Blockade Leningrads
Verfasst: 29 Jan 2004, 14:44
Yesterday my mother-in-law, who is staying with us for a three month's
holiday - as always during winter - was a little bit depressed. The
reason was that yesterday, 27th of January, was the 60th birthday of the
end of the siege of Leningrad. On 8 September 1941, the Germans reached
Leningrad. Instead of trying to overwhelm the city, like they would do
with Stalingrad, they closed it off from the rest of the city. Only 900
days later could the siege be lifted. All that time, there were
virtually no roads leading in or out of the city. One would think that
the lifting of the siege would be a happy celebration. But for those who
lived through it, like my mother-in-law, it brougth back memories of
suffering, memories of hunger and cold and friends and family who didn't
survive. My mother-in-law, who was a child at the times remembers for
instance how her baby brother died literally in her arms, during winter,
when they were living in a few rooms with only three walls: the facade
was blown away by an artillery attack.
People in the West can hardly imagine the sufferings the people from
the Soviet Union went through during World War 2. Almost every family
lost one or more members. A lot of families disappeared completely. The
sad thing is for a lot of people the hard times didn't end in 1945. This
trauma is deeply ingrained in the Russian psyche. Even for the younger
generation, who didn't have to live through it, it is still a reality
thanks to the first hand stories they got from their relatives.
Maybe we should take a moment to think about the millions of victims of
this brutal war and think of all the sacrifices the Russians of that
generations made - and all the suffreing they had to live through.
http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/pcavalle ... radweb.htm
http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/siege.asp
As a tribute this poem of Anna Akhmatova:
THE FIRST LONG RANGE ARTILLERY FIRE ON LENINGRAD
A multi-colored crowd streaked about,
and suddenly all was totally changed.
It wasn't the usual city racket.
It came from a strange land.
True, it was akin to some random claps of thunder,
but natural thunder heralds the wetness of fresh water
high clouds
to quench the thirst of fields gone dry and parched,
a messenger of blessed rain,
but this was as dry as hell must be.
My distraught perception refused
to blieve it, because of the insane
suddenness with which it sounded, swelled and hit,
and how casually it came
to murder my child.
http://users.tellurian.net/wisewomenswe ... rAkhmatova
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ein, wie ich finde, sehr eindrucksvolles Zitat.
Gruss
Regina
holiday - as always during winter - was a little bit depressed. The
reason was that yesterday, 27th of January, was the 60th birthday of the
end of the siege of Leningrad. On 8 September 1941, the Germans reached
Leningrad. Instead of trying to overwhelm the city, like they would do
with Stalingrad, they closed it off from the rest of the city. Only 900
days later could the siege be lifted. All that time, there were
virtually no roads leading in or out of the city. One would think that
the lifting of the siege would be a happy celebration. But for those who
lived through it, like my mother-in-law, it brougth back memories of
suffering, memories of hunger and cold and friends and family who didn't
survive. My mother-in-law, who was a child at the times remembers for
instance how her baby brother died literally in her arms, during winter,
when they were living in a few rooms with only three walls: the facade
was blown away by an artillery attack.
People in the West can hardly imagine the sufferings the people from
the Soviet Union went through during World War 2. Almost every family
lost one or more members. A lot of families disappeared completely. The
sad thing is for a lot of people the hard times didn't end in 1945. This
trauma is deeply ingrained in the Russian psyche. Even for the younger
generation, who didn't have to live through it, it is still a reality
thanks to the first hand stories they got from their relatives.
Maybe we should take a moment to think about the millions of victims of
this brutal war and think of all the sacrifices the Russians of that
generations made - and all the suffreing they had to live through.
http://it.stlawu.edu/~rkreuzer/pcavalle ... radweb.htm
http://www.saint-petersburg.com/history/siege.asp
As a tribute this poem of Anna Akhmatova:
THE FIRST LONG RANGE ARTILLERY FIRE ON LENINGRAD
A multi-colored crowd streaked about,
and suddenly all was totally changed.
It wasn't the usual city racket.
It came from a strange land.
True, it was akin to some random claps of thunder,
but natural thunder heralds the wetness of fresh water
high clouds
to quench the thirst of fields gone dry and parched,
a messenger of blessed rain,
but this was as dry as hell must be.
My distraught perception refused
to blieve it, because of the insane
suddenness with which it sounded, swelled and hit,
and how casually it came
to murder my child.
http://users.tellurian.net/wisewomenswe ... rAkhmatova
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ein, wie ich finde, sehr eindrucksvolles Zitat.
Gruss
Regina