If you have an unspeakable past, if you have memories that you dare not touch, if you have the opportunity to return to the beautiful past, do you have the courage to face the boundless darkness first?
At the beginning of the 19th century, Austria was a drunkard and celebrity. At that time, Maria was the darling of the upper class, fluttering in white, listening to her father's cello and chatting with celebrities. Her marriage brought together one and a half Vienna. In this heyday, people seem to have forgotten the extremely uneven distribution of wealth, and seem to have not seen a "Hitler" person giving a speech in Munich, although he was only regarded as a political gangster at this time. In 1933, when Hitler came to power, Zweig wrote that "Parliament arson happened, the parliament disappeared, and Goring sent his thugs out, and in a short time, all German laws were wiped out." There is no limit to barbarism. The huge Leviathan of the country has taken away Maria's happiness and all of Maria's good memories of Vienna, leaving only a ruin that I dared not remember again.
Why can the national will override the individual will? Why is personal property deprived by the state at will? Why give up personal interests or even the pursuit of happiness and the right to be a person for the sake of the country? Everything that happened in "The Woman in Gold" was due to the totalitarian rule of Germany during the Nazi period. Under a totalitarian regime, individuals no longer have any private space or freedom. You belong to the collective, and you belong to the state. Under the overall will of the country, individual freedom or will is crushed. We dare not read poems, play the cello, or embrace the future. We were cautious and became the "silent majority." There is no limit to barbarism, and Jews are slaughtered simply because they are Jews. We are accustomed to today’s good-hearted prosperity and peace, and we do not believe that the possibility of evil will make people easy victims. But such a period of history really existed in human history, and the fate of mankind has become a humble footnote to totalitarian regimes. Hannah Arendt believes that human isolation and loneliness are the prerequisites for totalitarian rule in the book The Origin of Totalitarianism. Running towards the head of state because of loneliness, everyone is surrounded by loneliness. People are afraid and terrified, so no one stands up to tell the truth. When the Nazis came to power, brutality, injustice, and discrimination took turns in this land of Germany. I think everyone is responsible for why totalitarianism is pervasive in the end. Including Maria. Maria also paid the price with the pain of the rest of her life.
After all, history has happened. We need to forgive history, but is it just forgiving? Forgiveness cannot heal the ambiguous pain in the memory, and forgiveness cannot allow the injured person to not touch the painful memories at midnight. What we need to do to restore things to their original state (theoretical level), and return "a person who wants to be a beautiful woman in a big city and pursue happiness". I think it is a legal remedy. I think the design of the legal system is an important tool to resist tyranny. The law represents justice, conscience, justice, and other human virtues. These qualities are an important buffer against atrocities. In addition, the law makes up for the past. The law's trial of atrocities and the redefinition of ownership of deprived property can give people some comfort. When we look back on the past, pain and sorrow are like tides that engulf us, and only the justice of the law is a pair of hands that are struggling to move away.
Going back to what I said at the beginning, whether I have the courage to face the boundless darkness depends on whether human beings dare to admit the mistakes they have made, and whether there is a fair law.
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