Broken lives

This is the Nooit Meer, the Amsterdam Memorial to the Dutch Jews slaughtered in Auschwitz. It consists of broken mirrors reflecting the sky. To my shame I immediately thought that it had been smashed by modern thugs. How wrong I was, the broken mirrors are all part of the symbolism.

Jan Wolkers, the designer of the memorial explains: "It seemed as if it would be impossible to design a memorial for the site of the urn containing ashes of the victims murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp to be laid to rest in Dutch soil. How can you devise a form to mark a crime which you know in your heart will till be unforgiven when our planet ceases to exist two, or two thousand centuries from now? To attempt to find an image to reflect the ignominy and the suffering transcends the limits of your comprehension. When you look up at the sky it is impossible to imagine the same sun shining over that destruction as indifferently and peacefully as over a meadow filled with flowers. In a vision of justice the blue sky above you cracks apart as if the horrors that took place on earth below have desecrated eternity forever. That is what led me to place these broken mirrors on that small plot of ground above the urn. Here you will never again see the heavens reflected undesecrated."

Today was my big birthday and really I ought to have blipped something more cheerful. However, the horrific thought that, as I was being born, the Nazis were busy gassing  the Jews of  Europe, babies included, meant that this had to be my photograph today.