“They drifted through life rather than lived, the prey of aimless days and sterile memories, like wandering shadows that could have acquired substance only by consenting to root themselves in the solid earth of their distress.”
(The Plague, Camus)
Historical events do not change but stay as they are. However, the same is not true of their interpretations. Some historians, even though they are neutral and meriting “like Procopius, weren’t to be relied on” (The Plague, Camus). Consequently, they caused a swirl of controversy by people defending or refuting the events at stake. Let us remember how the true histories and memories have been the forgotten stories of the actual survivors. Drawing upon the studies of Johann-Baptist Metz and what he calls the “dangerous memories” of Auschwitz and upon Albert Camus’ great novel, The Plague, we can retrieve the unspoken voices of these lost events of history. In this way we are able to come to a deeper level of conversion.