From one survivor to another.

I'm sitting here quite stunned as it happens. Thought I'd stick on the talk radio station here in Dublin as background din to my morning coffee. Having visited Auszwitz recently, it was interesting to hear Holocaust survivors talk candidly about their experiences and memories of the liberation of Belsen. Heart-rending stuff. They were then thanked by the interviewer for sharing those difficult memories.

Grand.

Then to my chagrin (yes, a certain amount of desensitisation has set in over the years, irony not lost on me here) the following segment dealt with, wait for it, speed dating. Ok, radio being radio, and maybe a producer's idea of "something light" after the previous heavy segment, isn't perhaps, that shocking after all?

Fair enough, but the word that sealed it for me, came when the interviewer introduced the voice at the other end of the phone-in. It went like this:

"So (Kathy, for example) tell me about your experiences of speed dating. I believe it's not as bad as some of us think. Give me a survivors' guide if you like".

Now, if once wasn't bad enough, she, once again, (in case her listeners or her previous survivors hadn't heard her) announced "give us a survivors' guide then will you?"


Well, after that and my morning coffee, I can now say that I'm awake.