Contrast

 

We walked through the park and along the lake in Annecy. The sun on the trees had turned them golden. The temperature was neither too hot or too cold. I though of what Goldilocks said about the third bear's porridge that she had just eaten, "just right."

Sherlock happily left p-mail for local French doggies. He'd been admired by the wait staff at the brasserie where we had lunch breaking our drive from Southern France to our home in Geneva.

On the way back to the car, we passed a school with a plaque plunging the day into the black of the past.

There were four names of children taken by the Nazis 10 Nov1943 listed. The plaque used the words deported and assassinated.

• Liliane 11
• Régine 11
  
• Felix 6
  
• Marcel 3

They had been snatched as they returned to school by the NAZI occupiers, sent to Auschwitz where they died.

Suddenly, the beautiful day had a dark cloud over it. Such a lovely place, such incredible cruelty. If such atrocities had been eliminated at the end of WWII, but they go on and on around the world inspired by hatred of others fueled by the greed and the thirst for power. 

I wonder how many children in that school where the plaque is, realize how blessed they are that they have the lake, the park, the golden trees, and a chance to live their lives that those four children did not. Do they have any awareness of what happened so long ago where they study?

We can read about the holocaust from the comfort of our homes, but only when we are exposed to it directly does it hit us in the gut. Liliane, Régine, Félix, Marcel might not still be alive today had they been allowed to live out their natural lives, but they would have had the chance to do the things we take for granted.