Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Hunger and the Red Cross

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you. ~Dick Cheney

I recently read a book called The Children of Freedom, written by Marc Levy and translated by Sue Dyson. I have a pile of books started but not finished, but I had no problems speeding through this one. Usually when I read a book that I enjoy I don't want to get to the end, however with this one as I approached the end of the book I needed to know how the story concluded, so I raced through to the pages.

Here is a link about the book The Children of Freedom.

Something that stays with me from the story is how these very young people were so hungry all the time and good food was hardly ever come by. The story also made me think about the Red Cross who are mentioned a few times and what a difficult job that they must have had, and what horrific sights they must have seen then and also today in the war zones on our planet.

Here is a link about the man who inspired the creation of the Red Cross.

The story is set in and around Toulouse in the south; France was split in half by the Nazis, but the whole of France was under Nazi rule.

Last year when I visited Laval, a town about an hours drive away from here not I stopped and took this photo, a small simple monument in memory of some brave people who resisted against the Nazis .

Resist


I had no idea that many of the resistance were not even French.

All those strong bold monuments remembering the fallen soldiers of France tend to be the young men who died in World War 1.

Freedom for France


A French expression to be starving is avoir l'estomac dans les talons.( to have your stomach in your heels!)
To starve affamé.

The French word for freedom is liberté

Finally a big thank you to my friend who sent me with the book, what a nice suprise! Merci mon amie!

7 comments:

LadyFi said...

Sounds like a book worth reading. I went very very hungry when I lived in China and cannot even begin to imagine the pain of true starvation.

Carol said...

I think I shall go and buy a copy of that...it sounds fascinating!!

I've never known real hunger but I've seen it first hand on the Thai/Burmese border....people should not be starving in this day and age!!

C x

Diane said...

That sounds like something I should read, given my list of WWII books to get through this summer. Thanks for the recommendation!

DAB said...

Great post Blu. Might just check this book out. TFx

Ken Devine said...

Good post. It reminds me once again of resistance in the area...especially Lieutenant Marienne who is buried at Plumelec.
The book I read was The Next Moon by Andre Hue (Penguin). I suspect everyone has already given it a read.
Like Tom Foolery, I think I'll check the book out.

claire p said...

I haven't come across this book but I will look it up. It's just the kind of thing my dad likes as well.

And thank you for your kind words about my writing, much apreciated.

Clive said...

Sounds like a very interesting read. Will check it out.