April 28th: I and my fellow prisoners can hear the bombardment of Munich taking place some 30 km from our concentration camp. As the sound of artillery approaches ever nearer from the west and the north, orders are given proscribing prisoners from leaving their barracks under any circumstances. SS-soldiers patrol the camp on motorcycles as machine guns are directed at us from the watch-towers, which surround the camp.

April 29th: The booming sound of artillery has been joined by the staccato bursts of machine gun fire. Shells whistle over the camp from all directions. Suddenly white flags appear on the towers a sign of hope that the SS would surrender rather than shoot all prisoners and fight to the last man. Then, at about 6:00 p.m., a strange sound can be detected emanating from somewhere near the camp gate which swiftly increases in volume. . . .

The sound came from the dawning recognition of freedom. Lt. Col. Walter Fellenz of the US Seventh Army described the greeting from his point of view:

Several hundred yards inside the main gate, we encountered the concentration enclosure, itself. There before us, behind an electrically charged, barbed wire fence, stood a mass of cheering, half-mad men, women and children, waving and shouting with happiness their liberators had come! The noise was beyond comprehension! Every individual (over 32,000) who could utter a sound, was cheering. Our hearts wept as we saw the tears of happiness fall from their cheeks.

Rahr's account continues:

Finally all 32,600 prisoners join in the cry as the first American soldiers appear just behind the wire fence of the camp. After a short while electric power is turned off, the gates open and the American G.I.'s make their entrance. As they stare wide-eyed at our lot, half-starved as we are and suffering from typhus and dysentery, they appear more like fifteen-year-old boys than battle-weary soldiers. . . .

An international committee of prisoners is formed to take over the administration of the camp. Food from SS stores is put at the disposal of the camp kitchen. A US military unit also contributes some provision, thereby providing me with my first opportunity to taste American corn. By order of an American officer radio-receivers are confiscated from prominent Nazis in the town of Dachau and distributed to the various national groups of prisoners. The news comes in: Hitler has committed suicide, the Russians have taken Berlin, and German troops have surrendered in the South and in the North. But the fighting still rages in Austria and Czechoslovakia. . . .

Naturally, I was ever cognizant of the fact that these momentous events were unfolding during Holy Week. But how could we mark it, other than through our silent, individual prayers? A fellow-prisoner and chief interpreter of the International Prisoner's Committee, Boris F., paid a visit to my typhus-infested barrack Block 27 to inform me that efforts were underway in conjunction with the Yugoslav and Greek National Prisoner's Committees to arrange an Orthodox service for Easter day, May 6th.

There were Orthodox priests, deacons, and a group of monks from Mount Athos among the prisoners. But there were no vestments, no books whatsoever, no icons, no candles, no prosphoras, no wine. . . .

Efforts to acquire all these items from the Russian church in Munich failed, as the Americans just could not locate anyone from that parish in the devastated city. Nevertheless, some of the problems could be solved. The approximately four hundred Catholic priests detained in Dachau had been allowed to remain together in one barrack and recite mass every morning before going to work.

They offered us Orthodox the use of their prayer room in Block 26, which was just across the road from my own block. The chapel was bare, save for a wooden table and a Czenstochowa icon of the Theotokos hanging on the wall above the table an icon which had originated in Constantinople and was later brought to Belz in Galicia, where it was subsequently taken from the Orthodox by a Polish king. When the Russian Army drove Napoleon's troops from Czenstochowa, however, the abbot of the Czenstochowa Monastery gave a copy of the icon to czar Alexander I, who placed it in the Kazan Cathedral in Saint-Petersburg where it was venerated until the Bolshevik seizure of power. A creative solution to the problem of the vestments was also found. New linen towels were taken from the hospital of our former SS-guards. When sewn together lengthwise, two towels formed an epitrachilion and when sewn together at the ends they became an orarion. Red crosses, originally intended to be worn by the medical personnel of the SS guards, were put on the towel-vestments.

On Easter Sunday, May 6th (April 23rd according to the Church calendar) which ominously fell that year on Saint George the Victory-Bearer's Day Serbs, Greeks and Russians gathered at the Catholic priests' barracks. Although Russians comprised about 40 percent of the Dachau inmates, only a few managed to attend the service. By that time repatriation officers of the special Smersh units had arrived in Dachau by American military planes, and begun the process of erecting new lines of barbed wire for the purpose of isolating Soviet citizens from the rest of the prisoners, which was the first step in preparing them for their eventual forced repatriation. In the entire history of the Orthodox Church there has probably never been an Easter service like the one at Dachau in 1945.

Greek and Serbian priests together with a Serbian deacon wore the make-shift vestments over their blue and gray-striped prisoner's uniforms. Then they began to chant, changing from Greek to Slavonic, and then back again to Greek. The Easter Canon, the Easter Sticheras everything was recited from memory. The Gospel "In the beginning was the Word" also from memory. And finally, the Homily of Saint John Chrysostom also from memory. A young Greek monk from the Holy Mountain stood up in front of us and recited it with such infectious enthusiasm that we shall never forget him as long as we live. Saint John Chrysostomos himself seemed to speak through him to us and to the rest of the world as well!

Eighteen Orthodox priests and one deacon most of whom were Serbs participated in this unforgettable service. Like the sick man who had been lowered through the roof of a house and placed in front of the feet of Christ the Savior, the Greek Archimandrite Meletios was carried on a stretcher into the chapel, where he remained prostrate for the duration of the service.Other prisoners at Dachau included the recently canonized Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich, who later became the first administrator of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the US and Canada; and the Very Reverend Archimandrite Dionysios, who after the war was made Metropolitan of Trikkis and Stagnon in Greece.

Fr. Dionysios had been arrested in 1942 for giving asylum to an English officer fleeing the Nazis. He was tortured for not revealing the names of others involved in aiding Allied soldiers and was then imprisoned for eighteen months in Thessalonica before being transferred to Dachau. During his two years at Dachau, he witnessed Nazi atrocities and suffered greatly himself. He recorded many harrowing experiences in his book Ieroi Palmoi. Among these were regular marches to the firing squad, where he would be spared at the last moment, ridiculed, and then returned to the destitution of the prisoners' block. After the liberation, Fr. Dionysios helped the Allies to relocate former Dachau inmates and to bring some normalcy to their disrupted lives. Before his death, Metropolitan Dionysios returned to Dachau from Greece and celebrated the first peacetime Orthodox Liturgy there. Writing in 1949, Fr. Dionysios remembered Pascha 1945 in these words:

In the open air, behind the shanty, the Orthodox gather together, Greeks and
Serbs. In the center, both priests, the Serb and the Greek. They aren't wearing
golden vestments. They don't even have cassocks. No tapers, no service books in
their hands. But now they don't need external, material lights to hymn the joy.
The souls of all are aflame, swimming in light. Blessed is our God. My little
paper-bound New Testament has come into its glory. We chant "Christ is Risen"
many times, and its echo reverberates everywhere and sanctifies this place.
Hitler's Germany, the tragic symbol of the world without Christ, no longer
exists. And the hymn of the life of faith was going up from all the souls; the
life that proceeds buoyantly toward the Crucified One of the verdant hill of
Stein.

On April 29, 1995 the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Dachau the Russian Orthodox Memorial Chapel of Dachau was consecrated. Dedicated to the Resurrection of Christ, the chapel holds an icon depicting angels opening the gates of the concentration camp and Christ Himself leading the prisoners to freedom. The simple wooden block conical architecture of the chapel is representative of the traditional funeral chapels of the Russian North. The sections of the chapel were constructed by experienced craftsmen in the Vladimir region of Russia, and assembled in Dachau by veterans of the Western Group of Russian Forces just before their departure from Germany in 1994.

The priests who participated in the 1945 Paschal Liturgy are commemorated at every service held in the chapel, along with all Orthodox Christians who lost their lives at this place, or at another place of torture.