Attending this event took me out of the the blissful Cartagena bubble that I have been living in and brought me back to the hard-hitting reality of our history and world. As it is International Holocaust Memorial Day it seems important to reflect on the horrors that occurred in the past. This was done in a very tactile way in the interview which was conducted by Azriel Bibliowicz. Photos were shown to the audience of the concentration camps. Then, Mr. Koren and Ms. Negev proceeded to tell the story of a dwarf family on which their book is based.
The family of dwarves had an extraordinary story as they survived Auschwitz even though they were potentially one of the ‘weakest and smallest’. Their survival was due to used for medical experiments rather than being used in the concentration camps. The interview went on to discuss the idea of this ‘deadly medicine’ how the methods used where so inhuman yet accepted, for instance none of the medical practitioners were punished for the vile ‘scientific’ acts that they took part in.
Although the event covered a dark topic, it also gave an enlightening perspective, whereby, Germany and Israel are now good allies and that although horrors of the past shouldn’t be forgotten but wounds can be healed and times can progress to be better.