Thursday, January 27, 2005

Grandchild of the Holocaust

60 years on from Auschwitz

On this day where we should all take some time to reflect on our place in the world, it seems appropriate to mention how moving I found last night's programme Grandchild of the Holocaust (BBC1). Perhaps it was the simplicity of the idea: the journey made by one family to understand its past and how the experiences they revisited had shaped everything since. One of the things I found especially moving was how the young boy, Adrian Salt (aged 13), expressed his growing understanding of why his grandmother had always found it difficult to answer his questions about her early life and what happened at Auschwitz and Belsen. What she knew, but what he could not have, was that only when the family was ready and able to go there - to truly see - could he begin to grasp her decision, her inability, to describe her experiences in response to simple questions.

The culminating shot, of the survivors with their grandchildren - so precious and treasured, so protected and fretted over - brought to life the significance of these grandparents actions within their families.

It is hard to decide on the most appropriate link here so I offer this link and this one as sources of thought.


1 comment:

Neil said...

Excellent and moving post. To paraphrase Adorno, after Auschwitz there has to be a new poetry. It is possible to do moving pieces on the Shoah. Let the memory never be extinguished.