Touched By Auschwitz

-
The title of this blog post is borrowed from a documentary programme which was shown earlier this week and is still available on catch up. I've been to Yad Vashem in Israel. Hand on heart it was one of the most moving experiences of my life. When we went the names of the victims were read out on a loop but it was the huge piles of shoes, glasses and hair that really brought home the horror. This programme tracks how the experiences of the Auschwitz concentration camps affected the lives of a small number of survivors in the aftermath and how its legacy has impacted upon the "second generation".

This is from one of the interviewees Max Epstein who now lives in Chicago.

"It was very dark. The smallest act of kindness appeared like a large spark. I choose to remember the sparks. That's my motto and that's what I live by."

Arilx

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thrifty Saturday

-
Image
  Food storage and thrifty ways to achieve it. I haven't bought clingfilm or freezer bags for more than 20 years. The only times I've ever bought ziplock bags was when we needed them for the rare occasion when we fly....these are then washed out and used until they're no longer fit for purpose [then recycled]. This is just what I do...gnat bottomed by name gnat bottomed by nature😁 I've found that the bags which house breakfast cereal make fabulous freezer bags [they're also good for separating burgers when you want to freeze them and not have them end up in one big lump]. They're sturdy and keep the contents from going dry. When it comes to securing the top I have some bag ties, but I also keep the ties which come with the coffee bags, bits of stray garden wire, clothes pegs and even cutting the top of the plastic bag and then wrapping it round the neck works. Clingfilm. If I have to wrap something then I use foil and then, as every other thrifty person I know,
Read more

Thrifty Wednesday

-
Image
     With the current energy price rises looming I see much talk of buying air fryers, heated airers and other things to help people to save money and keep their usage as low as possible. Absolutely nothing wrong with any of that. We have a tiny kitchen with very limited storage space, so I think long and hard before I buy any gadgets [or anything for that matter]. Those that are here have earnt their place and when our slow cooker pot cracked earlier in the year we immediately replaced it. Our sc has seen much use for the standard things like casseroles and cooking gammon joints. I've done a fair amount of experimenting to see what else I can cook in it over the years. Bread  https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/slow-cooker-bread?fbclid=IwAR23FJf0raD5g_R6joW7XcRvUWybqh6M99SxiTEPG3ggXvI5um_3ufpx3Tc  was a surprising success [it seems counter intuitive] as was lemon curd and fudge [slightly different texture]. On Christmas day we made another suet pudding same as here  http://gnatbot
Read more

A Table for the Nation

-
Image
Phew I've just spent an amazing Morris weekend watching two local sides dancing [as part of the May day celebrations Broadwood Morris dance in a local church!] and performing with Mythago as part of the Sweeps Festival in Rochester. Over lunchtime I popped into the cathedral and found this huge 13m oak table on display in the nave. Aside from its size the most surprising thing is it has been made from a piece of 5000 year old black bog oak which was discovered purely by chance preserved in the peat of Wissington Fens in 2012. Due to its year of discovery coinciding with the Diamond Jubilee it was named the Jubilee Oak. If this was only a section heaven only knows how big the original tree must have been. This type of oak is the densest native hardwood and the only naturally black one. I was interested to learn that it also gives a unique sound when made into musical instruments and is much sought after for that reason. Maybe not surprisingly it took nine months to dry the wood out
Read more