Posting inspired by The Introverted Reader
To my knowledge there is no link to Jewish ancestry in my family, but that does not not stop me from feeling a whole host of emotions when discussing or reading about the Holocaust. When I first saw Remembrance Week mentioned I knew that I would take part in some way, making a contribution to that Remembrance.
Over the last few years I have read various books written by survivors or research that has been undertaken by a family member of someone who perished. I remember reading the Diary of Anne Frank when I was about 14 or so and feeling completely overwhelmed with the book and the life cut short by the author. I read a few years ago the book, The Boy in the Stripped Pyjamas by John Boyne. I would urge readers to purchase a copy and read it; it is a very difficult book to describe, and is both terrifying and gentle at the same time.
We are more than 60 years from the end of the Second World War and the atrocities that took place. Yet, every now and again, we see in the papers or hear on the news that those who are still alive and have been located are being held to account for their involvement.
Just recently, in the local regional newspaper to the South West of England, The Western Morning News dated 16th April 2011, I read of an article titled "Film reveals hidden truths about Nazi War Criminal".
It transpired the a local man had been an avid film fan and whose haulage business was involved with the rebuilding of Germany after the war. Either that gentleman or an employee bought the films back to England where they have recently been discovered. Had the details of the films been available in 1964 when the individual was tried for War Crimes there would well have been a very different verdict from the one that was handed down at the time.
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