tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7825350522967687917.post2518849878403992099..comments2023-04-10T20:01:22.371-05:00Comments on Cats, Sticks and Books: Delight, Despairdale-harriethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03802162735113365804noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7825350522967687917.post-52337795407309708552008-11-10T21:36:00.000-06:002008-11-10T21:36:00.000-06:00I enjoyed this post a great deal. I am in a uniqu...I enjoyed this post a great deal. I am in a unique position regarding this issue, I think. My father is Palestinian, and his family lost everything in 1948. As a teenager, I spent a year in Germany as a foreign exchange student and lived with a German family. In college, I studied German history and literature and wrote my senior thesis on Nazi propaganda. And I am married to a Jew whose family fled Russia in the early 1900's and Poland in the 1930's. I agree that history provides us with the best possible opportunity to avoid repeating our mistakes; isn't it a shame that so few of those in power seem to have any sort of grasp of it?Yarnhoghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06625926254864861603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7825350522967687917.post-87005269555514930812008-11-10T13:20:00.000-06:002008-11-10T13:20:00.000-06:00Great post DH! Your writing is so descriptive. Ar...Great post DH! Your writing is so descriptive. Are you coming to dish cloth night tomorrow night? I have a couple of books for you.Molly Beehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11759768335962930168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7825350522967687917.post-40812984155167899832008-11-10T01:00:00.000-06:002008-11-10T01:00:00.000-06:00"What I am" is not Jewish, but I do recall reading..."What I am" is not Jewish, but I do recall reading quite a bit of the book The Holocaust when I was a freshman in high school. Not because it was an assignment, but because I came across it and couldn't put it down... until I couldn't bear to hold it any longer.<BR/><BR/>Last year my son took part in a tolerance studies program at his school. It involved a trip to the Museum of the Holocaust in L.A. I went with him because I'd always meant to go and because I couldn't have him experience that without me. <BR/><BR/>Our docent was a survivor, a wonderful man with a way of telling stories in his booming voice (necessary at times with a bunch of independent study kids). The trip through the "gas chamber" was quite possibly one of the worst experiences of my life, and I knew that I was coming out of it alive. But the stories we heard and the videos we watched while in there broke my heart over and over again.<BR/><BR/>I do believe you're right about there being an easing of tensions and people looking forward/up again. Of course, I voted for Obama, so my perspective may not be everybody's (when is it ever?).<BR/><BR/>Shan :+)Shanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12434884811193988493noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7825350522967687917.post-47957126388821981212008-11-09T14:17:00.000-06:002008-11-09T14:17:00.000-06:00Thank you for a very thought-provoking post! I thi...Thank you for a very thought-provoking post! <BR/><BR/>I think what you said about two kinds of Jews applies to other things as well: my Mom lived through WWII (always in the US). She was aware of it all as it happened, and she avoids museums, documentaries or reading *about* it now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7825350522967687917.post-26816137641472437082008-11-09T12:56:00.000-06:002008-11-09T12:56:00.000-06:00I think there are two kinds of Jews: one kind read...<I>I think there are two kinds of Jews: one kind reads everything they can on the Holocaust, studies it, discusses it, researches it. The other kind acknowledges it, mourns it - but doesn't want to see any pictures or hear any first-person memories. And guess what? I'm both.</I><BR/><BR/>So am I. I used to avoid everything about the Holocaust because I saw my face, and my grandmother's face, and my mother's face in every picture. <BR/><BR/>I still believe that the question isn't "how did that happen?" but "why hasn't it happened more often?" <BR/><BR/>I started to read about the Shoah when a friend gave me <B>The Nazi Officer's Wife</B> and urged me (for two years) to read it. When I did, I became so immersed that I had to read more.<BR/><BR/>There is so much in this post that describes me as well - but so much better than I could have said it.teabirdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01789062795176641187noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7825350522967687917.post-38691242453066124222008-11-09T11:09:00.000-06:002008-11-09T11:09:00.000-06:00I imagine that moment when Israel became a state e...I imagine that moment when Israel became a state equates pretty well to 11pm EST when NBC and perhaps others called the election for Obama. Lots of amazed and relieved and happy and encouraged tears in both cases.<BR/><BR/>Thank you for this post. Although of course I had heard of and read of Kristalnacht I don't know a lot about it. I shall now rectify that omission.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com