Thinking about History on the eve of "History"

Two days till inauguration. Guess the Bushes are packing. Starting to get DC alerts about bridge closings. What a mess. And it is freezing cold -- wonder how well attended the Lincoln Memorial concert will be.

Went to church last night so this morning went to the movies. Have to go meet my new ESL co-teacher at 3 (PM) so we went to the 10:05 AM show. It was hard getting up that early after staying up till all hours trying to dry the carpet. When I let Sydney out back the carpet was still soggy and cold. Brrrr.

Just returned from seeing "Defiance". It was about four Jewish brothers who hid and fought in the forest during WWII. I did not realize it was a true story till the end (and of course as usual -- Mark knew this and failed to inform me -- noting instead that everyone knew this except me). The Bielski brothers were real -- and formed a community in the forest in Western Belorussia. Lots of Jews survived because of them.

As I was sitting at the theater, I could not help thinking about 1995. Taking Anthony to Auschwitz -- in January. Mark was at a conference in Warsaw -- so we met him at the weekend and took the train to Krakow. Joined an excursion to the Camps. It was gruesome and yet you could not look away. Anthony of course was the only 5 year old in our group -- in fact the only 5 year old the poor tour guide had ever seen on a tour. She was horrified and kept offering to watch him while we went into various places. Walking through Auschwitz is one of those experiences where you really have to detach yourself -- I found it easier if I just walked with Anthony a bit away from the group -- away from the "humans" that did this. Conscious that Mark is half German and Anthony a quarter German.

I don't know that Mark and I were thinking straight or even consciously thought about it -- but even though Anthony most likely will not consciously remember -- I think I somehow thought it was critically important for Anthony to see this. Many kids his age had to go through this -- and he has grown up the child of so much privilege. Some of Anthony's German-American relatives seemed to believe the Holocaust did not happen or was exaggerated -- I needed him to know better. At some level I believe that seeing Auschwitz at such a young age has helped make Anthony as empathetic as he is.

Common sense did eventually take over (in the eyes of the tour guide) when Anthony stayed with her as we saw the ovens. I think I managed 2-3 minutes max myself. The woman was older -- she may have even been a survivor. All I knew was there was no way I was going to cross her. and let Anthony see those ovens. That's OK -- he had seen enough.

A few months later we took Anthony to Israel. After one of our not so well thought out excursions to Bethlehem we gave Anthony the next chapter of his Holocaust education. Bethlehem by the way was easy to get to on our own (I despise excursions) -- impossible to get out 'cause the Arab taxis were not allowed to stop and take us. So we had to walk past the border -- and then try to flag a cab on the Sabbath; but hey that's nothing compared to the fact that we forgot to take our hotel info with us when we left our flat in London and when we got to Tel Av iv had to walk around looking for a hotel -- during Orthodox Easter. Via one of those miracles that only happen in the Holy Land managed to stumble upon the hotel we had a room reserved at -- God truly does walk the streets of Israel!

We took Anthony to the Vad Vashem Museum at the suggestion of the cab driver (after of course he lectured us for a half hour about our stupidity and child endangerment). At the end of our walk about, we took Anthony through the garden dedicated to the Heroes that saved Jews during WWII. Tried to make sure to talk to him about the connection and the contrast between this place and Auschwitz. Though only 5 -- I hoped he would know that he needed to be part of the group being honored -- despite the cost.

And just a few weeks later, the circle came to a close. As we were living in London we were able to go to the celebrations of the 50th Anniversary of V-E Day at Hyde Park. Anthony had a chance to see some of the men and women that fought and defeated the Nazis. What a year!What an incredible set of experiences to have at 5. Will they make a difference on the type of person Anthony is and will be? I hope so! Are we irresponsible parents? Perhaps -- but hey -- there is no school for parenting and one does the best one can.

Of course despite Anthony's "intellectual" upbringing -- stuff happens. When he was in High School (may have been freshman year) he was assigned to read Eli Wiesel's "Night". "Night" is of course biographical -- about Eli Wiesel's Holocaust experiences. Anthony is a master procrastinator -- saved from academic mediocrity by his natural talents -- try to motivate a kid with a 4.0 to see the need to do his homework! I asked him if he had read the book -- and he of course said "yes". So I asked him how he liked it -- and he tells me "oh it was so sad how the boy died in the end". Imagine Anthony's surprise when I said to him -- "Amazing, Anthony -- as Dad and I just saw Eli Wiesel speak at Israel's Independence celebration at the Omni Shoreham downtown". Which we had! I think Anthony learned two things that day -- the meaning of autobiography and to think REALLY hard before lying -- he sure does seem to confess a lot -- even when I wish he wouldn't -- LOL!