#but as a jew whose family was in ukraine during wwii

[basingstokemercury]

So uh

Does communism not have any symbols aside from the hammer and sickle?

[marjaystuff]

Interview with Naomi Ragen

The Enemy Beside Me by Naomi Ragen makes the Holocaust come alive again through the characters’ journeys. On the heels of the brutality of what Hamas did in Israel it is important to keep the Holocaust atrocities alive. Based on real facts, this book shows how some countries in Eastern Europe, specifically Lithuania, made their own horrible imprint on Holocaust history.  The Lithuanians brutally persecuted the Jews who were also their fellow citizens.

The story begins with Milia, an Israeli Jew, whose organization’s purpose is bringing Nazi war criminals to judgement. Darius, a professor at a college in Lithuania invites Milia to speak at a conference in Lithuania. Her speech tells the story of families tortured, raped, and killed by their former neighbors. The Lithuanians had the audacity to claim that they were providing aid to the Jews, subsequently becoming heroes, a complete untruth. 

This book is a must read for those who need to remember what happened.  Ragan does a good job of showing through her characters the brutality.  But she also allows readers to understand the characters through their personal stories. As Milia and Darius begin their mission, shared experiences profoundly alter their relationship, replacing antagonism and suspicion with a growing intimacy. 

Elise Cooper: The idea for the story?

Naomi Ragan:  This story came to me when I was walking down a street in Jerusalem, minding my own business during Covid.  I ran into an old friend, the head of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel, Efraim Zuroff.  He tells me about a story that flabbergasted me. He co-authored a book titled Our People with Lithuania’s famous author, Ruta Vanagaite. She invited him to be a keynote speaker in Lithuania about Nazi War Criminals.  This was the starting point for this story. I wrote a dialogue between the Nazi hunter, and the son of those living during World War II. This is a story about the here and now.

EC: The book is based on facts?

NR: Yes.  Ruta and Efraim traveled around Lithuania to gain eyewitness testimony.  Instead of her convincing him that Lithuania did not commit war crimes, the situation convinced her. They became very close on this trip and fell in love, just as in my book.  I never thought Ruta, a child of a preparator and Efraim, a Nazi hunter could get close.

EC: There are many details about Lithuania and the Holocaust?

NR: Lithuanians killed over 96% of the Jewish community.  It was neighbors, teachers, and doctors, self-appointed policemen who shot and murdered Jews. They killed as a percentage more of the Jewish community than any other country, including Germany. Today, they are one of the chief Holocaust distortionists. They are trying to falsify what happened to cover their tracks. They are attempting to use a Double Holocaust theory. They say everybody suffered, look at what Stalin did to us. 

EC: The Lithuanian executioners were brutal?

NR: They killed with such sadism, ferocity, joy, and enthusiasm. They held public parties to give out the spoils after indiscriminately murdering men, women, and children. I based the facts from first person history and testimonies.

EC:  The story speaks of acknowledgement. Can you explain?

NR:  There can be reconciliation and forgiveness. But on what basis?  First, there must be a recognition of the truth. There must be respect for the mass graves that are being treated like garbage dumps. The mass graves have not been marked in any way. They must stop painting over Jewish cemeteries and building shopping malls. This story is not going away because there has not been any justice and a final meeting of minds.

EC:  Everyone has sympathy for what is going on in Ukraine.  Do you agree many do not know how the cruel the Ukrainians were to the Jews during WWII? 

NR:  They joined mobile killing units. There were squads made up of Lithuanians and Ukrainians. I wrote the book now because people are being honored that were Holocaust perpetrators.  Just look at what just happened in Canada where they tried honoring a Ukrainian who was in the Waffen SS unit of Hitler. 

EC:  How would you describe the hero, Dr. Darius Vidas?

NR:  Unpredictable, impulsive, organized, and a novelist. He is someone who wants to seek justice. He starts out thinking justice would clear the Lithuanians of the terrible things they were accused of doing. As time goes on, he realizes his country was involved in such savage brutality.  He becomes a true partner to the heroine, Milia, the Nazi hunter. He has guts as he became a true Lithuanian patriot. He has a lot to lose, everything he has accomplished, if he agrees with Milia.

EC:  How would you describe the heroine, Milia Gottstein-Lasker?

NR: She has a dark view of the world, a cynic, with an endless quest for justice.  She compartmentalizes because she is a Nazi hunter. She is based on my friend’s experiences, Efraim. She confronts the truth about what happened to her namesake.  To make her character whole I had her deal with a lot of things: a marriage breaking down and someone who questions her own self-worth as a woman.  She has a lot of insecurities and is losing her sense of purpose. She is trying to figure out where her life is going personally and professionally. 

EC:  How would describe their relationship?

NR:  The two of them are in mid-life crisis. But more importantly, they are on a journey together. They want to accomplish something important in both their lives.  They start out as enemies because he wants to prove everything she has said about the Lithuanian atrocities is false. But then he realizes she is speaking the truth. They learned to respect each other and to have compassion.  They now trust each other.  Their relationship was a symbol for the rest of the world. Both are honest enough to accept the truth. 

EC:  What do you want readers to get out of the book?

NR: I want them to understand what must be done to honor the victims and to expose all these bogus distortions by countries like Lithuania. They are putting forward Holocaust distortions to erase, cover-up, and rewrite history and silence the voices. I wrote this book quote, “It was not the Jews gripping the past, it was the past gripping the Jews. It will never let them go until there is some kind of reckoning.” This is exactly how I think and feel. These countries in Europe must tell what happened and return the spoils they took. The quote in the acknowledgement summarizes my feelings, “Milia and Darius are both fictional characters.  Their spirits are real and live in all people whose histories have made them enemies.  It is up to us, the living, to make peace with one another.” As Milia says in her speech, there are five things that must be done: mainly Lithuanians need to stop lying about their past, stop honoring the perpetrators, tell the truth to their children, compensate the victims, and make Holocaust education important.

EC:  Next book?

NR: One never knows. At this point, we will see what happens.

THANK YOU!!

[chicago-geniza]

nisht reblogn

clawing at my throat rending my garments etc. failing to articulate how pretty much every strain of european nationalism, & eastern european nationalism is no exception, brings with it antisemitism, but these things are not always cut & dried, there are many, many diffuse & atomized elements coexisting parallel & perpendicular to each other under the broad banner of "nationalism" & moreover you can have jewishness wielded strategically for national aims (e.g., those photos of orthodox soldiers praying in tefillin, other jewish soldiers posing in uniform, that video where old people born during WWII in kyiv whose families were killed at babyi yar told putin to get the fuck out of their city), WHILE ALSO not negating the fact that those jewish ukrainians/ukrainian jews are sincerely invested in ukrainian independence & the project of territorial sovereignty as a nation-state, including whatever foundation myths that entails. there is SO much memory wars stuff, like, a fairly prominent jewish activist & member of the ukrainian helsinki group has repeatedly tried to cover up, downplay, or elide the complicity of bandera et al. in...everything, said the holodomor was a greater historical tragedy than the holocaust, & in 2017 called for a list of historical crimes by jews against the ukrainian people. like, this is a *jewish* activist. (for obvious reasons, he is. discussed with utter contempt by much of his cohort.) but what i am saying is like. identity isn't clear-cut; memory wars around the holocaust, especially re: nationalist figures are, how do you say, *insane*, & the concessions & reconciliations you find in, e.g., zelensky's rhetoric, plus the precedent(s) set by, e.g., some (not all) german & polish museumificaton-memorialization that equates "commemoration & recitation of codified ceremonial text re: Solemn National Reckoning" as, like, a step in the process of becoming a Western-Style Liberal Democracy (including the funds from american & israeli tourists making holocaust pilgrimages, don't @ me), which is 75% ~performance, & there are just so many moving parts--like this is, again, not at all a coherent post, but i wish i could vulcan mind-meld with american jews posting literally anything about The Jews of Ukraine rn because it makes me want to set myself on fire

[eternallomo]

Victory day france

Victory Day has become 'like a religion today', says Oleg Kobtzeff, professor of international politics at the. 8 May, WWII Victory Day (Fte de la Victoire 1945 Fte du huitime mai). Those who survived built families and careers in the Soviet Union, until the Communist regime collapsed and many of them ended up in Israel. 9:05am: Opposing views of history come to fore as Moscow celebrates Victory Day. There are also many regional festivals throughout France which are not included. About 200,000 Soviet Jewish soldiers fell on the battlefield or into German captivity. The Canadian operation was an important success, even if the larger British and French offensive, of. VE Day proclaims the unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. In the aftermath of the D-Day landings and the subsequent Allied advance across France, it seemed for a fleeting moment that the end of the war in Europe might. Three more days of costly battle delivered final victory. The date also marks the end of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich and the Second World War. The public holiday in France commemorates the victory of the Allies over Germany. Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of great content about events happening every day around the world If you liked our suggestions for Victory Day In France then why not take a look at Turkey Neck Soup Day, or National Be Nasty Day. On May 7, 1945, in Reims, a French city northeast of Paris, the German High Command signed the Instrument of Surrender, ending. Some of those who fought in the Red Army served in the highest levels of command. Victory in Europe Day takes place on the 8th of May 1945. The Israeli Absorption Ministry said earlier this week that the ceremony at Mount Herzl and all other events will take place as scheduled on May 9 amid reports that no foreign dignitaries were invited this year.Ībout 1.5 million Jews fought in Allied armies during World War II, including 500,000 in the Red Army, 550,000 in the US army, 100,000 in the Polish army and 30,000 in the British army, according to Yad Vashem. Russia initially doubled down on the claim, but President Vladimir Putin has since apologized in a call with Bennett. Israel strongly denounced the top diplomat’s claims, meant to justify the invasion of Ukraine, a country Russia has claimed is led by Nazis, but whose president is Jewish. Victory Celebrations in France There are many parades and church services held on May 8th in order to commemorate Victory in Europe Day.

[rtirman-blog]

4        Jewish Roots

I will start with Pop, my grandfather, David E. Tirman. The E. was for Elijah. As I learned recently from my eldest brother, Alvin.  He dubbed our grandfather “Pop”- an abbreviated way for him, when he was a tot, to say grandpa. After Pop became “Pop” to everyone in our family. to not make our grandmother feel slighted, she became “Mom”.

The story, as I know it, is Pop was raised in an Orthodox, Jewish home in Brooklyn. Since I have no pictures or memory of Pop as a young man, I cannot provide you an accurate description of him as he looked in those moments of his life. (However, since he was to become my paternal grandfather, he had to be a pretty good-looking guy).

At age 15, he ran off and joined the army during the Spanish-American War.  I have no information about his service other than he spent some of his time as a drummer boy. After that short skirmish with Spain, he worked as a cabin boy on an ocean liner. That ship brought him to Europe.  He then made his way to Hungary, where he met my grandmother-to-be, Charlotte Schwartz.  She grew up in Kisvàrda, a town in Northeastern Hungary, near the border with the Ukraine.  Although Charlotte was also a Jew, I do not know whether she lived in an Orthodox home, as Pop did. Nonetheless, the two of them found their way back to the States to live and raise three boys:. my dad, Alvin, and two uncles, Wallace and Robert.

 I can’t remember when I learned of that history.  I suppose it came to me in pieces. Somehow, I managed to arrange those pieces into a partial picture of my ancestry.  By the time we moved from Brooklyn to Long Island, the only parts of that history which I did not know are the facts that my grandfather was Jewish and he grew up in an Orthodox home. I learned that from my mother who told me some time during my teenage years. When I was little, and I suppose before I was born, she and Daddy would visit Pop’s parents, and my mother would help with the dishes. She talked of keeping everything kosher. That is, dishes that had been used for meat were washed in different water than dishes used for products of the animal whose meat they ate…or something like that.  I have no idea how I reacted to that revelation- I just don’t remember. But up to the time she told me,  I assumed Pop was a Lutheran.

 After my birth, my parents hadn’t settled on my name, they did not have me baptized. I do know they considered naming me Rex, Reginald, or Richard. Even though Richard won out, they put off my baptism. I’m guessing they were Episcopalians, where baptism is expected, but not required. That makes me think they were never going to do it.

However, when I was 4 years old, Pop stopped at our house to take me for a walk. During the walk, we stopped in at a Lutheran Church, and had me baptized, Richard.  I can’t imagine him doing that and Daddy and Mother putting up with it. Moreover, why would a Jew get his grandson baptized?   Thankfully, he wasn’t a Jew at that time or he might have opted for a circumcision.  That would have been painful for me, and Pop would have been embarrassed because the job had been done at my birth (TMI).  The important thing in all this, up to the time of Mother telling me about keeping kosher with Pop’s parents, I did not know Pop was a Jew.

 So, after WWII, when we moved out to Long Island, in my mind, only Mom, my grandmother, was a Jew, not Pop. I cannot tell you why I thought she was a Jew, I must have heard it somehow.

 Shortly after we moved, Mother left us. I had no idea why she was gone. I was 10 years old.  Perhaps no one thought I needed an explanation. More than likely, I did get an explanation, but have no memory of it. Before I knew it, she was not there.

All I remember is that it was Al, Mickey, Daddy, and I living in our house in Freeport.  

Al entered his sophomore year at Freeport High School. Mickey and I enrolled in Seaman Avenue Grade School. Sixth grade for Mickey, and fifth grade for me.

 Daddy commuted daily to Penn Station in Newark, New Jersey, where he worked second-shift as a ticket receiver for the Pennsylvania Railroad. Each day when we left for school in the morning, Daddy was asleep. When he came home at night, we were asleep. He was gone from the house from 1:30 PM until 1:30 AM. When he came home at night, his routine was to wake me up so I could go pee-pee. I was a bed wetter, and this was his attempt to help.  This was always an opportunity to see Daddy, and to have him kiss me on the top of my head.

On a night shortly after we moved there, he woke me up when he got home.  To my shock, he was angry. He asked me if I told people, in our new neighborhood, we are Jewish?  I was very scared. I told him that I didn’t say that. I told him that I told a couple of my new friends that my grandmother was Jewish… I don’t think my father had ever shown anger toward me before that moment… He slapped me.  He slapped me so hard I flew across the room hitting my head on the radiator.  I cried very hard. The slap really shocked me, and it definitely hurt. But I cried because Daddy was mad at me. I had nowhere to turn. I could always run to him if my brothers were beating me up. But this was my father striking me.

 In an instant, he came to his senses. He quietly helped me to my feet, and apologized for his actions. He held me, kissed me on top of my head, sat on the edge of  the bed with me, and explained what made him angry.  I don’t remember his exact words, but I understood the message.  He feared for his welfare. If it became common knowledge we had Jewish blood, he could lose his job… And only God knows how are neighbors would treat us.

 The extent of Jewish blood in our family was still unknown to me. By that time, I hadn’t really thought about our blood. I knew the Jews were not treated nicely in Brooklyn. Even though Mom, my grandmother, was Jewish, I never pondered my father’s blood…nor my own. It took years for me to assimilate everything- my grandfather’s parent’s were Jewish, Pop and Mom were Jewish, my father, his brothers, Wally and Bobby, were Jewish, and Alvin, Mickey, and me were “half-breeds”- Jew and Baptist.

 In telling my friends that my grandmother was a Jew, I think he realized I had shared something, as a boy of 10, of which I had little to no understanding of the possible repercussions. He told me he was momentarily frightened. I sat with him as he told me about prejudice and how our family could be affected.  Up to that point, I don’t recall any family conversation about our heritage, and how we needed to keep quiet about it.  I do recall finding, in a photo album, a Christmas card my father sent to my mother before they were married.  The card had a cartoon character of an Hasidic Jew saying, “Vell, Vhy shouldn’t I vish you a Merry Christmas?”  To me, that was concrete evidence my father was a Jew.  Also, if your mother is Jewish, so are you; and Mom, Charlotte Schwartz, was 100% Jewish. Nobody, up to that moment, told me to keep my mouth shut about it. After that horrible night with my dad, I kept my Jewish heritage a secret.  However, as a father, that heritage, frighteningly, returned to the fore of my life.

 That night, the night my father hit me, I got the message loud and clear- do not tell anyone about the Jewish blood in our family. I didn’t want Daddy to lose his job, and I didn’t want people in our neighborhood to hate us.  However, I had no understanding of how much fear existed in our family, and how much denial cloaked our ancestry.  As of this moment, I can truthfully say it was the only time in our lives that I saw my father angry with me. The relationship between Daddy and me was not a one-sided father-son relationship. Truthfully, I can remember only once being angry with him.