The Continuation of History and the Search for Stability Amidst War and Chaos
Amidst calamity, whether that be war, famine, environmental disasters, or anything that disrupts individuals’ existence, life moves forward, history moves forward. This constant progression of time has become a recurring theme so far in my “The Reverberations of World War II” course, specifically in Anna Seghers’ Transit and Victor Serge’s Last Times. Each of these novels focuses on individuals fleeing the advancing Nazis. They move from Paris to the unoccupied zone in Marseille, looking for passage out of danger.
During the migration south, refugees die and refugees enter the world. The cycle continues, even amidst destruction. Detailing his journey to Paris before his migration south to Marseille, the narrator of Transit says, “And even as I was fleeing to Paris I realized these were merely the remnants of those wretched human masses as so many had died on the road or on the trains. But I hadn’t counted on that fact that so many would also be born on the way.” While the narrator expected tragedy and death as people escaped the Nazis, he didn’t fathom that life would enter such a world, that it would spring forth from such violence.
The narrator envisions the end of the world, the Last Judgement, approaching, and he even describes Marseille as the edge of the world, the place of…
