The Lexicographer's Rules

"I had come back to Dondyushany armed to the teeth. I had two pistolsŃone Russian, one GermanŃa dagger, some 20 rounds of machine-gun ammunition and two hand-grenades. I couldn't recognise my village. I had difficulty finding our house, which seemed minute, like a toy. I was hailed by our neighbour, a girl called Klava Russu. She was so pleased to see me, but in all that time I had never given her a thought. I'd forgotten that she existed. I was 11 years old. I could neither read nor write."

—Prospect Magazine. Alexander Gelman tells of being a child during the Second World War and of the deportation of his family and other Jews from the town of Dondyushany, Romania. "Volodya was the first to die. He had been born just before the outbreak of the war. Mama was breast-feeding him. On the third or fourth day's march, her milk gave out and the child died. He died while we were on the move and Mama carried his little dead body as far as the next halt, still on the right (Romanian) bank of the Dniester River. I remember that my father found a handleless spade and began to dig. At that point someone came up and told him that a woman had also died, the mother of people we knew. It was decided to bury the two together. They dug a shallow grave near the river bank and lowered the woman into it. And then on top of her, on to her breast, they laid my little brother wrapped in a cloth. They covered them with soil. And we moved on."'

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?