Ruchira Paul writes in on the Libby Adler article we highlighted earlier today. It was insightful enough that I thought I should reproduce it as a post of its own. Ruchira lived in Germany for some time — and now is in Texas. She grew up in India, which experienced tragedies of its own that remain implanted in the memories of its citizens:
Thanks for sharing Libby Adler’s moving article. I think it is always the peculiar burden of subsequent generations to feel more helpless, more enraged and more emotionally bereft in trying to imagine and recreate the sufferings of their elders. The victims themselves, who actually lived the terror and the humiliation, remember their experiences with much more aloofness and perhaps even triumph, looking at them as discrete incidents which in the end, they managed to survive against all odds. I recognize Adler’s emotions somewhat, as a descendant of parents and parents in-law, who lost their homes and ancestral roots in the partition of India in 1947 to what was later to be Pakistan (east & west). Although the carnage in India was widespread and very bloody, it was not state sponsored and erupted over a short period fueled by mob frenzy. It also did not involve the cold, calculating humiliation that was an integral part of the Nazi modus operandi. I made this point in my post on Dissemination about Holocaust Exceptionalism.
But it was traumatic nonetheless for the uprooted people because of the bloodshed and the betrayal by friends and neighbors. My own parents, came from the eastern half of partitioned India which saw far less violence than the western half, from which my husband’s family comes. I noticed that my side of the family felt less torn about the partition and their loss than does my husband’s father. My parents, were able to make reasonable lives for themselves in India and went about their business more or less in a forward looking manner. They talked to us about the partition in terms of history, politics and mostly the perfidy of the British in bringing it about. But my father in law, who too did well for himself but had seen incredible violence while escaping with his family, is much more sentimental about his erstwhile home and bears a far greater sense of betrayal. His account of the loss vacillates between regret, fear and doubt. He is an acclaimed author and most of his work relates to the partition experience – sometimes critical , sometimes sad and always nostalgic. Unlike my family, my husband’s family also has gone back several times to Pakistan to visit the old home, neighborhood, college and friends. I think victims and witnesses of extreme violence tend to react in this bipolar manner.
You asked me once to elaborate on what I saw and learnt in Germany about the Holocaust. My experience is more than twenty years old and many issues have been clarified since then. The understanding of the Holocaust came about slowly, through numerous conversations with young and older Germans. The meager library in the University Guest Apartment building where we lived had just a handful of English books, most of them about WWII. Starved of English books to read, I devoured these in my spare time. Also Channel III of German TV, somewhat akin to PBS, used to regularly carry documentaries, commentaries and discussions of the Nazi era and the Holocaust. Participants included German Jews as well as ex officers of the Third Reich. I will not give you details but just the gist of what I gathered.
From younger Germans: 1. Our parents were seduced by Hitler into believing that he would restore German honor after the humiliation of WWI – it was not their fault. Or. Our parents were prejudiced and close minded – it was their fault. 2. Our parents betrayed us – we have to bear their shame. Or. Our parents, not we, are responsible for the Holocaust – why should we have to pay for it? From older Germans: 1. It was a mistake – Hitler seduced us. Or. There was no Holocaust. Extermination camps were labor camps for the war effort – after all it did say on the gates, “Arbeit macht frei”. 2. Jews were like all other Germans – in fact, some were so nice that you could not tell that they were Jews. Or. Jews were not Germans but had their own agenda. ( During one literary discussion it was said that Heinrich Heine was not German). 3. The most common: I swear, we did not know that a Holocaust was under way.
My own conclusion about all atrocities is that they cannot happen without the complicity of common folks – friends, neighbors and businessmen. Also, there is always someone who makes a quick buck from the misfortunes of others.
Posted by Ethan Leib on April 21, 2005 at 03:11 PM