Читать книгу The fat man - Wolfgang Armin Strauch - Страница 6

Foreword

Until the end of the First World War, Graudenz was a town where mainly Germans lived. Poles were the minority. However, after the war the victorious powers assigned them to the new Polish state. And the German town became a Polish town, in which also mainly Poles lived. Now the Germans became the minority. Graudenz became Grudziądz.

Streets and squares also got new names. But even after the city was renamed, people continued to call it the old name for convenience. For the castle still stood on the old square and the Vistula River continued to flow past the city towards Danzig, where it merged with the Baltic Sea. It did not care who was in charge or what names the people thought up for the city.

I don't know why the city was called Graudenz. I used to think that it was because of the color of the old walls of the castle: gray - that shade between white, the color of innocence, and black, the color of death. That undefined shade that people like to use to describe sad times and to attach people without qualities. Colorless without character. The previous inhabitants and the new citizens of the city did not care. After all, people do not choose the place to live by the name of the place.

And wherever there are people, there is love. Even in the darkest times children are conceived because people carry hopes in them that are stronger than despair.

At some point, the descendants will ask about the life of their ancestors and are condemned to deal with history they are not responsible for but must pay its price. How high this price is, is determined by the parents - because they have it in their hands to leave their children a world that gets along without hate.

The castle still stands there. It looks defiantly at the people. Over time it has lost some stones, but the Vistula doesn't care. It flows north and taking along many salty tears. Just like 1000 years ago.

Wolfgang Armin Strauch