So it was with relief and a degree of pleasure that I read a report in the Guardian observing the 80th anniversary of the Kindertransport at the Jewish Museum in London.
In brief (from wiki): "The Kindertransport (German for "children's transport") was an organized rescue effort that took place during the nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and the Free City of Danzig."
The Guardian today published the account of Ruth Barnett and her brother Martin with both its inspiring and very sad aspects. I have a neighbor born in Austria who has sent to England in the Kindertransport where she acquired and still revels in having a "second family," the Quaker family who took her in. Her parents ultimately reached New York, where she joined them after the war. Now at the age of 90 plus, she is a charming and lively part of my book group.
10,000 children taken in! What a contrast to the caravan-phobia emanating from the highest office in our land.
Update: Here is the Guardian's second installment on the Kindertransport: "I was bowled over that these non-Jewish people were nice to us!"
Will the caravan get as much attention from Trump now that the election is over? Did this ploy help retain the Senate? Could it swing any votes or did it just preach to the existing xenophobic choir? For me, that caravan from Central America is one of the least frightening things I've ever seen. What horrors are they going to do to us? Pick our strawberries?
ReplyDeleteI think Trump will give it less attention for awhile, until they get somewhat closer to the border, and then he will start hyperventilating again.
DeleteTrumplethinskintinyhandserialadulterer will continue to deflect attention from things that don't bolster him to the latest matter that will drag ALL the media into focusing in that for the following 24 hours. He is a pro as this.
DeleteNot the best time to turn our attention to that past. Tomorrow night will be the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht. That's the night when patriots put on their white sheets and burn down Mexican-Americans' houses and churches. Or something like that.
ReplyDeleteMargaret, so wonderful that your friend found a safe refuge with the Quaker family, and that she was reunited with her parents in New York.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly appropriate to remember the courage and generosity of those who took part in the Kindertransport.
Trump is a self-admitted germophobe, hence his obsession with the language of infection and infestation coming from people who live in "sh*thole" countries in "huts."
ReplyDeleteThe rest of it seems to be a disgust for poor people, especially if they're brown and don't speak English (although many people interviewed in the caravan speak quite good English).
Nixon's tapes revealed equally ugly views about Mexicans and cleanliness. I guess the difference is that Nixon had enough shame about his opinions to keep them quiet, where Trump has normalized hatefulness.
I hope that the House will open some kind of rational debate about the the southern border. Human trafficking is a problem that should be addressed. If we have problems with other types of smugglers, let's address those.
So give Trump his Wall, but do it in exchange for a permanent solution to DACA and increased immigrant admission policies. We have a country whose birthrate is not keeping up with the rate at which Boomers are aging, which means greater tax burdens on existing young people.
The solution is slowly walking toward our border. But the president finds it politically expedient to stoke xenophobia instead.
Jean, now there's a thought, give Trump his token wall in exchange for rational immigration policies. Do you suppose maybe that would make him STFU, as the saying goes? Probably too much to hope for, but worth thinking about.
DeleteOh, we would have to listen to him recite his self congratulatory mantra: Promises made, promises kept.
DeleteBut because of his attention deficit and ability to persuade himself that everything he does is a raving SUCCESS, he would move on from the Wall to something else, maybe something equally horrible, but something else.
I mean, at his press conference yesterday, he seemed to think that the GOP had won a great victory all because of him and that the Democrats would be working with him and blah blah.
Then a reporter asked about Mueller, and he forgot all about the election and remembered he was mad about that and took it out on everybody by taking the mike away or telling them to sit down. And then he went out and fired Jeff Sessions to make himself feel better.
Now he's off that and tweeting that "I have been fully briefed" about the shooting in California like that's supposed to offer some type of reassurance.
The wall will not do much. The smugglers will go over or under or around or land on beaches (many do that now - beach landings). Many drugs are now coming in via drone apparently.
ReplyDeletePeople have a right to come here and ask for asylum. Instead of spending billions - BILLIONS - building a more or less useless wall, why not dramatically expand the embassy and consular staffs in the countries that so many wish to flee, who wish only to try to make it to the US and create a better life for their kids?
People who do it "legally" in their own countries face something like a 15 year wait.
If their cases can be evaluated in country, in a reasonable period of time, then many will not join caravans or give their life savings to a coyote who leaves them in the desert to make their own way (and sometimes die in the desert).
Local consular staff, as area specialists, would also have a much better grasp of the true dangers facing people in their own towns or regions of the countries involved. Plus they probably speak Spanish pretty fluently.
Local consular staff would be in a much better position to make decisions regarding asylum than overworked, non-Spanish speaking judges in the US who know little of the true conditions facing the people who come to them for asylum.
p.s Katherine and Jean, I found a very affordable trip to Rome - RT, 4 nights hotel, sightseeing etc. Less than $1000/person from Chicago. It could be a men's trip since Jean has health issues and Katherine is a homebody. Details/link on Patrick's travel thread.
DeleteRome is truly a magnificent city!
But, if any of your husbands/and/or couples do go, don't go for 4 days. Not enough time to recover from jet lag! Most of those packages allow for extra days or add on tours to other cities (Florence is only a 2 hour train ride I think)
;)
Anne, actually I'm not so much of a homebody that if my husband were going to Rome I wouldn't go, too. Agree that 4 days isn't enough time for a trip like that. Sometimes it's good to get out of one's comfort zone.
DeleteMore of a problem right now are elderly cats that would be too stressed being boarded for an extended time.
Your thought about expanded embassy staff is a good one. Seems like that would be a good way to expedite the asylum process.
DeleteWell, the Wall because he's not going to shut up unless he has turned he U.S. into the kind of gated community where rich people like him feel safe from scary dark people with limited incomes.
DeleteYes, of course, it's a waste of money, but if we can get more immigrants in who will increase the tax rolls and help take care of us aging Boomers, it's worth it to shut him up (though I guess we could try to limp along until 2020 and hope he gets voted out or becomes certifiably incapacitated).
Anne, let me know what time Raber should be at your house for the Rome trip. I'm gettin' him packed now.
I will stay home with the cats, elderly and not, binge watching Netflix and awaiting Instagram pictures.
I'm really grateful for this post. Last night at choir practice, someone mentioned that the Eucharist is a sign of unity, and we could be countercultural by reaching out to others instead of continuing to be pulled apart from one another.
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to be combative, but I don't follow the logic. Is it that the Eucharist is a sign of our unity with Christ, who told us to reach out to others? I guess I see that. However, Catholic communion, which excludes anyone but Catholics in a state of grace, is not something we can use to reach out to others.
DeleteAlong the lines of "random acts of kindness", this evening I went to the grocery store and saw a lot of people carrying a single rose. Pretty soon I was approached by two women with a cart load of roses. One of them said, "Would you like a rose? It's my 46th birthday, and I have 46 roses to give away." I said, " Sure! Happy birthday!" and walked away with a long stemmed pink rose. I encountered a lot of people smiling and holding a rose. Brightened a chilly gray day.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely story!
DeleteTrump continues on his post-election war footing. An alert hit my inbox this afternoon. Headline: "Trump administration tightens immigration asylum rules as caravans approach." Details:
ReplyDelete"The new measures, which deny asylum to migrants who enter the country illegally, invoke emergency national security powers to suspend long-standing humanitarian protections for foreigners who arrive on American soil. They rely on the same provisions Trump used to implement his “travel ban” in early 2017.
"Legal challenges seeking to delay or block the asylum restrictions are expected, and immigration advocacy groups insist U.S. laws clearly extend the humanitarian protections to anyone who reaches the United States, no matter how they enter the country."
One practical thing a Democratic congress might pursue would be to rein in the situations in which the Chief Executive can invoke the emergency national security powers.
Yah, but it's only a Democratic House, and the Senate has a bigger majority with more Trumpists since anti-Trump Republicans like Flake retired. Would they agree to curtailing executive privileges while their guy is in office?
DeleteCurtailing executive privileges is a new Republican custom. When North Carolina unaccountably got a Democratic governor, the Lege took away a lot of the governor's power. With Scott Walker's loss in Wisconsin, the Lege is teeing up bills to make it impossible for the new governor to give away the rest of the state, although Walker gave away so much the Kochs probably don't want what's left.
DeleteMargaret, thanks for the update with the link to the Guardian's second installment to the story. It was sad that one of the women had to wait 13 years to see her parents again. We take our present ease of travel for granted. And I'm sure some of the children never saw their parents again.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like there will be a third installment tomorrow.
Check out Elsa Shamash's story on the Guardian site today.
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/10/the-kindertransport-children-80-years-on-for-the-rest-of-his-life-my-father-had-nightmares-that-the-gestapo-were-coming-for-him
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