Last night, A. and I were startled awake by the wailing that we would normally associate with a blitzkrieg or a tornado. Aside from the fact that I did see and photograph a funnel cloud over Busingen two weeks ago (see right), we know that tornadoes are extremely uncommon in Europe, and a blitzkrieg is only likely if a squadron of Nazi or Allied planes suddenly exited a wormhole from 1944 over the Rhine.
In this region, air raid sirens are now used to call the fire brigade out of their beds to the scene of a fire.
It was 2:30 a.m. last night when the sirens went off and we bolted out of bed and opened our blinds. About half the town's fire brigade is made up of members of our offices. Between the buildings and trees we saw headlights and movement, and we knew our colleagues were scrambling to the fire station. About 30 minutes later, the campus manager flipped on the campus lights and went to all the doors to ensure they were locked.
We tried to go back to sleep, but couldn't. I was finally starting to drift off when the sirens went off again at 4:30 a.m. Shortly after we saw more cars and then heard police sirens shrieking up and down the streets. That indicated fire No. 2.
I put in my earplugs and A. went out to the couch to read. I drifted off about 5 and he fell asleep about 6. I had nightmares for the next few hours. It was basically a sleepless night.
Today we learned that at 2:30, arsonists set a trailer ablaze in our village. After that, they burned four or five cars in the next town over and also set an apartment building basement on fire. Twelve people were sent to the hospital with smoke poisoning and more people are unable to return to their apartments. They came back to our village around 4:30 and ignited a garage (attached to a home) and destroyed the BMW inside.
Just two weeks ago, while I was in Ohio, at 2:30 a.m. (the same time as last night) arsonists destroyed a brand new public school gymnasium a few streets away. It sustained half a million euros in damage. This is the gym where our students played soccer on Friday afternoons.
That same night, several hours earlier, some teenagers were ringing our apartment buzzers and then running away. A. waited for them in the dark foyer entry area and when they came back, he burst out of the doorway and scared them. They ran off.
That week someone burned up three boats on the river and more cars in one town over.
According to a local news Web site, people are frightened and the police are baffled, unable to get any evidence or name any suspects. There have been rewards posted.
I felt more safe when I thought that the arsonists were just targeting empty buildings. Even then, I was worried about our office buildings, especially mine, which is just made of wood and drywall and where the server is located that has backed up all our files and information for the work we do on the region and on my magazine.
Last night's attacks on inhabited buildings and homes definitely raises this to a whole new level. When this all started a few months after we got here, I personally felt that people weren't taking all the vandalism, theft and harassment seriously enough. I think they finally began taking it seriously when the public school gym burned down.
Here's a news clip about the gymnasium that was destroyed. It's in German but you can see the damage. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpnNEdNreKI
We have a lot of visitors on campus, and frequently they'll comment to us that we're living in "paradise."
Not so much.
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