Friday 6 September 2013

Towards persecution



Now it begins in earnest. Clara has to sell her house. The SS arrive to make sure the transaction has gone through. World War II has started. They all worry about rationing and whether the young men will be called up to fight. I’m still in the autumn of 1939 so there’s still a hope that “it will all be over by Christmas”.
We’re moving gradually towards the darker times. Soon Clara will have to go and live in Rexingen. She will live there in poverty but at least she will be free. Then she will have to move on to Theriesenstadt and Treblinka. Will she at last accept that things are bad?  Soon she will bump into Hani at the Nordbahnhof in Stuttgart. I’m minded to make her try to stay optimistic for the young girl’s sake but I think at last in this scene she is beginning to see through the Nazi’s plans. She will still have some hope. And she will continue to see the best in everyone.
Holocaust stories are particularly difficult. If they’re too dark there is little motivation for the reader. If they are too sanitized there is no justice for the victims. A tricky balance.             

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