I – 2 The individual is at the center of history

The individual is at the center of history – 

Every individual has their own story, but the memories of those who were persecuted and survived totalitarian regimes are often—if at all—told from the perspective into which people were forced. In the photo, we see the French master shoemaker André Mazingue in forced labor at the Stalag VIII a labor camp in the german city Görlitz.

When you reconstruct a person’s life story, you start with what you find of that person—what remains of them. This could be, for example, a metal tag from a forced-labor camp. Or you might visit a historic site where your grandfather was, and in this way, you restore the broader and personal context of the person who was objectified and dehumanized. “I was just in Dunkirk,” a friend told me recently, “where André was arrested along with a thousand other soldiers.” I spent a few hours on the historic beach. I cried. Of course, I cried. Human beings can be so devoid of humanity. Now I’ve seen both sides. Dunkirk, the arrest, and Görlitz, the captivity.” Jean Paul Ledun, grandson of André Mazingue