Powerful writing. Nice to see those gracious interiors, and hear a bit about your late father-in-law.
It’s staggering to compare the photographs you share with those of post-A bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or post-incendiary bomb Tokyo. It sounds like Warsaw was destroyed at the ground level, by hand and with selective intent, rather than indiscriminately from the air. I can only hope that people had fled (or died previously) by the time this destruction came, but maybe I should know better than to hope.
As for the similarities to the present day US, yes. But of course the 30s and 40s repeated the bewildering carnage of the Russian late imperial period and the Great War. Which were preceded by the colonial slaughter in late 19th c Africa and Asia, and that in turn in North and South America, centuries of chattel slavery, and on and on.
You are right to call attention to what’s happening now. You are right to honor the memory of those whose lives were obliterated, and invite us to remember them by renewing our commitment to courage. Thank you.
Here are some well-known words from another such battle, from another warrior like yourself, reminding you to protect yourself and your energy:
[T]he function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being. […] And you don’t have to do it anymore. […] Where the mind dwells on changing the minds of racists is a very dank place. […] Racial ignorance is a prison from which there is no escape because there’re no doors. And there are old, old men and old, old women running institutions, governments, homes all over the world who need to believe in their racism and need to have the victims of racism concentrate all their creative abilities on them.
— Toni Morrison (Portland State Black Studies Center, 1975)
We talked a lot about this piece at the National Holocaust Memorial and Museum in DC a couple weeks ago. I was just staring at the Warsaw Ghetto replicas in the museum and thinking about what you wrote. It is horrific and also heartbreaking—then and almost more so now. How is this happening again? Did we learn nothing?
I can’t even like your reply, Michael. It’s too disheartening. My grandma (on the other side, since I never knew ours) didn’t even believe the Holocaust was real. She thought it might be propaganda. 😳🤯 And others only care about what will directly impact them. So I think you’re right on.
OH WOW. I mean, I couldn't bring myself to say this earlier, but... Not to get more depressing, but I think in some ways Trump is smarter than people give him credit for. His first wife told Vanity Fair in 1990(!!) that Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches in a cabinet near his bed. So maybe some people did learn things from WWII—just not the lessons we'd want them to learn. 😳
Powerful writing. Nice to see those gracious interiors, and hear a bit about your late father-in-law.
It’s staggering to compare the photographs you share with those of post-A bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or post-incendiary bomb Tokyo. It sounds like Warsaw was destroyed at the ground level, by hand and with selective intent, rather than indiscriminately from the air. I can only hope that people had fled (or died previously) by the time this destruction came, but maybe I should know better than to hope.
As for the similarities to the present day US, yes. But of course the 30s and 40s repeated the bewildering carnage of the Russian late imperial period and the Great War. Which were preceded by the colonial slaughter in late 19th c Africa and Asia, and that in turn in North and South America, centuries of chattel slavery, and on and on.
You are right to call attention to what’s happening now. You are right to honor the memory of those whose lives were obliterated, and invite us to remember them by renewing our commitment to courage. Thank you.
Here are some well-known words from another such battle, from another warrior like yourself, reminding you to protect yourself and your energy:
[T]he function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again, your reason for being. […] And you don’t have to do it anymore. […] Where the mind dwells on changing the minds of racists is a very dank place. […] Racial ignorance is a prison from which there is no escape because there’re no doors. And there are old, old men and old, old women running institutions, governments, homes all over the world who need to believe in their racism and need to have the victims of racism concentrate all their creative abilities on them.
— Toni Morrison (Portland State Black Studies Center, 1975)
We talked a lot about this piece at the National Holocaust Memorial and Museum in DC a couple weeks ago. I was just staring at the Warsaw Ghetto replicas in the museum and thinking about what you wrote. It is horrific and also heartbreaking—then and almost more so now. How is this happening again? Did we learn nothing?
I would say a sizable portion of humanity apparently learned nothing. Or, perhaps more likely, they simply cannot be bothered to care.
I can’t even like your reply, Michael. It’s too disheartening. My grandma (on the other side, since I never knew ours) didn’t even believe the Holocaust was real. She thought it might be propaganda. 😳🤯 And others only care about what will directly impact them. So I think you’re right on.
OH WOW. I mean, I couldn't bring myself to say this earlier, but... Not to get more depressing, but I think in some ways Trump is smarter than people give him credit for. His first wife told Vanity Fair in 1990(!!) that Trump kept a book of Hitler's speeches in a cabinet near his bed. So maybe some people did learn things from WWII—just not the lessons we'd want them to learn. 😳
https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/1990/9/after-the-gold-rush
😮