Wehaveavoidedwarandfaminebuthavenoideawhatliesahead
DO you find yourself getting out of bed these mornings, asking yourself is this really happening? It’s certainly something I’m doing.
At my age I’m thinking I nearly dodged a carefree existence from birth to death. It has often crossed my mind that people of my vintage have been extraordinarily fortunate to have gone through our lives without having to suffer a war or experience a famine. Most of us have been blessed in that respect. Yes, there have been wars across the world, there have been the ‘ Troubles’ in Northern Ireland, poor people everywhere experience terrible privations, but my generation was the first in a long time that did not have to suffer the hell of war. What must it have been like during the 1914–1918 and 1939–1945 wars for those on the front, for the millions suffering raping, bombings, shortages and rationing? The unspeakable crimes at the death camps must never be forgotten.
Precisely in these days, 75 years ago Hitler realised that the game was up as the Soviet Army was approaching Berlin. On April 22, 1945, he told his closest cronies from his bunker in Berlin that suicide was his only recourse.
To think of the devastation and hell that he caused during his 12 years as German chancellor. Of course there were many and varied reasons why World War II happened. Is it not another reason for us to realise how fragile the world is?
Last year I read Vasily Grossman’s Stalingrad. I’m back reading the book for a second time. In these days of Covid-19 it takes on a whole new meaning.
It is a story of inexplicable pain and suffering and history too. Grossman worked as a journalist with the Red Army. After the war he fell out of favour with Stalin. The book was published in 1954 and the English translation appeared last year. It is a powerful read.
It tells the story of the epic battle at Stalingrad, now called Volgograd.
Stalingrad was the first serious defeat for the German Army. It was here that the might and power of Germany was torn asunder and it was torn asunder by the sheer doggedness and genius of the Russian people. Grossman takes the Shaposhnikov family living in Stalingrad and traces their lives in the lead-up to the battle and then during the bloody months of the battle itself, which lasted from August 1942 to February 1943.
No one knows the exact number of casualties at Stalingrad but in or about two million people lost their lives, including 40,000 civilians.
Reading the story of Stalingrad it is almost impossible to comprehend the misery and pain that people suffered. The fortitude of the Russian people and how against all the odds they routed the invader has to be admired.
We have no idea what lies ahead of us. But we do know that my generation in Europe is one of the few generations in recent times that has avoided the pain and suffering that is unfortunately far too common on this planet.
Will this end in war? Trump said at one of his recent White House press conferences that the US had so much ammunition they did not know what to do with it. I heard him say it.