Gregory's Server1/ Over the weekend there was a block party a short distance from my place for a lady who turned 90. That's notable enough, but in her case it's special because she's a Holocaust survivor. I chatted with her today and looked up some things. Remarkable story! Buckle in: ↵
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3.1/ How did they get out? A Japanese diplomat in Lithuania saw what was happening. He put humanity ahead of the fact that he worked for an Axis power, handing out as many visas as he could. Thousands of Lithuanians, Poles and *Slavs owed their lives to him. ↵ 3.2/ His bravery was of course not rewarded, and he paid for it in many ways. He didn't ask for credit, either. He was only recognized near the very end of his life. He is apparently the only Japanese person recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations. ↵ 4/ Anyway, the family got a visa in Lithuania. They made the dangerous passage across Siberia by train. From Vladivostok they took a boat to Japan. After a year there, Japan shipped them to Shanghai (remember, they occupied chunks of China). ↵ 5/ In Shanghai, they were herded into a ghetto. Yes, there was a Jewish ghetto *in Shanghai* (read here). The Germans tried to get the Jews deported, but the Japanese wouldn't. She still speaks with great admiration for the Japanese. ↵ 6/ Eventually she made her way to the Bronx, and now lives in Providence. She's strong of body and mind. The "1000 Year" Reich lasted ~13 years; that 7yo escapee has now lived ~13 times as long. The best possible response to pure evil. • @shriramk remarkable the number and complexity of the stories that I hear. What I’ve heard here in Germany reminds me that the banality of evil (as Hannah Arendt termed it) doesn’t detract from the depth of the evils, but the exceptionality of the good is only an amplifier for it. The quality of mercy is not strained, @shriramk As the spouse of a Pole you learn quickly that Russia was no friend in the second world war.  @shriramk thank you for sharing! My father and his parents escaped the Nazis from Vienna in 1938. He would have been 89 this year. |
2/ She grew up in Poland. They escaped in late 1939, fleeing mainly the Russians. Wait, Russians?!? That's right, today I met with a living witness to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact. (Link if you don't know what that is.) ↵
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov%E2%80%93Ribbentrop_Pact