Emperor Meiji:
Tell me how he died.
Algren:
I will tell you how he lived.
last samurai quotes.net
i asked a friend, if you had to choose between two people to admire, “which one would you choose?” her choices were as follows: (1) a young german-dutch woman who was a talented writer. she, along with her family, hid during from the nazis during world war ii. eventually, she was caught and died in a concentration camp. (2) a hungarian woman who was a talented poet. she joined the british military in special ops in world war ii. her intent was to save hungarian jews from going to concentration camps. she, unfortunately, was captured tortured and refused when she refused to disclose military secrets. she was executed by a nazi firing squad.
my friend chose the second.
the university of south carolina is choosing to celebrate the life of choice number one.
anne frank, once again, is being foisted by academia to the highest pantheon of what has envisioned to depict jewry. this anne frank obsession is both unhealthy and dangerous.
the university is developing an anne frank house.
“the university of south carolina plans to build the first anne frank center in north america, the school announced on monday, connecting students and the wider community with the heroic story of the jewish teenage diarist and holocaust victim.
the 1,060 square foot center will feature world war II artifacts, as well as replicas of the sliding bookcase behind which anne’s family hid inside the secret annex of prinsengracht 263, and of the desk where she wrote the reflections that later became “anne frank: the diary of a young girl.”” algemeiner.com
the quotes from the article best explain the problem: “part of what we have to do is show her and her family, her life history, and help people understand that she was one of six million people and of 1.5 million children who were murdered,” doyle stevick told the post and courier. “she’s really the only child that you get to know in her own voice, in depth,” he said. “that ability to relate provides us that human connection to establish our universal humanity.” algemeiner.com
thus, academia chooses to understand those who died. academia chooses to not understand or sympathize for those who survived. where were those who survived the holocaust supposed to go? how were they going to live their lives?
thus, much of academia, especially with the study of anne frank, has chosen to view the jewish problem as a closed book. “the diary of anne frank” represents the conclusion of what is needed to be study. they’re dead, let’s appreciate it, and move on. academia thus is abdicated from addressing those who survived.
united states academia consists of many who despise the state of israel. why? perhaps, in their opinion, jewish people living is a further continuation of “the jewish problem.”
growing up, “the diary of anne frank” meant nothing to me. my hebrew school teachers who were holocaust survivors never implored the reading it. in fact, in all of my religious education, it was never required reading.
with respect to my teachers who were holocaust teachers, they, in the classroom, never spoke about the holocaust. their classrooms had walls covered with the pictures of the mass graves with decaying bodies and the survivors who looked like human skeletons. the pictures were my education.
as long as academia is full of vile anti-israel supporters, there is a greater likelihood of casualty six-million and one. thus, promotion of anne frank provides covers for the ugly reality at campus nationwide.
thus, i choose to admire hannah senesh who was choice number 2. united states academia, however, would likely resist studying her. how could they study a national hero of the state of israel. not only did she die for her people, she penned the poem “eli, eli.” the poem, now song, is the unofficial anthem for holocaust remembrance.
be well!!
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