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| The Artist and His Mother. Arshile Gorky. Source: Wikipedia |
Dear Terese and Danusha,
Today I came upon the website www.holocaustforgotten.com while I
was searching for information on some history I was going to write for my
family. I want to take a moment to thank you very much for your website and for
both of your efforts in educating people about the "Others". When
sharing family history with people I do know I too have heard, "I didn't
know you were Jewish." The next time I hear this I will respectfully refer
them to your site.
My grandfather is a survivor of both The Armenian
Genocide and the Holocaust. My Grandfather, Grandmother, Father, and his Aunt
together survived The Holocaust and immigrated to United States. After their DP
camp in Linz Austria was liberated, my grandfather collected a couple hundred
Armenians. He helped them to leave and go to Argentina, Chile, and the United
States. At that time the United States did not consider Armenians appropriate
to come to the country. My grandfather's persistence with the assistance of
many helpful people, including but not limited to, American soldiers, Armenian American
citizens and Aid Workers got the United States to accept Armenians as refugees.
This is why I have the privilege of being an American citizen.
My grandfather escaped the Armenian genocide as a young
boy with his parents and ended up in Greece. They were never citizens of
Greece, but had a decent life there until World War II. My grandfather, grandmother,
her sister and my father all left Greece on a train to Germany and ended up in
a camp which had a gas chamber. They then experienced the inside of the gas
chamber.
When my grandfather spoke of it he noted that men, women
and children were pressed together for hours; naked, hot, embarrassed and
afraid. My grandfather had heard rumors of the gas, when they took their clothes
off this time for a shower he knew it was different. The clothes were thrown
into a pile as opposed to being folded and the men women and children were
together. My grandfather commented on how bad he felt for the women being
exposed like that. My grandfather would say to us that when the water finally
came..."Those lousy bastards, the water was cold". When I tell people
this, they look at me strangely and after a minute they usually get it. Then
there are those that will never get it. Those who say geez the gas didn't come,
why did your grandfather just talk about how the water was cold. They don't
really understand survival and how without humor is difficult to move on.
My grandfather, Kevork Berberian, survived two genocides.
The 1st, The Armenian massacre as a boy, He and his family were targeted
because he was Armenian and Christian. Family members were slaughtered, they
lost everything they owned along with their homeland, became refugees, and
barely escaped with their lives. The 2nd, The Holocaust he was a young man with
his own family. He was not targeted because he was Jewish since he wasn't,
family members were lost ,they fled their home and left their belongings
behind, became refugees and barely escaped with their lives. I know when my
grandfather reflected on both experiences and their effect on his and his
family's lives, it did not matter whether he was targeted because he was an
Armenian or was one of "The Others". Both experiences were
unfathomable.
We all have our own perspectives and experience, though I
doubt many have survived two holocausts as my grandfather did. Those without
experience can never truly understand, but they can learn and empathize and
take measures so there is not a repeat. As you both well know and have cited;
Hitler said "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the
Armenians?"
To this day the Turks have not taken responsibility for
their actions and around the world genocide still occurs. When the truth is
skewed for whatever purpose, well-meaning or not, bad things continue to
happen.
I still remember coming home from school one day and telling
my dad he was wrong about 11- 12,000,000 people dying in the Holocaust as I
just learned in school it was 6 million Jewish people had died. Imagine his
surprise.
Lisa Berberian-Fernandez
This blogspot shows, once again, that the genocide of Jews (commonly called the Holocaust or Shoah), is given center stage in the American educational system. As usual, the genocides of other peoples are ignored or slighted.
ReplyDeleteIt is not a question of "getting the word out" about others' genocides. It is a matter of politics: It is a question of changing the policies of the American educational system.
Thank you, Lisa. It was a very interesting story.
ReplyDelete