10.08.12
Class was late today, so I should’ve gotten more done, but instead all late class meant was that I took my time doing the same things I normally do. Now just twice as long. The reason class was pushed back was to accommodate Mr. Frankl, a Holocaust survivor and somebody who promotes his father’s art from the Jewish Museum.
It was hard to understand him as he spoke very quietly and with a thick accent, but it was a very good tale he had to tell. Typically holocaust tales end in nothing but misery, but it was good to hear that his parents reunited. Still, I had not known before this class about the systematic rape performed by the Russians. I wonder if there was much committed by the Americans as well, but unreported. It is hard to spin the tale coming out of a war that we were the 'good guys' when troops are raping left and right. I don't doubt Americans raped, but, well, I'm not sure what is meant by 'systematic rape', if that just means it was widespread. I should ask about that. There are no 'good guys' versus 'bad guys', there wasn't then and there definitely are not now.
The other thing is the statements that his father would constantly feel people are following him, have sudden panic attacks, have angry outbursts, etc. I wonder if Mr. Frankl experiences anything as well, young as he was.
The pauses Mr. Frankl made were very dramatic, but it was more heartbreaking to me that he did not have to pause at the moments of the biggest fear but of moments of relief. His father, it seems, barely managed to survive there but for dumb luck. That's how I hear most people made it out. Either by dumb luck or by being simply cutthroat. Somebody (I think AJ) said how one survivor wrote that only the worst people made out alive from the Holocaust. The ones willing to steal food, push another down, hold somebody back, so that they could get a little extra scrap of bread, those are the people who managed to survive. There is no room for reason or morality when you are placed in a void of reason and morality. One had to become like the rats the Nazis treated them as.
The other thing is the statements that his father would constantly feel people are following him, have sudden panic attacks, have angry outbursts, etc. I wonder if Mr. Frankl experiences anything as well, young as he was.
The pauses Mr. Frankl made were very dramatic, but it was more heartbreaking to me that he did not have to pause at the moments of the biggest fear but of moments of relief. His father, it seems, barely managed to survive there but for dumb luck. That's how I hear most people made it out. Either by dumb luck or by being simply cutthroat. Somebody (I think AJ) said how one survivor wrote that only the worst people made out alive from the Holocaust. The ones willing to steal food, push another down, hold somebody back, so that they could get a little extra scrap of bread, those are the people who managed to survive. There is no room for reason or morality when you are placed in a void of reason and morality. One had to become like the rats the Nazis treated them as.
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