Dealing With the Past

Going through my papers for this blog today, I found my mother’s birth certificate. Born in Cracow, Poland in 1941, her first years were in the heart of the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. Every time I see this I go through my own kind of “Vergangenheitsbewältigung”, dealing with the past. In the same search I found the ‘guide-book’ to Auschwitz/Oswiecim, that I visited in 1989.

Details here:

My mothers' birth certificate, Cracow, Poland, 1941
My mothers’ birth certificate, Cracow, Poland, 1941

As Paul Thomas Anderson rightly observed in the film Magnolia: “We may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us.”

1989 Guide to Auschwitz
1989 Guide to Auschwitz

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