"What Are We, With No History?"

Dymphna, co author of Gates of Vienna, has penned a reflective post, The Last Boat Out Of Liverpool, a poignant, reflective look back and her mother- and herself.

This is a personal story. It is not the tale of a Holocaust survivor, but a recollection of shame about my family — a feeling that is fading as I observe myself in the same position my mother occupied when it was her turn to watch what the Western world does to Jews.

Dymphna's story is important, not because of lofty, grand ideals, but rather, because she recognizes that to make a difference, to make a mark, no matter how small, we cannot simply react passively- we must at some point, take an affirmative stance and act procatively on behalf of what is right.

My mother was an intelligent woman, but she was not an intellectual. She read devotional books, or an occasional novel. The larger world held little interest for her, and, until she became an American citizen fifteen years after her arrival here, I never even heard her discuss politics. Apolitical people like my mother are not unusual; even so, looking back at the history through which she lived, I find it hard to comprehend how little it meant to her.

Dymphna goes on:

I confronted her at the door, tears streaming down my face. Her instant maternal alarm quickly dissolved when she learned the source of my distress.

“Oh, that thing about the concentration camps,” she said, waving it away. “I heard they were going to show that.”

I was stunned. “You mean you knew about it?”

“Oh, vaguely. Your father and I got the last boat out of Liverpool to come to America. I remember U-boats following us all the way through international waters. Down in steerage there were crowds of people. Most of them had tattoos. I knew they’d been in some prisons Hitler set up for the Jews. They were a sad lot.”

In my whole life this was the only time I ever wanted to hit my mother. How could she?

At that very moment in time, Dymphna discovers a few truths. Our parents are not perfect- and those imperfections in no way lessen their love for us. They are just imperfect, as are we all. That is one of those moments that defines, 'growing up.'

At first, a young Dymphna wants to assume all the burdens of the world, in what appears to be an attempt at atonement for the Holocaust, and, we suspect, in an attempt to define herself. She will not become the high school cheer leader, assume the school play lead role or campaign to be prom queen. She finds herself at the 'waters of Babylon,' and weeps, overcome by the tragedy.

Still, Dymphna will not be paralyzed. She assumes a more proactive role. She will stand up for and passionately defend those priciples she holds dear.

Of course, the story doesn't end there. Life is never simple and uncomplicated. Rarely do our best intentions provide real comfort in the face of reality.

Life comes full circle in more ways than one can imagine in adolescence. Reading Shrinkwrapped’s description of the increasingly desperate straits of Stockholm’s Jews, I am now in same helpless position my mother once occupied. The fact that I am more informed than she was does not render me more competent to do anything. The fact that I know she and I were and are part of a larger historical wave of Western self-destruction does not provide surcease.

The most bizarre and perverted aspect of this phenomenon of self-hatred is the denial of the Holocaust itself. This symptom of our cultural depravity, even if it exists only on the fringes, is deeply disturbing for what it portends for the future of the West. If we are denied our remembrance of the past — and 9/11 is now entering this “VERBOTEN” zone — then what are we?

What are we, with no history?

Dymphna will not go quietly or without a fight. We noted in our post about a visit to Auschwitz that,

There have been killing fields the world over- Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Darfur, just to name a few. We have allowed that to happen, comfortable in our existance and far removed from those tragedies. We are happy being blind.

Post Holocaust, is that blindness the legacy of Christianity?...

... We see the celebration of murder and evil on a scale heretofore unprecedented. We hear it daily and say nothing. We have this need to 'negotiate,' it seems, with evil. We cannot seem to take a stand. History repeats itself.

Well, not if Dymphna has anything to say about it.