One Disturbing Read.....

I just finished a Jodi Picoult novel, The Storyteller. It flashes back from World War II Germany to the present time as an elderly man shares a horrible secret and asks a young woman for an extraordinary favor. It's not an easy read as much of it tells the story of how the Jews were persecuted, rounded up, put in concentration camps and "selected" to be gassed, or worked to death. But it is a book that grabs you and won't let go.

It got me wondering about boundaries.....and lines I would not cross. About moral compass and ethics and love for your fellow man. It got me wondering about a lot of big ticket items.

Early on in the narrative the author explains through the young boy Josef's voice, what happened to his family after WWI. He says...."To understand what I became you must know where I came from. ...My father was a machinst by trade and my mother kept house. My earliest memory is of my father and mother fighting over money. After the first Great War, inflation spiraled out of control. Their savings, which they had diligently put away for years, were suddenly worth nothing.....A cup of coffee was five thousand marks. A loaf of bread two hundred billion.....Most middle class families like mine were ruined."

Joseph and his younger brother joined the Hitler Youth....as did most everyone of their age. He excels because he is phyically strong and wins at competition. The leader of his troop is proud as are his parents because his efforts reflect well on his family.

On page 149 Josef says, "To be honest I do not know if my parents believed in the Nazi philosophy.....And if my parents had their doubts about Hitler's vision for Germany, they appreciated his optimism and the hope that our country could regain its greatness."

And that last sentence stopped me in my tracks. I think I re-read it four or five times....putting it in context. Thinking about all the people who seem to believe that the ends justify the means......not just in historical settings, but now....today....here.

Just change the names......