One Never Forgets Such Moments
"Suddenly, in the splashing of the waves and eddies, we saw
men's heads emerge like corks on the black, icy Greenland sea. They
were all quite close to us and were paddling desperately. We heard
them shouting. We sensed their distress. One never forgets such
moments. In the face of imminent death, one no longer sees the
enemy. One only thinks about the man who is there before one, who
is desperate and whose fate has been providentially left in one's
hands. At that precise moment, the fury of war had to give way to
compassion, as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
Forgetting about the war, we attempted at once to save as many
survivors as possible...." Pages 446 - 447
Excerpt from La belle
histoire d'une sale guerre, drawn from Occasions de
bonheur by Alain Stanké, published in Montreal by Éditions
internationales Alain Stanké in 1993 (490 p.)
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