Blogging from the Highlands of Scotland until I return to the Murcia region of Spain in the Spring for about three months
'From fanaticism to barbarism is only one step' - Diderot

Wednesday, 27 January 2010

Hell becomes Paradise - memories of the Holocaust

I've just been watching a very moving testimony from one of the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust of WWII on BBC4. Told she was about to be shot, then told to return to the ghetto (which she had hitherto considered 'Hell' - one can only imagine the conditions she had already experienced there), this was instantly transformed into a 'Paradise'; the stark and calm way in which she expressed her feelings at the time was tremendously impressive. How thankful I am that I have never been faced with such Hellish (and I use the word advisedly) choices and experiences. The lady in question, Holocaust survivor Alice Sommer Herz, is now 106 years old, although the programme was filmed when she was 98 years old. This lady, still playing her piano wonderfully at age 98, is a living testimony that evil does not triumph.

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