Mr Gerrit H Schorel-Hlavka,

If you mean by bias towards Israel, that I believe that Israel must be allowed to exist as a Jewish State, yes. I also believe in a Palestinian State alongside Israel, with cross fertilization of ideas, of brotherhood, and of peace. I cannot see why anyone should oppose this idea.

I hadn’t wanted to write this, being particularly sensitive. As you kindly stated that you were not offended by my mentioning my back ground, I write confidently that you will understand.

My Irish Catholic grandfather, a civil engineer, spent over twenty years in Africa building railway systems - often not seeing another white for two years or more. At the instance of his family to marry and have heirs, he came to Australia, married my Anglican grandmother in his mid-forties, after which my mother and her younger brother were born. My grandfather hated “civilization”, and wanted to go to the Sepik River, New Guinea. The marriage foundered, however, it was agreed that as soon as the children finished schooling they would go to the family in Ireland.

On finishing school, my mother went to Ireland. She found her family insufferable - her aunt, attending daily Mass, entertaining senior Church prelates, firmly believed that her class would not have to mix with others in heaven. My mother fled to Europe, witnessed Hitler and his party at close quarters; then studied at the university in Vienna, where she met my father, a Jew. Falling in love, the became engaged. After the Aunschluss, they escaped to Paris, my father entering the French Army. They applied for a visa for him to enter Australia; but it was overturned when Britain entered the war; they were not informed. Waiting for his entry papers, he was arrested, placed in a slave camp, then sent to Auschwitz and gassed on arrival.

My mother and I, a toddler, were arrested by the SS, placed in a camp, then used as exchange POWs. The SS interogated and threatened my mother - that neither

cont ...

of us must ever enter Europe again. My mother admitted that if the nazis had tried to take me, she would have killed me - thus, necessarily, from the very beginning, our relationship formed differently.

On the trip back to Australia, the Brits refused her desire to stay in Palestine.

The Australian Security (FP) met her on arrival; being associated with my Austrian father she was immediately under suspicion. She had a very bad time, interrogated, frequently with: “we don’t like to get rough, unless we have to”.

She always wished modern surveillance techniques were available then. Security harrassed school friends - and anyone with whom she even casually came in contact.

In an early, girlish letter she wrote admiring Italian policemen, and wished she could smuggle one home in her case; this immediately identified her as a fascist.

She was under constant surveillance. Everthing she did, such as job hunting, going to a function, had to be cleared first.

On occasion, the Security broke into our house. Serving in New Guinea, my young uncle’s passion was making radios and record players. They smashed every item.

Neighbours painted swastikas over our fence. When I was old enough for school, their children, aged up to 12 years, would physically attack me, often with stones and sticks. When I arrived home, on seeing my condition, my grandmother would coolly ask: “Did you cry?”, and I always truthfully answered: “No I didn’t cry.” This gave me the resiliance, from my early teens, for coping with terrorist attrocities in Malaya.

My father’s entire family, over 50 members, from babies, small children, to the elderly were gassed.

This is why I believe Jews must have a homeland. There will always be anti-semitism. No matter how benign a country may appear, in times of emergency, one’s nationality becames paramount - albeit minorities are being persecuted.

Australia’s treatment of refugees is a double disaster. As never before, we need such very courageous people.

I hate ignorance and willfull bigottry - selecting incidents out of context; lying, distorting, playing semantics and the walnut shell, denying or ignoring facts.

Danielle

None of us can feel anything but sympathy for you for the personal horrors you have experienced in your life.

I think there are many stories similar to yours to have come out of the holocoust. I have met and listened to the tales of a couple of survivors. Neighbours in NZ.

Obviously you've carried the scars of your tragedy with you for the past 60 years.

My only advice is be strong and move on as best you can. All of us have our own personal horrors and tragedies. I fortunately received some very good advice many years ago that helped me endure and overcome the gripping horror and resulting anger from my own. I thankfully have moved on successfully.

However whatever personal sympathy I hold for you doesn't impinge on my ability to see and condemn the reality of the situation of Israeli discrimination nor it's 40 year occupation and repression of the Palestinians.

As regard personal horrors we and many others have endured ours and the reality of them passed in comparatively short periods. We only have to deal with the scars, the painful memories. The Palestinians horrors continue on a day to day basis and they have to live with not only their painful memories but also the daily ongoing tragedy of their occupation and suppression. That has been ongoing for 40 years.

You know my views. We have similar viewpoints on some issues. You know I believe peace will only come to the mid east with a secure Israel and a Palestinian state within just borders. We differ in how we think that can be achieved. I reject the applied solutions of the past which stand as proven failures and look to other solutions.

I too despise the use of 'ignorance and willful bigotry - selecting incidents out of context; lying, distorting, playing semantics and the walnut shell, denying or ignoring facts.'

Hate, ignorance and bigotry are the shields of the cowardly. The others are simply the apparatus of the propagandist.

We've all seen their use often and recognise them easily enough.

Part-1
Danielle,

Obviously it is terrible what happened to you and if anything I am glad you have put it in the postings for others to read also. As 96 members of my Jewish family were on personal orders of Hitler gassed I am well aware of the horrendous suffering that went on. However, I have lived in Germany as a young man en spoken with soldiers who did barbarous acts during the Second-World-War and albeit I never accepted any justification of their doings have learned also their versions. I did cop a lot for having lived in Germany but I held it was important for me to deal with this by myself and never regretted doing so. For this I never hated Germans, as my family did, and a lot of Dutch people did, because I learned what went on.
Once, I was sitting with a man and as I was at the time dating his daughter he wanted to test me if he could drink me under the table, so to say. He never did as I was smart enough to switch glassed so he had all the time a full one and I took every time his empty glass. In the process of the evening his mates joined in and they told me all the gory details about what they had done during the war, why they did it, etc.
I will spare the details, but I did brake of with his daughter, as I could never accept having him as a possible father in law. Still, I had no hatred or dislike towards him albeit neither wanted having him as a family member. Not because my family would be against it, but because I personally view it is one thing not to hate a person but another thing to get married into such a family.
I did however also learn of the brutality against Germans themselves who had refused to fight.
I have never regretted to have found out what, so to say, made them tick, albeit I would have preferred if it never had happened.

Part 2
Regretfully, what caused the Germans to act as they did I recognise now developing in the Commonwealth of Australia. Hence I pursue so much about the constitution as to seek to get people to open up and to see where they are heading into.

Tome and again am I reminded how the Germans made clear Hitler started his power base and recognise the same in our politicians doing likewise. It make not one of iota difference which political party is in powers because they all will pursue to grab more power and use any excuse to deceive the people.
Regretfully most Australian are to dumb to realise this and rather have a go about a Muslim then to open their eyes to reality.
We murdered civilians in Iraq and so unconstitutionally, yet many Australians are willing to justify this because of the propaganda against the late President Saddam Hussein. To me, what ever evil he might have been, we are no better as a society as we did far worse upon Iraqi’s and it wasn’t even our country!
Yet, again many Australians nevertheless are willing to justify this mass murder and destruction and that the Germans made known to me was the way Hitler started his power base. Getting support of certain elements and later he turned against so many who had first supported him.
I have no doubt that in years from now people will refer back to my books, and point out that I exposed it but most Australians simply couldn’t care. WE JUST HAVE OUR OWN AUSTRALIAN “HITLER” BY WHATEVER NAME HE MIGHT BE KNOWN! Sad but true!

What you and others have suffered, such as my wife, never should be repeated or at least should be sought to avoided but regretfully to many australians supporting this kind of conduct because they see it in their own benefit, unless of course they cop it themselves!

Keith and Mr Gerrit H Schorel-Hlavka

Thank you very much for your kind words

Keith, I think we are as one in that I do not approve of Jewish settlements on any Palestinian territory.

My way of coping was obtaining degrees. I don’t tell friends - it’s not “social talk”; ... and people can be unpredicable ...Currently I am involved with dissidents against certain regime abuses. Iran has appalling human rights abuses built into their legal penal code - the execution of girls at the age 9 yrs, boys at 12 yrs.

I taught WWII history at university. Hitler commited terrible crimes against his own people. His muderous policy of eugenics; sending children to fight Russian tanks; using rolling stock to send Jews to gas chambers, rather than use it for winter clothing to his men fighting in a Russian winter - with metal studs in their boots, they died in agony where they stood. Even in 1944, public hangings of teenagers were common, judged criminals and “threats to the moral health of the nation’s youth”. Their crime - listening to swing and jazz.

Many Germans seem oblivious to much of what happened ...

A German proudly showed me photographs of family in SS uniforms. Another, a fundamental christian, and pacifist, believes “Jews deserved it”. Her sole and constant complaint: she had to wait until she was 9 yrs old for a proper doll. Speechless, I always sympathise about the doll.

Perhaps anomynity is a good thing ...

Unfortunately, such experiences can affect subsequent generations.

My grandmother forbad me to mention my father to my mother. I had the idea he had committed some terrible crime - neighbours and Security tended to confirm this. My mother never mentioned him other than he died in Auschwitz. Although we lived in the same house, I rarely saw her; when I did, she avoided physical contact; in fact, I felt that in someway I was responsible for her rejection and unhappiness. Things didn’t improve much in Malay. After my marriage, she, literally, disappeared for 25 years. Yet, I adored her.

cont ...