ARGUMENTS
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"morally exhilarating" and that she heard in it "heavenly music, like
that
of the final chorus of Figaro or the Messiah," because of the "happy
endings," the episodes in which a few Jews were saved. Miss McCarthy's
acoustics are, to say the least, remarkable. She would probably suggest
that a special Gentile hearing aid is required for the reception of these
higher registers. Jews are too deafened by the cries of a million shot and
gassed children to appreciate the full angelic orchestration enjoyed by
Miss McCarthy. She explains Jewish failure in sensibility in this fashion:
the Jews "reject the idea that their sufferings made sense, had a plot
and a lesson. For me, however, the plot and the lesson were a godsend."
I can understand what Miss McCarthy means by "lesson"-each
to his pedagogy ! But the suggestion that the extermination "made sense"
and that the "plot" as well as the "lesson" was a "godsend" is another
matter. Miss McCarthy is too acute not to know what she has written. I
admit that I recoil from analyzing this horrifying sentence. Nor do I
believe that only Jews reject the idea that their martyrdom "made sense."
Gentiles may be charged with ignorance or indifference but few dwell in
the icy aesthetic realm indicated by Miss McCarthy. Only to the Nazis
did Jewish suffering make sense.
