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...?
3 comments:
The Holocaust is literally at one extreme of what man can do to another. Its like man wanted to really know the limit of his remorseless cruelty. The pungent thing is that its spawned the greatest thinking of our times also. How life goes on. I must read this book, after your touching description of it.
hey there victor is a logo therapist who believe that man is adaptable to every situation and that if one has power over ones thinking (thats by practice called vipnasana in indian adaptation of the process)can overcome any hurdles.the intersting thing is that he talks of all the methods that lord budha or our rig ved professes.
just fr ur info
Holocaust is like a film. Some participated in its making, some saw it afterwards and think to this day how they would have reacted to the situations those characters faced, some deny blatantly that it ever took place.
Thoough I am yet to read 'The Tin Drun' by German Nobel winner Gunter Grass, I think that the greatest artistic achievement using the backdrop of Holocaust has been the novel by Hungarian Nobel winning Imre Kertesz - 'Fateless'.
I've not read the novel yet, but I have seen the film the screenplay of which was done by Kertesz himself. What it provides you with is a unique perspective into Holocaust. Do read this piece -- http://movies.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/movies/06fate.html
The last 3 paragraphs are the most important. As a viewer, they simply blow you away.
Using my initial metaphorical representation, I should say Kertesz was one of those who were involved in the making of the Holocaust-film and when he came out to sit with the viewers and watch it, he found himself irritated that none of them really understood it. However sad the film may have been, the characters enjoyed their role. They were living a sad part, but they had their own pleasures. Sitting among the audience, he is forced to think that being involved in the making was much more wonderful.
It's unique outlook, it's a historical experience. It questions the divide between atrocity and ordinary reality, between 'real' reality and make-believe.
I hope you find it interesting :)
-- Akshaya
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