Why Do We Forget?

Here's a recent post on my facebook notes that I wrote not too long ago.

Why do we forget? The past? What happens? The horrors that us humans inflict on each other? I don’t understand why we forget. I just finished reading Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay and I am left with a deep sadness that I cannot seem to fathom. It’s about a Jewish girl who endured the roundup in July 1942 in Paris. It’s about her pain, her torment. It’s also about Julia, a 21st century journalist who is inexplicably changed by her discovery of Sarah. Julia was horrified when she realized what the French police did that summer. She was even more horrified upon discovering that most of France didn’t know or seem to care. Throughout the book are the words, “Remember. Never Forget,” and I couldn’t help but think that that is exactly what the world has done. We have forgotten. I was never taught about this specific roundup in school. Sure I was taught about the Holocaust in general, but not about Paris in July 1942. In all our dates and facts and details we have forgotten. It’s so easy to get caught up in what happened and forget that at the root of it all are people; people who should be remembered. So where does this leave me? Where does this leave you? How do we remember? I’m not sure I know. All I know is that after reading this book I’m left with an ache in my heart for the people of the past, of those who are forgotten. There is a deep sadness within me, and like Julia I wonder if it will ever go away? I wonder if I have been irrevocable changed? And I wonder what this change means for me.