War Thoughts

I have war on my mind. It is an inevitable symptom of the research I do for my book about my grandparents in 1945 postwar Slovenia, and I accept it.* Their stories of imprisonment, death and violence creep into my dreams turning them into nightmares, they invade my thoughts without warning. Instead of recoiling from their stories of hatred and savagery, they seem to suck me in and the more I learn of these times of hardships and oppression the more intrigued, amazed and disgusted I am by the human spirit. The cycle continues; making me seek out more information on this turbulent, dark blotch in human history. I find myself reading more books, watching movies, researching - anything to catch a glimpse into the horrific struggles that was daily life under occupation and war.** I will never understand what life was like, or grasp the full magnitude of the fear, courage and deprivation that these brave souls endured; but I hope that it will allow me to appreciate the fortunes of my life on a new scale. 

Were people just stronger and more resilient 70 years ago, or does it take death, hunger and fear to bring that strength out in people? My Grandparents have always said that they didn’t have time to think about what they were doing, they just did whatever they had to do to survive. But it goes much deeper than that - they risked their own lives to protect the life of a loved one, or even a stranger. 

A few weeks ago I was at a bar with some friends on a Saturday night, nothing out of the ordinary - except that I had just finished watching the incredible HBO miniseries ‘Band of Brothers’. When I looked around the bar at all the 19-35 years old crowd, all I could think was... ‘All these men have would be shipped off to Europe, and forced to the front lines of a brutal war, left to die at the hands of shrapnel, disease or gunshot’. I think of my fiancee being forced away from our home and our lives together to go and fight in a war half way across the world. I am not a morbid person who gets their jollies thinking about death and suffering. But I do believe in remembering and honouring the trials and tribulations that people must suffer during war - all wars; past, present and future - in order to appreciate and maintain peace.

  *  Please visit the blog post A Book is Born for more information on my book.

** I just finished ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife’ and have started ‘The Requiem’. Please see the start of my booklist on the right hand bar of my blog