THE GENERATION OF WILLFUL AMNESIA
Reflections on “A Certain Mr. Piekielny” by François-Henri Désérable

The Generation of Willful Amnesia is a reflective essay inspired by “A Certain Mr. Piekielny” by François-Henri Désérable, a book that questions memory, responsibility, and Europe’s relationship with its recent past.

Perhaps it is because I have just stepped into that second stage of life—more aware of what I have lived through and of the legacy I may leave behind. It is a moment when you begin to question whether you still have value, or whether you are merely an anonymous being, living random experiences in a seemingly insignificant corner of the galaxy.

It took a young writer, born in 1987, to reach the streets of Vilnius through a series of fortunate events, reconstructing the lives of the unknown inhabitants of the Jewish quarter almost a hundred years ago—less than two thousand kilometers from Bucharest—to make me reflect on our contribution to the present. When I say “us,” I mean Europeans: those who consider ourselves rational, modern beings.

The central question François-Henri Désérable asks in his book is simple and unsettling: who was this certain Mr. Piekielny? Was he a real person who lived at number 16 on Wielka Pohulanka Street in Vilno (Vilnius), Lithuania? Or was he a literary invention of another great writer, Romain Gary?

From the moment this question is asked, Désérable embarks on a journey through times we would rather forget and places we would rather not revisit—times in which human imagination gave rise to its darkest inventions: methods of blinding, brutalizing, dividing, demonizing, and paralyzing the spirit of resistance of people trapped in ghettos.

Two weeks after finishing the book, the questions it raised continue to haunt my thoughts, searching for some form of resolution: why do we not care? Why do we want so badly to forget? Why do we refuse to know?

For me, this is not only about Jews. Or only about the Holocaust. It is about what we were capable of doing—and what we did—here in Europe, less than a hundred years ago. It is about what we are capable of doing, or choosing to ignore, when fear takes over. It is about us, here in Europe, not so long ago. It is about Roma people, about gay people, about other “others”: women and children in parts of Africa, in Syria, in Palestine, and Dalits in India.

To refuse to know becomes an act of renouncing our own humanity.

I sometimes think another celebrated author is mistaken as well. Perhaps Gregg Braden is mistaken in “Pure Human.” Maybe we are not the last generation of whole human beings—defined by empathy and a connection to the sacred. Perhaps that last generation has already disappeared.

But if we were to attempt to recover it, now would be a good moment to begin: to read a book, to know our past. Perhaps even to resist judging too quickly.

To reflect.