Saturday, May 08, 2021 (18 days before May’s “Flower Moon” rises fullest to Earth)
The local PBS television has scheduled my favorite news-related show, Amanpour and Company, in late evenings, at 10 p.m. I’m usually exhausted as Christiane Amanpour’s hour begins, and often can’t stay awake throughout. Nonetheless, it’s my good fortune to follow her fine episodes, since also, they’re podcast.
Last night, I had no trouble remaining wide awake and riveted as Christiane interviewed an astute, articulate 98-year-old woman,Selma van de Perre. An amazing person, she was a Nazi-era Jewish Resistance fighter and a Ravensbrück concentration camp survivor. Her autobiography, My Name Is Selma, already is highly regarded and next week will become available in America. Quickly, I pre-ordered it.
I, too, am a child of Jews. My ancestors immigrated to America prior to the Holocaust. They long had been victimized in their home countries for being Jewish. For me, learning about the Holocaust while growing up was awful. Survivors’ stories could make me almost physically ill.
Selma van de Perre describes her experiences while still a high school teen. She had to survive losing to concentration camps her father, mother, and younger sister. Her story is a re-awakening, from the perspective of lifelong learning. Her experience, still vivid with the pain and terror of trying to stay alive, speaks to her incredible courage in how she managed to fight back. She explains with sound wisdom why so long afterwards she has written her book. She speaks to having memories daily of family lost and explains how she deals with them.
The interview has made me eager for more of that lady’s story.
A transition here, to explain that earlier in the day and way prior to Amanpour, I went strolling. With Peaches on my shoulder and a camera in my hand, it was a photo-journaling expedition. I might write more about it tomorrow, but meanwhile, enjoy photos of a neighbor’s beautiful dogs.
I love these of them telling me to, “Get lost!”
Dear Friends: As eighty becomes a “new sixty”, ninety-eight becomes the new seventy-eight. Diana
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