‘But the fact that really stuck in my mind was the fact that they recorded that he had three missing teeth…‘
This is the story of the moment when Pawel learnt his grandfather had been a prisoner in a concentration camp. One of the most peculiar details of the registration form was that it specified three missing teeth.
THE STORY OF THE THREE MISSING TEETH
Today’s story is a personal one. You will hear Pawel tell about the the hidden parts of his family history he discovered in 2020.
DISCUSSION
This story comes after a very difficult previous episode. You can listen to it here. Recording it was our way to offer a conclusion and a response to the previous episode and the volume of responses we had after its publication.
Following Pawel’s elaboration on his Grandfather’s three missing teeth and the concentration camp’s interest in them, I launch into a tirade about the necessity to remember to tell our stories, the good ones and the bad ones too. I argue that we need to remember and learn to be comfortable with telling the trauma, in order to avoid the danger in forgetting and thus creating a protective and appeasing film over those memories at the risk of moving on.
RECOMMENDATION
Where the Crawdads sing is a book about family secrets revealed. I enjoyed reading it and immersing myself in its story so much. Recommended.
N. B. I always add new recommendations depending on my own personal journey in books and art, so if you’d like to keep in touch in that way, subscribe and you can receive them all.
Series 3 of My Beautiful Stories podcast offers a space for YOUR STORIES to be heard. You can listen to the first story from our audience here.
The second story on the podcast can be found here.
This is the third story on the podcast.
The fourth story can be found here.
And here you can find the fifth.
This is where you’ll find story seven.
Share your stories of 2020 with us and let’s create a safe space where to keep a memento of what 2020 really was like – the beauty, the humanity, the heartbreak.
We invite a diversity of voices to join us in telling the stories of 2020.
If you have enjoyed this podcast episode, please do share with other people, please write a review or a rating.
Join us in the conversation @storisse.