Ancestors

Written by Tristan Colgate-McFarlane on 2025-01-27 at 08:30

Since it's Holocaust Memorial Day, two of the most powerful books I've ever read (technically 3)...

I Shall Bear Witness, and Vol2 To the Bitter End, by Viktor Klemperer. Covers the lead up to the war, and his time in the camps. It's a detailed, and beautifully written diary, and includes the terrifyingly mundane reality of 1930s germany for the Jewish population, to the abject horror and degradation of the camps.

If This is a Man by Primo Levi is angry, raw and heart breaking.

[#]Holocaust

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Toot

Written by Tristan Colgate-McFarlane on 2025-01-27 at 08:33

part 3 of Klemperer's diary is The Lesser Evil, and covers his later life in east germany. It's an interesting insight into life in the USSR for a mid-level bureaucrat, but it's long and, for obvious reasons (blessedly so for Viktor), is not nearly as compelling to read.

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Descendants

Written by Maciek on 2025-01-27 at 17:44

@tmcfarlane This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen made the most lasting impression on me. Pretty rough though.

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