"Forty-five years ago, in the course of browsing through antiquarian bookstores, I became fascinated by a number of volumes that depicted torture in various eras and in far-flung places. Horrified by the similarities to descriptions of Nazi atrocities, I outlined a book that was to be called A Pictorial History of Torture in the "Civilized" World, in which I would match current quotations with the centuries-old engravings. For various reasons, the project stalled and I went on to other things. But the books and accumulated clippings remained among my possessions.

"At the age of 86, I'm still anguishing over war -- and lynchings, and genocide, and slavery, and capital punishment, and all the "-isms" and "-phobias" that have plagued humans since time immemorial. For the individuals experiencing them, I see all of these as forms of mental or physical torture.

"People who know me can't fathom how this mother of four and grandmother of five can even look at such horrors. But facing, and doing something about, these ugly realities while living a "normal" personal life, is probably my way of preserving my sanity." - Ella Mazel, 2005

http://ellamazel.org/notinmyname/index.htm

Alt link: http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/ella/notinmyname/index.htm