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selkie at 09:05am on 15/10/2004
selkie at 09:05am on 15/10/2004I was reading Chaim Rumkowski's 'Give Me Your Children!' speech of 1942, and I am sickened by what a complete and utter slime that man was. He was like a used-car salesman dealing in lives. I don't care what pressure he was under. He turned the Lodz ghetto into his own personal fiefdom, and he was a coward.
He reminds me a bit of Bush.
So, yes, anyway, this speech. In 1942 Rumkowski had this idea that he'd save the working backbone of his ghetto population by sacrificing... the old and the sick, right? Well, yes. That's the first paragraph in the speech. And then he goes on to say there aren't enough old people. Or sick people. That they want 20,000, and he just can't make that weight from the aged and ill. Don't blame him, he's just got to fill the numbers.
So he took all the children under the age of nine.
No no no what is wrong with you people? Rise up and fight! Anything but your kids! Anything but your heart and immortality on this earth! What is the matter with you all that you listened to him? I know you're dead now and you can't hear me, may your memories be for a blessing, what the HELL WERE YOU DOING?
I don't care. Hunger wouldn't addle me that much. Despair wouldn't make me that complacent. Take my children out of my hands and you better hope you're a fast shot.
Failing that, I would -- yes. I would have put my name on the list and gone too. I would have screamed about it for a night and a day, and been sick, and trembled, and then walked right into it with my eyes open, 'through the doors to endless night'. Because everyone knew by that point where those trains were going.
If there had been no other way on earth, I would have gone too.
Isn't having children about never leaving them, or did I miss something?
Anyway, those ten thousand children under the age of nine? They got a meal of soup with potatoes and horse bones. They got packed into rolling-freight cars and they went to Treblinka. Oh my G-d what the FUCK.
Without their parents. Their parents lived. For a time, and for a given small value of 'lived', which was really rather dasein ohne leben, I hope. I hope they scorched in their misery every night; I hope their despair drove them insane. Every last one.
Because if the parents of ten thousand children fought with their bare G-d-damned hands, something would have changed.
I'm not saying that from the comfort of hindsight. I'm just saying it. How could they have believed this man, and deluded themselves, and let their children go? These were intelligent, thoughtful people. They had knowledge enough to make other choices, even poor ones. And they just, they went along, they went along.
"Brothers and sisters, yield them to me! Fathers and mothers, give me your children!" **
No.
**Zelkowicz, Josef. Journal for September 4, 1942. Lodz Ghetto.
He reminds me a bit of Bush.
So, yes, anyway, this speech. In 1942 Rumkowski had this idea that he'd save the working backbone of his ghetto population by sacrificing... the old and the sick, right? Well, yes. That's the first paragraph in the speech. And then he goes on to say there aren't enough old people. Or sick people. That they want 20,000, and he just can't make that weight from the aged and ill. Don't blame him, he's just got to fill the numbers.
So he took all the children under the age of nine.
No no no what is wrong with you people? Rise up and fight! Anything but your kids! Anything but your heart and immortality on this earth! What is the matter with you all that you listened to him? I know you're dead now and you can't hear me, may your memories be for a blessing, what the HELL WERE YOU DOING?
I don't care. Hunger wouldn't addle me that much. Despair wouldn't make me that complacent. Take my children out of my hands and you better hope you're a fast shot.
Failing that, I would -- yes. I would have put my name on the list and gone too. I would have screamed about it for a night and a day, and been sick, and trembled, and then walked right into it with my eyes open, 'through the doors to endless night'. Because everyone knew by that point where those trains were going.
If there had been no other way on earth, I would have gone too.
Isn't having children about never leaving them, or did I miss something?
Anyway, those ten thousand children under the age of nine? They got a meal of soup with potatoes and horse bones. They got packed into rolling-freight cars and they went to Treblinka. Oh my G-d what the FUCK.
Without their parents. Their parents lived. For a time, and for a given small value of 'lived', which was really rather dasein ohne leben, I hope. I hope they scorched in their misery every night; I hope their despair drove them insane. Every last one.
Because if the parents of ten thousand children fought with their bare G-d-damned hands, something would have changed.
I'm not saying that from the comfort of hindsight. I'm just saying it. How could they have believed this man, and deluded themselves, and let their children go? These were intelligent, thoughtful people. They had knowledge enough to make other choices, even poor ones. And they just, they went along, they went along.
"Brothers and sisters, yield them to me! Fathers and mothers, give me your children!" **
No.
**Zelkowicz, Josef. Journal for September 4, 1942. Lodz Ghetto.
The strength of us all could demolish the wall, and you choose to walk throug the door.
(no subject)
I was just discussing this yesterday with your girlfriend: how becoming a mom has made the animal in me surface. How I have had to deal with that inner wolf-mother of mine.
You know, there is something terrible about the way people handle new moms; how the grandparents just grab the infants from their arms, leaving them all surprised and slightly hurt, cos it's THEIR baby and people don't ask for permission. Being very much a "do not unto others" kind of person, my first months with Froglet got me determined to never do that to another mom. If I want to cuddle an infant, I ask the mom if she's OK with it. I never touch a child without an open invitation. The wanting to bite was strong when people stroked Froglet's cheek without asking me first.
It was different with Tadpole. I lost most of the sight in one eye to have Tadpole; and I knew she would be the last one. And I can tell you, this one, no-one ever tried to grab from my arms. And good for them, because they might have lost a hand in the process. I let the inner wolf out, and I haven't tried to reign her in yet. I'm pretty pleased with her, actually. I have not always been able to defend myself in life, but I'm ready to defend my kids.
This to say that I just - cannot understand how this could have happened. I would have tried to hide my children. If that had failed, I would have asked to go in their stead. And if again, that had failed, I woud have asked for one of them to stay behind, and would have taken her place. And if that had been impossible, too, I would have gone with them. And I think I would have tried to keep them from understanding what was going to happen. I would have tried to make them as happy and comfortable as possible.
Honestly, losing my children is my deepest fear, the one thing that keeps me awake at nights, breaking into cold sweats. But it's even worse to think that they could die alone, afraid, without someone to hold them - and I am crying for real now. I don't get it. I just don't.
(no subject)
[big hugs] for you, and i'm right there with you. you can have my children -- and my brother's children, and my friends' children -- when you pull them from my cold, dead arms.
(no subject)
(no subject)