In the kitchen, reconciling with the enemy

This event stands out because it signaled a perceptible shift in my family's bond with the Geisses, the kind that meant they would become regular guests at our military-base apartment long after we had moved out of the temporary shelter in their house. Few other American families had this kind of friendship, and after my mother's horrific experiences during the Blitz in Britain, almost anyone would have forgiven her if she'd been hesitant to embrace Germans. But my parents always seemed to see the humanity in any situation first - above and beyond history or politics.

A German friend recently shared a story with some parallels to that of the Geisses, a story that offers a German family's perspective. Toward the very end of the war, on Good Friday, my friend's family expected their tiny village to be overrun by US soldiers. German troops were retreating, and my friend's family was trying to decide whether they should stay or hide in the hills above the village.

In a previous war, their village had been completely wiped out in a similar situation, with every person killed, so they were quite fearful. They also had a family member who was a prisoner of war overseas and who would later become my friend's father. Like the Geisses, these folks were just trying to eke out a simple life in terrible times, during a war that they wished had never happened.

They decided that since it was Easter weekend, they would stay home. Within hours, several vehicles pulled into their farmyard and US soldiers ordered them upstairs while the soldiers took over the lower floor of the house. My friend's aunt remembers how young these soldiers looked at the time.

As she and her sister peeked down, she saw that the soldiers were having trouble lighting the cook stove. To her family's horror, she bounded downstairs to help them. (Her sister would later tease her that the reason she'd done this was that the soldiers were so handsome.)

That night, soldiers and family feasted together on fresh eggs and the soldiers' rations. On Easter morning, the family came downstairs to find the soldiers gone, along with a basket of hardboiled eggs they had colored that week. In its place was a stash of chocolate.

"My family hadn't seen chocolate for years," my friend says, "and this, combined with how carefully the soldiers had left everything in its place ... gave everyone great heart, and the ability to believe that maybe things would be all right after all." The miracle of his father's return a short while later was the best evidence of that. As spring bulbs began to bloom in the yard, his family knew that, despite the ravages of war, they'd see green fields again.

It's no coincidence that Easter's arrival in spring, and the essence of its significance - resurrection - reminds us of the precious gifts of restoration and renewal that unfailingly come to all human affairs. It assures us that, no matter what has happened, no matter how long our personal winters go on, the new life in the spiritual pulse of spring always offers us another chance.

• Sunday is the 60th anniversary of the declaration of V-E Day, 'Victory in Europe' Day.

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