Remembering

Had a wonderful day wandering round Lisbon on my own while Mike was in a Field Council meeting. Spent unrushed time browsing three (three!) independent bookshops, got a map of the centre more firmly fixed in my mind, sussed the metro system, saw loads I'd not seen before, and took plenty of photos of this city suffused in light.

But have decided to Blip something that made me feel horrible. It's a monument "In memory of the thousands of Jews, victims of intolerance and religious fanaticism, assassinated in the massacre begun on the 19th April of 1506 in this square". On the plinth is a quote from Job 16, verse 18, in Hebrew and Portuguese:
       O earth, cover not my blood,
       and let my cry find no resting place.

Off to the right is the Dominican church, whose priests instigated the killings and brutality that went on for days, with a bonfire burning men, women and children night and day. And this was before the Inquisition. I went in the church; it's been badly damaged by fire and feels grim. The story of  this massacre of "New Christians" (Jews forcibly converted to Catholicism) is told in the riveting book by Richard Zimler, The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon.

It was awful to stand there and imagine what went on, and why, and how, and wonder if anything has really changed...