D. R. Bell

Every book is a journey, not only for the reader but also for the writer. The original premise for what became Eleos was called “The Journey”: a story of a German soldier saving a Jewish boy during the war and the two of them trying to make their way to safety. It was a tale of redemption – and who doesn’t like stories of redemption, especially with a happy end? But as I was sketching the plot, other themes intruded. There was a personal angle: my late Armenian grandmother-in-law was the only member of her family to survive the slaughter of 1915 and I had felt for many years that there was a connection between the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. This led to a bigger question: how do people turn against others in a genocidal rage? Because throughout history the horror repeats time and again. My conclusion was that we choose to forget something important: we know the facts of “what” happened, we don’t remember “how” it happened.

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We tend to view the past events through the opposing poles of heroes vs. pathological evildoers and create happy endings where most of the intended victims survive. Even The Diary of Anne Frank ends on a positive note. But the truth is much, much worse than that. These were not simple conflicts of good vs. evil. Most of the perpetrators and enablers of genocides were not sadists or psychopaths but regular people like you and me. They had killed – or stood by – not out of visceral hatred but because of blind obedience to authority, false patriotism, career prospects, etc. The slide into genocide was rarely sudden but was preceded by a long period of gradual dehumanization of “the other.” The worst atrocities were committed under the guise of doing good, in the name of ideology, religion, or national status.

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That’s why remembering the “how” is important: so we can recognize the patterns in the present. At any point in time history is existential: we, human beings, are presented with a particular context, and we must choose amongst the possibilities within it. Without passing a judgment on those who lived during such terrible times, we can – we must - learn from the choices they had made.

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Because Eleos tries to address many difficult topics within its structure, it’s designed kaleidoscopically, shifting the narrative between different characters with their viewpoints and objectives. The main characters have their faults and troubling secrets, forced to make ugly compromises in order to survive. I readily admit that the story is complex and challenging for the reader and not recommended for someone who prefers a linear plot and more agreeable characters. I have considered simplifying the story but decided against it: I felt that I couldn’t do it without losing something important along the way.

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While the characters of the story are fictional, most of the events described took place.