David Burnett's Blog – December 2008 Archive (2)

Fifty-four years ago to the day, a young Jewish boy from a small town in the Carpathian Mountains woke up, not far from Goethe's beloved Weimar, in a place of eternal infamy called Buchenwald. He was finally free, but there was no joy in his heart. He thought there never would be again. Liberated a day earlier by American soldiers, he remembers their rage at what they saw. And even if he lives to be a very old man, he will always be grateful to them for that rage, and also for their compassion.… Continue

I am a man who has wandered out of the wilderness and into a great city. I may be a nomad who has just left the desert, and entered one of the early cities of the ancient Sumarians in the Fertile Crescent. I may be a backwoods countryboy from Mississippi, who has just taken his first subway ride, and finds himself standing in the middle of Times Square. Whoever I am, I am stunned by what I see. I have a choice of reactions. I can be frightened by the unfamiliar chaos. I can be discusted by the… Continue