Travel in Books - Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Germany

(Para versão em Português mudar o idioma na caixa no canto superior direito de EN para PT se estiveres num PC. No telemóvel clica no símbolo com as 3 barras horizontais no canto superior direito e depois muda de EN para PT na caixa no topo da página)

Book

• 📖 The Last Green Valey - Mark Sullivan | 🌍 Ukraine, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Germany 1944

  
  

The Last Green Valey

by Mark Sullivan

This was a journey in search of peace and freedom. "The Last Green Valley" introduced me to the Martel family and their reality in Ukraine during the Second World War. The Martels had to make courageous decisions, and the book takes us on their epic journey of survival through Eastern Europe until they cross the Iron Curtain.

This family, ethnically of German origin, lived suffocated between two regimes with which they did not agree – the Nazis and the Soviets. Despite their disbelief in and rejection of both regimes, they are forced to choose. They choose life. The Martels decide to flee the Soviet regime – the hunger and the possible exile to Siberia – and escape under Nazi protection. In this life and this journey, their deepest beliefs will be tested. Love will be tested. Hope will be tested. Resilience will be tested.

How far would you go to save the ones you love? Would you kill? Would you kill innocents? Where is your limit for survival? It's easy to judge those who go through such situations because, as Isabel Allende said, "It’s easier to be altruistic and generous with a full belly than with hunger."

It was powerful to imagine the people and the cities in the year 1944. It was powerful to read the descriptions of the cultivated fields of Ukraine and draw parallels with the current situation. From the Martels’ journey, I crossed paths with Budapest's train station while riding the Orient Express and reflected on how happy and free my choice to be there had been — and how different the Martels’ “Western Express” must have been for them and the thousands who accompanied them.

I often reflected, “What if it were me?” I cried. I cried a lot. From helplessness, and because the Martels’ journey is still happening in many places around the world today. And we are all human, and we would all do the same if it were us. No one leaves everything behind unless the destination stops mattering — so long as it’s different. As Emil Martel says, “Wherever we end up, it has to be better than the hell we’ve already endured”. Celebrate freedom — many things in life are only truly valued once they are taken from us.

What a brutal life lesson. What a harsh journey towards survival and freedom.

"Try to see the beauty in every cruelty. It frees you. Forgive the pain, if you want to heal a broken heart. Try to be grateful for every setback or tragedy, because surviving each one makes you stronger".

Yours always,

Uncanned Sardine