[The Ghost of Freak]

@Jason , I apologize for my strong reaction, but there are few things that hit close to home and that is one of them for me.

My relative I referred to actually got on Schindler's list and gave up her spot for a chunk of diamond, so that she could more importantly be with her little sister.

The two of them were able to flee into a barn when the Germans started death marching prisoners back towards Germany from Poland. As the story goes, the Polish farmers were Nazi sympathizers, but were afraid of the approaching Russian front and therefore didn't give up the location of these two Jewish girls. On the other hand, my relative still believed the farmer's wife stole her diamond, because she never saw it after the Russian's came.

I guess growing up with all the first hand stories, everything from spoken to recorded writings and on film, makes me feel very strongly.

Also, one day in my crazy adolescent years (maybe even in College) when I was raging about inner hatred and my own Judaism, I antagonistically asked my Mom why she was so self-victimizing as a Jew.

Her response was something like, "because I'm still afraid of being negatively identified, lined up against a wall and shot."

Those words from my mother's mouth left an imprint. Now, I just don't stand for historic revisionism of such a traumatic event (or any other for that matter).

I do agree that it is good the Germans have definitely made strives to overcome their violent recent past through historic education.

-FREAK-

[The Ghost of Freak]

@Jason , I apologize for my strong reaction, but there are few things that hit close to home and that is one of them for me.

My relative I referred to actually got on Schindler's list and gave up her spot for a chunk of diamond, so that she could more importantly be with her little sister.

The two of them were able to flee into a barn when the Germans started death marching prisoners back towards Germany from Poland. As the story goes, the Polish farmers were Nazi sympathizers, but were afraid of the approaching Russian front and therefore didn't give up the location of these two Jewish girls. On the other hand, my relative still believed the farmer's wife stole her diamond, because she never saw it after the Russian's came.

I guess growing up with all the first hand stories, everything from spoken to recorded writings and on film, makes me feel very strongly.

Also, one day in my crazy adolescent years (maybe even in College) when I was raging about inner hatred and my own Judaism, I antagonistically asked my Mom why she was so self-victimizing as a Jew.

Her response was something like, "because I'm still afraid of being negatively identified, lined up against a wall and shot."

Those words from my mother's mouth left an imprint. Now, I just don't stand for historic revisionism of such a traumatic event (or any other for that matter).

I do agree that it is good the Germans have definitely made strives to overcome their violent recent past through historic education.

-FREAK-