In his book 'Des guerres europeennes a l'Union de l'Europe' (From European Wars to the Union of Europe), Professor Henri Rieben of the University of Lausanne refers to the part played by Frank Buchman, Moral Re-Armament's founder, and the conference centre at Caux in Switzerland in bringing former enemies together.
Professor Rieben, who is Director of the Centre for European Research in Lausanne, writes that after visiting Caux, 'I could not forget what Europe owed to the dialogue and cooperation which developed during the decisive post-war years between Frank Buchman on the one hand and Konrad Adenauer and Robert Schuman on the other.' A similar reconciling influence, he points out, was at work between the war-torn countries of the Pacific.
He recalls Spinoza's idea that 'hate which is transformed into love can make that love stronger than if the hate had not existed in the first place.' He illustrates this with the example of Irene Laure (the former French resistance fighter and Socialist MP for Marseilles) and her experience of finding forgiveness in her heart towards the Germans.
'Forgiveness washes away the hatred which grips her,' he writes, 'prepares the way to friendship and leads Irene Laure to devote 40 years of her life to a commitment which bears fruit in the resulting Franco-German reconciliation.'
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