German officers rounding up Kutno Jews, German-occupied Poland, 1939 … item 2.. Haftarah Lech Lecha: Flyin’ Like Eagles — (9 cheshvan 5773 – october 25, 2012) …item 3.. Inner Strength – Each of us lives in two worlds — (2012 / 5773) …
Image by marsmet545
Isaiah 40:27-41:16: It’s rough goings for Abram’s tribe in this week’s parsha. Desert wandering, famine, Abram’s brush with death at the Pharaoh’s palace, Lot falls captive to the allied armies of Chedorlaomer at the evil city of Sodom. Not exactly a sweet deal following world flood and the promise of a new, great nation.
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… marsmet545 photo … Black text on white background …
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Thursday, April 3, 2014
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… message header for item 1)…. LIFE – History – LIFE.com
Here, on the anniversary of the official establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto in October 1940, LIFE.com presents a series of photos from Warsaw and from the town of Kutno, 75 miles west of the Polish capital, in 1939 and 1940.
Adding perspective to the images is an essay (below) by Justyna Majewska, discussing just what Jaeger’s haunting images can still tell us about that era, three-quarters of a century after they were made.
— Ben Cosgrove
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……item 1)…. LIFE History … life.time.com/history …
The Brink of Oblivion: Inside Nazi-Occupied Poland, 1939-1940
Hugo Jaeger — Time & Life Pictures / Getty Images
Elderly Jewish man speaks with German officers rounding up Kutno Jews, German-occupied Poland, 1939
life.time.com/history/world-war-ii-color-photos-from-nazi…
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, a German photographer and ardent Nazi named Hugo Jaeger enjoyed unprecedented access to the Third Reich’s upper echelon, traveling with Adolf Hitler to massive rallies and photographing him at intimate parties and in quieter, private moments. The photos made such an impression on the Führer that Hitler famously declared, upon first seeing Jaeger’s work: “The future belongs to color photography.”
But beyond merely chronicling Hitler’s ceaseless travels, Jaeger also documented the brute machinery of the Reich, including the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Here, on the anniversary of the official establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto in October 1940, LIFE.com presents a series of photos from Warsaw and from the town of Kutno, 75 miles west of the Polish capital, in 1939 and 1940. Adding perspective to the images is an essay (below) by Justyna Majewska, discussing just what Jaeger’s haunting images can still tell us about that era, three-quarters of a century after they were made. — Ben Cosgrove
Why would Hugo Jaeger, a photographer dedicated to lionizing Adolf Hitler and the “triumphs” of the Third Reich, choose to immortalize conquered Jews in Warsaw and Kutno (a small town in central Poland) in such an uncharacteristic, intimate manner? Most German photographers working in the same era as Jaeger usually focused on the Wehrmacht; on Nazi leaders; and on the military victories the Reich was so routinely enjoying in the earliest days of the Second World War. Those pictures frequently document brutal acts of humiliation, even as they glorify German troops.
The photographs that Jaeger made in the German ghettos in occupied Poland, on the other hand, convey almost nothing of the triumphalism seen in so many of his other photographs. Here, in fact, there is virtually no German military presence at all. We see the devastation in the landscape of the German invasion of Poland, but very little of the “master race” itself.
It is, of course, impossible to fully recreate exactly what Jaeger had in mind, but from the reactions of the people portrayed in these images in Warsaw and Kutno, there appears to be surprising little hostility between the photographer and his subjects. Most of the people in these pictures, Poles and Jews, are smiling at the camera. They trust Jaeger, and are as curious about this man with a camera as he is about them. In this curiosity, there is no sense of hatred. The men, women and children on the other side of the lens and Jaeger look upon one another without the aggression and tension characteristic of the relationship between perpetrator and victim.
[Read the stranger-than-fiction story of how Time Inc. came to own Hugo Jaeger’s archive, and see more of his photos.]
Strikingly, none of the people in these photos appear to have been forced to pose. In fact, Jaeger probably asked them for permission to take their pictures; maybe he and they had a short chat before he began photographing them. We can even go so far as to suggest that there is no sign of overt brutality here. To Jaeger (unlike for so many of the Reich’s supporters), Jews were not mere “rats,” or “parasites”: He simply perceived them as fascinating subjects. While he probably felt that their subjugation was inevitable in the face of the German Blitzkrieg, he nevertheless captures these already subjugated people sympathetically.
We know, all these decades later, that these thousands of people were, in fact, prisoners, whether or not the ghettos that would follow had already been built. [NOTE: In a city the size of Warsaw the creation of the notorious ghetto was quote complicated, and took a few months to complete; in Kutno, the Jews were forced into their ghetto in one day.]
We know what it means that their homes had been destroyed. We know what the anti-Semitic regulations — like the yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear at all times in public — would ultimately come to symbolize. But Jaeger, photographing in 1939, shows these people as a community trying to rebuild against all odds.
Seeing these photographs today, seven decades later, we know the harsh, unspeakable truth. Within a very short time, the situation for Kutno’s and Warsaw’s native Jews became more and more difficult, and ultimately catastrophic. Poles and Jews were separated from one another. The Nazis created a Jewish council, the Judenrat, responsible for making Jews obey the Germans’ diktats. The food supply dwindled horribly.
In June 1940, all of Kutno’s roughly 8,000 Jews were forced into the ghetto — the grounds of an old sugar factory. Typhus and hunger soon began killing hundreds of them. In 1942, the Nazis implemented Operation Reinhardt, which effectively put in motion the Nazi’s planned destruction of all Polish Jewry. In the spring of 1942 the Kutno Ghetto itself was “liquidated.” Jews who were unable to escape and find help among their Polish neighbors were taken to Kulmhof (Chełmno), the first death camp, located on the River Ner not far from the city of Lodz. There, thousands of Kutno’s Jewish men, women and children were put to death in “gas vans” — mobile gas chambers — in what were among the first mass murders of the Holocaust.
Operation Reinhardt also sealed the fate of the Jews of Warsaw. Liquidation of the massive Warsaw Ghetto started in July 1942 and took nearly three months. Horrifically overcrowded cattle trains carried 300,000 Jews to Treblinka death camp.
All these many years later, Jaeger’s pictures from Warsaw and Kutno are still so hard to look at — and hard to turn away from. I presume that the beautiful young girl seen smiling directly, confidently, at the camera (slide #1 in this gallery) is Jewish: on the collar of her coat, we see what is evidently a folded, yellow Star of David. Neither she, nor Jaeger himself, could have truly, fully foreseen her fate: to die of typhus, or to starve to death, or to be forced into a gas chamber at Chelmno, only to emerge again in a haunting photograph long, long after she was dead.
Justyna Majewska works as a curator at the Holocaust Gallery in the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in the Polish Academy of Science’s Institute of Philosophy and Sociology. Her dissertation focuses on social change in the Warsaw Ghetto.
Related Topics: 1940, Germany, Holocaust, Hugo Jaeger, Kutno, Poland, Third Reich, Warsaw Ghetto, World War II
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…..item 2)…. PunkTorah … punktorah.org …
Haftarah Lech Lecha: Flyin’ Like Eagles
9 cheshvan 5773 – october 25, 2012 by punktorah
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punktorah.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012…
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punktorah.org/featured/haftarah-lech-lecha-flyin-like-eagles
Isaiah 40:27-41:16: It’s rough goings for Abram’s tribe in this week’s parsha. Desert wandering, famine, Abram’s brush with death at the Pharaoh’s palace, Lot falls captive to the allied armies of Chedorlaomer at the evil city of Sodom. Not exactly a sweet deal following world flood and the promise of a new, great nation.
In the haftorah, Isaiah addresses Israel’s complaint: “My way [of serving G‑d] has been ignored by the Lord, and from my G‑d, my judgment passes [unrewarded].” Isaiah reminds Israel of the Creator’s greatness and promises “He will give the tired strength, and to him who has no strength, He will increase strength. Youths shall become tired and weary, and young men shall stumble, but those who put their hope in the Lord shall renew [their] vigor, they shall raise wings as eagles; they shall run and not weary, they shall walk and not tire.”
The life metaphor here is nagging but utilitarian: sometimes we’ve just gotta wait for the payoff. Delayed gratification is never easy, particularly when we work slavishly for what seems like a frustratingly futuristic reward.
We work our way through school hoping to pave our way for a career; we put in long hours away from friends and family for what typically feels like little pay. We put up with bosses and clients we’d often rather not. We scrimp and save, think twice about superfluous purchases. We try to keep an eye on the future and hope that all our efforts will “pay off” in the future. Sometimes it feels like we do everything right and still can’t catch a break. We are Israel, face up to the heavens, wondering why we go unrewarded.
Yeah, I’d feel like I just got the brush off if I got Isaiah’s reply as well—a pat on the back and an ‘attagirl’ for all my hard work!? I could sit around and wait to fly like an eagle, but unless I crank up some Steve Miller Band to go with it, that probably won’t make me feel better.
I think there’s more than just the “have faith” consolation going on. When we don’t get that long-awaited reward for our good behavior, maybe it’s time to shake it up a bit. Feel stuck in a dead-end career? Your employer “reward” your years of faithful service by downsizing you? Just mired in some mid-life existential muck? Nobody said “sit and wait,” did they? Isaiah just promises that one day, things will be better. He didn’t say you wouldn’t have to make that happen. Because along with all that free-will stuff comes a responsibility to ourselves to take the reins on our own pursuit of happiness.
Casey (Kefira) McCarty is a published author living in Ohio. She is the Assistant Director of the Columbus Idea Foundry, a community workshop space, and is an artisan who crafts jewelry, Judaica and fine art available online and in Central Ohio galleries and boutiques. You can find her online shop at www.sinemetudesigns.etsy.com
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…..item 3)…. aish.com … www.aish.com/tp/pak/fp
HOME … WEEKLY TORAH PORTION … PARENTS & KIDS … FAMILY PARSHA …
Inner Strength
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media.aish.com/designimages/Family+Parsha+(English+Parsha+Series+290×150).jpg
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by Nesanel Yoel Safran
www.aish.com/tp/pak/fp/Inner-Strength.html#top
Chayei Sarah(Genesis 23:1-25:18)
Inner Strength
Being a strong person means more than being able to lift a heavy weight over your head. In this week’s Torah portion we learn about Abraham’s son, Isaac, the second of our forefathers. Our sages teach that Isaac’s most outstanding character trait was ‘gevura’ – self-control and inner strength to do what’s right even when it’s hard. We have all inherited this trait from him and by tapping into it can become strong where it really counts.
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STORY
In out story a group of kids get their ideas about strength turned over on its head.
"THE SIXTY-SIX POUND STRONGLING"
"I’ll take Robby."
Maybe they’d pick me next, thought Joel optimistically.
"I’ll pick Kenny."
Nope.
"I’ll take … Glen."
Joel Landers liked playing football with the guys in the neighborhood, but he hated standing in the line-up as they picked out teams. This was mainly because he was always picked last. (That is, unless you counted the time Kenny brought his five-year-old cousin along, and Joel suspected the only reason they didn’t pick that kid before him too was that he was wearing a cast.)
"I pick, um Fred, I guess.
Last again. Well, what could he expect? At 66 pounds, even with his coat on, and arms about as thick as spaghetti, he wasn’t exactly what you could call prime football material.
"C’mon Beanpole, you’re with us. But be careful, it’s pretty windy today and if you blow away it’s gonna be kind of tough to find you," joked Danny, the team captain putting one of his huge arms around Joel’s shoulder.
If only I were built like big, strong Danny or some of the other big guys in the neighborhood, I’d for sure get picked, Joel thought to himself.
The guys began to play and were having a good time. Then Danny punted the football, giving it a good kick, just as a big gust of wind came. The kids stared in wonder as the ball flew and flew … and then suddenly CRASH!! The ball sailed right through Mr. Edwards’ porch window, which was unfortunately closed at the time.
Everyone ran like crazy. Mr. Edwards always yelled at them just for playing near his house. Now that they had actually done some damage, who knew what he would do? Led by the fast-running Danny, they knew that once they jumped over the fence they’d be safely out of screaming range. Joel started running with them too – and then…
"Wow, huff, huff, that was a close one, huff huff," said Danny, out of breath as he looked the guys over. "At least we all got out of there in time… Hey, where’s Beanpole?"
"Hey, look back there!" said Kenny pointing back across the fence. "There he is, and he’s talking face-to-face with Mr. Edwards!"
Joel tried to stay calm as the red-faced man came ambling his way. Sure, he could have taken off with everyone else, but somehow it didn’t seem right. After all, they broke a window. Shouldn’t someone at least own up to it and offer to pay?
"We’re really sorry, Mr. Edwards," said Joel. "From now on we’ll stay only on the far end of the lot. Here’s five dollars now, and we’ll get the rest of that 50 dollars to you within a week, I promise."
Joel wiped the sweat off his forehead as Mr.Edwards walked back into his house MUCH calmer than when he had come out. He even gave them back the football. Joel turned to look for his friends and saw nine amazed faces staring at him through the chain-link fence.
The next day Joel was daydreaming as the guys lined up to pick teams. He knew he’d have quite a wait until they got to him. Suddenly he felt a poke on the shoulder. "Go ahead," said Kenny, looking his way.
"Huh?"
"Danny just picked you for his team. Go over to him."
Joel looked at the rest of the guys still lined up waiting to get picked. Was this some kind of joke? He turned to Danny, who was smiling at him brightly.
"That’s right Bean… um, Joel. I picked you first. After seeing what you did yesterday – standing face-to-face with Mr. Edwards when we all ran scared – I think it’s pretty clear to everyone that you’re the strongest one of us all."
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
— Ages 3-5
Q. How did Danny feel about Joel at first?
A. They felt that he was weak and that they were strong because they were bigger than he was.
Q. How did he feel about him in the end?
A. Danny saw how Joel was the only one brave enough to do the right thing by not running away and realized that Joel was really the strongest one of them, inside where it counts.
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— Ages 6-9
Q. What do you think the guys learned that day about strength and weakness?
A. They had assumed that what made a person strong was his physical size and strength. But when only Joel, the physically weakest among them, stayed to take responsibility after they broke the window, the kids saw that there is a type of inner strength to do what is right even when it’s tough, that has nothing to do with the size of one’s muscles.
Q. Which type of strength do you think is more important? Why?
A. To be strong and healthy is a good thing and taking good care of our bodies is even one of the mitzvah-guidelines of the Torah. But even more important is how healthy and strong we are inside-meaning our spiritual strength to remain true to our values no matter what situation we are in.
Spiritual exercise: Do one thing that is ethically right even though it’s hard today.
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— Ages 10 and Up
Q. Wise men teach that it is harder for a person to conquer their inner negative inclinations than to conquer a fortified city. How do you understand this?
A. Each of us lives in two worlds. Our ‘outer’ world in which we struggle to get and hold onto the things we want and need (metaphorically ‘conquering cities’), and our ‘inner’ world in which we struggle with whether we choose to focus on positive or negative thoughts, feelings and values. Although it might not be so apparent, it is how well we succeed in the struggles of our inner world which will most determine whether we live a happy and successful life. Because these struggles are more hidden yet more important, they often present an even greater challenge than the outer struggles of life.
Q. What can a person do to develop his inner strength?
A. Like any other type of strength we want to build-exercise. Each time we choose to stand up for our inner values despite temptations not to, we get stronger. Also, the stronger we connect ourselves to God and feel Him more in our lives the easier it will be tap into our inner strength to live our lives the way we feel He wants us to.
Spiritual exercise: Do one thing that is ethically right even though it’s hard today.
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