Originally published on the CGS blog on June 6, 2014.
Today on this 70th anniversary of D-Day, we pay tribute to those who served and those who sacrificed their lives. We remember, in the words of President Obama speaking on Omaha Beach in Normandy, France, “the more than 150,000 souls set off towards this tiny sliver of sand upon which hung more than the fate of a war, but the course of human history.” He said, “These men waged war so that we might know peace. They sacrificed so that we might be free. They fought in hopes of a day when we’d no longer need to.”
This was the hope and vision of so many veterans who returned from WWII. A world where the law of force was supplanted by the force of law. Today we not only honor those who fell, but those who came home and said, “We must never do that again” and worked for world peace through world law.
I think of men like Hamilton Kean, who served in a tank in the war, and whom we will honor with the Global Citizens award in a few weeks at our annual conference. Ham has committed his life to education and advocacy for a world in which nations work together to abolish war, protect our rights and freedoms, and solve the problems facing humanity that no nation can solve alone.
I think of men like Ben Ferencz, who liberated Nazi concentration camps, returned to Europe as a prosecutor in the Nuremberg tribunals and then went on to successfully work for the creation of the International Criminal Court. Ben is an inspiration for so many.
I remember my dad, Bob Kraus, who served in the Army Air Corp and would have been 93 today. I thank him for his vision of a peaceful world that helped to shape my path and mission.
And I think of all of those other returning WWII vets who came together to found the United World Federalist in 1947. Today we stand on their shoulders. They created the foundation and vision of a world where humanity will know war no more.
