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PART ISAN REVIEW
England and France offi cially had declared war on Germany. N ow the
trapdoors we re let down , all bo rders were closed. T he J ews had no es–
cape. The German press was jubilant. N o exit. There were a handful of
exceptions to prove the rule . Last-minute negoti ations mi ght have re–
deemed the hostages, even at thi s late ho ur, but there were other serious
considerati o ns to be taken into account. The infernal circle was now
compl eted by a logic hard to refute. The devi!' s own mind was at work
when Hitl er and his followers came up with their versio n of the "final
soluti on" to the Jewish problem , as they ca lJ ed it. They counted on one
o verwhelmin g logica l argument : Sho uld th e W est come up with the
ransom, th e Ge rmans could always ask for more. Any substanti al transfer
of gold or raw materi als would strengthen the German war mac hine. So,
bailing o ut th e J ews also would help Hitler. Supporting the enemy with
raw materi al and tons of go ld wo uld cause public outrage, and to save
the J ews at a pri ce that had no ceiling wo uld be an act of self-defeat.
Whatever sarcasm one can use today, o ne must recogni ze the va lidi ty this
argument had then . Ultimately, should anythin g happen to the Jews, the
German enemy and not the rest of the world would be guilty. What was
wrong w ith putting the mark of Cain o n the much-hated Germans?
N–
ter all , they had chosen their leader in a democ rati c elec ti o n. O ne went
to war in order to save humanity and humanism , not merely to save Jews
and Gypsies. This logic, howeve r, doesn 't kill. Humanism , especially in its
European , W estern , C h risti an traditi o n , is hardly suicidal but alive and
well everywhere.
But let me not end o n a note of despair. Histo ry is not likely
to
re–
pea t itself. Considering the possibilities of the future, we are alJ doi ng
very well.
Edith Kurzweil:
Thank you. The next speaker is Slave nka Drakuli c.
Slavenka Drakulic:
I feel that I have to apo logize to you , because I
didn 't prepare a paper. I always was a bad pupil and hated to go to
school, and I always liked to improvise. Yet th e fac t that I hated to go
to
school and in general didn 't like to do what people asked me
to
do,
even on this occasio n , is no t rea lly why I didn't prepare a paper but
made just brief notes. It is beca use a wa r is going on in my country. And
when you live in a country that is at war, yo u cann ot get away from it.
It doesn 't leave you alo ne. It means th at you write abo ut it, you talk
about it, you think about it, you dream abo ut it. It is always inside you,
even when you go very fa r away and stay away for a lo ng time. There is
no way to get out of the wa r. That is why I fi gured I could speak of
any aspect of that wa r off th e top of my head .
