One of the writing prompts I used to use with my freshman English classes at UNM in Taos was to pass around an intriguing photograph and ask students to “write what you see – make a story out of it.” Then we would go around the room, where I’d set their chairs in a circle, and hear what each of the twenty-or-so students made of the image. They enjoyed the freedom and creativity of this exercise, and I enjoyed their many, varied, and vivid perspectives.
One of the photos I used for this exercise, I remember clearly, was of a group of pretty young women laughing and having fun – posing for the camera, sitting in a long row on a ledge, happily eating (it turns out) blueberries. It’s an old photo, from the early 1940s, taken at a mountain resort in Europe.
I had just discovered it in a New York Times article about a photo album that had been sent to the U.S. Holocaost Memorial Museum in 2007. The album itself contained more than one hundred photographs showing the everyday life of military officers and their secretaries – all of whom worked at Auschwitz.
(Caption to above photo: a group of women, secretaries and auxiliary workers, enjoying blueberries as an accordion player serenades them on the deck of a recreational resort that was a reward for the German camp staff of Auschwitz.)
I can’t remember now what my students’ written responses to the photo were, but I do recall they were all positive. None of these students had read the NYTimes article, so they had no idea what the true story behind this “fun” photo was. Who could have even imagined such a horror? On the surface, everything seems “normal” in the photo – just “girls being girls” on their day off. Kicking back. Eating fresh-picked blueberries in the summer sunshine to the sound of lively accordion music. What could be better?
I’ve since revisited that old photo online, and I’ve been studying it closely. One of the pretty blond German women looks just like a young version of my German mother (but to be clear, my mother was born in NJ, USA, to German immigrant parents in 1916). No doubt these young women were excellent workers (as was my mom) – quick, efficient, and ultraresponsible – assets to the smooth running of the camp.
Did they know what was going on in that camp? I have to believe they did. It’s said that the German people by and large were unaware of Hitler’s extermination of the Jews; they’ve pled innocense (or rather, ignorance) of the fact that millions of their countrymen were being tortured, experimented on, and systematically murdered. I have trouble believing this excuse. It’s true that news traveled a lot more slowly then than now. But still….But still. This went on for years.
The photo of these women eating blueberries, taken more than eighty years ago, and the album in which they were found continue to haunt. Just last year the new play, “Here There Are Blueberries,” by Moisés Kaufman and Amanda Gronich was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in drama. The Pulitzer website (www.pulitzer.org) calls this play:
“An elegant and harrowing work of documentary theater that examines the provenance of a photo album from Auschwitz and probes the unsolvable mystery of how individuals can insist on normalcy while atrocity lurks outside the frame.”
I look more closely at this group of women today and wonder how they managed to live with themselves. Would a psychologist call it compartmentalization — a defense mechanism in which people mentally separate conflicting thoughts, emotions, or experiences to avoid the discomfort of contradiction? Maybe they truly believed they were doing good, faithfully serving the vaterland (fatherland)?
Maybe they saw themselves as nice little schaf (sheep), obedient to their all-powerful Führer (leader)? Maybe they went to church every Sunday morning and sent money home to their aging parents? Maybe they needed the job? Maybe some of them were sleeping with the handsomest officers and enjoying every orgasmic minute of it? Maybe they thought, like many people do, “all’s fair in love and war”?
I don’t know.
But what I’ve come to believe is that human nature hasn’t changed much, if at all, since then, and this photo proves it. More than half of the citizens of the United States, it seems to me, are behaving like those young women on the ledge – turning their backs on the truth of the evil being committed by their country, in their name, just outside the frame.
Let’s be honest: supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza is evil. Scapegoating immigrants and other vulnerable people is evil. Allowing heartless and soulless billionaires to slash programs that were created decades ago to help the poor and needy is evil. And the list only goes on.
I’ve been told by well intentioned people not to get so upset over all of this because it’s taking a toll on my health. I’m told I should think more positively, strive to be happier, find my joy. My response is: I’ll be joyful when I can no longer see photos and videos of skeletal, barely alive Palestinian babies and children writhing in small beds in bombed-out hospitals.
In the meantime, I must work on finding my voice and using it as clearly as I can. I cannot be happy and pop sweet blueberries in my mouth while the people of Gaza are being systematically starved by the Israeli government, and while the evil strongmen of this world (I’ll place Trump and Netanyahu at the top of this list) have their cruel way. Those of us who are aware of and awake to (Is this what “woke” means?) these horrors have a responsibility to at least try to wake others while there’s still time. Blueberries can wait.
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Bonnie, thank you for your voice in the world!
Thank YOU, dear Karen, for your continued love and encouragement!
Amen, Bonnie. It’s deeply troubling, and it’s the least we can do to witness and speak out against it.
Thank you, Be. When I see those suffering, starving babies, my heart breaks. I WISH I could feed them personally — or send money to organizations that are in a position to feed them. But aid isn’t getting through… I feel so helpless and useless.
Bonnie, I think we must still eat blueberries, still be happy as we can. AND, do the next right thing to bring the world back to our chosen ideals. Sending love!
Thank you, Lela. Yes, balance is the thing to strive for — as I wrote about in another recent post. Not always easy to achieve in this cyclone. — Sending love back to you, BB
Brillant, Your ehart must not break
love you Juditg Bonnie
. thanks for this reminder of the necessity of being wokein this terrible moment.
Thank you, dear Judith! I hope you’re feeling better. I love you, too. — BB
Thank you Bonnie for using your well established platform to speak out. Now is the time to use every tool we have to resist the cruelty and insanity perpetuated upon us by deranged, power-hungry politicians.
Thank YOU, dear Brigid, for your kind words. My platform is a small one, to be sure, but I want to use it in a big way. It’s all I can do right now. — Best to you, BB
Thank you for using your voice, Bonnie. It’s a powerful way to stand in the heart of consciousness and love for humanity. I see you. I hear you. and I appreciate you. Come stitch for Palestine with us, it helps when one is feeling helpless. In solidarity, L
Your kind words are immensely heartening to me, Lena. Thank you! Yes, I’ll come and stitch with you all soon! — xx
Dear, dear Bonnie,
De aquerdo! I share your grief over Gaza, the unabashed take-over of our constitutional democracy by a tyrant, the repetition of history’s evil in the past–won’t we ever learn to love all humanity? Yes, yes, yes! I agree that it’s so hard right now to find balance (your last blog duly noted).
Thank you for stating it so honestly with your story of the naive young German damsels eating blueberries!
Sending abrazos to you!
Abrazos back to you, Sher. Thank you for your kind words and for chiming into the conversation. 🙂
Oh la Bonnie! This is terrible, how we can live in the middle of horror and see it as normal. Thanks for the reminder!
Si, Te! Gracias. xx
First I need to say I was so relieved this was not about the health benefits of blueberries. They are very good for you if they are not sprayed with 14 different pesticides. So I was relieved to not have to get on that soapbox.
My understanding of how humans can commit atrocities on other humans is that they have been brainwashed into believing that the others are not really human, do not feel pain, or that they deserve it. And various forms of the things you mention including denial. And some of it is just not fathomable.
I was in Israel/Palestine and Gaza in 1992. A peace keeping and information gathering group of women only, from all over the US. We met with only women from the Knesset to Bedouin women who lived in tents; women with Hamas who were so covered up all we could see were their eyelashes. We got to speak to the mothers of boys who had been martyred and saw the houses that were bulldozed to the ground because a rock throwing kid was not at home when the IDF came to question him. I have photos which you are welcome to come see. One is a woman holding up the large cooking pots that the soldiers had shot into making it impossible to ever use. Random cruelty against a defenseless people. We met with a Palestinian woman who had taken part in a demonstration when she was in high school who later married, had 3 children one of whom she was still nursing when Israeli soldiers showed up and arrested her at gun point with no warning, warrant, etc. and kept her in prison with breasts full of milk leaving her in excruciating pain.
I’m aware of what is happening and know that people I met and sat with and drank sweetened tea with because their dead children had been martyred may now be buried under the rubble that Bibi and Jared are building condos on.
I will never understand Biden and Harris and their stance of ‘Israel has a right to defend itself.’ Did Biden then go to confession and say “Bless me father for I have sinned, I financed the bombing of a defenseless hospital and killed and maimed scores of innocent children again this week? I used the tax money of working Americans because the very wealthy don’t pay taxes.”
And the felon in chief who is clearly thrashing about in a psychotic rage of revenge and cruelty?
What to do?
IMHO the American people have been here before. WE stopped the Vietnam War. We can do this but it will take time. Better news is that besides us, many of whom have been too busy working two jobs and trying to survive, there are a few other groups not happy. Billionaires and even millionaires are losing money with the psycho in charge. These are the people who helped put him in place. They don’t like to lose money and they play dirty.
Then there is the rest of the world he is spitting on who see him as a real and present danger. They are working on ‘something’. Containment at the least and exposing voting tampering at best. Three European countries so far have discovered electronic tampering with their elections starting with Rumania. I like this scenario because DT would be de-certified or whatever it would be called, and not only he, but his entire entourage would be illegal and have to go. Cabinet and all the appointees. Could happen.
All the efforts to eliminate this cabal are happening behind closed doors. You will not see the plans in the NYXs or other corporate owned media for obvious reasons.
Then there is his health both mental and physical. He is not going to make 4 years. But the reality is he can still do a lot more damage.
What we can do is make a lot of noise and shine light on every injustice and resist everything and everywhere. Have our representatives on speed dial. Email them bi-weekly. Let them know you are watching and not happy. Remind them you vote and so do all your family members. Sign petitions and pass them on. Posting ‘facts’ on social media works. That is where most people are now getting their news.
Join with others of like mind. Or, form one of your own, even online. Plan what steps you can take to become a cog in the wheel and how to protect each other.
Take care of yourself. Take care of your family, blood and otherwise. Check in with your neighbors especially if any are migrants. Let them know what ways you are available to help them. Find your Tribe. Whether it is your book club, church, neighborhood, whatever. Create a support system. Stock up on canned goods. Grow veggies and trade. Who knows how long this will last. Or what they will do next. Buy batteries, hide some cash, stock up on your meds.
But mostly, do not let this sick and crazy man and evil affiliates take away your life. You are still alive. You have a bed, roof, food, friends.
Refuse to allow the intentional chaos they are creating with one wild injustice after another happening faster than we can catch our breath crush our spirit. It is designed to destabilize us, scare us and silence us. Do not let them! Foil their plan. Resist! Do whatever it is you can do, but do not give them your sanity, your heart or your spirit.
Wow, Wow, Wow, Toni! You have just won the prize for the biggest comment in the history of my WOWs! Thank you SO MUCH for all of the thought and heart — and wisdom — that went into your response. I (and everyone who reads your words) thank you. Your recommendations for what we all can do are just what we need right now. Yes, “Foil their plan. Resist!”
I am not sufficiently enlightened to understand war, killing, slapping, hitting, and have never done it.
Shooting the nose off the sphinx or holes in a cooking pot, harm, waste seems foolish. Scarlet O’Hara threw a glass in anger, our president throws ketchup. Because it seemed to work I decided, once when angry, to try it. I thought about dishes and glasses
but thought that was a stupid loss and decided on a heavy frying pan and slammed it on the floor, broke the handle off and dented the floor, angry about both.
This is a long way from the headline and it reminds me of a childhood game sitting around a table an whispering a phrase to the next child and so on around the table.
Toni heard “Resist” when it got to her
Thanks so much for your input, Joyce!
Joyce, when word got to you, what did you hear?
Amen.
Thank you Bonnie — right there with you. xoxox
Thank YOU, querida! And I can’t wait until you’re back in town. — xx
Beautifully expressed, Bonnie! Thank you!
Thank you, dear Helen! I really appreciate your kind words. I hope you’re doing well. — BB
Dear Bon,
I agree with you completely. There is no difference between those in the picture and those who are opposing immigration. Perhaps both groups have the same motivation: an inability to see whatever they choose to believe as wrong. Look at how the new pope was attacked for merely pointing out what Jesus preached, which is a core tenet of Christianity. Anything is possible when minds are closed and only sources that demonize people outside your own group are heard. It’s frightening.
Love,
Paul
Thank you, as ever, dear Paul, for your thoughtful and heartfelt input. You know, this new pope is giving me hope (gracias a dios, as we say here). He is such a welcome and much-needed counterpoint to Trump. What a morality play we’re living through! Maybe Pope Leo will be able to wake the unwoke masses?
What a powerful piece! Brava! This divisiveness and hatred is eating at my soul as well. I’ve never been so disappointed in half my fellow Americans and I’ve never had so much respect for freedom. Please keep speaking and using your pen to shed light on the atrocities of today. Besitos y brassos fuertes. Kimberly
Thank you so much, dear Kimberly, for your words of encouragement and solidarity. Yes, we’re all in this together. Abrazos fuertes back to you! — xx
My morning blueberries with cottage cheese are oddly not as enjoyable as they once were. The photo is haunting once you know the context. Thank you for reminding us.
Oh, dear. Lo siento, Suzanne! Maybe you could switch to fresh raspberries for a bit — at least for the summer while you’re in New England, where they’re local and abundant? Sorry! 🙁