Cancer 197

I have read quite a lot of Holocaust literature. The subject fascinates me, as it reveals some of the worst and best aspects of human behaviour. Currently, I am reading Jozcef Debreczeni’s Cold Crematorium. Written just after the war by a Hungarian journalist who lived in Vojvodina, now part of Serbia. The book was largely unknown in the UK until it was recently published by Vintage Classics. It provides a detailed picture of the author’s experiences in various work camps, including a brief account of Auschwitz, but mainly within the Gross-Rosen group of camps, in the south of Poland.

Debreczeni was a journalist with an eye for detail. His descriptions of the suffering of the slaves are consummate. He describes the work, the beatings, the trading in the little food available, the constant deaths from violence and starvation, the illnesses, and so on.

What relevance does this have? For me, now, Holocaust literature is helpful. Some people wonder how I can read about pain and death like this, but it is helpful. I may have an illness that is slowly killing me, but at the moment, I have a generally good life. I may spend too much time going to hospital (6 out of 8 working days at the moment, in a couple of weeks it will be every day for radiotherapy), but on the other hand no one is beating me, no one is starving me, no one is making me spend twelve hours a day digging a tunnel in bare feet, no one is threatening me with instant death if I don’t take my cap off and stand to attention, or likely to shoot me at a whim. I sit in my garden with a glass of lemonade, sheltered from the sun under a canopy of trees, I have family and friends around me, I have the freedom to get in my car and visit places, even go on holiday (when I can get away from the hospital for long enough).

It is a simple comparison. There are always people who are worse off than you. The people in the camps were men, women, and children of all ages. At least I have lived most of a normal lifespan. During the Holocaust, they were killed as babies, children, and young people. It is an extreme example, but perhaps I need one.