When I was ten, I went on the compulsory school “trip” to Auschwitz – concentration camp in Poland. Among other things, there was this huge wall of pictures. Sad faces of the prisoners were looking at us, kids, as if they were still begging for help, for rescue, for mercy. I couldn’t stop staring. Shaved heads and deep holes where eyes used to be. Women, men, children, Polish, Jewish, Russian, young, adolescent, older... All sizes, all colours. They all looked the same. When I think about it today, after fourteen years since that day, I can still see them and make distinctions. I remember every picture, every blank expression. It makes me cry as much as it made me cry back then. It makes me even more terrified than when I was a ten year old girl who didn’t know much about life and death. My late Grandpa would show me a tattooed number on his forearm and tell me about the difficult art of survival. He did. Miraculously. Others did not.
I didn’t understand it then. I don’t understand it now.
When I had finished reading “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak, I grabbed my hardback and held it tightly in my arms. I couldn’t stop crying. I closed my eyes and I saw The Faces. They spoke to me. They were angry. Sixty eight years later and nothing has changed, even though we all say that war is bad, killing is wrong, and Hitler was evil.
What is the story about? Is it about a young German girl who stole books to cheer herself up? About the War? Hitler? The Jewish nation? The Germans? Endurance? Friendship? Family? Words? Poverty? Hunger? Death? Life?...
It is a story about me and you, and about what we’ve got and what we do with it. How pointless are all our commendable acts in a face of evil and stupidity?! That’s what I call the war – Greatest Stupidity.
Not long ago I was writing about appreciation of life and how easy it can be to be happy if we only want to. If we just stopped fighting. Why is it so damn difficult? Why does the human race always want more more more?! Why do we loathe sharing so much? Why does friendship become more and more rare? Why do we let George Bush attack another country, another people?... Yes, WE let him do it. Because if everybody said NO, he wouldn’t have much choice. If there was no hatred in our hearts, there wouldn’t be pain. It so simple... But nobody listens. Yes, you agree with me now. But tomorrow you will forget. And I will forget too. That’s how we are.
Next time when you watch the news and you see another bombed house, another corpse lying in debris, don’t just sip your coffee. Please, stop for a moment and think what you can do in the small world around you to make it this little bit better. Don’t complain when somebody hurts you. Most of all, don’t hurt them back. Just bite your tongue and be proud of yourself that you have become a better person.
I know – I’m in your face now, almost like Coelho in his novels :) I’m just tired of all this shit, that’s all. And today’s blog is more to myself than to anybody else. So don’t get all frustrated. Just give it a go.
Thank you.
Oh, and read “The Book Thief”. It is so beautifully written, it grabs your heart and does not let go till the last page. Should be an obligatory reading at schools. Classic already.
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