Chattahoochee River
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Fight or flight?
After hearing about the fate of Moishe the Jews still stayed in Sighet. I believe that although there were rumors about their impending fate, they still didn't want to uproot their families and communities. Jews have faced antisemiticism for centuries in many places and I believe they weren't ignorant they just believed they could stand together and support each other through it. I guess they didn't quite understand the extent to which the nazis would go, but nobody wants to believe that someone is capable of destroying an entire people.
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The history of antisemitism you mention is interesting. There is something very historical, and many would argue religious, about the persecution of the Jews. There are some instances in this chapter where I do see the Jews standing together, but then I see other instances where I see the opposite. The townspeople did not like the needy people; when the foreign Jews were deported from the town the response of some was simply that this was war; and they thought Moishe the Beadle was mad when he returned (though they had before they were fond of him). I'm not saying this to somehow propose that they were BAD people. What I do think these characteristics indicate is that they were HUMAN - with all the human traits everyone possesses (the good and bad).
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