The Stalingrad Madonna,Dr. Kurt Reuber

During this Season most Holy,surrounded by comfort and joy,it is good to reflect. These Madonnas were drawn by a German Doctor,a physician treating the German 6th army,a Lutheran Pastor and friend of Albert Schweitzer.Dr Reuber, in cold that is impossible to imagine, in a hopeless situation, attempted to bring some light to the darkness of Stalingrad.The Stalingrad Madonna,drawn on back of a Russian map, served as a reminder to some, that there was Light life and hope.Still,even in the frozen inhuman hell of the savage battle for the city on the Volga.The second Madonna,drawn at Christmas in 1943, one year later, is darker,Mary and the Christ looking like hunted refugees[which,essentially there were}after Dr Reuber had been in a prison camp for one year. Where oh where was the LIGHT that The Darkness could not Overwhelm?Perhaps in the hearts of some, and in a small bunker where a doctor tired to keep himself and others alive.These Madonnas speak to me deeply,of suffering and hope.That is the message of Christmas