The Sweetness of Forgetting

by Kristin Harmel

are taught, ‘Whoever saves one life, saves the entire world.’ ” Alain makes a strange strangled sound. “In the Talmud, it is written, ‘If you save one life, it is as if you have saved the world,’ ” he says softly.

in the goodness of his fellow man. “Only criminals and cowards run.” “No, Papa,” Rose whispered. “It’s not just criminals and cowards. It’s people who want to save themselves, who don’t want to blindly follow, hoping that

babies right away, even the ones who were malnourished and had no money.” I look at Alain, surprised. “But why would they do that?” “To create life when everything around them was death,” he says simply. “To be a part of a family again, after they’d lost everyone they’d ever loved. By the time Rose met your grandfather,

Some loves are the kind we try to make fit but are never quite right.” He

“Others are the loves between good people who admire each other’s souls and grow to love one another

“I mean that love is all around us,” Alain says. “But the older we get, the more confusing it becomes. The more times we’ve been hurt, the harder it is to see love right in front of us, or to accept love into our hearts and truly believe in it. And if you cannot accept love, you can never really feel it.” Annie looks confused.

He smiles, a bitter, sad smile. “There is a sign at Auschwitz that says, ‘Work makes you free.’ But the truth was that only death made you free. And at last, my family was free.”

You can only look forward in life. You can change the future, but not the past.”

frightened, and that was a mistake. Life is a series of opportunities, and you have to have the courage to seize them, before the years

pass you by and leave you with nothing but regrets.