
another book, another blog....
well, this one is based on experiences in a concentration camp during the holocaust. funny, but i had been searching for a long time, for a book that would describe in details what prisoners at Austwitch went through. this quest for info started after reading Vikram Seth's Two Lives. The book touches upon Hitler and the holocaust, but not in details.
Victor talks about his own experiences, various phases that a prisoner goes through in the camp and how, with increasing anguish, he hardens towards life. there are moments when one feels one has risen above all the pain that life can inflict upon you. the transformation from a rational human being to a near-animal like being is smooth, given the intensity of pain (both mental and physical). and then, it stops hurting (mentally and physically....). yes its the same world, where babies sleep in their mothers' laps, where little girls play with their dads, families have meals together and lovers talk about being in heaven. strange, that in the same world, there are atrocities such as these, that can shake a man like nothing can (not even death...).
stranger is the fact, that it is man who has created these varied facets of life.......
one story narrated by Victor remains in my mind.....there was a man at the camp who once dreamt that he will be free on March 31st. he believed it completely, and started looking forward to his freedom...life with his family, no pain....
March 31st came, and he was still there..at the camp. so much he had hoped, that the disappointment of his dream not coming true killed him....he breathed his last that day....finally free.
How much do we hope...?
well, this one is based on experiences in a concentration camp during the holocaust. funny, but i had been searching for a long time, for a book that would describe in details what prisoners at Austwitch went through. this quest for info started after reading Vikram Seth's Two Lives. The book touches upon Hitler and the holocaust, but not in details.
Victor talks about his own experiences, various phases that a prisoner goes through in the camp and how, with increasing anguish, he hardens towards life. there are moments when one feels one has risen above all the pain that life can inflict upon you. the transformation from a rational human being to a near-animal like being is smooth, given the intensity of pain (both mental and physical). and then, it stops hurting (mentally and physically....). yes its the same world, where babies sleep in their mothers' laps, where little girls play with their dads, families have meals together and lovers talk about being in heaven. strange, that in the same world, there are atrocities such as these, that can shake a man like nothing can (not even death...).
stranger is the fact, that it is man who has created these varied facets of life.......
one story narrated by Victor remains in my mind.....there was a man at the camp who once dreamt that he will be free on March 31st. he believed it completely, and started looking forward to his freedom...life with his family, no pain....
March 31st came, and he was still there..at the camp. so much he had hoped, that the disappointment of his dream not coming true killed him....he breathed his last that day....finally free.
How much do we hope...?