wwi centennial Former enemies unite for ceremony

Associated Press

SAINT-SYMPHORIEN, Belgium

Separated by only a small patch of yellow daisies at the Saint-Symphorien military cemetery lie two former enemies: British Captain Kenneth James Roy and German Gefreiter Reinhold Dietrich. Also between the two are some 9 million dead soldiers over four years.

Roy died in the first month of World War I, trying to stop the early German onslaught through Belgium. Dietrich died two weeks before the war ended with a German defeat.

On Monday, from Glasgow, Scotland, to Liege and the small Saint-Symphorien in southern Belgium, leaders of the former enemies Belgium, France, Britain and Germany stood together in a spirit of reconciliation to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of conflict that became known as The Great War.

On Aug. 4, 1914, Germany invaded neutral Belgium as part of a planned attack on France, forcing Britain to declare war by nightfall and unleash the biggest conflagration the world had known.

“It opened Pandora’s Box,” said German President Joachim Gauck, who acknowledged that it “is anything but self-evident to stand and talk to you on this day” and be warmly welcomed by the nation Germany overran.

Gauck openly spoke of “the great injustice” of invading Belgium and the wanton destruction of the university library in Leuven and other civilian brutalities during the first weeks of the war.

British Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the spirit to heal such deep wounds and such deep-rooted enmity.

“We should never fail to cherish the peace between these nations and never underestimate the patient work it has taken to build that peace,” he said at dusk, a few hours before the moment Britain declared war on Germany a century ago.