My husband has always been baffled by my fascination with this topic. After I finally gave in and broke down my reasoning, he finally understood after all these years together.
I truly hope this subject doesn’t offend anyone on the boards.
The only war I’ve ever cared about in school was WWII. Not for the act of genocide or the way Hitler was somehow about to manipulate an entire generation.
I have and will always be drawn to stories about the families, the marginalized groups, ALL the people whom lost everything because of Hitler’s regime. These are the stories that develop a feeling of insurmountable happiness for those that were able to survive and overcome those times, and for those who were lost to always be a reminder of what the world could have become had the Nazis hadn’t been stopped.
If you have any favorites regarding such matters, please do let share here in the comments.
For me:
1. Orphan Girl
2. The Book Thief
3. Secret Kept
All the Light We Cannot See, Lilac Girls, and – if I have the strength one day – Schindler’s List are all on my shelf waiting to be read.
by MrKBC
3 Comments
Add-on: I’m almost certain that I’ve read or know of more books already but a lot of those came about when I was still in junior or senior high school. It’s hard to remember every detail of those years. 🥴
Favorites seems inappropriate but I found If This Is A Man and The Truce by Primo Levi a harrowing read. The invocation is worth repeating:
You who live safe
In your warm houses,
You who find, returning in the evening,
Hot food and friendly faces:
Consider if this is a man
Who works in the mud
Who does not know peace
Who fights for a scrap of bread
Who dies because of a yes or a no.
Consider if this is a woman,
Without hair and without name
With no more strength to remember
Her eyes empty and her womb cold
Like a frog in the winter.
Meditate that this came about:
I commend these words to you.
Carve them in your hearts
At home, in the streets
Going to bed, rising;
Repeat them to your children,
Or may your house fall apart,
May illness impede you,
May your children turn their faces from you.
I know this may be outside the topics you were thinking (since he was a Jewish Psychiatrist in the holocaust)- I’d still recommend:
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.
He was a Jewish psychiatrist that survived Auschwitz. He takes his experiences from it and developed his own psychological theories of life. I know you mentioned about wanting to stay away from genocide/ etc. It is normally recommended for those reading who are sensitive to genocide (because reading those details can be a lot & that’s valid) to skip to the after WWII section of the book.
The first half is his accounts in Auschwitz. The second half his his psychological and philosophical perspectives. It’s something he observed that still applies to other cultures and even everyday life today.I highly recommend giving it an even half read. It’s worth it