I've been in France for nearly a week now. I've been working hard, looking through the sources on the fates of the Jews in World War II. So far, I've read sources on Aryanization of Jewish businesses 1940-1942, as well as on Jews losing their jobs in wartime (and seeking compensation in the postwar period). The collection I'm digging through right now, of which I've read about 200 of the 1500 documents, concerns German arrests of French citizens.
I've come across a few fascinating individual accounts, including one story that is too good to write about until I know for certain that I have read and understood all of the relevant sources. Just to speak about collection 10W84, I'm amazed by just how many French citizens the SD just grabbed off of the street. We only know about these people because the local French officials, often at the behest of the disappeareds' family members. Some of them were imprisoned in local prisons first, and eventually deported for concentration camps, disappearing forever. However, the most salient characteristic is that the vast majority were arrested for no known reason. In all of the lists of such victims, under the column for the reason for arrest, the response is nearly always inconnu or ignoré. If there is a reason given, the crime can be as light as having insulted a German officer, or selling gasoline on the black market.
On an unrelated note, I've just finished my first Shabbat in France! The local congregation was out of town this weekend, so I just did things by myself, to as great a degree as possible. When I saw my two baguettes peeking out from under their napkin, I really wanted to take a photograph. I read a lot, and had a very lazy day: I needed the rest!
Finally, the Tours bus drivers have gone on strike. They drive in the morning, but not in the evening: in other words, I need to walk home in the evening, which is kind of a pain. It's so French, though! On Friday, the union representatives were scheduled to meet the employers: I only hope that they came to a mutually satisfactory solution, so that I don't need to take the 90-minute walk back to my Youth Hostel.Thank you all, so much, everyone who has Skyped or chatted with me, read or made Facebook comments on my blog. I miss you all!
~JD
"There is nothing that has caused me to meditate more on Plato's secrecy and sphinx-like nature, than the happily-preserved petit fait that under the pillow of his death-bed there was found no "Bible," nor anything Egyptian, Pythagorean, or Platonic - but a book of Aristophanes. How could even Plato have endured life - a Greek life which he repudiated - without Aristophanes!" (Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, II.34).
No comments:
Post a Comment