Milestones: War Remembered

During the coronavrius lockdown, Publisher Miles Barber rediscovered a favorite book of his, Tattooist of Auschwitz, he compares that tragedy to today's.

The stay at home lockdown is working.

Difficult? Yes. Inconvenient? Yes. Pain in the derriere? Yes.

Necessary? Yes.

SPONSORED

Most important, the numbers are moving in the right direction. Infections of the coronavirus are stable.

Three months ago, who would have thought we would essentially be confined to our homes, have limited movement and be stuck watching old movies for the third time?

It does bring out some creativity as we look for options to pass the time. Many of those odd jobs we have continually put on the back burner now have received some attention.

The “honey do” items of the past year or so have finally received some attention. Cleaning out the garage, organizing drawers, sorting through the closets, reading that book you received last Christmas. Or was it Christmas the year before?

One of those books uncovered in my process was the “Tattooist of Auschwitz.” Based on the true events of a survivor and his girlfriend (whom he married after WWII), the book is a gripping account of a young man who avoided a certain death sentence in the crematoriums at Auschwitz.

It might be revealing to note that more people were put to death in these crematoriums in one week than all the people who have died in the United States from the coronavirus in the last two months.

We have experienced other calamities, not far removed in time, with much greater devastation and death than the current crisis.

This year 2020, denotes the 75th year since the end of WWII. This month celebrates the surrender of Germany. Many of our readers and residents can recall some of the cloudy memories of this brutal period. The loved ones who never returned, the lifetime injuries of those who did.

It is important for the reality of what took place during that time be told, shared and revealed to our youth that they may know and comprehend.

Man can be most dangerous to man.

We will live through this period, hopefully becoming a misty memory of minor misery.

The corona war will pass and leave its scars of inconvenience and loss. We can lay the blame on the freakish actions of nature.

The coronavirus experience will become history to be remembered.

Manmade, Auschwitz was a period in history that should never be forgotten.

View Comments

Anthony Becker says:

April 22, 2020 at 8:26 AM

as a millennial...in the future I will always recall on the pandemic of 2020 as it will have an everlasting place in history locally, nationally and globally. It will be the..."where were you when....." the modern day like 9/11, Pearl Harbor, JFK assassination, Auschwitz, Hurricane Katrina, 1989/1906 bay area quakes were of yesteryear.
We will overcome these dark times, we always keep fighting back. We are the comeback kids. We fight darkness with light.
We will beat this pandemic and economic turmoil.