The Passing Of A Righteous Hero

On May 12th the world lost a very special lady.

Polish Catholic Irena Sendler (1910-2008) saved the lives of 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II.

Working in the Zegota ("Council for Aid to Jews ") underground movement, where she ran the Children's Division, Irena contrived ways to enter into the Ghetto (often as part of the official Contagious Disease Department) and, with the consent of their parents, smuggle out Jewish children through various means, from hiding them in suitcases and body bags to sneaking them out, as was the case of five-month old infant, Elzbieta Ficowska, inside a carpenter's box. An ambulance driver who smuggled infants under stretchers in the back of his van kept his dog on the seat beside him, having trained the animal to bark to mask any cries from his hidden passengers.

Once outside, Irena created new identities through false documents and worked to find families willing to accept the children and pass them off as Catholic, or managed to hide them in convents and orphanages. Zegota made it clear to all of those hiding children, when the war was over, they must be returned to Jewish relatives.

She kept meticulous records of the real names of all the children she saved, having the courage to believe that her country would one day be freed and that the children could then be reunited with their parents. She hid the lists in glass jars that she buried in the garden rather than keep them around the house, and risk them being discovered.

Her rescue operation came to an end in 1943 when she was captured by the Germans. She was brutally tortured in prison, as the Nazis attempted in vain to learn more about her underground activities. These beatings resulted in both her legs and feet being fractured, causing injuries that plagued her to the end of her days, yet she did not reveal the whereabouts of her list.

She was rescued from the hands of her torturers by the Polish underground, and even though she herself spent the remainder of the war years in hiding, she continued to find ways to be of service to the hidden children. After the war, she dug up her lists from their hiding place, and devoted much time trying to reconnect the rescued Jewish children with their families.

Sadly, most of the relatives had been killed at the Treblinka death camp.

The communist regime that occupied Poland following World War II branded Irena a "fascist" , for her group's anti-communist views, and kept her from receiving just reward for her valiant wartime activities. Her story was rescued from the fog of history by four American high school students from Kansas, who created a play called "Life In A Jar", based on their research into Irena's righteous acts during the war.

As the play's popularity helped her brave efforts to become more internionally known, Irena Sendler put her inspiring courage into humble perspective:

“We who were rescuing children are not some kind of heroes. Indeed, that term irritates me greatly. The opposite is true—I continue to have qualms of conscience that I did so little.”

Last year Irena Sendler was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, but lost...
to Al Gore.

Miracles And Mother's Day

Born in the corner of hell that was the Auschwitz concentration camp in the last year of World War II, a daughter shares the remarkable story of a mother's choice to bring new life into a world filled with death. It's an inspiring example of the strength that can come through faith: the consolation that when you commit to doing the right thing, you will find a way to do it... because you must.

When 25-year old Vera Bein was shipped to Auschwitz in May 1944, she was almost two months pregnant.

From People Of The Book, we can read the stirring account of Bein's daughter, Angela Volgar, whose birth certificate testifies that she had been Born In Auschwitz:

"My mother felt so terrible for all the people who had lost their children. They lost their babies, and she brought one back," Polgar said.
...
On Dec. 21 Bein felt labour pains. She climbed to the top bunk in her barrack, and there, aided by two other inmates, gave birth in secret to a baby girl.

It's a miracle that she herself survived, let alone both her and her daughter:

At selection on the platform, most visibly pregnant women were sent to die; so were babies, children, the obviously sick and the elderly. Others were spared for use as slave labour or fodder for medical experimentation.

One of the only times Angela Volgar's mother Vera Bein ever discussed her memories of that terrifying time was in an interview she participated in with her teenage granddaughter for a school assignment in 1984. From that tape, Bein relates these details:

"I felt the pain and told the Block altester (the barrack's inmate supervisor) that I feel cramps and pain. She asked me to climb on the top of the bunk, and she came with me and she helped me to give birth to your mummy," Vera tells her granddaughter on the tape.

"She knew how to do it, because she was the daughter of a doctor, so she had an idea about cleanliness and how to help a woman in labor. She brought hot water and clean sheets. She cooked a pair of scissors in hot water to sterilize them" before cutting the umbilical cord, she said. "So everything went quite easily." The infant weighed one kilogram, a little over two pounds "Mummy was so weak and so tiny, she didn't cry. So nobody knew she was born."...

The only other infant survivor, according to Auschwitz museum records, was a Hungarian boy, Gyorgy Faludi, born the day of liberation with the help of a Russian doctor.
...

An important lesson we sons of mothers may learn from this story, and from the example of our own mothers, is how the act of making life meaningful is an ongoing one, a flame forever on the verge of having its light extinguished. For nourishment it requires a reaffirmation of commitment, a refueling of motivation, and a renewal of spirit on an ever-recurring basis.

To feed this reconnection we may wish we could readily find our inspiration with little effort, through existing resources lying physically at arm's reach; but as with Vera Bein's example we must learn to look within, so that even the most horrific tragedy may not impede our ability to see the miraculous treasure trove of inner strength waiting to be tapped into, and brought to light.

Witnessing new life arise from "nothing" seems miracle enough. Yet the miracle continues as the new life continues, as a mother's love for the child they gave birth to is itself forever reborn day after day, year after year, remaining undiminished even as other children may be added to a growing family. It grows, because it must.

The miracle of life, like the miracle of a mother's love, is one beyond physical limits. It is infinite.

And, through the blessing of memory, combined with the wisdom we may accumulate through advanced age and experience, with grateful eyes we learn to see that its light remains upon us, even beyond a mother's death, allowing the miracle to become eternal:

[Angela Polgar] remembers her mother for many things: the odds she overcame, the perseverance she embodied, the pain she concealed for so many years under a mask of optimism and a survivor's dream of renewal."

A heartfelt Happy Mother's Day to Mother's everywhere. God Bless you all, and thank you for teaching us what it means to have faith.


[Great thanks to Suzanne at Big Blue Wave for pointing the way to this amazing story.]

350,000 New Stories Of France Under Occupation

An archive of 350,000 photographs has been made available for the first time since the photos were deposited in Ivry, France, in 1947.

The French newspaper Le Figaro offers a sampling this week, on the eve of VE Day, enough to make any student of World War II history yearn for a 26-hour day and a 9-day week in order to find sufficient time to wrap their minds around the treasure trove of new stories that these photos bring to light.

For instance, one photo depicts a dancing Russian soldier entertaining a gathering of French children. From the article's accompanying notes we learn that captured Russian General Andreï Vlassov and his Russian Liberation Army did not earn complete German confidence in their stated commitment to fight alongside the Wermacht against Stalin's Red Army. The Russian POWs serving in the army assembled by General Vlassov (the "Vlassotsy") to liberate Russia, such as the fellow doing the lively jig in this photo, were therefore stationed as far away from Russia as possible... on the Western Front, located either at Normandy, or in the south-west regions of France, to await the imminent invasion of the another army of liberation... the Allies.

Some hasty research thanks to Wikipedia adds some fascinating context to their dramatic fate, once they did encounter the Allies in combat, all of which (including the very existence of the Vlasovtsy) was news to me:

A number of such soldiers were on guard in Normandy on D-Day, and without the equipment or the motivation to fight the allies, most promptly surrendered. There were instances of bitter fighting to the very end, triggered by mishandled propaganda from the Allies that promised quick repatriation of soldiers back to the Soviet Union if they gave up.

Other interesting photos show a North African arab recruit "seduced by nazi propaganda" into joining the German side, captured French officers chatting with their German captors, Vietnamese prisoners of war building fortifications against Allied invasion (a reminder of France's global empire in those days), the mundane details surrounding collaborators at work, and more. Each one tells a fragmentary chapter of the larger story, each hinting at enough human drama to be worthy of a detailed account of its own.

After posting recently on a current Paris exhibition of similar photos, I found my interest in the story of the Occupation of France rekindled to the point where I finally undertook to read an old 1943 book I had purchased second-hand a few years ago, and laid aside; the tense wartime memoir, "Paris Underground".

It's a haunting first-hand account of the actions taken by a schoolmarmish American widow, Etta Shiber, who found herself living in a Paris suddenly occupied by an invading German army. With amazing detail, she chronicles her courageous (though anxiety-ridden) participation in what becomes a rather large-scale underground operation engaged in smuggling over 1,000 British troops out of Nazi-Occupied France. All goes relatively smoothly, until she is arrested and imprisoned... a horror that fills the final chapters of the book.

In one memorable encounter, mid-way through her narrative, she shelters "Dr. Wandel", a German deserter who shares many first-hand experiences of his side of the Occupation. A story-within-a-story that suggests how complicated a tableau the chronicle of the Second World War truly is, standing in defiance against our vain attempts to presume we could ever consider ourselves "knowlegeable" of its real scope... revealing that the more we learn about anything, the more we should recognize how little we truly know:

...
Of all the things that Dr. Wandel told us, the most interesting was that there had recently been an epidemic of suicides among German soldiers. It seemed hard to explain, for the German armies had been victorious everywhere, but Wandel thought it resulted from discouragement because soldiers who had been serving since long before the war had expected that with the fall of France, Britain would collapse, and they could go home; and now, after the momentary confusion which had followed the French debacle, the English were more determined than ever, and the end of the war was still not in sight.

Moreover, Wandel said, the Germans were in deadly fear of the reception they would get when they attempted to invade England. ...

Father Christian confirmed what Wandel had said about the fear of the German soldiers whenever the invasion of England was broached. He told us that when some of the men stationed at Conchy were ordered to the coast, the younger ones wept, and kept repeating over and over a French phrase which had been shouted at them derisively by children: "Chair a poisson, chair a poisson!" -- which means, food for the fish. One boy who had been billeted in a peasant's house, said as he left, "We'll never come back."

"But if they're so afraid," [Etta Shiber] asked Wandel, "why don't they revolt?"

"You don't know the German soldier", Wandel said. "His discipline is complete. He will permit himself to be chained into a boat which he believes is going to take him to a fiery death, or he will commit suicide to seek an easier end, but he will not revolt." [pgs 155-156]

"Paris Under Occupation" Photos: Evil Made Normal

Smiling, shopping, well-fed fashion-conscious Parisians look at us contentedly from out the past in a new exhibition of 250 wartime color photographs currently on display at the City Hall Library in Paris.


Originally framed by collaborationist photographer André Zucca for the nazi "Signal" periodical, the scenes have been re-framed once again by the gallery's organizers, as scarce historical context is provided for confused visitors to the exhibition.

France24 puts the controversy in perspective:

Under a clear blue sky in the summer of 1942, a smiling woman in sunglasses lounges in the Luxembourg Gardens. At outdoor cafes or in pleasantly illuminated interiors, life seems quite rosy in wartime Paris.These unedited images, taken by a 24/36 Leica, were taken between 1942 to 1945, the height of the German occupation. The absence of any explanation about the propaganda element in the exhibit is striking.

Most of the photos contrast sharply with the history books recalling the Vel d'hiver roundup and deportation in July 1942. Where are the snaking lines outside food stores? Where are the witnesses of the occupation? Rare are the photos where a yellow star sewn on coat lapels is seen on passers-by. This unexpected take on "German France" does not leave one indifferent.
...
Without questioning their beauty, the photos are disturbing. Even worse, the very title of the exhibit is rather shocking, due to its inaccuracy. Christophe Girard, the Parisian deputy mayor in charge of culture, is quite clear. "We should stop this exhibit!" Girard, an elected representative in the district where the photos are on display, was quoted saying to the French weekly newspaper, the Journal du Dimanche. "Frankly, it’s unbearable. All this disgusts me."

Girard saw the exhibit on its opening night in March. "I was so ill at ease that I had to leave the opening," he explains. "But if one had clearly explained that these were propaganda photos, the exhibit could have been very interesting."
...
The mayor's office now concedes that the exhibit lacked "pedagogical material" and is working to correct this. "We have added historical explanations which had been lacking," they added.Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoë says the incident was "badly managed", and is trying to put things right. He preferred not to ban the exhibit to avoid accusations of censorship, but removed the posters advertising the show.
...

A sampling of the controversial photographs can be seen at the French 20 Minutes website.

What little historical context that is offered in the printed materials associated with the exhibition itself seems to be of questionable accuracy.

One example is provided by the French site Rue89 [my translation]:

As to the actions the photographer undertook following Liberation, [the exhibition's organizers] clearly try to minimize them: "Arrested in October 1944, he is quickly released and rejoins the 1st Army of General de Lattre de Tassigny. His dossier is filed away in 1945", one may read in the exposition.

In reality, [historian Jean-Pierre] Azema clarifies that [the photographer] was pursued and imprisoned for his collaboration with the occupiers and considered in 1945 worthy of being made the object of a trial of national indignity; he reacted to the situation by fleeing Paris and living near Dreux where he would long reside under a pseudonym. As to the expression "rejoined the 1st Army of General de Lattre de Tassigny", this seems to suggest a reconciliation that didn't [actually] take place.

Maybe the lack of forethought given to explaining the context for the photographs is a blessing in disguise. Coming face to face with such obvious lies, maybe the visitors can leave carrying a question as to just where the lies and mis-shaped information stops… does it end when they leave the exhibition, or are their minds regularly filled with mistaken beliefs by those who profess to be exhibiting the "truth"?

The French media sites are full of commenters complaining of bias and omission when it comes to how their media and their academics are reframing current events to suit the elites' agendas. Yet often these same commenters feel no hesitation to accept as Gospel Truth any slur against Israel or the United States which these same disreputable sources trumpet in their headlines. Is it really likely that one story, so close to home, could be so baldly transformed in the biased retelling, yet events taking place so far away are to be reported free of the same distorting bias..?

All personal communication has elements of persuasion within it, which infers manipulation through selection. When a photographer decides upon a subject they wish to frame as a focal point, they accompany that choice with a decision on what to exclude, what to leave out. Whether it's salutory holiday snapshots of family crowded around the dinner table, or stoic Parisians holding up under Nazi occupation, there is inclusion and omission, a selection process taking place.

“The camera doesn’t lie”, but the photographer sure can.

Maybe the experience of this photographic exposition can contribute to French visitors thinking a second time about what they have been told about the world around them...

... and what is being left out of the picture.

They knew

Learning history means re-learning history, especially in light of a new book, discussed here in the Daily Mail:

"Between 1942 and 1945, a section of SIS - known as MI19 - secretly recorded no fewer than 64,427 conversations between captured German generals and other senior officers, all without their knowledge or even suspicion. The 167 most significant of these are about to be published for the first time. ...
They also explode the post-war claim of the Wehrmacht that they did not know what the SS were doing to the Jews, Slavs, mentally disabled and others among what they termed "untermensch" (sub-humans).
…
Attempts to suggest that genocide was solely the responsibility of the SS and Nazi fanatics, and not widespread across the whole Wehrmacht, completely collapse before the evidence of these recordings.
…
General Von Thoma, who commanded a panzer division in Russia before being captured at El Alamein, told the pro-Nazi General Ludwig Cruwell in January 1943: "I am actually ashamed to be an officer."
… Thoma said of those who believed the Fuhrer was ignorant of what was happening: "Of course, he knows all about it. Secretly, he's delighted. Of course, people can't make a row - they would simply be arrested and beaten if they did." …
In December 1944, Generalleutnant Heinrich Kittel, commander of 462 Volksgrenadier division, told General-major Paul von Felbert, commandant of Feldkommandantur 560: "The things I've experienced! In Latvia, near Dvinsk, there were mass executions of Jews carried out by the SS.
… [Later on] Kittel mused: "If one were to destroy all the Jews of the world simultaneously, there wouldn't remain a single accuser," and "Those Jews are the pest of the east!"
… In another conversation later that same day, Kittel told Schaefer about Auschwitz: "In Upper Silesia, they simply slaughtered the people systematically. They were gassed in a big hall. There's the greatest secrecy about all those things."
… "Let me tell you," General Count Edwin von Rothkirch und Trach told General Bernhard Ramcke on March 13, 1945, "the gassings are by no means the worst."
"What happened?" asked Ramke. "To start with, people dug their own graves, then the firing squad arrived with tommy-guns and shot them down. Many of them weren't dead, and a layer of earth was shovelled in between. They had packers there who packed the bodies in, because they fell in too soon. The SS did that.
…
Three days later, at Trent Park, Colonel Dr Friedrich Von der Heydte told Colonel Eberhard Wildermuth about the Theresienstadt concentration camp in Czechoslovakia: "Half a million people have been put to death there for certain. I know that all the Jews from Bavaria were taken there. Yet the camp never became over-crowded. They gassed mental defectives, too."
"Yes, I know," replied Wildermuth. "I got to know that for a fact in the case of Nuremberg - my brother is a doctor at an institution there. The people knew where they were being taken."

The victims knew. The SS knew. The Wermacht knew. Hitler knew. They all knew. And since the British were taping these conversations, the British knew as well. Well, some did... but who?
The revelations from this book demand the publication of a second book, one chronicling who among the British High Command got to see these transcripts, and what actions they took when faced with this information. Or, what excuse there could possibly be to have taken no action.
No wonder it is so easy for our leaders to throw Israel to her enemies… we are discovering, to our shame, how well-practiced a habit this has been.