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11 June 2009 By Leave a Comment

On the Holocaust Museum Shooting

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10TH, 2009 AT 7:04 PM
On the Holocaust Museum Shooting
Posted by Jesse Lee

The President and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar offer condolences.

President Obama:

I am shocked and saddened by today’s shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world.

Today, we have lost a courageous security guard who stood watch at this place of solemn remembrance. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends in this painful time.

Secretary Salazar:

Today, we witnessed an act of violence and hatred in one of our world’s most sacred sites of remembrance. This horrible crime took the life of Officer Stephen Tyrone Johns, whose courage in the line of duty saved lives and protected the hallowed halls of the Holocaust Museum. Americans’ thoughts and prayers tonight are with Officer Johns’ family.

We are also reminded of the great sacrifices our law enforcement officials, including security guards and the Park Police who protect the National Mall, make every day on our behalf. This tragic act of violence only reaffirms the lessons of peace and human dignity that the Holocaust Museum teaches.

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The Holocaust memoir so heartwarming it had to be fake | Salon Books

7 January 2009 By 2 Comments

The Holocaust memoir so heartwarming it had to be fake | Salon Books.

Jan. 7, 2009 | Novelist and editor William Dean Howells famously told Edith Wharton that the problem with American audiences was that they always wanted “a tragedy with a happy ending.”

That longing explains what led to the recent controversy over Herman Rosenblat’s Holocaust memoir, “Angel at the Fence: The True Story of a Love That Survived,” now canceled by the publisher Berkley Books, though a film version may still be in the offing.

I know this story. I grew up hearing this story, I think… Sometimes memory does not serve, it dictates. I couldn’t tell you the first time I heard this story, but I know that I know it.

I think it’s a shame. People neeed something to cling to, who cares if it’s made up? Have you watched Jacob the Liar? So now we know, so publish it anyway, just not as truth.

I ordered a ton of Holocaust DVDs from NetFlix a little bit ago. From love stories to tales of Dr. Mengele, I watched them all. A little bit of romance is welcome in that onslaught of images.

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A birthday cake for Adolph Hitler…

17 December 2008 By Leave a Comment

I’m sure you’ve read the story. If not, Google the subject, it’ll come right up. Basically, this family is up in arms because a food store refused to make a birthday cake for their kid who is named, you guessed it, Adolph HItler Whateverthelastnameis. They contacted the news and whatnot because the store refused to make the cake, but did offer a blank cake and some decorative icing so they could write the name themselves. The dad claimed he’d probably misspell the name. Um, what? You are going to misspell your kids name?

Of course, the family also claims they aren’t white supremacists, just proud of their German heritage. That’s why one of the other kids is Whatever Aryan Nation Whateverthelastnameis and the other kids middle name is Himler. WTFEver people. He also has swastikas all over the house and the whole thing is just creepy.

You can’t help but feel sorry for the kids. They are going to grow up to believe this or normal behaviour.

No, I don’t want people to forget about Adolph Hitler and the horrible things he, and Dr. Mengele, and Eva and all his cronies did. As soon as we forget, it will happen again. I don’t want to be rounded up and starved and worked and gassed and stuck in a mass grave. I don’t want to be torn away from my babies, my husband, my family. I also don’t want people who still believe in that bullshit to be allowed to breed. Then again, I suppose there are people who don’t think I should be allowed to breed, and I think my kids are smart and well adjusted, so it’s a stand off I guess.

Turns out there was a follow up to the story. Twelve children attended the birthday party, which had a cake, which was supplied by Wal*Mart. Well, good. The kids deserves a cake and a party. All kids do.

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BBC NEWS | Middle East | German tried over Nazi war crime

15 September 2008 By Leave a Comment

A former German infantry commander has gone on trial in Munich for a Nazi war crime, in what is expected to be one of the last cases of its kind.

Josef Scheungraber, 90, is accused of ordering the killing of 14 civilians in a Tuscan village in 1944.

He has previously been sentenced in absentia by an Italian military court to life in prison.

Scheungraber “completely and thoroughly denies the accusations in the charge sheet” said his lawyer.

Outside the courtroom, dozens of demonstrators held banners calling for Scheungraber to be put behind bars.

Some have been outraged that he has only been put on trial now.

He has lived for decades as a free man, and served on the town council in Ottobrunn, outside Munich.

He ran a furniture shop, attended German veterans’ marches and recently received an award for municipal service.

Retaliation

Scheungraber wore a traditional Bavarian suit to the proceedings, which he followed through a hearing aid.

The court has determined that, despite his age, he is fit to be tried, though he will be allowed regular breaks.

The court heard how events unfolded 26 June, 1944.

German troops are alleged to have shot dead a 74-year-old woman and three men in the street before forcing 11 others into a farmhouse which they then blew up. A 15-year-old boy survived the attack with serious injuries.

The massacre was allegedly in retaliation for an attack by Italian partisans that left two German soldiers dead.

Scheungraber said in his statement that he had not given an order for the killings and was not at the scene of the crime.

BBC NEWS | Middle East | German tried over Nazi war crime.

I am torn. Torn between being thrilled this is probably one of last trials of it’s kind, and saddened over it. Why sad? While many of these war criminals (monsters! following orders my ass) are dying, so are our survivors. I have been lucky enough in my lifetime to hear many survivors speak, but so many have not. So many never will, and the number of voices claiming the Holocaust never happened will someday be louder, or the voices remembering it will be fewer, or both.

I have a lot of posts on here about the Holocaust. I’ve been to Yad Vashem. I’ve been to the museum in DC (a heartbreaking experience, and one I urge anyone in the area, within driving distance, to have). I have not been to the one in Miami. I just do not understand how people can say it never happened. So many families just gone, so many destroyed. It’s like saying the towers didn’t happen, or… I don’t know, that’s the most recent big event I can think of. Like saying Katrina didn’t happen.

Meh. I don’t really have much to say about the article itself. Just the taste it left in my mouth.

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So much misery, so little time | Salon Books

5 September 2008 By Leave a Comment

So much misery, so little time | Salon Books.

“Suffering,” he writes, “is as common as death, and like death, it resists all attempts to explain it.”

Peter Trachtenberg took a tour around the world in his quest to understand why some people are crushed by suffering and others are transformed by it.

I know a thing or two about suffering. Maybe not as much as some, but don’t we all suffer equally, regardless of ther reason? No, my losses aren’t as great as the losses of the man who lived through Auschwitz, or the people who lost everything in Katrina (or Andrew or any severe weather or reason), or the twins with the skin disease. Are they any less though?

I’ve had a life of loss, but if I try very hard and flip it around, I’ve been given some powerful gifts as well. I’m compassionate, I’m thoughtful of others, I don’t see differences between people… often. I’m sure there is more. I am a better person for my suffering. I am stronger. I am smarter. I am a lot of things.

I also have less. I am missing important people, things, accomplishments, milestones and events. Much like our Holocaust survivors, I watched members of my family waste away in sickness and die. I’ve buried my mother and my sister. I’ve stepped up to fill in her place, as best I can.

Suffering… what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger? One foot in front of the other. I live my life by that mantra. I always have, and I suspect, always will. Disaster will always strike, but good times are always just around the corner.

I want to pick up this book. It fascinates me. Maybe I just need to know that everyone else is just as miserable as I am. Maybe my Zaide is right, if we all hung our troubles up at the end of the day, and could pick new ones to take home, we’d still take our own. We know them, we understand them, and we have learned what to do with them. Someone else’s troubles frighten us because they are foreign. I’ll keep my troubles, my suffering, because I know what to do with it, and I know good times are coming.

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