Some Deeper Thoughts For a Friday - A Recommendation Too

Yesterday was a topsy-turvy day. I could have sworn it was a Saturday, or at least a Friday and it took until the afternoon for my brain to admit that it was a Thursday and that I didn't have the next day off. A pity, that. I could have enjoyed a Sunday, but I do have a day off so I was correct in that. I'm ready to dive into my Friday and see what I can make of it. 

I was confused about what day of the week it was for more 
than half of yesterday. Good grief! The rhythm of the day 
just seemed off, somehow, and I had to actually check my 
calendar and my watch a few times to remind myself. How silly! 

I know I'll do grocery shopping and I'll also make my next batch of Ogre Juice, but I have other things I need to accomplish - either cleaning, or maybe starting the next batch of photographs for our Etsy offerings. Maybe (gasp!) I'll do BOTH! The kitchen floor could use a good sweep and wash, but that never takes a super long time. I might take a quick look at the office supply store - DH needs a new mouse. 

This is the mouse model he wanted, and I would 
have been happy to accommodate him, but his 
computer is refusing to recognize it, so we'll 
have to find something else instead. 

Ah, the mouse saga - for my computer it was easy. For his computer it's turning out to be much more difficult. He wanted the same brand/model that he currently had - a Microsoft brand. Apparently it fits his hand well (and for a computer mouse, that's important). I found one on Amazon and ordered it for him. Then we tried to actually install and use it and FAILURE. The mouse simply wasn't recognized by the computer at all. We tried just plugging in the new one (which worked just fine for my own new mouse a few months earlier) but no - his computer wasn't shaking hands with the new mouse. Then, on Wednesday, I tried the full treatment - installing the software from the enclosed CD, then plugging in the new mouse, and no - still no success. After almost an hour of trying this and that, I called it quits. I'm returning the mouse (sans box which had to be destroyed to get to the mouse at all), and we're still on the hunt for one that will fit his hand and work with his computer. 

If you didn't watch this three-day event, I highly 
recommend that you watch it if it is repeated. Not 
just for the history, but for the perspective. The 
attitude of the US towards immigrants over the 
period of the late 1800's to the mid 1900's changed 
dramatically and the promise of the Statue of 
Liberty wasn't very bright during some of these 
years. 

I spent Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday nights glued to my TV while watching Ken Burns' newest series, "The US and the Holocaust". He had some amazing photos, interviews, music, events, etc. I've been studying the Shoah for most of my life - it's my history and my heritage. When I look at Donald Trump, I see a blonde Hitler. I'm afraid for my nation, and afraid once again for any minority population that can make a convenient scapegoat and focus for terror. But I digress. 

The roadblocks set in the path of those trying 
to escape the Nazis were amazing and terrifying. 
The US didn't want to allow immigrants from 
Europe into the country. It rings with where 
we're at right now with immigrants from Mexico 
and places farther south. It leaves a bad taste 
in my mouth because we supposedly welcome 
those fleeing other lands and offer them 
new lives and opportunities. 

If you didn't have an opportunity to see the three night series, I highly recommend it to you. I'm going to try and obtain a copy (and I should probably update some of my other visual histories as well at the same time). I want to watch it again, more carefully - really spend some time with it, thinking, listening and internalizing. I am constantly amazed by the fact that Hitler was able to come to power so easily, and change the focus of the German people so completely; that they simply closed their eyes to common sense and embraced the propaganda. Are we really sheep? Perhaps so. 

Are we sheep? Are we unable to think and act for 
ourselves? Something I think that's exactly what 
politicians in our nation think. And our bureaucracy 
is a total PITA. How can we help people when we 
can't seem to help ourselves? It's a quandry.  

On that more thoughtful note, I'm out of here. It's Friday, it's a "day off" and I have things to do and places to go. Have an excellent day and I'll be back tomorrow. (BTW - "The Rise of Gru" is on Peacock tonight, for those who might be interested.) Slava Ukraini. 

Finishing the "Me"me and What I Did On My "Day Off"

I want to finish this "Me"me and have only a few more questions, so here I go. 

What do you like to do with friends?

It's probably terrible to admit, but I don't really have a lot of in-person friends. When I was younger and worked in offices with lots of people around, I had a lot of friends. But I'm much older now, and self-employed, so my physical circle of friends is quite limited. I do have a lot of cyber friends, and they are quite dear to me, but I can't invite them over for coffee or meet them for lunch. I prefer to spend my time on my own, but do go to see films with Chickie on occasion (obviously NOT since COVID, but hopefully once again sometime in the future). I'm no longer the life of the party, but my life is pretty good. 

What's your dream job?

I never really envisioned myself working in my own retail business, but I've been doing that since the mid-1980's. I would love to work in the art field, though - museum curator, even in a museum gift shop (although that wouldn't be as fun as actually working with the artwork). But, looking back over my life, I really can't complain too much. 

At what job would you be terrible?

Although I do very well behind the scenes in hospitals and have worked in hospitals in the past, I could never be directly in patient care in the health care industry. I don't do well with sharp and pointed instruments, pain, and sickness. I fully admit that I'd make a poor apprentice in Elrond's House of Healing. 

I want to see Abu Simbel in person. I want to wander 
through the Valley of the Kings, and marvel at the 
pillars at Karnak Temple. I want to walk up the 
steps to Hatshepsut's Temple and marvel at the 
Great Pyramids. I hope to someday stand in Egype 
 and close my eyes against the grit of sand spurred
up by a stray breeze. 

What's something you say you'll do, but never will?

I suspect traveling the way I always wanted to - long stays in a variety of countries and cities around the world. I'd still love to do it, but with the world as it is today and my age, it's highly unlikely. I still want to go to Egypt, that's at the top of my bucket list, and I'd love to ride a horse into Petra (shades of Indiana Jones), it brings a smile to my face just to think about it. There are other places I would love to visit for good memories or for a visit of extreme heartbreak (Auschwitz comes to mind for that one since my family was killed there), but my Hubby is very much a stay-at-home guy, so it's likely that any travel I do will be minimal, and mostly domestic. 

I've been in love with Egypt since I was a small child. It 
was my love of Egypt that pulled me into Anthropology/
Archaeology as a college major and a profession in the 
first place. To see the monuments in person would be 
the culmination of a life-long dream. 

How would you describe your style?

Boring - long-sleeved t-shirts in warmer weather, turtlenecks with pullover sweaters in colder times. Leggings or long skirts, also climate dependent. Sorrel snow boots in winter, pull-on flats in summer, and hats - lots of hats. Yeah - boring. I adore fashion, but I'm no fashion-plate. 

The Temple of Hatshepsut is stunning, placed against 
the Egyptian cliffs. The architecture is superb, something 
even Frank Lloyd Wright would love. 

What are your hobbies?

OMG, almost too many to list. Beading, of course. Fiber arts - weaving, knitting and spinning. Metal working - soldering, etching, enameling, making jewelry and assemblages. Then there are my boxes - that's where I allow my multi-media side to really play. I love combining things into new things, so I remake boxes and give them new lives and purpose. Eventually I'll set up an Etsy store for my creations, after I've retired and can actually work on projects for more than three hours a week. I write too, but I suspect mine will be a novel that never actually sees print. 

This is the knit side of the sweater. I made 
one error in the ribbing, and I bound off 
the shoulders incorrectly (but I won't lose 
stitches, so that's OK). It's far from perfect, 
but I'm having a lot of fun. 

So ... that's the end of the "Me"me. I have a couple of pictures to share of what I did on my "day off" this week. As you may know (unless you've been under a rock for the past month), I have a knitting machine that I've been trying to get comfortable with. On Wednesday I cleared the few things out from in front of Sewing Cabinet #3 and pulled out one wing of the table that I have in that area, setting my machine up on top of it. I started knitting a specific project and got a LOT done in my three hours of time. 

This is the pearl side of the sweater. When 
working with a knitting machine, it's this 
side that is facing you. I do know how to 
hand knit, but I wouldn't have gotten farther 
than a few rows in three hours. Here I 
managed the entire back of the sweater - 
almost 100 rows of actual sweater, not 
counting the bottom "waste yarn" or top 
shaping yarns that only hold things 
together. 

I've been working on a beginning project - a size 2 sweater for my nephew's baby who was born in May. It looked like a reasonable project to tackle and I'm learning a lot by doing it. I did the back of the sweater on Wednesday, and I'll tackle the front of the sweater next week. It's not perfect, but I wouldn't expect perfection in a first effort. I'm gaining confidence with the equipment, though, and knitting this much in only three hours is amazing to me. I'm having a BUNCH of fun! 

So, as always, I plan on being back tomorrow. Please be kind, stay safe and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow. 

International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018

In memory of my family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins - I remember today and every day. Hold the dead in your hearts and NEVER forget. 

In memory of the 6 Million Jews systematically killed in
World War II, I remember on this date of the liberation of
Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945. Auschwitz is where most of
my family met their end. I will never forget.  

Many were transported to the camps packed in boxcars, sometimes
packed in so tightly that some suffocated from lax of space to breathe. 

Music saved the life of my Aunt. Instead of being shipped to
Auschwitz, she was shipped to Theresienstadt (Terezin) because
she was an opera singer. There, she sang for her life. She survived, but
she never forgot those terrifying days. 

So today I remember my family - those who lived, those who died
in the camps, and those who died fighting with the Resistance. Heroes,
every one of them. I miss them every day. 

Acts of Kindness, We Remember and The Meme

Look at the other side. It's been one of those sayings or recommendations for a very long time. Turn the other cheek, look to the other side, the grass is always greener elsewhere, the night is darkest before the dawn, etc. Things are pretty dark right now and likely to be that way for a while. I can protest, I can write my congressional representatives, I can wear a pink pussy ear hat; yes. There are many things that I can do to express my fears and dissatisfaction. But the only thing I can do that will directly affect anyone else is to be kind.

Just a single act of kindness can brighten someone's entire
day. Spread joy and happiness, there's too much darkness
around right now. 

So I'm making it my goal to do something kind every day. I'm hoping that like ripples in a pond, my kindness will influence someone else to be kind, and so on, and so on. Killing with kindness would be a better way to die. At least I think/hope so. To that end, yesterday I secretly bought breakfast for a pair of women who often eat at my local Perkins. Today I'm going to design and print out some sayings on business cards that I can hand out to bring a smile to people, and I'll seriously consider printing out and posting an "All People Are Welcome Here" sign for my store's door. Kindness can be infectious.

I believe this with all my heart. I've resized this and have added
it as an avatar for LJ also. It's just a good reminder of the little
things we each can do that mean so much. 

Tonight is Project Runway Junior night, so I'm looking forward to seeing what these talented young designers can come up with this time. Face-Off, on Tuesday night, was spectacular and so much fun. I'm delighted that I can once again watch such a creative show.


https://youtu.be/WVqmUtWBy8E


One last thing before I continue with the 365-Day Meme. The World Jewish Congress has come out with a video and a campaign called *We Remember*. I posted it on my FaceBook page yesterday, but in case you want to be involved in this, check out the website page in the link I've provided above and join me. We remember, and we swear that we will do everything in our power to never allow another Holocaust, Killing Fields, Rwanda, etc to happen. Click on the *WeRemember* banner at the top of their page to see a short, but wonderful, video, watch the short video above in my blog, use the hashtag #WeRemember in your posts to various social media, and join this movement.

Now for the 365-Day Meme ....

Love is a wonderful thing. Cherish it, nurture it, and
pass it on. 

Who is the last person to tell you they loved you?

My DH makes it a point to tell me at least once a day that he loves me. He often tells me much more frequently than that. It makes me very happy, so that's an awesome thing. Go out and tell someone that you love them too - it's important and it will make their day.


What is the favorite piece of art that you own?

I have a lovely multi-stone sculpture of a bear that DH bought for me many years ago. We saw it at our favorite art gallery and I fell in love. The price tag was worn, and we thought it was a LOT less when we looked at it because the first number had been almost worn off the tag. It was several HUNDRED dollars more than what we had thought, but we bought it anyway and paid the credit card off for months. It's still one of my absolute favorite pieces, though and I've never regretted the purchase.

Give a flower to someone today, brighten their world. 

So there you go. Go forth and have a wonderful Thursday and make someone's day a bit brighter today. Give a stranger a flower, buy a cup of coffee for a homeless person, help a child color a picture, help build a snowman with the kids down the block. Let's keep the darkness at bay for one more day.

What A Busy Two Days

It's a busy week. Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo - celebrated as a remembrance of Mexican history and culture (and the drinking of Margaritas) throughout the USA. On a more world-wide basis, yesterday was also Holocaust Remembrance Day. Having both of these days on the same date scrambled my mind a bit. Should I celebrate the joy of one of my favorite nations, a place where I spent a lot of time while growing up? Or should I spend the day in more quiet reflection trying to wrap my head around how truly vicious mankind can be toward each other? I didn't come up with any resolution to the opposing calendrical notations, but I did share a couple of margaritas with DH.

The best part about having Cinco de Mayo on a weekday, is
that the celebration can continue on for a few more days.
West Side will be officially celebrating on Saturday, but
a lot of other areas in town will celebrate today or just
continue celebrating throughout the weekend ahead. 

Last night was the final episode of Project Runway All Stars Season Five and we now have a winner. If you didn't see the final episode and want to catch up a bit later, I'll put the final winner under a cut in my DW and LJ postings. Sorry that my Blogspot post isn't as easily accommodated.

Ken, Dom and Kini (l to r) were the final three designers in
Project Runway All Stars 2016. They had four days to make
a collection of eight outfits, one of which was for a male model.
LOTS of work!!! I looked for fashion photos to share, but they're
not posted yet. Maybe later this weekend. 

The season came down to Ken - who once again just didn't push himself out of his comfort zone with the exception of allowing a single color - yellow - to enter his usual black/white no prints allowed palette.

Kini couldn't seem to settle. He wanted a progression of grey to color, but it didn't flow and he had two total duds in the eight-piece collection.

Then there was Dom, who soared. When confronted with the safe, she chose the edgy. She allowed her artistic tendency to shine by once again painting her fabric, and what she painted was stunning and abstract. She paired that with a gentle black and white stripe, did great styling, and won the prize. It was well deserved. Although she had a few clunks during the season's challenges, she has a style of her own that comes through in every piece and when she was allowed to do her own thing, her voice was strong and unmistakable.

Psychoanalysis isn't for me, although I've tried it on and off over the
years, but I know people who have been helped by it a great deal.
Here's to you, Sigmund! 

Finally, to add one more thing to the 48 hours, today is Sigmund Freud's 160th birthday. It's hard to imagine a world where psychoanalysis isn't an option for people who need that help, but that was the case for most of humanity's history. I've tried working with a "shrink" a few times, but didn't find it worked for me. Others have been helped by their therapists, though, so perhaps it was just the person I was seeing or my particular reticent nature when it comes to personal issues.

Have a great Friday! We'll be in sunshine and the beginning of a few days of 80 degree and sunny! I might even have to turn on the air conditioning at the shop. What a change from a few months ago.

The Week and Weekend - Looking Ahead and Backward

I don't forget, but I don't always have to push either. 

Thursday was Holocaust Remembrance Day in the US. I remembered, I mourned. I spoke in more detail about the Holocaust and my family's experiences earlier this year so my history is generally known; it's not always necessary to make it front and center. Nuff' said. 

I don't want to purchase Home Depot carpeting. Their carpet is
almost all Polyester, but I'm looking at Nylon instead because it's
more durable and feels better. 

So DH and I went to our local Home Depot store after dinner last night. We looked at carpet samples, checked out the sample boards, grabbed free sample squares of a couple of carpets and three stone-look laminates. Then I pushed him over to look at kitchen faucets while I arranged the paperwork for several sample boards so that we could take them home for a few days. 

We rather liked the left-hand sample here. I think I ended
up checking this sample board out for a few days. 

I found it rather funny. Once I put the "No" on his desire for blue carpeting (I'm going for a neutral grey), he started pointing out samples he liked and we ended bringing home samples that were very similar to the samples I brought home from the decorating center on Wednesday. LOL. Guess I knew what I was doing after all. 

I'm looking at laminate for the kitchen similar in appearance to this.
I don't want this brand (in fact, I don't think my decorating center even
carries this brand). I'm sure I'll be able to find a similar look. 

It was really helpful to have the laminate samples from Home Depot, though. We managed to agree on one and I'll go back to the decorating store on Wednesday and we'll see about getting samples similar to what I found at the big box store. I'm sure there will be something. 

I'm looking at this as possible for my new draperies. I think
it will go well with the new grey carpeting. 

Coming home we laid things out, discussed yes/no, and he even went through the fabric sample book I had brought home and stopped at one I had chosen as a possibility. Yeah - I picked good. We'll look at things more over the weekend in different lighting conditions and get a better idea, but I think I'll be much better prepared when I return to the decorating center on Wednesday for my next appointment. 

It's Minnesota, there's no snow on the ground, and the orange signs
and barricades have erupted throughout the area faster than the
leaves have started coming out on the trees. 

On Sunday we'll maneuver around the various road construction projects that are on-going and get to the art museum. We're both looking forward to a fun day spent looking at fabulous artwork. But first, I have to get to the gym, work for the day, and then I can kick back for a full day of fun and eye candy. Fabulous! Happy weekend to all! 

 

Frame Works of Life

In my history of learning many things, I learned how to be a professional framer - picture framer. I own some pretty amazing equipment for that including a very excellent mat cutter and a multi-purpose cutter for glass and foamcore called a Fletcher 3000. When I mention I own one of these to people who know what they are, jaws drop and the beginnings of drool appear. Fletcher wall cutters are pretty amazing. But to work properly they need to be adjusted properly and yesterday I found out that moving it to several different locations over the years has not been kind to my equipment and I'm not very happy about that.

The Fletcher 3000 is a premium wall-mounted cutter of paper products
and sheets of glass. I love my Fletcher. It's an amazing piece of
equipment, well designed, and works beautifully.

The key with the Fletcher is that the bottom, where the glass or foam core rests, must be set at an exact 90 degree angle to the cutting blade. Basic, yes? Well, I needed to cut glass for a broken window yesterday, and DH and I discovered that the bottom rest is off true by 3/16 of an inch. Not a lot, but when you're trying to fit an exact space, it's pretty major. I'll have to try and find some time within the next week or so to clean the area from all of the broken glass pieces and settle down and re-calibrate so that the blade is once again perpendicular to the bottom rest. Then what I cut will be accurate.

Crooked is not always bad. This is the beautiful Crooked Forest in Poland. 

Looking at the future retirement angle of my life, I have no idea where I will put my Fletcher. The possibility exists that I should just sell it and my other equipment. I have boxes of foam core, conservation glass, frame stock, the mat cutter and the wall cutter as well as wood putties in more than 40 colors and a variety of smaller, hand tools. When I first opened my business, I was much more of a gallery than a craft store and I did a lot of custom framing of art work as well as framing everything we sold from our walls. I've shifted my focus over the years and now rarely do any framing. I loved doing it, but things change, life goes on, and not everything should be held onto for perpetuity (which rarely works out anyway). I probably should look into selling my larger equipment. I doubt I'll be using it again. Maybe I'll discuss it with DH - maybe next year or the year after - LOL.

Happiness in Perpetuity by Paul David Bond
What a great picture and concept. 

Looking at the date, I have to get myself in gear on a story due next week. I've started it twice, but it still just isn't quite clicking. Today I'll push myself at the laptop to get this pounded out.

One view of the cemetery at Terezin. This "model" concentration camp
was originally a city of 7000 people who were evacuated. The city was
then made into a ghetto and a model camp where international agencies
investigating the very disturbing claims of mass murder were taken. It was
a showcase. My aunt, my father's sister, was in Terezin and managed to survive.

And last,, a shout out to my half-cousin Alex who phoned me yesterday morning. We had a delightful hour catching up. The last time I saw him was in 1972 - many years ago. He has been teaching at the University in Maine for many years now and I've been doing my own thing, yet we clicked on many levels. I can't imagine many people enjoying a conversation about the Holocaust, Auschwitz and Terezin at 8:30 am, but it was a great conversation. So thanks, Alex. It was fun and we really need to work on continuing our contact.

My cousin Alex teaches History at the University
of Maine. We haven't met face-to-face since 1972. I think
it would be fun to finally meet again.  Follow the link
for his faculty information page. 

Happy Friday, everyone!

Never Forget - Holocaust Remembrance Day

Sunday is Holocaust Remembrance Day, but even with calendars all over my house, it is only listed on 30% of them. What's up with that? The Holocaust was and remains one of the most horrific, government sponsored acts of genocide that the world saw in the 20th century, but it only rates mention on 30% of calendars? There's just something wrong about that.

My grandparents didn't survive the Holocaust. My father's older brother was shot in the forests of Europe while fighting with the resistance. My mother's brothers and sisters, all twelve of them, died in the camps or with the resistance fighters. My cousins, other relations, and their friends were gathered, transported, and murdered in one of the most efficient killing industries that modern history has developed. To be completely clear, it wasn't just Jewish people who were killed in the various killing camps. It was also the Roma, homosexuals and a variety of political nay-sayers who were in the boxcars, the trucks, and the showers. The fact that the majority of the murdered were Jewish, however, means that this crime against humanity will never be forgotten and will never be unmentioned.

History works its way into the heritage and ceremony of the Jewish people. Hanukkah celebrates eight days of light from a single day's oil supply in the days of the Maccabean Revolt (165 BCE). The celebration of Passover celebrates the release of the Jewish people from slavery in the time of the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt. These events of Jewish history are still celebrated today. Jewish memory is long.

Light a Candle for Peace

Someday there will be a ceremony for the millions slain in the death camps and work camps of Hitler's Germany. Those things are still to come because it takes time to develop and codify ceremonies that will be celebrated and memorialized throughout the Ages to come. But it will happen. Until that time, remember the slain tomorrow while the full moon shines above us. Never forget.

Long Weekend and Memorial Day

In the United States, Monday is a holiday - Memorial Day. Although this holiday focuses on our troops, both current and past, it is also an opportunity to honor any of our dead. It's not nearly as much fun as November's Day of the Dead, but the temperatures and weather are much kinder than those November days of raw winds. Many people gather their families together and clean and decorate the graves of their loved ones. My parents, the only graves that I would be able to do anything with, are piles of ashes in a lovely, carved granite niche in a city far away from me. Sure I could move them up here - it's a pretty easy thing to move an urn - but they never lived in my state and I don't think they would be happy here.

So I rely on others to celebrate the holiday as a Memorial day and I do think about those who have passed the Circles of the World ahead of me. But I admit that I think about many more people than just my parents. I think about my friends who are no longer with us, I think about my grandparents who died in the Holocaust, I think of people I barely knew whose writing mean so much to me. All of these things tie together as my personal Memorial day.

Also, at lest for me, one of the best things about Memorial Day is an extra day off. I actually get two days off in a row - that's quite rare. My assistant manager leaves for her vacation today so I'll have five days of work at the shop before she comes back. If Monday wasn't a holiday, it would be six working days. I won't get my Wednesday off, but I'll substitute Monday instead and it will be OK. I have stories to write, I have DVDs to watch, and I have my DH slowly starting to feel better so things are looking up. Now if the weather will just cooperate. I want my Memorial Day brats or hot dogs - LOL. I usually don't post to my blog on holidays, so I'll blog again on Tuesday.

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, and in honor of so many family members that I never had the opportunity to meet, I am remembering this day in my heart and discussing it in my blog. My pictures today will be graphic and disturbing, so I'm warning you. Don't look if you think looking at the results of the Concentration Camps will ruin your day or whatever. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.

Unlike many survivors, my parents discussed the events of WWII, at least in general terms. But they rarely talked about the specifics. I had to do the research on my own, and have been researching the Work and the Death Camps on and off for most of my life. Many members of my family lost their lives in these camps, so it was and remains important to me.

My aunt, who had been an opera singer in Prague, Czechoslovakia, was rounded up and sent to Terezin - the "model" camp. She sang for her life there, along with other musicians, artists and performers, and she managed to survive. My uncle, her older brother, and his new wife were shot, my father survived by walking through Europe with a black-market passport he purchased that didn't have the "J" marking that indicated Jew. After some close calls he finally managed to get out of Europe and into the US. My father, my aunt and their half-brother were the only survivors in their family.

Children in the camps were rare, but this group managed to survive.  

My mother's family was based in Vienna and Yugoslavia. My mother and some cousins were the only survivors. My mother was one of thirteen children. My uncle (mentioned above) taught after the war. As a specialist in a particular historical period (the Jacobean time) he lectured in Tel-Aviv and in Frankfurt, splitting his time. I met him once when he came to Colorado to see my Dad once before they both died. At that time he told me that he had toured Auschwitz and that my grandfather's trunk was on display there. I don't know if that is still the case, but it is something that I've remembered for my entire life.

These bodies were found stacked at Dachau when it was liberated in 1945.

So today, when you think about your relatives and your lives, spare a thought for those who lost their lives in the Camps. It WASN'T just the Jews who were slaughtered in these machines of death. It was the Jews, the Gypsies and those identified as Homosexual. Don't forget all of these people whose liberties ended and whose lives were taken because of their religion, race or sexual inclinations. What we don't learn from we are doomed to repeat. Don't forget - NEVER FORGET.

To Forget is to Repeat...Never Forget

Last night the History Channel broadcast a show called "Engineering Evil" last night, that went into the history of the human engineering behind the Holocaust. I'm not going to go into the personal reasons of why the Holocaust is important to me, if you want to know you can read my LJ post of last night. But I did see some things that I had not been aware of. That was rather amazing to me, because I am a long-time scholar of this part of history because of personal inclinations and family history.

If you saw this perspective, you were already inside the death camp portion of Auschwitz - Birkenau. The tracks are cleaned up now to the more traditionally shown single track leading to the landing ramp (not built until late in the war). But in the old photos, there were several merging train tracks that met at the ramp, then separated out again.

I am always amazed by the clinical distance that people took while engineering and documenting the most amazing atrocities. One thing that nailed me to the core was a scene where some metal address/name tags were taken from a drawer. These were factory "slave" laborers. This particular person was 17 years of age when she was there, and her birthdate was my birthdate - 26 years before I was born, but my own birthdate. It was freaky.

Arbeit macht frei - Work will make you free. In a macabre way of thinking, that was true, because the fatality rate of the slave laborers was also very high. And don't lose sight of the fact that the Jews, although the largest proportion of victims, were only a portion. The persecution extended to homosexuals and Gypsies as well as smaller ethnic groups and some of the conquered territory's inhabitants. The killing machine of WWII extended far and wide.

If you want to read a bit more about the show, the NY Times had a great review here. Take a read, and if it gets rebroadcast, take a look. It is well done with new information and pictures, and was quite comprehensive without being maudlin. Probably the best thing I've seen on the Holocaust in many years, perhaps since Shoah so many years ago. Remember your ancestors on this cold and blustery Minnesota day. Remember them and honor them - they are a part of you.

The Holocaust on a Personal Level

My cousin was as close as a younger sister while we were growing up. Her parents lived across the street from me, and my older cousin David, and my younger one, Missy, and I, played together constantly. She was the sister that I never had and we were close until she moved to Aspen, Colorado in her teens. Between then and now we both married, both moved (far away from each other) and she had two incredible children. My parents passed away several years ago, and her Dad had died while we were both quite young. But her mother passed away in 2008 and Missy found a treasure-trove when cleaning out her Mom's condominum.

Apparently my Tante Vera saved documents. Hundreds of letters, cards and notes dealing with Uncle Edwin's career and their history over the war years and post-WWII. She had letters exchanged between my own mother and herself in the mid-1940's, and she had documents from others that revolved around her family. The surprising thing was who these documents were from. As my cousin sorted through the papers, she kept finding more and more surprises - documents and notes dealing directly with World War II because my uncle was a part of the legal team representing the US at the Nuremburg Trials. Letters from Albert Einstein who my uncle had assisted while he was in college. Documents regarding the assasination plot to kill Adolf Hitler. The papers were amazing.

Last week, my cousin returned to Denver and presented a selection of those papers and photographs to Denver University's Penrose Library and Center for Judaic Studies. You can find out more particulars here, and here or check out the slideshow here (the baby is my cousin, David). All I can say about all of this is, "I'm really proud of you, Cuz. You stuck with it, sorted through all of these papers, and you deserve the accolades that will come your way for your generous gift." I also hope that her future can be assured through these papers. We all deserve to have an assured future in our old age, and we are not getting any younger.

And on the creative end - I did the first fire of my charms last night and this morning. It turns out that I have 49 charms made. We'll see how many I actually end up completing. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done on these and I'm looking forward to each step :-) Live a creative day with sunshine and smiles in your heart. That joy will transmit to others and make the world a nicer place for a day.