War Diaries (May 29) (nonfiction)

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War Diary entries for May 29

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Diaries

Bernard James Glynn: May 29, 1917

Rose 8:00 am. No flying clouds too low.

—Second Lieutenant Bernard James Glynn, Royal Flying Corps, Christ Church, Oxford, while serving at Sommes in France (diary).

Glynn was killed in action that day.

See War Diaries (December 17) for a letter Glynn wrote to his parents in 1916 to be sent only after his death, should he not survive the war.

Philip Mechanicus: May 29, 1943

It feels as though I’m an official reporter reporting on a shipwreck. We’re in a cyclone together, aware that the holed ship is sinking slowly and trying to reach a harbor, but this harbor seems far away. I’m slowly beginning to realize that I haven’t been brought here by my persecutors; I’m on this journey voluntarily to do my work. I’m busy all day long, not bored at all, sometimes I almost don’t even have enough time. Duty calls and labor is noble. I spend much of the day writing; sometimes, I start as early as 5:30 in the morning, sometimes I’m still at it after bedtime, summarizing my impressions or experiences of the day.

Philip Mechanicus, a journalist in his 50s, was arrested in September 1942 for not wearing a Star of David on a tram, and sent to Westerbork, a transit camp in the northeast Netherlands where many Jews were brought. Most were then sent on to Nazi concentration and extermination camps farther east in Poland, Germany and Austria. The diary of Mechanicus, published in English in 1968, documented camp life with precision. He often spoke of the transports, which left every Tuesday, carrying 1,000 to 3,000 people, to even harsher fates.

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