“..More than once ..I’ve snapped at Mother. ..Why don’t you just wash your hands of me. ..I’m a hopeless case.” Anne Frank. Saturday January 30th. 1943.
We have a committed remit with History to recall with integrity what has occurred, what has transpired and what has taken place. As to what a tattooed fragment of a pyjama presents, we cannot estimate this if we might well lose sight of 6,000,000 Murdered Jews. Such reading material, more novel than history, does not have a place in the context of The Holocaust which seeks to reveal the overall tragedy. For that reason, we simply must not plagiarise from Hitler’s clear intention to annihilate the entirety of the Jewish World. For words to merely satiate a narrative so clearly undefined along the margins of the catastrophe is disingenuous to those Jews of this immense loss.
“..Why am I here. ..Because I am a Jew. ..Why am I telling you this. Because there are those who do not wish for my existence to be Remembered. Because I am a Jew. Because We are Jews. Because I am 4 years old. There is a Memorial plaque which recognises my existence but I would still have liked to have become a Person. A grown up. Please Always Remember Me. Never Forget I am Albert Finkelstein.” Albert Finkelstein.
While the continuous predicament for European Jewry grew, Jews became more acutely aware of the hopelessness of their own worsening situation. Whether this awareness grew immediately from the resounding rhetoric of Hitler’s 1920’s speeches or from the burgeoning detail of the atrocity railed against the Jews of Germany, then Austria and the Czech lands throughout the 1930’s, The Holocaust itslef fully emerged prior to History’s giving of its accepted term. As Hitler’s clear and Final Solution of the Jewish Question was delivered to the broader Reich, the broadest element of the Reich itself took to it and delivered a cataclysmic resolve which has 6,000,000 Jews interred, confined to spaces no longer known to History, let alone to the Jews who wish to remember the passing of their People.
“..I don’t know secret for long life. I believe that everything is determined from above and we shall never know ..reasons why. There have been smarter ..stronger ..better looking men then me who are no longer alive. All that is left for us to do is to keep on working as hard as we can and rebuild what is lost.” Yisrael Kristal.
The destructive reality of what Hitler had envisaged came far too late for all too many of these Jews of Europe, given a hopeless choice which clearly did not exist to live past Hitler’s intention to deprive them of life itself. Perceptibly, this suggestion of hopelessness is brought into life again and even in novel form it appears so as to transfix these Jews in time. In one such novel, there is that same symmetry between Anne Frank and where a writer details a life within the space of the atrocity and where bruno berates us with the sending away of gretel. Here, because she too was to be considered:
“..a Hopeless case.” striped pyjamas. 2006.
we have an historical relevance from Anne Frank’s very own Diary to borrow from. For anyone concerned with the full tenets of The Holocaust, or any of its sprawling aspects, its full certainty is neither open to debate nor delivered toward any contention. Nor should The Holocaust be positioned in any interpretation other than the occurrence of its factual nature. Perhaps some novel lessons are carefully contrived though, so by the time themes are adopted or words become borne by a newer narrative, we are moved toward an understanding along that very same road toward where we need to know and comprehend its fullest range of hate and atrocity. Here, where the Jewish People are met with rage and annihilation, there is little room for other than the positive aspects of research to give them a more meaningful place of respect.
“..I find myself standing at ..gates of Auschwitz. For it was there that my great-grandparents ..Moshe and Tzirel Herman ..and Yekusiel and Rivka Plattner ..were murdered ..leaving behind no graves at which to pray and meditate ..merely a few nameless fragments of bone and ash that have long since been swallowed by ..earth of that cursed ..hallowed place.” Suri Cohen.
The Holocaust is in fact a hallowed space, a place so attached to the Memory of 6,000,000 Murdered Jews, which manages still to live on, we cannot bar its way with deflection. We know that the lesson from the striped pyjamas was so ill learned by too many, as it is interpreted so wrongly that it becomes contentious to Jewish Memory. In the gassing of the kommandants Son, it was not damning enough of the extermination process as a whole, and became an opening to the interpretation which saw the gassing of that one individual Child as a singular wrong and not as a collective affront to our humanity. As the terror grips those inside, we should be fixed on the idea that our entire civilisation is exploding before our eyes and atrocity is the precursor to what will inevitably drive this World forward
“..reacting to something that has exploded on ..national conscience ..The Holocaust.” Raul Hilberg.
But this illegitimacy over the over use of The Holocaust as a term of reference for anyone seeking to re-read the writings of those who Survived, those who certainly did not Survive or even those who have left us with a void in relation to their eternal presence in the catastrophe, this must not be confused by musings over narratives. This essential need to bring forth the memory of those whose own memory in extent within the destruction cannot be contrived to present an image which is illusionary. What is even more provocative, so as to strengthen the continuing causal debate over all and any accusation is this misuse of these Jews as an exercise in plaintive terms, unrelated to the truly shocking detail which consumed them. Certainly we accept the accusation of the personnel involved must fully extend to all those who remain complicit in the atrocity, but in terms which mark the destruction conducted by those responsible.
“..There is much to be done ..there is much that can be done. One person ..a Raoul Wallenberg ..an Albert Schweitzer ..one person of integrity ..can make a difference ..a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison ..our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry ..our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone ..that we are not forgetting them ..that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours ..that while their freedom depends on ours ..quality of our freedom depends on theirs.” Elie Wiesel.
The accusation of History must especially apply to all of those duplicitous in any way and for those others both seeking to diminish or desensitise The Holocaust relevance. As a reminder too of what we have lost, we must protect the names of some 4,700,000 of these Murdered Jews and hopefully we will lead on toward knowing who all 6,000,000 Murdered Jews are. Elie Wiesel informed me personally, that I must not enter into this arena with other than the factual integrity inherent in the Truth of the Slaughter. So with that in mind, all x4 of my Books I hope and feel, were born with truth, honesty and an integrity belonging to 6,000,000 Murdered Jews. However, and for there is still a narrative discourse which might still overlay itself the crime of BabiYar, and this has halted a work of mine as it causes me concerns.
“..We had different measures of time ..we different ones. ..because of our difference were condemned once again.” Ida Fink.
As I struggle with the evocative horror of The Holocaust in general and here at BabiYar in particular, away from those being different for my own difference, I am mindful of what separated those declared different and for murderous intentions. Attached to an historic resonance, the detail of the the Slaughter process can always be added to. Here too, and while I balk at the mere mention of wilkomirski, a fragment of whose integrity is totally debased, and I have no wish to relay the deviant nature of the words it contains, I am using words which will afford memory a more concerted promise than false words, biased words or lies. The truth is the only evocation that will ensure the finality for the existence of these 6,000,000 Jews is deep in meaning and relevant to us taking this World forward.
“..A good hearted female doctor was trying to hide my Child ..Mengele found her without effort. Eva’s feet were full of sore wounds. ..He transported his human material to ..Krematorium on yellow colored trucks.” Agnes Zsolt.
What any such works adds to the broadening struggle to remember must surely condemn the lies of those who demean the very nature of an intolerable evil done against innocent People for being Jewish People. So for me, to ensure the regularity and consistency of the truth is maintained, all factual relevance must be truthfully correct. Agreed, I borrow words which present meaning to the missing from those who save the memory of those they have truly lost. I am much identified with a curious derision for being outside the wounded of Judaism, whose suffering is spelled out harmfully, but with no desire to issue any further harm. But for those who know Eva Heyman’s last moments were directed by one such as Mengele, I feel the pain, I too feel the anger and I too am shamed that this could be done.
“..I was ..not telling ..story of ..Holocaust ..but a Holocaust story ..Lale and Gita Sokolov’s story.” tatooist. 2018.
Of course there are victories to be had, and the story of Lale Sokolov and Gisela Furman is indeed one of those. It is as a love story borne out of the misery of Auschwitz that hope can still be instilled and even gained. Here, even in Auschwitz and Birkenau, in fact in all x6 Death Camps in Poland, simple choices could still be made. Even though any choice at all was to be made as directed within those given parameters left over from the destructive intention, the intention to destroy was never negated. That intention too was written in the form of a tattoo which limited the extended life of those Jews of Auschwitz. Here, for Jews whose furlow there was always ahead of the antechamber to Birkenau’s destructive capacity, a choice to be made could never prevail over what had always been clearly intended for the Jews who entered here.
“..If you woke up and were alive ..it was a good day.” Lale Sokolov.
Hope was always a choice and love could be forged from that hopeful desire to Survive on what could still be perceived as a good day. However, what we might borrow then from The Holocaust is only ever pertinent to the factual truth and its integrity. This usage of the Catastrophe to embellish the narrative or alter the perception of its direction must not deviate the course of a principled study of research. We must always remain vigilant and consistent with what is always going to be missing from the pages of history and these are the 6,000,000 Jewish lives, Jewish Men, Jewish Women and Their Jewish Children. How one is supposed to relate the facts of this sudden impactful change upon their very existence is best left to those who can equate it with the terms of reference appropriate to what actually happened to them.
“..on July 12 th. 1942 at 3:00 am ..our lives changed forever. ..forced ..to leave our apartment. ..only a few belongings ..we walked miles until we reached a truck depot. ..my family and 1,000’s of Jews were crammed on to trucks ..driven to ..Paris sports stadium ..spent several days without food and water. ..smell was horrific. No one knew what was going on.” Cecile Kaufer.
Of course the intention of the fragmentary pyjama or tatooist novella must be mindful of that regard for a history which fully relies upon what truth seeks to Remember. For 6,000,000 Murdered Jewish Men, Women and Their Children consumed within an all too often expressed intention, dilution of that more than obvious intention is an intolerable affront to these 6,000,000 Jewish memories. Reference points in any narrative that suggests other than the final demand of Hitler was to destroy all Jews within Europe must not gain any source toward resonance. The ugly truth of a demand which sought out for Slaughter these Jewish People is unequivocal in its certainty and there is no need to distinguish words from that fact. The last word becmes the commencement of all regards The Holocaust, a body taken fro us who stands so tall in pointing us frward and in the right direction.
“..A bundle of contradictions was ..end of my previous letter and is ..beginning of this one.” Anne Frank. Tuesday August 1st. 1944.