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I am not Jewish.
I’m not saying that’s good or bad. That’s just how it is.
The Holocaust will never be as personal for me as it is for others whose families suffered and survived.
Yet here I am, hosting Holocaust Remembrance Week on my blog, because I feel that it is important for all of us to remember what the world lost in a horrific war about 70 years ago. The numbers of survivors and witnesses are dwindling now, so it’s all the more important that those of us who came after carry on remembering and doing our best to make sure that we never let something like that happen again.
My grandfather was in the European theater during WWII. As far as I know, he never spoke about what he saw over there. I don’t even know if he encountered any camps or if he only saw armies fighting. Again, that’s not good or bad, that’s just the way that he dealt with it. It was a different generation. They didn’t talk things out. They buried them and did their best to move on. My grandfather passed away 18 years ago, taking all those memories with him, never to be shared with anyone.
I’m sure there are so many survivors and soldiers and civilians who were like him. It was easier to try to leave behind what they lived through and saw. That’s why it’s important that we read and watch and listen to those who did share their experiences. Most of us can’t conceive of the horrors of the Holocaust. It’s impossible to even wrap our minds around the numbers involved. Six million lives lost. The number is so big, it’s meaningless.
Yet we must make meaning out of it. By focusing on one person’s story, either in non-fiction or fiction and in any medium, we can start to realize what went on, and exactly how the world has changed forever afterward. We don’t know what any of those victims would have done with their lives. Most would probably have quietly loved and lived, the way most of us do, but we lost some brilliant minds too. What would Anne Frank have written if she had lived? What kind of scientific discovery would a nameless schoolboy have made? The beautiful young woman we lost in her prime–what music might her unborn children have written for us? Our world has been forever altered.
So, I have several reviews and a few other things lined up this week. I hope that you’ll join me in posting your own reviews or thoughts or anything else that you’d like to share in your own personal act of remembrance.
Link your posts on Mr. Linky below. If you’re unable to participate this week, I hope you’ll read some posts and find recommendations to check out in the future. To get you started, there’s already a fairly substantial list of recommendations in my event announcement.
My posts:
- Review: The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman
- Review: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- Review: Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi
- Character Connection: Elizabeth McKenna from The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
- Review: Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s, my local independent bookstore, and Better World Books. I will receive a small commission at no cost to you if you purchase books through links on my site.
13 Comments
Thanks again for hosting! If it's okay with you, I'll post all these review links on War Through the Generations.
I had planned to contribute earlier in the week, but one thing and another got in the way. I have just submitted a very general post.
I've added my link for my post that will appear tomorrow that recommends two poetry books about the holocaust. Thanks for hosting this!
Since I only recently learned of this, I won't have a book to review this week. But, instead I've done a post of the Holocaust related ones I already have. Just added it to Mr. Linky! It is good that you are organizing this, Jennifer.
I linked up a review I posted for Yom Ha'Shoah at the end of April, a new picture book on rescuer Irena Sendler. A very moving and inspirational story for older children or adults.
Gosh I wish I'd known about this. I would have scheduled books on the subject of the Holocaust.
But I'll stay tuned for the books you will post reviews on.
Thanks for hosting this. I began with a picture book and am planning to post about other books this week.
A friend of mine recently wrote a movie about her family's survival during WWII. It's called No. 4 Street of Our Lady. It details one woman's struggle to protect Jews in the Ukraine — it's one of the most uplifting films I have seen in a while, as difficult as it is to watch. You might enjoy it.
LIke Nikki-ann I am reading Sarah's Key (I plan on starting it as soon as I catch up with my Google Reader). I'll check back during the week and post my review when it's done
I'm going to have to miss this one since I'm still swamped by my reading and it will take me a week or two to get out. But I'll be following your reviews and looking forward to what others put up too!
Wow, thank you for posting this I think it's a wonderful idea. I will def. participate.
This was a beautiful opening post. I'm reading Sarah's Key right now (I started it last night and I'm already almost finished!). The story about your grandfather never sharing his stories is exactly the emotion de Rosnay calls up in her novel.
Thanks for hosting this. I will link my review when I'm finished.
I book I believe everyone should read (in order for this attrocity to never happen again) is Five Chimneys: A Woman Survivor’s True Story of Auschwitz by Olga Lengyel. It's truly moving and unforgettable. It'll stay with me for the rest of my life.