Monday, April 1, 2019

A post on Instagram by a friend about World War II brought back memories. 
I had an uncle who had fought in WW II, in North Africa mainly, as I remember him telling me.  I was 13 or 14 at that time and had read any number of books on the war, mainly non-fiction.  I had read 'The Desert Fox' about Rommel and to me the fact that he had fought in a battalion against Rommel seemed romantic. 
Once it happened that I wanted to see the movie 'The Great Escape'.  I had already seen it once and wanted to see it again.  The only person who was free to come with me was this uncle.  He first refused to come with me.  But finally, being the really sweet person he was, he came very reluctantly.  Sometime during the movie, I looked at him and he had his eyes closed.  It is only much later that I realised how difficult it must have been for him, though the war had been over almost 20 years by then. Nobody knew about PTSD then.  Now that I do know, I realise what a sacrifice he made to come with me for the movie.
Much later, after reading more books on the horrors of the War and the concentration camps, I became a pacifist.

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