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A review by desirosie
Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana Alexiévich
5.0
I’ve wanted to read several books by Alexievich for a long time now and this is the first one. Watching the war in Ukraine unfold in those first few shocking weeks triggered a deep grief in me that has been difficult to explain.
At first I took the book slow. Most of the stories are a page or two at most and so I would read a few and step away and think to myself, this is happening again, doesn’t anyone remember? VVP should read this book. Then revelations about Bucha begin and my grief becomes anger and I keep reading and in the second half of the volume the stories become almost unbearable but as I have done with this period in history since I was 11 years old, I make myself look because some of us have to.
A few notes: Alexievich was born in Ukraine, but spent much of her life in Belarus. She is currently in Germany, having left in 2020, as her role as a vocal critic of Lukashenko put her at risk. I don’t know how she conducted this research (the book was published in 1985), but the majority of the stories are from children who lived through the actual Nazi invasion of Belarus, and secondarily Ukraine, with some stories from western Russia (and just a few from the blockade of Leningrad). Some of these children were evacuated to the east, while many stories are from those who (barely) survived the occupation.
I think about the liberation and victory and these children’s memories, and that «наши!» have now become the destroyers and that someone like Alexievich will need do this again, one day.
At first I took the book slow. Most of the stories are a page or two at most and so I would read a few and step away and think to myself, this is happening again, doesn’t anyone remember? VVP should read this book. Then revelations about Bucha begin and my grief becomes anger and I keep reading and in the second half of the volume the stories become almost unbearable but as I have done with this period in history since I was 11 years old, I make myself look because some of us have to.
A few notes: Alexievich was born in Ukraine, but spent much of her life in Belarus. She is currently in Germany, having left in 2020, as her role as a vocal critic of Lukashenko put her at risk. I don’t know how she conducted this research (the book was published in 1985), but the majority of the stories are from children who lived through the actual Nazi invasion of Belarus, and secondarily Ukraine, with some stories from western Russia (and just a few from the blockade of Leningrad). Some of these children were evacuated to the east, while many stories are from those who (barely) survived the occupation.
I think about the liberation and victory and these children’s memories, and that «наши!» have now become the destroyers and that someone like Alexievich will need do this again, one day.