I just read this story about a Holocaust survivor who lived next to a former SS Camp Guard at Leisure World in Arizona. That would make an unbelievable movie or book.
Tags: Randomocity
I just read this story about a Holocaust survivor who lived next to a former SS Camp Guard at Leisure World in Arizona. That would make an unbelievable movie or book.
Tags: Randomocity
I guess lesser examples of this kind of thing probably happen all over the US, given that both the survivors who suffered through the Holocaust and the perpetrators responsible for their pain often want to escape the past (albeit for rather different reasons). America has long been seen as the ideal place for trying to make a new start, whether thats actually true or not.
Though its bizarre that they lived next door to each other: same city, I’m sure thats happened a few times, but just a wall between the torturer and the tortured? Scary stuff.
You ever read MAUS, by the way? Awesome graphic novel on the Holocaust, from the son of a survivor. Provides the best argument I’ve yet seen that comics can serve a serious purpose (plus it got a Pulitzer, which is pretty cool).
What is also bizarre is that the old nazi wasn’t trying that hard to escape his past. He hung a picture on the wall of himself in an SS uniform! I haven’t read MAUS. I’ve seen it and been intrigued.
That is strange: I suppose if you’ve done something unimaginably horrible and you have any kind of conscience, the two main ways to react would be either try and forget about it completely, or tell yourself it wasn’t your fault (the old “I was only following orders”), so you weren’t REALLY that bad. This guy must have gone for the latter option, if he was happy to have that pic up (clearly wasn’t too familiar with the whole you-can-get-arrested-for-war-crimes thing…).
I’d quite like to talk to my German grandparents about that whole period some time, but as you’d expect its a rather awkward topic to bring up, so doubt I’ll ever get the balls to ask that question. I don’t THINK (hope?) they were involved in anything too nasty – from what my mother tells me, my grandfather was about to go on the Barbarossa campaign, but then got ill and rode it out in a hospital. Lucky for me, I guess!
Give in to that intrigue on MAUS: brilliant book, and pretty much guaranteed to be in any library with a ‘graphic novels’ section (and sometimes even in the history section, which is where I think it sits in the Warwick uni library).
I guess that begs the time honored question of why do people do “evil” things? The late Spalding Gray, in his performance piece/movie “Swimming to Cambodia” described a cloud of evil that circled the globe and touched down in different places. Of course I am paraphrasing, but that is the gist.
Having lived in Florida, I think dementia had something to do with it in this case.
Bringing up WWII with German grandparents would be a touchy subject. But you know, if they want to talk about it, it could be really interesting. OF course, that is a big “if”.
I’ll look in the Porto Alegre libraries, but I’m not too hopeful. I’ll add it to my list of books that people will have to bring me when they visit.