Monday 26 September 2011

Balancing History and Story


I’m now charging along with the Hani (note the new spelling) and Clara Lehrs thread of the story. I’ve just had Hani got to BDM initiation meeting. She is disturbed by some of the things she learns and faces some puzzling questions about the relationship between National Socialism and religion. As a teenager, she is ambivalent. She likes some of the pomp and circumstance surrounding the organisation, though she doesn’t feel all that comfortable with the other girls. She did go to a different school until the Nazi regime shut that one down so does not know the other girls as well as she might.  She is beginning to feel some resistance to the Nazi ideals. She loves the uniform, though – the navy blue and white make her look slimmer.
She is puzzled, however, by her mother who at home is very secretive and seems not quite to approve of the BDM. Yet in public she seems to support it.
I have a true, puzzling story that I am telling here: there are many gaps and my research is still drawing blanks about this one area. It doesn’t make sense in its background which I have been able to research thoroughly. I have to rely on fiction at the moment. I’m using fiction as a tool for uncovering possible fact.  
I’ve left my writing today at a point where the story is about to get quite tense.  I guess that’s a good place to stop.              

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