{"id":13642,"date":"2026-01-05T16:36:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T15:36:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/?p=13642"},"modified":"2026-08-15T17:30:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T15:30:54","slug":"i-2-the-individual-is-always-at-the-center-of-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/i-2-the-individual-is-always-at-the-center-of-history\/","title":{"rendered":"I – 2 The individual is at the center of history"},"content":{"rendered":"

The individual is at the center of history –\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Every individual has their own story, but the memories of those who were persecuted and survived totalitarian regimes are often\u2014if at all\u2014told from the perspective into which people were forced. In the photo, we see the French master shoemaker Andr\u00e9 Mazingue in forced labor at the Stalag VIII a labor camp in the german city G\u00f6rlitz.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

When you reconstruct a person\u2019s life story, you start with what you find of that person\u2014what 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.\u00a0\u201cI was just in Dunkirk,\u201d a friend told me recently, \u201cwhere Andr\u00e9 was arrested along with a thousand other soldiers.\u201d 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\u2019ve seen both sides. Dunkirk, the arrest, and G\u00f6rlitz, the captivity.\u201d Jean Paul Ledun, grandson of Andr\u00e9 Mazingue<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The individual is at the center of history –\u00a0 Every individual has their own story, but the memories of those who were persecuted and survived totalitarian regimes are often\u2014if at all\u2014told from the perspective into which people were forced. In the photo, we see the French master shoemaker Andr\u00e9 Mazingue in forced labor at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10999,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-preserving-family-history"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13642"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17794,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13642\/revisions\/17794"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/preserving-family-history.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}