Post-War Eastern Europe
The cities of Eastern Europe are still in disrepair from the combat there. WWII was a painful war for Eastern Europe, especially for the Jewish and Romany communities who live throughout Ukraine and Europe. The imagery is of the broken cities beginning to try to repair some semblance of life, and this imagery speaks to the sorrow the priest has come to alleviate. He will help others by letting them confess their grievances.
The imagery of horror
The hate of Nazi soldiers has left permanent scars in these communities, and the priest is sensitive to this. He can see the trauma in the faces of the survivors, and when he starts asking them to tell their stories, he simply cannot imagine that it is so. The imagery of their stories is absolute horror. They are suddenly invaded, and the soldiers are murdering innocent people in the street. The invasion happens with bomb blasts and artillery, and they don't stand a chance. These are the real stories of people whose lives were touched by the war.
Death imagery
The Nazis were also bringers of death. The communities that the father visits are afflicted by death. Now, instead of daily life being interrupted by occasional deaths, there is no daily life without death on the mind of every person in town. Everyone lost someone, and even the ones who survived were deeply traumatized by the events of the invasion. The priest is saddened to know so many people facing death anxiety so brutally, and he is further saddened to know that the victims of the Holocaust by Bullets received no death rites or burial rites. As a priest, this is disturbing to him.
Evil and suffering
The memoir asks the reader to share in the burdens of those who mourn. Father Desbois struggles to find the meaning in suffering like this, but by writing about it, by sharing these stories, the meaning is clearly an invitation into suffering. The book is showing empathy as the voluntary participation in a kind of imagery. By using one's imagination to place one's self in the real life of another person, as his example demonstrates, a person will understand the depth of sorrow and agony these people face against their will. The invitation is to suffer alongside others, and we know this from the imagery of his example.
