November 9th, 2018
A pane of window glass is an odd thing. Just 4mm thick, and so fragile that a child's ball may shatter it, in our minds it is as much of a bulwark against the elements, against the chaos of the street, against the bad outside as nine inches of brick and mortar. Anyone who has had a broken front window pane will know the sudden vulnerability, the sense of unprotectedness, the anxiety and the naked exposure of that void. Until mended, we can't sleep. We imagine dark forms, of burglars, deviants and suchlike attracted like moths to the boarded gape - blind to the reason that the piece of plywood covering the hole is many times stronger than the thin, weak pane it replaces.
Eighty years ago today tens of thousands of our German cousins had their windows deliberately smashed, windows of not only their homes but their businesses. Synagogues were smashed and burned. Kristallnacht marked the change from social, economic and political discrimination to physical attack. Kristallnacht marked the start of the Holocaust.
The boundary, the constraint, the separation between discriminatory treatment, between scowls and insults flung in the street and on the trams to physical battery, to rape and murder, to violence and robbery and to organised genocide was just as thin and fragile as a sheet of glass. Eighty years ago it was smashed and the first thirty thousand of Germany's Jews were rounded up for the concentration camps, to be killed in an ad-hoc, haphazard fashion, from starvation, lack of care, overwork and shooting. It was to be another thirty-eight months before the Germans agreed the designer death factories at Wannsee - Vorsprung durch Technik - but already the fate of Europe's Jews was effectively decided.
NEVER AGAIN
I was in Villach yesterday, enjoying a beer on the broad, elongated space that stretches up the hill from the Drau to the church, paved in the same red catshead cobbles as a century ago, and called Adolf-Hitler-Platz until the British occupation force changed its name in 1946. The Christmas tree was already up, the size of the tree in Trafalgar Square, and carpenters were building the Christmas village, sturdy huts and braziers soon to be filled with the scent of burning pine, Glühwein and hot Leberkäse. As I write I can't actually remember what the space is called today - after having seen all the photos from March 1938, such as that below, it is forever Adolf-Hitler-Platz in my mind. Among this crowd, I wonder, were the Jews of Villach watching the procession? Still at that time with faith in the strength of their windows to protect them from rape, brutality and death?
17 comments:
I suppose what is happening here is an example of groupthink followed by mutual trust. We know that glass is very vulnerable to being shattered, but because we all accept the utility that the material offers, agree to gloss over its, under normal circumstances, less that acceptable quality in the durability stakes.
We can also be persuaded of such things in other areas of human activity.
For instance, it is natural to mistrust the newcomer, at least until we understand and accept that they are different to the tribe and get used to those differences.
Similarly some people would say that there are no differences, but show them a tiger and a lion and they will tell you that yes they look like cats, but they are definitely not the same..
We can be persuaded that something that is clearly a lie might actually be the truth, particularly if we keep repeating it, even though we have gone so far as adopting homilies like that of Einstein's where doing something repetitively does not make it any more or less so. We still persist in animal like behaviour of the inquisitive nose of a curious dog.
Strange coves, folk.
Now climate change....?
Oh.
So why do you appear to welcome comments here, which clearly endorse the fantasised lynchings of people who simply have a different point of view on the European Union, for instance?
I'm confused R-w - lions and tigers are two distinct species, but all mankind alive today is a single species, homo sapiens sapiens, with no sub-species.
Perhaps it would have been more accurate to write "Similarly some people would say that there are no differences, but show them a ginger cat and a tortoiseshell and they will tell you that yes they both look like cats, but they are definitely not the same.."?
JPW - I never allow posts advocating violence or illegality, as you are well aware, as I have deleted some of yours.
It seems you cannot distinguish between robust political opinion and racist hate speech - but you're not alone, a whole generation of soyboys, snowflakes and woke millennials share your inability.
Yes, evil triumphs whilst the good do nothing - or, whilst the efforts of the good are ignored.
Various evils are repeatedly pointed out, not by the media but more likely by the internet and bloggers, but Government still allows lies and obfuscations to pertain especially when they see a profit to be made.
Lies such as the EU, mass uncontrolled immigration, banksters and even climate issues.
Farage, Robinson, Tony Heller (and many others) have stood up and brought about much criticism of themselves for pointing out the TRUTH and yet people still persist in distorting their words or using strawman obfuscation and outright claims of racism, xenophobia or whatever to close down the debate.
If we don't TALK about these issues then they multiply and fester until they become the ONLY issue and it's too late to stop the avalanche that follows.
Where have all the good men gone eh Raed? Why are they de-platformed and denied their say? Why are they painted as deniers, troublemakers and rabble-rousers when all they want to do is reveal the TRUTH?
History will look back and say (as it always seems to do) "if only we'd heeded their warnings".
Don't be so boring Raedwald, you are trying to accuse me of racist thought, but first one needs to remove the mote from one's own eye.
In other words, I don't remember "cats" giving themselves latin nomenclature?
One of your best posts ever, Raed, which bares reposting every Kristallnacht. Particularly apposite when British Jewry is facing 'The Nightmare Before Hanukkah' -as the Jewish Chronicle memorably referred to Corbyn recently.
Of course on the German evening news last night there was the obligatory piece about 'Never forget, never again' and rightly so, unfortunately it came after the piece with the AfD trying to misappropriate, in a frankly disgusting manner, the 'Heldentaten' and sacrifices of those East Germans who brought about the fall of the Wall.
No need for contrived 'confusion' Raedwald :-)
Lions and Tigers are the same family (Mammalia) and the same order (Carnivores); both in the cat family (Felidae) and the same genus (Panthera)...pretty damn close.
I loved your brokem window post back then and have used it in conversation since to great effect. It is so simple but astoundingly true.
r_writes esq.
FWIW the homo sapien species is sub divided into races: that human races can be classified into Caucasoid, Mongoloid, Negroid [and Australoid].
Just before the deluge: "It should be remembered here that no classification of human races has been considered as universally valid. In the words of Lord Raglan, 'The division of mankind into races, it must be made perfectly clear, is purely arbitrary,'"
But just to confirm Span Ows, those divisions and sub divisions were not made by cats, they were/are an entirely human concept.
And FWIIW, I was taught that your list is about right, and that colour is not any part of those divisions or subdivisions, there are significant differences on many levels.
So whilst it is dishonest to deny that differences exist, such differences are not a good reason to discriminate perversely, since our entirely human traits of prejudice are with us at something as insignificant as a football match, we actually contrive to bring our differences into the light and try to persuade each other of our inbuilt superiority.
Then on Monday morning we go back to work and rub along perfectly with that Millwall supporter that we were so alienated about the day before.
Well not me, because I no longer work and I don't like football... or Millwall... :)
Hmm, but the PTB in the eu and here in Britain dally with a far more ancient pestilential cult than the austrian ever thought of, although true to say, in fact he - the austrian corporal also encouraged them and against the British during 39-45 but thereafter some links remained.
We take their petro dollars and kowtow, they send their medina trained hate pedlars to these shores and across the continent our governors say nothing and gradually we are altered from within.
They hate Christendom ever bit as much as they hate their original 12 tribesmen, residing in Golders green or on the Jordan.
Another KristallnachtII beckons, but this time, it will be a shattering, coming for us all.
Raedwald said @ 08:49
'I'm confused R-w - lions and tigers are two distinct species, but all mankind alive today is a single species, homo sapiens sapiens, with no sub-species.'
I'm no expert but two species distinct from one another can't breed. Lions and Tigers produce Ligers. Both are of the genus Panthera, which in lay terms means they were from the same stock originally. Huge environmental forces drove them apart to become the diverse creatures we see today. It's the same with humans - however political forces will eventually undo all of what nature did and human diversity will cease. Reminds me of that song from my very early teens:
Blue Mink - Melting Pot (1970)
Take a pinch of white man
Wrap him up in black skin
Add a touch of blue blood
And a little bitty bit of red Indian boy
Oh like a Curly Latin kinkies
Oh Lordy, Lordy, mixed with yellow Chinkees, yeah
You know you lump it all together
And you got a recipe for a get along scene
Oh what a beautiful dream
If it could only come true, you know, you know
What we need is a great big melting pot
Big enough to take
The world and all its got
And keep it stirring for a hundred years or more
And turn out coffee coloured people by the score
Enjoy your sameness as it'll last forever.
Steve
Ah things must look a lot different if one is snug and smug in a foreign bolt hole.
"I'm no expert but two species distinct from one another can't breed."
There are many cases of related species that can interbreed. However, they generally don't. Each of a pair of related species has evolved adaptations for different ecological niches, and a hybrid will be less well adapted to either niche than the pure-bred individual.
Hence, animals and birds in groups such as ducks which can interbreed genetically often evolve colours and displays to be sure that a possible mate is of their own kind.
When you get to bacteria, the species concept is almost meaningless; but there are different kinds, and you have to call them something.
I think 'culture' can more easily be defined than 'race' and a better premise to base one's argument.
Anonymous said @ 13:01
BINGO !
One’s race is nature’s decision and immutable and hence all races should be treated respectfully and equally.
Religion and culture, however, are human constructs and are a lifestyle choice. They’re not all benign and equal and shouldn't be treated as such.
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