PLACES
In Lithuania, I
learned that memory resides in the physical place. That I could not be whole
until I had put my feet down on the earth where they had lived. Until I had
knelt in the cemetery. Taken the broad leaves growing there, cleared the moss
and earth off the gravestones until I could see their faces, the holy words,
the names in Hebrew. Until I had walked in their streets, touched the places of
massacre, gathered the earth in my hands. - Myra Sklarew, Over the Rooftops of
Time
I asked each of the narrators to take me to a place of personal significance and to talk me through their experiences of it while there. In some instances the special place was a memorial one – the partisan forts in the forest, the cemetery, the massacre pit, a former shtetl, in others a place of work or volunteering, such as the Green House Museum, the Community Centre. In each case, the narrators animated these sites for me, recounting memories but also the ongoing significance of the place in the present. In many cases, it was during these visits to the 'special' places, in the embodied acts of walking, digging, handling, talking that I received the most relevant information not only about the past, but about narrators’ current lives.
I asked each of the narrators to take me to a place of personal significance and to talk me through their experiences of it while there. In some instances the special place was a memorial one – the partisan forts in the forest, the cemetery, the massacre pit, a former shtetl, in others a place of work or volunteering, such as the Green House Museum, the Community Centre. In each case, the narrators animated these sites for me, recounting memories but also the ongoing significance of the place in the present. In many cases, it was during these visits to the 'special' places, in the embodied acts of walking, digging, handling, talking that I received the most relevant information not only about the past, but about narrators’ current lives.
