Is anyone out there feeling at a loss? I’m a librarian and I feel like I’m in a helpful place but I know many who hold deep fears. I am reading the book “Diary Keepers: World War II in the Netherlands, as seen by the people who lived through it” by Nina Siegal.
Now, I’ve only read the prologue and partway through the introduction, but it has helped me define much of what I’m feeling, as our society continues to divide into what feels like warring factions. It quotes historian Peter Fritzsch: “The war erased whole horizons of empathy. It fundamentally altered human relationships, and as such, it was intimate, personal and close to home.”
And that feels so current when I look at how anger is overtaking so many people. Also in the introduction “This new way of writing recent history emphasized the ‘moral witness’ voices of survivors …”
We may not have a lot of power to effect change on the larger scale but we need to record, to be “moral witnesses.” And we need to remind ourselves that in those times filled with unimaginable loss, there was a kernel of hope that eventually grew.
Julie Cavacco
Deerfield