tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post524855702225533214..comments2024-03-23T12:38:46.260+00:00Comments on The History Girls: Nazi Germany: The Nightmare Begins, by Leslie WilsonMary Hoffmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06241989732624913706noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-72850620721595476282015-06-01T16:53:42.382+01:002015-06-01T16:53:42.382+01:00Such an honest and reflective post and leaves us m...Such an honest and reflective post and leaves us much to consider - the ordinary life lived against the backdrop of the extraordinary which we only fully understand in hindsight. This was very much the theme of 'Stones from the River' by Ursula Hegi which I think we have talked about once. So many people didn't realise until it was too late because they were just getting on with winding the babies. <br />Love that totally unique observation - 'a cat-flap of opportunity'.<br />Well done Leslie, an excellent blogpost - look forward to the next installment and of course - the next edition of The Last Train from Kummersdorf.Miriam Halahmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17841164190139769948noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-87786540412670986102015-05-24T20:52:38.125+01:002015-05-24T20:52:38.125+01:00How awful, Sue! I mean, your family being murdered...How awful, Sue! I mean, your family being murdered. And your poor parents!<br />I don't think either of our existences exonerate the Nazis. I just sometimes find it slightly weird to think of the catastrophes that are responsible for mine. Leslie Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15105465949970430998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-31272822936361332002015-05-24T01:50:14.123+01:002015-05-24T01:50:14.123+01:00Very true! And when your shop has been smashed up,...Very true! And when your shop has been smashed up, even though you might read the details in the papers next day, you have more to worry about.<br /><br />I probably wouldn't have been born either if my parents hadn't been hauled off to concentration camps as teenagers and then met after the war in Germany. They simply wouldn't have met. That doesn't let Hitler and his minions off the hook. It's also why I never had grandparents or uncles or aunts(except one aunt in Israel).Sue Bursztynskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09362273418897882971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-24493171408099797652015-05-23T21:17:37.445+01:002015-05-23T21:17:37.445+01:00Yes, indeed! If the Communists and Social Democrat...Yes, indeed! If the Communists and Social Democrats HAD got together, for example. If they had known what was ahead of them, perhaps they would have done?<br />I would probably not have been born, however, without WW2 and what I make of that fact, I don't know.<br />I was thinking of Hilary's axiom when I wrote about Kristallnacht in Saving Rafael; all the people in the novel knew was that someone was smashing up THEIR shop and home. It took a while for them to realise it was going on all over the city; they didn't think: Oh, yes, we've got to Kristallnacht. One has to decouple onesself from what one knows and put onesself in the position of one's characters, and what they don't know, I think..Leslie Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15105465949970430998noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5502671101756463249.post-16955232324992915892015-05-23T12:32:59.796+01:002015-05-23T12:32:59.796+01:00I think what Ms Mantel meant may have been that we...I think what Ms Mantel meant may have been that we all have twenty-twenty hindsight. Which we do. It's fascinating to think that there was a blink-and-you'd miss-it period when Hitler could have been stopped. It might make for some great alternative-universe fiction. What, indeed, would have happened if someone had been able to stop him in that time?Sue Bursztynskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09362273418897882971noreply@blogger.com