Letter to the editor

Mrs. E. Assael,
7, Hillview Gardens,
London, N.W.4.

London, June 11^th, 1962.

To the Editor of
“Observer”,
22, Tudor Street,
London, E.C.4.

Sir,

For a second, it had stirred up a feeling of pity in me, when I have read about Vera Eichmann’s plea begging for mercy as a mother of four children.

I quite forgot for a second that in 1944, when Eichmann so “carefully and efficiently” worked out the plan of extermination of the Hungarian Jewry, my mother’s only sin was that she had had two children under the age of 15. According to Eichmann’s well-organised plans she herself was to lead the children to the gas-chambers. Had she not had any children she might have worked in the camp – since she was not old for that – and perhaps survived.

I myself was 15 years old at that time and had the honour to see Eichmann himself when I worked near the Crematorium. My job was to sort out the belongings of those exterminated. I am also the mother of four lovely children and often fear that the terrible disappointment in civilized humanity I experienced might be passed on to them unwillingly by me. I try to carry on my Father’s message (he was also killed in Auschwitz) to trust God and humanity. However, I do not think anybody will condemn me for having now doubts in the latter.

But this seems to be all irrelevant to many. Some persons, who are apt to inquire naïvely whether my tattoo mark on my arm is a “souvenir from the Navy”…find themselves experts enough to cast a better verdict in Eichmann’s case than the judges of Israel.

Since my job at a time linked with social-service it left the influence on me of seeing the social and the psychological background of a crime. But this attitude applies to crime committed under impulse and not carefully and efficiently set up time-table of murder. To be humane, is doubtlessly, not uncharacteristic of Jews and every Jew will be most considerate and soft, especially where family sentiments are involved, however, let us not confuse justice with sentiments. Humane consideration was present all through the trial towards him. Nevertheless, Eichmann, after not having denied the organization of the slaughter of six millions and after having seen those that he sentenced to life, (few people realize how many of the survivors fill the mental and general hospitals in Israel and elsewhere in the world) has had no remorse feelings up to the end…

Mr. Richard Crossman, M.P. while agreeing to the fair and just procedure of the trial throughout, points out well-meaningly and scrupulously that Eichmann’s hanging was not a prudent act on behalf of World Jewry. Some people do not realize that unless one is given a chance to live an honourable life, mere dragging along in fear and surrounded by hatred from birth to death, is hardly a treasure to be prudent about.

Would it not be advisable, for a change, to call upon some other quarters to be somewhat prudent in the future?

I shall be most grateful to you, Sir, for publishing this letter. Thanking you in advance,

Yours faithfully,

(Mrs.) E. Assael

[This letter was written by my father's aunt. I hope that one day I will meet her, now that I am an adult and can have a conversation with her. Last time I spoke to her, I really enjoyed it, she is clearly a very intelligent person. I tried to track down the article this was in response to or whether or not it was at all published, but had no luck.]

updater

Everyone should know by now that I am a fan of This American Life but this is the most depressing episode ever. Hands down. However, the intro is pretty uhhh 'good'. They talk about mouse traps. The president of the world's number 1 mouse trap company talks about what it means to design mouse traps. He is asked what the worst invention and most inventive idea that he has been presented with. One answer involved something about a mouse climbing into a dome of sorts, where he sets off a pill falling into a pail of water. The pill is some chemical, which when combined with water results in Carbon Monoxide, in essence, this is a gas chamber. The host asks if this was ever made, the president of the company says: Germany. Fuck. He is speechless.

My folks recently returned from 'the holy land' and a quick stop over in Poland. Yes people willingly go to Poland. They had a good time and also took about 3000 photos. 3000. I have not yet looked at them, but I look forward to seeing my family photographically. My plan is to go there next summer...this plan came up while brushing my teeth a few days ago. After I graduate, I will go there for a month or so and finally learn to read. If all goes well, my cousin will not get married until next summer, though they are planning for October right now. Right! My little cousin got engaged! She just turned 21! (ok so not that young) She's getting married! Whoooaaaaa.

Anyway, after coming home from a week that dragged on forever due to exams and moving, then on the drive home we had to stop on the way, got lost and Trace had to drive because lack of sleep catching up with me... I came home, moved boxes AGAIN into the house and fell asleep for about 10 minutes, when my mom came home and asked me if I'd seen what she got me. I went to my room to find:


















PRESENTS!!!!

issued

DISCLAIMER:
NO PHOTOS: there are no photos because I don't have time to edit them, I just uploaded a whole whack of photos that will be up on the other site sometime next week at the earliest. I really shouldn't have started this right during finals.

My first exam begins in about an hour and a half. I've spent about 5 hours at the library total, which is much less than usual for me. However, I was moving and the new place is telephone and internet free which leads to super successful studying. You get up to go use the internet and turn right back around and sit your keister down and study. And presto, effective studying!

Anyway, so I think I am at 80% capacity, I could have studied harder but at this point it makes little difference. Directly after my exam I am heading to a study sesh for tomorrow morning's exam which will either be a breeze or the worst thing to ever happen to me. At least I don't have to take that course again, or the one I'm writing tonight either. Then Saturday is Phonology, which might be a pleasure to study for. Then essay/studying for my last exam. Then moving the rest of the stuff to the new place (photos coming soon), followed by unpacking/finding stuff and repacking and heading home for about 2 weeks, before packing it up again for the summer and returning to work at the office for the last 2 weeks of summer (this will become clearier soon). Oh yes and before work at regular home starts, there is one full day of guaranteed ridiculous frivolous fun that has been promised. By the sound of this entry, it seems that I haven't had a conversation in 2 weeks. That's probably true, most of my conversations have been "was your nap good?" "good studying?" or "when are you going to ____ to study?"

Here is an issue for you to be informed about. I thought this was common knowledge but I mentioned it to someone and they got out right offended that I would accuse the friendly nestle corporation of such an act. So, apparently this isn't common knowledge and the word needs to be spread. I think I might begin to do my part. I already avoid Kraft products like the plague. Kraft being owned my Philip Morris, the cigarette tycoon. This is a list of all the products that are owned by the company formerly known as Philip Morris.

Passover and passing out

For once I will not write a vague entry (do I hear procrastination?) and will tell you about my day yesterday because it was jam packed and photo-free. It was unlike every other day of my life. In case you weren't aware, Passover started last night.

10:22 am - left the apartment to go pick up Natalie (or some other spelling) and then headed to the T. dot.

1:00 pm - pull up to her empty house and head back to my place in the R.dot.

1:47 pm - realise what a bummer it is that the folks are out of town and begin to wonder what time I am supposed to arrive tonight.

2:00 pm - 5:00 pm - I'm not sure what happened, but I definitely had a nap and an apple in that time. oh and I ironed a shirt for the first time ever. I don't want to do that again.

5:15 pm, approximately - begin to get ready at a ridiculously slow rate for the evening festivities, jamming out to some CDs from one of many amazing tupperware containers of CD greatness. (something inherent to my brother and I is to store our mounds of CDs in tupperware, you know, just so they can spill all over the car when you're on the highway)

6:45 - Depart for destination. At this point, I'm sure I'm going to be late, because it was really 6:55 when I left.

7:13 - after a few detours, I make it to the house, my dad's cousin's house. When I arrive, there are very few people there, mostly old. No one has any idea who I am. My guess is that without my parents, they have no context. In the family room where I was hanging out, there was this amazing old lady with great glasses and a great attitude.

I'm not sure what time it was when a lot more people showed up; Most of whom I knew and a lot that I didn't. I counted 28 people plus the baby. Everyone who knew me, came in and greeted me and followed up with "where are your parents?" in a very confused tone and looked around. "Israel" "Really?" "Yeah, they took my brother with them."

To the basement! We all piled downstairs and tried to find our seats, yes there were labels and someone made a switch which almost caused chaos. I sat next to my cousins Jon and Shona and across from the two old ladies who had earlier been discussing how ugly Oprah is (and how great her make up people are) and arguing about whether tons of money is good or bad. My cousin Dave was next to them.

The evening seemed to be strangely planned out. There were quite a few instances of "read the next 3 pages to yourself...ok now we're in the middle of page 15" No one actually read them. Also, everyone seemed to be annoyed whenever questions were asked. In the past, it was not unusual to start dinner around midnight due to questions and discussions. Thankfully, I didn't get called on to answer questions or anything.

An evening with any relative of mine is apparently incomplete until someone makes a Simpsons reference, Jon was the perpetuator this time, during a song he called out "mono" after every chorus. Usually I don't get to talk to Jon much, but I did this time. He told me all about his teaching gig at the university. I asked him if he ever messes with his students:
"You mean that if they come and ask me for advice and I give them advice and then they come back after they've done the procedure and I ask them what they did and they tell me. Then I'd say, 'what the hell did you do?! I can't believe you did that!' ?"
"yeah"
"sometimes."
Jon is awesome.

Dave compared Judaism to the Matrix. We called him neo for a while after that and oh yeah, we laughed at him too. You know a comment is heading in a good direction when it starts, "I guess the only way this will make sense is if you've seen the Matrix." After dinner, he told me about his baby and what it's like to be responsible for another human being, while the baby passed out in her great-grandma's arms, after everyone else tried to get her to sleep, that was pretty awesome. There are like 400 photos of that, none of which are mine. Dave also cheered me up about the whole getting ditched by my family, his entire family went to Costa Rica once without him. I asked him why and he said that they didn't want him there. He also had exams.

My cousin Rob left pretty early, so I didn't get to talk to him much. My conversation with Andrea was pretty short too, as was with Josh. Andrea and Dave's wife were talking about names and I have a very limited knowledge of names, I offered "Jonas." Josh asked me about an assignment we had gotten back the day before. He definitely thinks that I'm a lot smarter than him, which I guess I am, at least in that class.

Shona's boyfriend showed up at some point. I've known him for about 10 years now (yikes!), but don't see him much these days. He used to be best friends with my brother - to the point that they were roommates in first year. They've definitely gone separate ways. All he could say to me was "it's nice to see you." Andrea pointed that out.

In any case, the evening was a lot better than I had expected it to be. I wasn't as uncomfortable as I would have thought...Then again I was with family and I've known them for a while. Also being on my own forced me to represent properly. Anyone who knows me, knows that if I'm by myself, I tend to not be social at all, so I've really socialed myself out. Also, my dad's cousin gave me a whole whack of food and a ton of "tzimus" or something, which she insisted is the greatest thing ever. I don't know if I agree with her.

Today, I woke up and eventually headed back to London Town and stopped off in Mississauga to meet up with Ker. She had to drive something to Guelph, so I picked her up, we went to the parking lot and switched cars and headed half way to London from Mississauga. It was cool to see her since I keep missing her and we'll be sooo far away from each other this summer (mostly my fault). Then it was on to London, where I almost got smushed by a truck, but I made it alive.

I hope you enjoyed this intimate look into my life and my crazy enormous family.

This is the Question.

Right now I am pretty compulsively reading photoblogs. I want to make this a photoblog now (which was totally not my original intention that fall day when I started this jazz) and perhaps throw in some articles. Although a photo blog will be difficult because I don't do the fun things that these people (owners of popular photoblogs) do and I don't remember to take photos all that much and umm...I don't do "people shots" all that well (though this would be a great opportunity to improve). Did I just talk myself out of my own idea? Oh dear. In any case such a change in content will call for major overhaul of my blog. I don't know if my html skills are up for the challenge, I mean 2 side bars? Two? My brain might break down or I might spend my days figuring out that instead of studying my brains out.

Andy Warhol Filmmaker

I really want some coffee right now but my coffee mate in the apartment isn't online (and neither am I, apparently) and I really don't want to get up. Oh idea! I could make one side bar blog entries and the other photo blog but how to make them still part of the same blog? Should I start a second blog? Is that too much commitment? Does this call for a reader survey? Are you guys actually interested in my photos? The first entry could be the great move, which means it'll happen by Monday or Tuesday of next week. So many questions, so little point. Umm..Yeah so let me know which format you the reader would prefer, because I wouldn't want to inconvenience you and make people lose all interest in my blog. If you visit regularly I'm sure you've noticed the slight overhaul I've made, i.e. colours and reorganizing links. So if you're up for the change to photo and not just regular blog, let me know. Though it might just be a temp. change.

I need to pick up a non-text book before my brain entirely stops functioning. Good day, reader(s), good day.

I'm a Cuckoo

This weekend was at home and I rushed around with my mother to find last minute gifts for random family members and close friends. That was so depressing, realising that I don't get to go with them and my brother. As much as I used to hate going - which is why I never insisted on going and have only been 3 times - this time would have been something different. The last time I went was such a life altering experience, that I want to reinforce that feeling. It was weird to go somewhere you had few memories of and feel so at home. Suddenly all those weird habits your family has aren't so weird after all. I guess it's not something I want to experience regularly because then the novelty wears off.

Now that I have a cold, I pulled out a tissue box and you know what I discovered? Blowing your nose becomes rather pleasant when your tissues spend 3 months next to dryer sheets.

This is what my weekend looked like, slightly edited.