When your father spoke, he spoke for so many others. Of all the chapters this one I can tell with sit with me - your inclusion of his voice, his words - so few say so much.
It’s so sad that we don’t have these important conversations with our parents when they are alive. My dad served with the U.S. Army as an infantryman for 4 years in the European theater. I have bold memories of his face several times when an item of history came up whether a memory about a specific battle or one time, Dachau. I was a teen. My dad was an older father. His coping skill was silence. But the pain. To this day I do not know what his medals are for or his route through Europe. I can only research in small bits. It’s all so sad.
Thank you Alice for bringing to life the horrendous struggles of your family and the Polish people. It is very thought provoking and beautifully written.
A haunting story beautifully told, Alice. A friend once commented on my book about my great-grandfather that I was "striking a blow against amnesia." As are you. Is there no way to find out why they, non-Jews, were rounded up to be sent to the camps?
Thank you for the comment. Good question, Beth. My grandparents were rounded up during the Warsaw Uprising that started on August 1, 1944. This was separate from the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising in the spring of 1943. They were sent to camps presumably because the Nazis thought they could still use them for work--slave labour. 12,000 non-Jewish women from Warsaw were sent to Ravensbruck during the Warsaw Uprising. You might read my earlier story https://alicegoldbloom.substack.com/p/17-a-beautiful-sad-city.
Interestingly, the first internees at Auschwitz were not Jewish. Tens of thousands of non-Jews were sent there, and then it became an extermination camp.
The fate of the non-Jews was to be workers for the master class. They were considered subhuman and useful as long as they could be exploited for labour. Why the story of 30 million people like my parents and grandparents is not well known is the subject of my next story.
Thank you, Alice. Your honoring of your father becomes a gift to us. His tragedy is shot through with an absence of drama, as he lives his "ordinary" life. I am so glad you are writing this book.
Those names...Ravensbruck, Sachsenhausen. They are so filled with anguish and the life breath of so many people, so many families. Thank you for attending to them.
Dear Alice. What a journey for you to this deeper understanding. This chapter makes us reflect on how the silences in our families tell stories too. As ever, you write with sensitivity, caring, and insight. Thank you.
Wow, what an emotionally resonant story, and so well-written. You're doing such important work in preserving these memories!
When your father spoke, he spoke for so many others. Of all the chapters this one I can tell with sit with me - your inclusion of his voice, his words - so few say so much.
It’s so sad that we don’t have these important conversations with our parents when they are alive. My dad served with the U.S. Army as an infantryman for 4 years in the European theater. I have bold memories of his face several times when an item of history came up whether a memory about a specific battle or one time, Dachau. I was a teen. My dad was an older father. His coping skill was silence. But the pain. To this day I do not know what his medals are for or his route through Europe. I can only research in small bits. It’s all so sad.
Thank you Alice for bringing to life the horrendous struggles of your family and the Polish people. It is very thought provoking and beautifully written.
A haunting story beautifully told, Alice. A friend once commented on my book about my great-grandfather that I was "striking a blow against amnesia." As are you. Is there no way to find out why they, non-Jews, were rounded up to be sent to the camps?
Thank you for the comment. Good question, Beth. My grandparents were rounded up during the Warsaw Uprising that started on August 1, 1944. This was separate from the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto Uprising in the spring of 1943. They were sent to camps presumably because the Nazis thought they could still use them for work--slave labour. 12,000 non-Jewish women from Warsaw were sent to Ravensbruck during the Warsaw Uprising. You might read my earlier story https://alicegoldbloom.substack.com/p/17-a-beautiful-sad-city.
Interestingly, the first internees at Auschwitz were not Jewish. Tens of thousands of non-Jews were sent there, and then it became an extermination camp.
The fate of the non-Jews was to be workers for the master class. They were considered subhuman and useful as long as they could be exploited for labour. Why the story of 30 million people like my parents and grandparents is not well known is the subject of my next story.
Thank you, Alice. Your honoring of your father becomes a gift to us. His tragedy is shot through with an absence of drama, as he lives his "ordinary" life. I am so glad you are writing this book.
Goodness. I almost can't breathe right now. Such a terribly deep well of sorrow.
"My parents were murdered by the Nazis, and there is no memorial to them." This post and your book are the memorial.
Those names...Ravensbruck, Sachsenhausen. They are so filled with anguish and the life breath of so many people, so many families. Thank you for attending to them.
Thank you for this Alice. I am so moved.
"My grief lies all within
And these external matters of lament
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
That swells with silence in the tortured soul"
William Shakespeare
What I find so meaningful in your father's example Alice is that his "normal" was "genial".
Dear Alice. What a journey for you to this deeper understanding. This chapter makes us reflect on how the silences in our families tell stories too. As ever, you write with sensitivity, caring, and insight. Thank you.