10.1.11

Humor And Elegance

Last week I finished reading an Anne Frank book called 'The Last Seven Months of ANNE FRANK: The stories of six women who knew Anne Frank' by Willy Lindwer. I came across the following paragraph(s) and it caught my attention, humored me a bit, but the poignant undercurrent is really strong. I want to share it with you folks. The essence of the whole situation described is simply charming.

The setting is a Nazi concentration camp in Poland during the Second World War.

"I remember something very nice about the French girls. They had been shaved completely bald. They found a little piece of glass and a small comb with three pongs. With that they combed their eyebrows, looking into the little mirror. Then they tied clothes around their heads and looked again to see they weren't still a little bit elegant.

I find such things delightful. The Nazis tried to set countries and nations against each other and to attack and take away a person's best quality-his dignity. And so I find people like those French girls so marvelous-those girls who fixed up their eyebrows with a little dirt in order to look a little better-really what the French call esprit, the strength not to give up, not to knuckle under . Never." 

-  Janny Brandes-Brilleslijper

1 comments:

Vivi said...

Damn, that's touching!