Hi Hydriot ~
Thanks. When I hear comments like that, it always feels so much like the "Blaming the Victim" phenomena. I'm not expressing this next part the way it should be, but there's something about so much of our consciousness and fear relates to our awareness of and fear of our mortality... so things said are an effort [albeit verbally] to stave off the inevitable. If I find out the correct way to express all this, I'll return here and say it right!
Anyway, if we can at least, even if only for a moment, believe/feel that we would have done things differently, then we can distance ourselves emotionally from the fear that something so inconceivably horrific could
ever possibly happen to us. "If they had... (and they could have... ) and if it were me, I would have... " helps someone believe that something so incomprehensible could never happen to them... so they can feel in control and be distanced from their own mortality for at least one more moment of thought.
The two situations are so radically different. The ones left behind in Britain knew that they were being invaded and that the intent of the invaders was to destroy them. They knew to hide and to be prepared to fight for their survival or at least to do a 1:1 ratio of death, if at all possible. That mindset alone, going in, is a huge difference.
Your comment regarding the Warsaw Uprising led me to Google it for more details. I found some very interesting ones. Of course, you already know that, here again, they had the advantage of having gotten the jist of what was going on in the camps and knowing that resisting this fate of doom was their only chance. Still on the outside and with the advantage of still being able to arm themselves, organizing, hiding, et al empowered them in a way that was impossible for those helpless one already in the camps, being led to their deaths to the strains of the burning violins. Just different scenarios altogether. The Warsaw uprisers also had the benefit of knowledge of the camps and what was happening, that those who were herded into trains had no idea of... the health and attitude of robust youth will also always be on the side of success in an uprising.
When you see the piles of suitcases behind glass [didn't you go to the camps when you were in Krakow years ago? I'm guessing now that maybe you didn't] that are marked with names, dates, and other identifying information, it's clear that these people were marking their property for later retrieval, believing this situation to be only temporary.
You're right, it really is still raw. In the midst of it, it's surreal; yet, it registers on a different level. I heard a segment on public radio the other morning where a woman and her brother were separated during the Holocaust when she was 6 and he was 16. She and her older sister fled to another country and their belief was that their entire family had died. She rather recently moved to Israel and a grandchild ended up checking I think the Internet, but somehow got linked to either a place or a site where survivors of the Holocaust wrote their testimonies about it. Through this, a one-page testimony of her brother was found... and more research ensued. He and another brother had somehow survived and are now living in Canada. Connections were made and she has met with him. She barely speaks English, but they still managed to communicate, and he could still see that little six-year-old girl in her face. He recognized her. They'd had a very special relationship at the time, playing catch with a ball and other things. He wants her to move to Canada, but she says she will visit him there, but she won't move because Israel is now her home. As I listened to the segment, I started to weep because it conjured up so many images of what I'd seen and learned about, where he had been, what he had experienced, how the rest of their family had died, what she had been spared, and on and on.
Anyway, here's the info about the Uprising. I've
Bolded what in the two situations was so markedly different, as well as what in the two situations was so tragically the same:
Many Jews in ghettos across eastern Europe tried to organize resistance against the Germans and to arm themselves with smuggled and homemade weapons. Between 1941 and 1943, underground resistance movements formed in about 100 Jewish groups. The most famous attempt by Jews to resist the Germans in armed fighting occurred in the Warsaw ghetto.
In the summer of 1942, about 300,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When reports of mass murder in the killing center leaked back to the Warsaw ghetto, a surviving group of mostly young people formed an organization called the Z.O.B. (for the Polish name, Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, which means Jewish Fighting Organization). The Z.O.B., led by 23-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, issued a proclamation calling for the Jewish people to resist going to the railroad cars. In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired upon German troops as they tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. Fighters used a small supply of weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto. After a few days, the troops retreated. This small victory inspired the ghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.
On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. Seven hundred and fifty fighters fought the heavily armed and well-trained Germans. The ghetto fighters were able to hold out for nearly a month, but on May 16, 1943, the revolt ended. The Germans had slowly crushed the resistance. Of the more than 56,000 Jews captured, about 7,000 were shot, and the remainder were deported to killing centers or concentration camps.
Yes ~ It really could have been written by Leonard, "The Partisan." I'm not surprized that he chose to record it, as something he identifies with so strongly. It would've been wonderful if everyone would have known what was awaiting them [as apparently both the host family and the refugees in The Partisan already knew] and they could have been so blessed with the good fortune to have found loving, German [or whatever nationality] families willing to risk and sacrifice their own lives, in order to help save theirs.
On a more positive note, I certainly do love your avatar, the flag of Hydra
.
~ Lizzy
. At least I managed to pass over some things 
. Normally, I'm a detail person, too. I was more concerned with the world's knowing that Leonard is productive as ever and Happy At Last 
