Monday, April 20, 2009

Awareness & Appreciation


So a bunch of my girlie friends and I started a book club a few months back. We have read some good books--mostly humorous & light, but this book we are reading for April is far from humorous & light. I'm not good at book reports and I don't intend on doing a book review, but I felt that I needed to mention how much I appreciated the words written by Elie Wiesel. I remember in school learning of the Holocaust, reading the Diary of Anne Frank, & watching Schindler's List, but I don't think I fully understood how devastating the time period was. Now that I'm an adult with a family of my own, I am absolutely enraged & disappointed in the human race for making Jewish men, women & children endure what they did in the 1940s. Elie Wiesel told his story because wanted to give meaning to his survival and believes he has "a moral obligation to try to prevent the enemy from enjoying one last victory by allowing his crimes to be erased from human memory." It is inconceivable that something like the Holocaust could happen. I will never understand why Hitler made the decisions he did & how his men were able to carry out his insane orders. I'll admit, I am a little ignorant when it comes to the affairs of the world, and I do know that there is plenty of suffering going on in the world today, but I pray this attempt at mass extermination of a group of people NEVER happens again. I pray that lessons were learned & wounds are healing. I pray the world NEVER forgets the torture & devastation the Jews had to bear & most of all, I pray that my children & my children's children ALWAYS treat others as equals & recognize how VERY lucky they are to live in this free nation.
(my spell check isn't working & i realize i have several run-on sentences, but i hope you get my point)

1 comment:

knittingknirvana said...

This book is amazing. I read it for 8th grade English class. Can you believe it was a part of our 8th grade curriculum? A little heavy for 13 year olds. Although, it also gives them a dose of reality and shakes them out of their narcissism if only for a short while.