Tess

“Memory is a poet, not a historian.”
― Paul Geraldy

“Things are not as easy to understand or express as we are mostly led to believe; most of what happens cannot be put into words and takes place in a realm which no word has ever entered.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“He had scraped his arms and legs, and reddened dirt had lodged in his cuts. Tomorrow, undoubtedly, the contusions would be obvious, but this was of no consequence. Hans seemed to be perpetually covered in bruises. He struggled with coordination and constantly walked into things, misstepping, losing his hat or scarf, or leaving his school books behind. He frequently fell off his bicycle. Organizing his body, his things, or his time was not a strength or,”
― Ariana Neumann, When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains

“…it was during a period he had so much time on his hands that he felt that time had stopped.

How could time have stopped?

‘Because,’ he said, ‘and you will understand this when you are older, sometimes you feel that everything around you has come to an end. You feel that you are completely alone, that time is frozen and that you are invisible. At first, you might feel exhilarated by the sense of freedom, but then you’ll be frightened that you are lost and you will never be able to go back.’

He explained that when he first felt this, he had been isolated and afraid and had prised open his watch case to verify that time was indeed passing. The rhythm of the watch might have been imagined. Sound was not enough, he needed to see and touch it. It was the first time that he had dismantled a mechanism. The turning wheels, ticking each second away, had reassured him.

It was then that he had comprehended the importance of time.”
― Ariana Neumann, When Time Stopped: A Memoir of My Father's War and What Remains