Excellent piece. You took me back to high school history class, the day I asked why the Jews didn’t fight during the Holocaust. Sister Catherine stared at me (ouch), then walked to her bookshelf, took down her copy of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and handed it to me. Read it, was all she said. Have you seen that book? Its huge!
At home, my family was impressed with the selection. They were right: Douglass did answer this Jewish child’s question. Like Douglass, my people had survived Auschwitz by fighting for something – and everyone in my family, including me, was proof that they had won their war on their own terms.
These are frightening times. Hidden behind the headlines, anti-Semitism is growing stronger and more violent. I am torn between fear and anger at my fellow citizen’s ignorance of history. In my mind, ignorance is understandable, but willful ignorance is unforgiveable. And there is no doubt in my mind, that many people are guilty of pure, raw willful ignorance that licenses their hunger for brutality and injustice.
I comfort myself by holding on to the past. As though Auschwitz wasn’t bad enough, my family found themselves in the middle of the Watts Riots. The people who rescued my family that summer, were black people – not white people (and certainly not the cops). Today, we, their children, grand-children, great and great-great grandchildren owe our lives, our births, our very existence to Americans with black skin. Our debt can never be repaid, for as we go on building our families, so do they. During the Holocaust, the Germans, Poles, French, hell the entirety of Europe and America, even the Pope, turned their backs on the Jews. But here in America, black people refused to turn away. They saw their neighbors were in danger and came back to help them.
If we don’t fight for our future, together, all of us will lose everything we cherish. I cannot explain my certainty or conviction, I only know that thousands of years of human history has been leading to this moment. We must turn the tide of history now, or we will drown in sorrow and regret.
On a lighter note, my daughter sent me a link to this video. I hope you enjoy it too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUujjBqpxOg&ab_channel=WWLI
