|
|
|
timmy
|
 |
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
|
|
|
Just before my son and heir vanished to Thailand and beyond (the curious can see http://www.getjealous.com/aletal and follow his travels), we were at my mother's house, and he asked for more information about my father, who died before he was born.
I showed him a folder my mother has kept with all of his papers. One was his Viennese identity card. Stamped on the card is:
J
The real "J" is substantially larger, it takes up almost the entire side of the card. There was nothing subtle about Nazi persection.
I know I knew the significance before he showed me while he was reading it, but it came home, suddenly.
Then, tonight, I was watching, am watching, a genealogy show, following Stephen Fry's ancestors back. He visited, as I visited, his ancestors' last known residence. There was a plaque. They perished in Riga. My visit was easier on the emotions, and just found a bland concrete block in Praterstrasse where my father's family lived. He got his family, all of them, out of Austria, so an easier ending.
I know I'm rambling slightly. I'm not sure of what I want to say, not quite. I think I am feeling part of a minority, though I am not Jewish (my mother was not, and he converted to "convenience christianity" to avoid, he hoped, future persecution - they were not observant Jews, just racial Jews, if you follow me. Pork was not a stranger to their household), and a minority within a minority.
Now I know I'm rambling!
I mean that I am descended from persecuted Jews, and I am gay within that subset. A minority within a minority. It brings tears to my eyes. I'm not entirely sure why.
[Updated on: Sat, 29 September 2007 20:25]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
|
|
|
I've been thinking since I posted about this, thinking about what it means. Not the obvious "Those with this stamp are destined for mass murder, potentially after serious degradation." That is "just" the facts of the time and the place.
I've been trying to put it into a context for us, here, today. I think it means "No matter what stresses we face, others have faced them before, and some have faced what may be tougher stresses. They have overcome them. We are as strong as they are and we can overcome our own."
I do know that the holocaust existed, and that so many were murdered. They were the ones who were forcibly rendered unable to overcome. But they would have, if they had not been killed. They would have. So many showed it by individual, and hopeless, acts of heroism while they were on their way to their own deaths. Hopeless, not pointless.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The origin of the red J is quite interesting. It was stamped onto the identification documents of Jewish German citizens form 1938, October if my memory serves me correctly. By this time Austria had been absorbed into the Reich. This was done after negotiations with the neutral and humanitarian Swiss government who requested this action, otherwise it would demand visas for all German citizens entering the country. It could not or would not accept Jewish emigrants.
Hugs
N
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
|
|
|
Ah, bless the Swiss. I imagine they were neutrally antisemitic, then?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In tenth grade two years ago we learned about this. Germans who were jewish were forced to not only have the "J" in their passorts, but also to assume the middle names "Sarah" for females and "Israel" for males. This was because the German jews were the most Reformed and integrated in Europe, and their names were largely the same as Christian Germans. We learned that Jewish war veterans who served in WWI in the German Army and especially in the German Navy with great distinction were deprived of their decorations. I think that is terribble.
Another thing we learned is that sameselual persons were in concentration camps too and when they were liberated sometimes they were returned to regular prison because samesexuality was still against the law everywhere.
I'm going to ask one of my best friends named Daniel to join this Forum even though he is barely bi and totally not samesexual. he is Reform Jewish although his family has been in Virginia since before the Revolution. Then they were regular Jews I think not Reformed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
|
|
|
It is not simply passports. You need to think of a nation where, in order to receive anything at all, even in shops, you had to show your identity card. Stopped on the street you had to show your identity card. Attending college you had to show your identity card. Your employer had to see your identity card.
Every citizen had an identity card.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
timmy
|
|
Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
|
|
|
It seems I was over-impressed with the size of the stamped J. And yet it is highly intrusive, as you see below.
I am sort of getting used to this rather deeply unpleasant branding from my father's past. I know that such things coloured his life, and so they coloured my own.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This government is still trying to persuade us that identity cards are a good idea.
They say that only criminals have a reason to oppose such cards and that they will make it easier to enforce the law.
Just think for a moment and you will be able to think of an unjust law. And it doesn't matter which country you live in. Lawmakers are fallible.
I broke the law against homosexual acts from 1954 until I got married. They sent people to prison in those days. If I had been 19 in Nazi Germany I might have been sent to a concentration camp. I break the law that says I may not adjust my own gas water heater. I wish I could break the laws that determine who gets a good free education. There are a great many injustices in society that the law upholds.
I think it would be really foolish to enforce all the laws; it would be more unjust than society already is. While that is impossible the law enforcers selectively enforce those laws that seem important and that most people agree with, much as the church only speaks about the 'God is Good' bits and ignores the fire and brimstone.
Apart from being a huge waste of money, identity cards will do you no good atall.
Love,
Anthony
|
|
|
|
|
Goto Forum:
|
] 
A Place of Safety
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
