Holly

[Guest guest]

 

Hbarrett47 <Hbarrett47

Tuesday, April 11, 2000 10:53 PM

Re: Can't take it anymore/Glo

 

>I hope nobody leaves! Glo, I'm sorry I haven't supported your Holocaust

>thread, but something noteworthy occurs to me now. I converted to Judaism

>about 15 years ago after thinking about it for the previous 25. I had always

>thought this had something to do with my dad's having been an attorney for

>the US team at the Nuremberg trials. He'd had daily contact with all the

>prisoners, and, as he was in charge of all the documentary evidence, was one

>of the first Allied officers to understand the full scope of the atrocities.

>He came home obsessed and his experience permeated and shaped my childhood.

>Later, other Jewish friends and family told me that many suspected that some

>of those who were killed reincarnated immediately and people now alive with

>their souls find themselves compelled to finish unfinished Jewish business.

>I don't know if this is true but it has a "right" feeling for me. Much of my

>own personal "Jewish business" has now been completed. I don't know how old

>you are but you may be carrying compassion for more than you know. You may

>be familiar with a group called Second Generation. They are the children of

>Holocaust Survivors who have many psychological commonalities and find much

>support in group sharing. As far as I am concerned, the effects of the

>Holocaust are rippling and unending. There have been many equally horrific

>slaughters, but those of us alive at this time can truly sense that the

>extermination shattered all illusions of "modernity" and "progress" that

>seemed to typify the 20th century. Holly

 

Dear Holly,

 

Thank you for your letter. Wow. What an impact your father's stories must have

had. You might be interested to hear about the artist who showed slides of her

art work about Terezin. She had made a decision in early childhood to not be

Jewish, because it seemed too dangerous to her. A few years ago she made a trip

to Prague and all these feelings welled up in her about her people and that she

had turned her back on them to save herself. She then visited Terezin and has

spent the last few years making images about this that explore her unconscious

fears of this hatred. Tho she was born in America after the war, she could not

shake the fear that this could happen again. That is an interesting idea about

the reincarnation aspect or why people seemingly removed from the actual

situation would become so intensely involved with it. Anyway, she is now

becoming Jewish again.

 

Love,

Glo

 

PS. Sorry I got so dramatic about the leaving and all.. in many ways I feel I

really have no right to be this overwrought and emotional. I hope no one leaves

over my obsessing about this.