With the Vatican and the Israeli right wing still reeling from my latest denouncements and obscurantist clerics of all denominations trembling for what may be in store, I have decided to take a short break, so as to give unto the world one of the food recipes, for which I am justly famous - though among a group that is still too limited.
It is of course my variant of Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá.
Bacalhau is dried and salted cod, a product traditionally sold by countries in northernmost Europe to Roman Catholic Iberians to ensure that whatever the season or weather, they have fish available for Friday evenings. In northern Europe, this food, called klipfisk or stokfisk, is despised, which is understandable, if you have tried it the way my mother prepared it in my early childhood (being both rational and kind-hearted, she stopped the practice). In Spain and especially Portugal it was discovered that dried cod and olive oil make a superb combination; it is difficult to describe how and why, but even people, who don't usually like fish are often convinced by an Iberian bacalhau dish. One of the most famous of the over 100 Portuguese recipes is the one invented in Porto in the 19th century by Sr Gomes de Sá. There is, however, room for improvement. The Portuguese have a number of fine traditional dishes, but are often stuck with certain fixtures such as sprinkling eggs in places, where they may add a nice visual touch, but at the cost of a negative influence on the flavour. And why they are so reluctant to use wine in cooking, escapes me.
So here we go:
1 kg bacalhaus (salted and dried cod)
1 kg medium size potatoes
4 - 5 medium-size onions
1 small whole garlic, peeled and chopped
As many black olives as you like
1 generous cup olive oil
Parsley chopped
1 bottle of white wine
Soak the cod in cold water for 12 to 24 hours,changing the water 2-4 times. This is the critical part of the preparation. If you soak for too long or change too many times, you lose too much of the prized dry cod flavour; if you do too little, it will be too salty. This of course also depends on how thick the pieces are.
Boil the fish in fresh water for 15-20 minutes depending on the shape of the pieces. Pour off the water and set aside to cool.
At the same time boil the cleaned but not peeled potatoes for 10 minutes, using the last change of water from the cod (dilute if you think it is too salty).
With your bare hands, split the cod into gross flakes, remove skin and bones (use a knife if needed).
Slice the half-boiled potatoes as well as the onions.
Heat 3/4 of the olive oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onions to light golden. Add the potatoes, most olives and all fish and stir gently to avoid crushing the potato pieces too much. Add some herbes de provence, if you feel like it. Mix in the garlic (which loses too much flavour if thoroughly fried).
Place it all in a large oven-proof dish, place some olives on top for visual effect, pour 3/4 of the wine over it and bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 oC for 30 minutes. Allow the top surface to become golden and a little crusty, but check a couple of times and if it looks too dry, add more olive oil and wine. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
Best results are obtained by preparing in the morning or day before, allowing to cool and heating thoroughly just before serving. The longer the ingredients interact, the better.
Which wine? Any good heavy duty white wine will do. I would not use a chablis and certainly not a vinho verde. Most local Portuguese wines would be OK, but the ideal might be a sauvignon blanc, or a Riesling for fruitiness. I haven't tried with red wine, but hope that somebody will be adventurous enough to do so. In contrast, we have often accompanied this dish with red Alentejo, Côte du Rhône or other substantive stuff.
Bon ap'!
Sunday, 15 November 2009
Monday, 31 August 2009
REPLY FROM ITAMAR SHAPIRA TO ALLAN SCHAPIRA
by email on 30 August 2009
I don't perceive Yad Vashem as a place that should give you details and facts about the holocaust, nor does Yad Vashem perceive itself as such and therefore within Yad Vashem I guided "educational groups": schools, yeshivas, "Birthright" and others. Yad Vashem declaratively has educational weeks, sessions, to the IDF (army), youth movements, high schools and with bringing up questions of humanity, moral, remembrance, nationality, social justice. Yad Vashem plays a roll in fighting anti-semitism, holocaust denials, and genocides around the world. Moreover, Yad Vashem directed me to speak about the "independence war" which battle-fields lie in front of the exit of the museum; about Israel as a possible refuge for the Jews after the holocaust; about how do Israelis perceive the holocaust and about the well-implemented axis: "from Holocaust to Revival (the state of Israel).
To speak about these things without sparing a few sentences about the Palestinian/Arab point of view - is leaving the "educated" student incapable of understanding the complexity of the situation which the area is in these days, leaving him one option - a blaming finger to the Arabs (that didn't accept us in the region), Palestinian (for not saying "oh good that you came. we kept the place for you for 2000 years. We take our stuff and leave this place. You deserve it - you had the holocaust") and the "free world" that didn't do anything to stop it on time.
This the education that is stuffed into the brains of youngsters in Israel, from generations that grew into this victimhood and wars - disabling a whole society from seeing simple facts around them (like the occupation that we tend to forget or think we do it out of "SECURITY")and becoming crueller and crueller.
Jews around the world and in Israel support massive killing in Gaza while accusing the German society for not kicking Hitler out in the 30's. By racist laws, discrimination and violence against Palestinians within us - we are beyond Nazi Germany before the war (only we don't have a one-strong-leader).
If Yad Vashem puts the quotation of Martin Niemöller - a German pastor: "When they came to take the Communists, I did not protest because I was not a Communist; When they came to take the Jews, I did not protest because I was not a Jew; When they........When they came to take me - there was no-one to protest" - high in the museum - it means that Yad Vashem motivates activist-thoughts about what should people do when they see injustice, growing hatred on basis of race, ethnos etc. The fact that they can only blame the "world" and never look inside - is because they are a full part of the brainwash system that sent me and hundreds of thousands to kill, control, demolish and bring a sacrifice to the gods of arm-trade.
Hope that pictures in a way my thoughts about the subject. Maybe it is worth adding that a professor from the academic board of Yad Vashem tried to raise the subject to be discussed with the other professors of Yad Vashem - she was ingnored a whole month and then answered: "no". No will of anyone in Yad Vashem - nor the academic board neither the administration - to discuss a matter of the borders of politics in Yad Vashem, freedom of speech, formal attitude of the institution, borders of education and also not what I had exactly said in that specific tour - shows only fear and cover for something sensitive.
It is time to see the reality around us - professors are being fired for saying things in classes, researchers being threatened by the secret police when until not long ago they would touch only Arabs. And so on.
It is coming at us and can blow the whistle to a new war.
Yours, Itamar
I don't perceive Yad Vashem as a place that should give you details and facts about the holocaust, nor does Yad Vashem perceive itself as such and therefore within Yad Vashem I guided "educational groups": schools, yeshivas, "Birthright" and others. Yad Vashem declaratively has educational weeks, sessions, to the IDF (army), youth movements, high schools and with bringing up questions of humanity, moral, remembrance, nationality, social justice. Yad Vashem plays a roll in fighting anti-semitism, holocaust denials, and genocides around the world. Moreover, Yad Vashem directed me to speak about the "independence war" which battle-fields lie in front of the exit of the museum; about Israel as a possible refuge for the Jews after the holocaust; about how do Israelis perceive the holocaust and about the well-implemented axis: "from Holocaust to Revival (the state of Israel).
To speak about these things without sparing a few sentences about the Palestinian/Arab point of view - is leaving the "educated" student incapable of understanding the complexity of the situation which the area is in these days, leaving him one option - a blaming finger to the Arabs (that didn't accept us in the region), Palestinian (for not saying "oh good that you came. we kept the place for you for 2000 years. We take our stuff and leave this place. You deserve it - you had the holocaust") and the "free world" that didn't do anything to stop it on time.
This the education that is stuffed into the brains of youngsters in Israel, from generations that grew into this victimhood and wars - disabling a whole society from seeing simple facts around them (like the occupation that we tend to forget or think we do it out of "SECURITY")and becoming crueller and crueller.
Jews around the world and in Israel support massive killing in Gaza while accusing the German society for not kicking Hitler out in the 30's. By racist laws, discrimination and violence against Palestinians within us - we are beyond Nazi Germany before the war (only we don't have a one-strong-leader).
If Yad Vashem puts the quotation of Martin Niemöller - a German pastor: "When they came to take the Communists, I did not protest because I was not a Communist; When they came to take the Jews, I did not protest because I was not a Jew; When they........When they came to take me - there was no-one to protest" - high in the museum - it means that Yad Vashem motivates activist-thoughts about what should people do when they see injustice, growing hatred on basis of race, ethnos etc. The fact that they can only blame the "world" and never look inside - is because they are a full part of the brainwash system that sent me and hundreds of thousands to kill, control, demolish and bring a sacrifice to the gods of arm-trade.
Hope that pictures in a way my thoughts about the subject. Maybe it is worth adding that a professor from the academic board of Yad Vashem tried to raise the subject to be discussed with the other professors of Yad Vashem - she was ingnored a whole month and then answered: "no". No will of anyone in Yad Vashem - nor the academic board neither the administration - to discuss a matter of the borders of politics in Yad Vashem, freedom of speech, formal attitude of the institution, borders of education and also not what I had exactly said in that specific tour - shows only fear and cover for something sensitive.
It is time to see the reality around us - professors are being fired for saying things in classes, researchers being threatened by the secret police when until not long ago they would touch only Arabs. And so on.
It is coming at us and can blow the whistle to a new war.
Yours, Itamar
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Father Jekyll and Monsignore Hyde
Go to a village. No, I mean go to a village in a catholic country, and look for its centre. If it is a rich country like Italy or Spain, it may be a shopping centre, a restaurant, a memorial. If the place is poor, it is the church and you will most likely find that this is not because of its more or less ancient stones, but because the Pater behaves as a father. Around the world, there must be hundreds of thousands of these people, who channel spirit and courage to their communities, console them, care for them, knows their concerns, learns from them, channel philanthropy in an honest and efficient way and creatively promote appropriate agricultural development. Many of them have the courage to listen to their parishioners and their own conscience before they listen to their superiors and in so doing they may act as humans and Christians rather than as the cogs in a wheel that some of their learned bishops may wish for. And so it happens that within the framework of the catholic church, it is possible for example for prostitutes to be advised on avoiding sexually transmitted diseases, for ordinary women to be helped to access family planning and for homosexuals to be told that there is not something wrong with them.
If you go to Rome or any city in a catholic country, you may, if you wish, meet a high-ranking representative of the Roman catholic church such as a Monsignore. He shall explain to you, why it is good to inspire guilt in those who came into the world with sexual desires, which are not like the majority's (but in all fairness often like his own, though that will not be intimated), that it is God's justice, if the ignorant prostitute dies from AIDS (though in all fairness he or she may have a chance beyond), and that it is sinful to use a contraceptive rather than begetting a child, who is, given the prevailing poverty, likely to advance from starving street-child to prostitution and an early death.
The catholic church has these two sides. Other churches and denominations also, but not in such startling contrast.
If you go to Rome or any city in a catholic country, you may, if you wish, meet a high-ranking representative of the Roman catholic church such as a Monsignore. He shall explain to you, why it is good to inspire guilt in those who came into the world with sexual desires, which are not like the majority's (but in all fairness often like his own, though that will not be intimated), that it is God's justice, if the ignorant prostitute dies from AIDS (though in all fairness he or she may have a chance beyond), and that it is sinful to use a contraceptive rather than begetting a child, who is, given the prevailing poverty, likely to advance from starving street-child to prostitution and an early death.
The catholic church has these two sides. Other churches and denominations also, but not in such startling contrast.
Sunday, 16 August 2009
Open letter to Itamar Shapira
Dear Itamar,
I was moved, when I saw the news about you and Yad Vashem in April this year. According to the press, you were fired because you told a group of Yeshiva students about Deir Yassin and suggested to them that there are parallels between the Nakba and the Holocaust.
You were right, but I think Yad Vashem was also right to fire you. Certainly, the Holocaust's lessons would derive from historical study, including comparison with other genocides and related events, but that is beyond the purpose of Yad Vashem.
As a visitor to a museum and as a participant in a guided tour one has a right to be presented only with facts and documentation. I remember being upset, when visiting Yad Vashem the first time, about 40 years ago by a guide, who kept on commenting and interpreting, just as I was once by a tourist guide in Rome, who kept on comparing the Roman empire with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Incidentally, I visited the new Yad Vashem in 2007 and was positively impressed by it (well, I had carefully avoided any guide).
Nonetheless, I feel strongly that you did the right thing. Being neither a Jew nor an Israeli, but with a strong affinity to your country, I believe that its future depends on people with your kind of courage. Israelis have to come to terms with what happened in 1948 and examine all that went wrong since then because of the blindness on both sides. Only on that basis would it be possible to discuss face to face with Palestinians the meaning of peace and justice.
For this, it would also be necessary to overcome the Israeli ambiguity about the Shoah. The history of Israel cannot be understood without knowing the Shoah. But that being said, Israel should make it clear that the nation is not built on the ashes of Auschwitz. Both because it isn't and because the insistence on remembrance of the Shoah as part of Israel's genesis is unhelpful to any peace process.
Itamar, it is of course intriguing that we have the same surname. I would not mind continuing correspondence with you, because I suspect, we share many ideas and would also disagree on some points.
Best wishes,
Basle, Switzerland 16 August 2009
Allan
I was moved, when I saw the news about you and Yad Vashem in April this year. According to the press, you were fired because you told a group of Yeshiva students about Deir Yassin and suggested to them that there are parallels between the Nakba and the Holocaust.
You were right, but I think Yad Vashem was also right to fire you. Certainly, the Holocaust's lessons would derive from historical study, including comparison with other genocides and related events, but that is beyond the purpose of Yad Vashem.
As a visitor to a museum and as a participant in a guided tour one has a right to be presented only with facts and documentation. I remember being upset, when visiting Yad Vashem the first time, about 40 years ago by a guide, who kept on commenting and interpreting, just as I was once by a tourist guide in Rome, who kept on comparing the Roman empire with Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Incidentally, I visited the new Yad Vashem in 2007 and was positively impressed by it (well, I had carefully avoided any guide).
Nonetheless, I feel strongly that you did the right thing. Being neither a Jew nor an Israeli, but with a strong affinity to your country, I believe that its future depends on people with your kind of courage. Israelis have to come to terms with what happened in 1948 and examine all that went wrong since then because of the blindness on both sides. Only on that basis would it be possible to discuss face to face with Palestinians the meaning of peace and justice.
For this, it would also be necessary to overcome the Israeli ambiguity about the Shoah. The history of Israel cannot be understood without knowing the Shoah. But that being said, Israel should make it clear that the nation is not built on the ashes of Auschwitz. Both because it isn't and because the insistence on remembrance of the Shoah as part of Israel's genesis is unhelpful to any peace process.
Itamar, it is of course intriguing that we have the same surname. I would not mind continuing correspondence with you, because I suspect, we share many ideas and would also disagree on some points.
Best wishes,
Basle, Switzerland 16 August 2009
Allan
Saturday, 31 January 2009
RIGHTs
January 2009
Israel has a right to defend itself.
Outcome at the end of this month:
More than 1300 + 14; or 1300/14; or 1300 - 14; or?
Meanwhile:
The election committee of Israel's parliament decided to exclude the two main Arab parties from the parliamentary elections in February alleging that they are disloyal to Israel. The decision has been overturned by the Israeli judiciary. Thanks.
On 25 January, Herbert Pundik wrote in Politiken:
"The principle was, as admitted from the military side, to soften the opposition by overwhelming firepower before an attack in order to save Israeli soldiers’ lives. Since many of the Hamas guerrillas had sought a position on the roofs of Gaza City, from where they shot at the Israeli forces, Israeli artillery shot at the houses to kill the shooters, leading to the result , which can be seen on television. Entire neighbourhoods were laid flat." (My translation from Danish)
Israel has a right to defend itself. HOW?
According to the English language web-site of Ha'aretz on a secret report prepared by the Government of Israel (accessed 31 January):
"An analysis of the data reveals that, in the vast majority of the settlements - about 75 percent - construction, sometimes on a large scale, has been carried out without the appropriate permits or contrary to the permits that were issued. The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools, synagogues, yeshivas and even police stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to Palestinian West Bank residents." According to international law, the colonization of occupied land by the occupying power is illegal. Israel, however, does not consider itself as an occupying power in the West Bank. Its is now public that Israeli law is regularly broken and even neglected by the Israeli Government in the settlement process in the West Bank. Lawlessness rules. There are similarities with the situation in Guantanamo, but also differences - for example in the scale.
With what RIGHT can Israel claim its RIGHT to defend itself?
Asking that question is not to say that anybody has a RIGHT to fire rockets or other dangerous devices at Israeli civilians and non-combatants. It is also not to wish the death of any Israeli soldier.
Israel has a right to defend itself.
Outcome at the end of this month:
More than 1300 + 14; or 1300/14; or 1300 - 14; or?
Meanwhile:
The election committee of Israel's parliament decided to exclude the two main Arab parties from the parliamentary elections in February alleging that they are disloyal to Israel. The decision has been overturned by the Israeli judiciary. Thanks.
On 25 January, Herbert Pundik wrote in Politiken:
"The principle was, as admitted from the military side, to soften the opposition by overwhelming firepower before an attack in order to save Israeli soldiers’ lives. Since many of the Hamas guerrillas had sought a position on the roofs of Gaza City, from where they shot at the Israeli forces, Israeli artillery shot at the houses to kill the shooters, leading to the result , which can be seen on television. Entire neighbourhoods were laid flat." (My translation from Danish)
Israel has a right to defend itself. HOW?
According to the English language web-site of Ha'aretz on a secret report prepared by the Government of Israel (accessed 31 January):
"An analysis of the data reveals that, in the vast majority of the settlements - about 75 percent - construction, sometimes on a large scale, has been carried out without the appropriate permits or contrary to the permits that were issued. The database also shows that, in more than 30 settlements, extensive construction of buildings and infrastructure (roads, schools, synagogues, yeshivas and even police stations) has been carried out on private lands belonging to Palestinian West Bank residents." According to international law, the colonization of occupied land by the occupying power is illegal. Israel, however, does not consider itself as an occupying power in the West Bank. Its is now public that Israeli law is regularly broken and even neglected by the Israeli Government in the settlement process in the West Bank. Lawlessness rules. There are similarities with the situation in Guantanamo, but also differences - for example in the scale.
With what RIGHT can Israel claim its RIGHT to defend itself?
Asking that question is not to say that anybody has a RIGHT to fire rockets or other dangerous devices at Israeli civilians and non-combatants. It is also not to wish the death of any Israeli soldier.
Saturday, 20 December 2008
Voyage through Germany
The traveller left the reunion of dormitory mates, who had shared a “corridor” at the Egmont Kollegium in Copenhagen nearly 40 years before, a little early. The venue was the house of one of the mates and his wife, near Haderslev, in southern Jutland. A lot had been achieved during Saturday: A superb lunch in the garden, an excursion to Christiansfeld with a guided tour through the small town replete with the Herrnhuter Protestant Fraternal Community, and a picnic in the small forest; then the mildly ritualistic dinner, this time with exquisite game and matching wines. Songs, speeches, chatting, good spirits. The outlandish collection of hunting trophies including several dangerous bears, which had been expertly shot and skilfully stuffed, could not be forgotten.
The host and hunter understood the traveller’s desire to leave early and drove him to the railway station. The conversation was gentle, about pensions, getting on with life, places to live, arrangements to make.
The traveller had a little more than an hour to kill, while waiting for a connecting train in Hamburg. Posters told him that an exhibition by the painter Rothko was on in the city. Having often heard the name of this modern painter, but not really knowing his work, he decided that the exhibition would be the best place to spend the time. After first going in the wrong direction and getting too close to people who looked like drug addicts, homeless East Europeans or both, the traveller found the exhibition and saw Rothko’s paintings. Some paintings with large monochrome rectangles or bands, which were not quite monochrome, because the colour in each rectangle was variegated and often much darker, kind of burnt, towards the edges, made a strong impression. They were good, artistic, strong. Yet, the traveller got mildly irritated by two things: There were too many of these good paintings of rectangles: At some point Mark Rothko had started copying himself, living off a formula that worked? The other irritation was more sinister, as the traveller recognized at once. He did not like the fact that Mark Rothko was Jewish: two many of the people who had made it in New York were Jewish. Could others not get a chance?
Back in the railway station, the traveller just managed to get about one kg of German Sunday newspaper and a magazine to enjoy on the onward journey. He was headed for Basel in Switzerland, where he worked, but had made arrangements for stopping over in Bad Arolsen. While he was deeply immersed in an article in die Welt about the decay of musical culture in Germany or some such subject, another traveller came to his reserved seat, insisting it was his. ‘Sorry, I have a reservation for this seat until Kassel, you can see for yourself, but, we have just left Fulda, the train passed Kassel long ago, oh I see, dammit, you are right. With a weary and haughty look, our traveller got up, found an empty seat, descended at the next station, took a train back to Kassel, explained himself to a member of the Zug team, thus avoided paying, and hence arrived in Bad Arolsen at nearly 11 at night. A taxi took him to the reserved hotel, where, surprisingly he was able to have a lonely dinner in a garden restaurant, sitting close to a very civilized wine drinking party.
The following day, he easily found the International Tracing Service for holocaust victims. The young lady with whom he had an appointment was well dressed in a blue jeans suit and a white linen shirt. At first, she gave the traveller printouts that she had already prepared. They were copies of personal registration cards, which referred to train transports for the two persons, who were travelling in 1942 from Prague to “unknown destination” according to some Czech text on the cards, which were otherwise in German. The sympathetic lady explained that the numeric code on the cards meant that the train was headed for the Lublin-Maidanek camp in eastern Poland. ‘But in my family, we have always assumed that they had been taken to Auschwitz, yes, in fact, the Red Cross Centre also assumed that until some years ago, but newer research has sorted out the destination of all the trains (or maybe most of them) deporting people to concentration or extermination camps. The two persons whose fate so interested the traveller were an elderly couple in 1942, though not very elderly. He, whose first name was Simon Majer, was 61 years old and she, Janka, was 53. The German lady and the traveller agreed that in Maidanek they would both have been selected for getting killed as rapidly as possible. Probably by gas, but shooting could not be excluded.
The journey from Prague to Maidanek probably took something like 20-24 hours. It is much longer than Prague – Oswiecim (Auschwitz). The traveller thought that the travel time could be further investigated, but under all circumstances, it would have been a torture. As the journey took place mainly standing in wagons normally used for livestock and no food or drink was likely to be available, it was possible that one or both of the persons mentioned would have died before arriving in Maidanek. According to a post-card (the last) sent by Simon Majer one month before the deportation in 1942 to his son, who then lived in Denmark, where he later begat the traveller, Janka had been in poor health then. The postcard had been shown to the traveller by his mother around 1960 in Copenhagen.
The traveller tried obtaining information on a number of other people, close relatives of Janka and Simon Majer, while in Bad Arolsen, but despite the patient assistance of the staff of the Tracing Service and its well designed search machines, it was not possible to find anything to match those other persons.
Having said good-bye to the helpful people and the quaint little town, the traveller continued his journey to Kassel and on to Basel with a sense of mission accomplished - although, in reality nothing had been accomplished, but nothing more could be done, he felt.
On arrival in Basle, the traveller scanned the two printouts and sent them to others, who were as interested in the information, as he was. A few weeks later, he discussed with one of them, whether such efforts were worthwhile. ‘We must look to the future, yes, but we must also know the past, I think that we as survivors have an obligation to bear witness to what exactly is the truth and not allow it to be abused by those who deny it or by those who abuse it for political agendas, which are not justified. Yes, but one should not become obsessed, there are so many people suffering now and needing help, yes, that is true, but still’.
Some months later, the traveller wrote the above and decided to acknowledge the great writer, José Saramago, whose style he is humbly imitating. Since it is so easy, he then looked up Saramago on Wikipedia and discovered that the Nobel Prize winner had written in 2002 in the respected Spanish newspaper, El Pais:
“ Intoxicated mentally by the messianic dream of a Greater Israel which will finally achieve the expansionist dreams of the most radical Zionism; contaminated by the monstrous and rooted 'certitude' that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by God and that, consequently, all the actions of an obsessive, psychological and pathologically exclusivist racism are justified; educated and trained in the idea that any suffering that has been inflicted, or is being inflicted, or will be inflicted on everyone else, especially the Palestinians, will always be inferior to that which they themselves suffered in the Holocaust, the Jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner. Israel seizes hold of the terrible words of God in Deuteronomy: 'Vengeance is mine, and I will be repaid.' Israel wants all of us to feel guilty, directly or indirectly, for the horrors of the Holocaust; Israel wants us to renounce the most elemental critical judgment and for us to transform ourselves into a docile echo of its will.”
Well, there we are now, guilty and hated, thought the traveller, before we were only hated.
Basel, November 2008
Allan Schapira
PS: Comments are welcome
The traveller left the reunion of dormitory mates, who had shared a “corridor” at the Egmont Kollegium in Copenhagen nearly 40 years before, a little early. The venue was the house of one of the mates and his wife, near Haderslev, in southern Jutland. A lot had been achieved during Saturday: A superb lunch in the garden, an excursion to Christiansfeld with a guided tour through the small town replete with the Herrnhuter Protestant Fraternal Community, and a picnic in the small forest; then the mildly ritualistic dinner, this time with exquisite game and matching wines. Songs, speeches, chatting, good spirits. The outlandish collection of hunting trophies including several dangerous bears, which had been expertly shot and skilfully stuffed, could not be forgotten.
The host and hunter understood the traveller’s desire to leave early and drove him to the railway station. The conversation was gentle, about pensions, getting on with life, places to live, arrangements to make.
The traveller had a little more than an hour to kill, while waiting for a connecting train in Hamburg. Posters told him that an exhibition by the painter Rothko was on in the city. Having often heard the name of this modern painter, but not really knowing his work, he decided that the exhibition would be the best place to spend the time. After first going in the wrong direction and getting too close to people who looked like drug addicts, homeless East Europeans or both, the traveller found the exhibition and saw Rothko’s paintings. Some paintings with large monochrome rectangles or bands, which were not quite monochrome, because the colour in each rectangle was variegated and often much darker, kind of burnt, towards the edges, made a strong impression. They were good, artistic, strong. Yet, the traveller got mildly irritated by two things: There were too many of these good paintings of rectangles: At some point Mark Rothko had started copying himself, living off a formula that worked? The other irritation was more sinister, as the traveller recognized at once. He did not like the fact that Mark Rothko was Jewish: two many of the people who had made it in New York were Jewish. Could others not get a chance?
Back in the railway station, the traveller just managed to get about one kg of German Sunday newspaper and a magazine to enjoy on the onward journey. He was headed for Basel in Switzerland, where he worked, but had made arrangements for stopping over in Bad Arolsen. While he was deeply immersed in an article in die Welt about the decay of musical culture in Germany or some such subject, another traveller came to his reserved seat, insisting it was his. ‘Sorry, I have a reservation for this seat until Kassel, you can see for yourself, but, we have just left Fulda, the train passed Kassel long ago, oh I see, dammit, you are right. With a weary and haughty look, our traveller got up, found an empty seat, descended at the next station, took a train back to Kassel, explained himself to a member of the Zug team, thus avoided paying, and hence arrived in Bad Arolsen at nearly 11 at night. A taxi took him to the reserved hotel, where, surprisingly he was able to have a lonely dinner in a garden restaurant, sitting close to a very civilized wine drinking party.
The following day, he easily found the International Tracing Service for holocaust victims. The young lady with whom he had an appointment was well dressed in a blue jeans suit and a white linen shirt. At first, she gave the traveller printouts that she had already prepared. They were copies of personal registration cards, which referred to train transports for the two persons, who were travelling in 1942 from Prague to “unknown destination” according to some Czech text on the cards, which were otherwise in German. The sympathetic lady explained that the numeric code on the cards meant that the train was headed for the Lublin-Maidanek camp in eastern Poland. ‘But in my family, we have always assumed that they had been taken to Auschwitz, yes, in fact, the Red Cross Centre also assumed that until some years ago, but newer research has sorted out the destination of all the trains (or maybe most of them) deporting people to concentration or extermination camps. The two persons whose fate so interested the traveller were an elderly couple in 1942, though not very elderly. He, whose first name was Simon Majer, was 61 years old and she, Janka, was 53. The German lady and the traveller agreed that in Maidanek they would both have been selected for getting killed as rapidly as possible. Probably by gas, but shooting could not be excluded.
The journey from Prague to Maidanek probably took something like 20-24 hours. It is much longer than Prague – Oswiecim (Auschwitz). The traveller thought that the travel time could be further investigated, but under all circumstances, it would have been a torture. As the journey took place mainly standing in wagons normally used for livestock and no food or drink was likely to be available, it was possible that one or both of the persons mentioned would have died before arriving in Maidanek. According to a post-card (the last) sent by Simon Majer one month before the deportation in 1942 to his son, who then lived in Denmark, where he later begat the traveller, Janka had been in poor health then. The postcard had been shown to the traveller by his mother around 1960 in Copenhagen.
The traveller tried obtaining information on a number of other people, close relatives of Janka and Simon Majer, while in Bad Arolsen, but despite the patient assistance of the staff of the Tracing Service and its well designed search machines, it was not possible to find anything to match those other persons.
Having said good-bye to the helpful people and the quaint little town, the traveller continued his journey to Kassel and on to Basel with a sense of mission accomplished - although, in reality nothing had been accomplished, but nothing more could be done, he felt.
On arrival in Basle, the traveller scanned the two printouts and sent them to others, who were as interested in the information, as he was. A few weeks later, he discussed with one of them, whether such efforts were worthwhile. ‘We must look to the future, yes, but we must also know the past, I think that we as survivors have an obligation to bear witness to what exactly is the truth and not allow it to be abused by those who deny it or by those who abuse it for political agendas, which are not justified. Yes, but one should not become obsessed, there are so many people suffering now and needing help, yes, that is true, but still’.
Some months later, the traveller wrote the above and decided to acknowledge the great writer, José Saramago, whose style he is humbly imitating. Since it is so easy, he then looked up Saramago on Wikipedia and discovered that the Nobel Prize winner had written in 2002 in the respected Spanish newspaper, El Pais:
“ Intoxicated mentally by the messianic dream of a Greater Israel which will finally achieve the expansionist dreams of the most radical Zionism; contaminated by the monstrous and rooted 'certitude' that in this catastrophic and absurd world there exists a people chosen by God and that, consequently, all the actions of an obsessive, psychological and pathologically exclusivist racism are justified; educated and trained in the idea that any suffering that has been inflicted, or is being inflicted, or will be inflicted on everyone else, especially the Palestinians, will always be inferior to that which they themselves suffered in the Holocaust, the Jews endlessly scratch their own wound to keep it bleeding, to make it incurable, and they show it to the world as if it were a banner. Israel seizes hold of the terrible words of God in Deuteronomy: 'Vengeance is mine, and I will be repaid.' Israel wants all of us to feel guilty, directly or indirectly, for the horrors of the Holocaust; Israel wants us to renounce the most elemental critical judgment and for us to transform ourselves into a docile echo of its will.”
Well, there we are now, guilty and hated, thought the traveller, before we were only hated.
Basel, November 2008
Allan Schapira
PS: Comments are welcome
Sunday, 23 December 2007
Ka’ du li’ røget sild vs. champorado? 0n a strange intersection of Danish and Philippine cultures
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Do you like smoked herring?
Do you like smoked herring with chocol
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The point of this silly poetry w
The limit
Try it! In
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