Last night I finished listening to the book, We Were The Lucky Ones.
A description of the book:
Inspired by the incredible true story of one Jewish family separated at the start of World War II, determined to survive—and to reunite—We Were the Lucky Ones is a tribute to the triumph of hope and love against all odds.
It was hard to listen to this but yet I couldn’t stop. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine how some of these people (not just those in the book but everyone who was going through this) to live. How do you get up, put one foot in front of the other, when the future looks so grim, you’re so cold, hungry and have no idea what’s happening with those you love and care about.
As I read, I kept thinking about how the people who went through this time, most of them never saw it coming. Life was normal. Then they began hearing about things happening but thought it would never happen to them. I couldn’t help but be reminded of things happening in our country.
I’m definitely NOT comparing what’s happening here to what happened to these people – mostly Jewish people, but not only the Jewish people.
Now, we have voices being silenced, if you say something a vocal group disagrees with, you’re labeled racist or a hater. I can’t tell you how many times I want to write about something here on the blog, and it’s never anything political or religious – those things that we all, or most of us used to know not to mention, but then I stop and wonder if someone will perceive it completely differently from how I’m meaning it, and then I delete it.
We see things happening that we feel are wrong, but we’ve learned to keep our mouths shut and not take a stand. I’m not advocating for doing anything . . just saying this book really made me think about a lot of things I didn’t think I’d think about when I started listening to the book.
I highly recommend this book!
Sara Fridley says
Good food for thought. I was an exchange student in Germany in 1971 and I asked the mother of my host family (grew up near one of the camps) why no one in the town did anything to help. She said it was fear – because anyone who asked questions disappeared too. I’ve never forgotten that conversation.
Sue Edberg says
Judy, thank you for this post. What you said is exactly how I feel. I have lost several friends over the past few years because I have disagreed with what they said. I am so tired of all the intolerance and being called a racist, a bigot, etc. just because I disagree with someone. I am Jewish and both my father’s family and mother’s family came to the USA from Russia. My grandfather was killed by the Russian Tsars. My great uncle (Dad’s uncle) had to leave Russia or be put into prison. He ran to America and eventually brought the rest of his family here. My father was born in Russia and my mother was the youngest child in her family and was born in this country. I was brought up to remember our history and never forget. Unfortunately, too many of us are forgetting. Whatever happened to civil discourse and being able to debate ideas and not just being shut down? I keep telling people they need to wake up. I am going to look for this book!
Linda in NE says
Maybe the lesson is that people shouldn’t censor themselves just because strangers, or even friends, will call them names. We know what we are in our hearts and just because someone calls us a racist or a bigot doesn’t make it so. Anyway, it annoys me if I share a post on something that really needs to be shared & not a single soul even hits the “like” button, because I know they’re just afraid of what someone might think. I have opinions and every so often I voice them. 🙂 I’m 67 years old and have pretty much quit caring what anyone thinks of me.
Bett Herndon says
The atmosphere has certainly changed. I don’t remember a time when I had to be so careful what I said or a commit on what someone else said. Beyond all this, try Lilac Girls: A Novel by Martha Hall Kelly; From Sand and Ash by Amy Harman; The Alice Network by Kate Quinn. All are very good and highlight different aspects from the personal side of WWII. I just started The Huntress by Kate Quinn. I enjoy her style of writing.
Cathy H says
Judy, I read that book as well and was amazed the entire family made it through such horrific events. We must never forget the lessons learned from the Holocaust.
Marcille says
These are things I have often thought about myself, and I do worry that staying silent to avoid the unpleasantness is exactly what allows it to take hold. Will we wait to speak out about what is happening until it’s too late?
dezertsuz says
Most of us are peace makers, but at some point, the peace cannot be kept with those who don’t want it. I can’t get over the hatefulness of some people today. I was brought up that if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, but it appears today, when I look at comments on news articles and other kinds of things, most people believe if you can’t say something nasty, why bother to breathe.
Nelle Coursey says
Sounds like a very interesting book. But we can’t just sit by and say nothing when we see an injustice. We can’t let our privileges and rights be taken away from us. I am not being political here but some people just need to grow up! We all have things that offend us and if everyone stopped making everything everyone was offended by, there would be no products for sale and no one would be making a living! We do need freedom of the press and freedom of speech. But how far do we go? Just wondering?? Oh, I don’t vote for the party, I vote for the person.