Watching the Safe Haven Documentary (Part 2)

You might want to start with Part 1.

For an index of my Nazi/Holocaust related posts, click here.  

I'm now at 9:21 of the documentary (out of 57:23)

There was a push from a columnist, the War Refugee Board, and probably others (hopefully) to save many refugees.

FDR wasn't on board with that, but he was willing to let in 500-1000 refugees as a token gesture.

* * *

Now the documentary is showing a woman named Sharon Lowenstein.  She wrote a thesis about the refugee center in Oswego.  I guess it was turned into a book, because they show an image of a book. It's called Token Refugee. 

Lowenstein says there was a plan...or desire of a plan.... to open up camps all over the country.  Instead of death camps, they would be refugee camps. And they wanted to save tens or, better yet, hundreds of thousands of people targeted by the Nazis.

Roosevelt nixed that plan and offered the one camp instead.

* * *

Southern Italy was liberated from the Nazis.  In June 1944, a lot of refugees fled to the area.  This is where Roosevelt picked out a few lucky Jews to get his golden ticket.

Now the documentary is showing Ruth Gruber. She wrote a book about Oswego.  She had also been personally involved. First of all, she herself was Jewish.  Second, she was an assistant to someone named Harold Ickes.  He was Secretary.  

Secretary of what?  

Lord Wiki says he was Secretary of the Interior.  

* * *

Reading about Ickes....

He seems like a fairly decent guy.

He was against segregation and desegregated the cafeteria and restrooms in his department.  And his department included National Parks.

Though he didn't have the courage to protest Japanese internment camps, he did quietly complain about it in his diary.

He also suggested offering Alaska as a refuge for Jews fleeing the Holocaust.  It wasn't a state yet, so there was the idea that it didn't have to follow usual quotas.

Would the Alaskans already living there be okay with a large influx of Jews?

I'm sure some would.

I'm sure others would not.

And I'm sure some Jews would be respectful newbies while others, with a sense of entitlement, might try to take over.

Anyway...as many of us already know, this plan didn't end up happening.

Lord Wiki says most American Jews were opposed to the plan.  

I'm trying to decide if this is a rabbit hole I should go down now or wait for a future post.

Well...I think I'll go for the future post option.

For now, I'll just say Lord Wiki says it was Rabbi Stephen Wise who led the Jewish opposition to the plan, saying that it would give the hurtful impression that Jews were taking over a portion of the country for settlement.

Interesting.

I wonder if he ever came to regret that opinion.

* * *

Ruth Gruber says:

While America was selecting that thousand, Adolf Eichmann in Hungary had begun the selection in April of 1944. Late April.  Now it was July of 1944, and he had already selected 550,000 Jews to be burned in Auschwitz. And America was selecting 1000 for life in our country.

It's strange how this country feels there is enough room for accidental/unwanted embryos but not enough room for refugees.

By the way, Gruber was the person sent over to help make the selections.  

I can imagine she's haunted by the memory of those she didn't choose. 

Three thousand Jews applied.  So it was a 1/3 ratio.

The documentary says 100 escapees/survivors of the concentration camps were chosen. They were top priority; then came the very young and very old.  With that, I'm getting the idea they were taking the most fragile...perhaps with hope the others might survive without assistance from the United States. 

They also kept families together.

So it does seem that there were at least good intentions with who was chosen....I mean compassionate intentions.  

It wasn't a matter of merit or exploitation—let's see who can offer the most to our country.

I mean if you're dealing with people who want to emigrate...just for the joy of it.  Like when I wanted to move to Australia...yeah, then merit can and should play a part.

But when it comes to people needing refuge, it shouldn't be about who might be the most useful.

* * *

Gruber says that when the refugees boarded the ship to America, many of them did not have shoes.

They wore rags.

Many of them had no belongings, because they had been on the run for so long.

And I'm not sure what sort of souvenirs people can grab from a concentration camp.

* * *

Robert Clary (the narrator of the documentary) talks about the form the Jews were forced to sign upon getting on the ship.

They had to show that they understood that they were guests and that their stay was temporary. When the war was over, they were supposed to go back.

That's pretty unwelcoming.

A) Do people often want to go back to the country that caused such horrific trauma to their family?

B) It's hard to feel settled and peaceful when we know our stay is temporary.  

* * *

Gruber actually went on the ship with the refugees.  She was there for their journey. She asked them to tell her their stories, so she could report back to Roosevelt.

Some people are willing to be the listeners. They are willing to be witnesses. They are willing to let people unload.

Others cry out:  No trauma dumping!

Although I think there are (rare) times where the term trauma-dumping is merited...I think in many cases, it's just a replacement for phrases such as Save your drama for your mama or Positive Vibes Only.

Instead of making blanket rules against trauma dumping, it's probably best to give people the tools to be able to say, I'm sorry.  But because of my particular life history, hearing about this is very traumatic for me.  I can't handle it.

There's a big difference between reading: Please No Trauma Dumping!

And....

A Holocaust survivor telling the victim of a later genocide.  I'm sorry. I know you need someone to talk to.  But my family was killed in the Holocaust, and I can't handle hearing about it.

I suspect, though, as the No Trauma Dumping phase continues to pick up in popularity, it will be used more often by privileged people wanting to keep things light than it will be used by traumatized people unable to bear more trauma.

I just remembered I wrote a post about this a few years ago!  It was in reaction to a storyline on Neighbours, before I had even heard of the phrase trauma-dumping.

I'm glad to see that 2015-Dina agrees very much with 2022-Dina.

When we disagree...sometimes that causes me cognitive dissonance.  

* * *

I wonder if 2048-Dina will agree?  (Hi!  If you're reading this!).

* * *

I'm going to take a pause and go take a shower.  Then we will probably eat dinner while watching Extraordinary Attorney Woo.

Then I'll get back to the video and my learning and my rambling.

If anyone is keeping track, I'm now on 15:32 out of 57:23.

* * *

I'm back.

It's the next day.

I'm getting back to watching.

Robert Clary breaks down the composition of the refugees.

I'm not sure if composition is the right word?

Anyway....

874 were Jewish.

73 were Catholic

28 were Russian or Greek Orthodox.

7 were Protestant.

I guess that would be just religious composition.

Did they not get any Romani or homosexuals?

Though I'm sure some of the rescued were LGTBQ.  Probably closeted.

In terms of national origin, the biggest group was from Yugoslavia.  

What has Yugoslavia become?

I forget these things.

According to this website, it has become Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Kosovo, and Republic of Macedonia.  

Though that map is from 2008. Has it changed since then?

Oh! That website is actually the United States International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.  

I'm guessing it deals with war crimes.  

When was that Bosnian war?

Googled:  It was 1992-1995.

* * *

I would have hoped and expected that the Jewish people on the refugee ship would have gotten along.  They shared a religion, a history, and an enemy.

But the documentary says they did not. They divided by nation of origin.

Oh Clary (or the writer) agrees with me.  He says, All this despite the fact that all of them were victims of the Nazis.

I wonder about people in refugee camps, centers, etc. these days.  Do people often stick to the people from their own countries of origin?  Is there a lot of conflict between groups?

* * *

The ship arrived in the New York area on August 3, 1944.

A survivor talks about seeing the Statue of Liberty...and in her interview, decades later, she gets emotional.

Another survivor says he can't describe his feelings and that's why he writes music.  I imagine writing music is a super effective way of processing emotions.

Gruber says that the passengers all rushed to the rails and a rabbi asked to say a prayer.

It sounds like a scene from a movie.

He said a prayer of survival which...now that I'm hearing it.... I think it is also one of the prayers we say for Chanukah.

I'm wondering if on Chanukah we are praying for OUR survival or the survival of the oil/candles?

* * *

I'm looking at a website called Kveller for the Chanukah prayers.

The Shehecheyanu (the one the rabbi said on the ship) is said on the first night of Chanukah only.

It's translated as: Praised are You, Our God, Ruler of the universe, Who has given us life and sustained us and enabled us to reach this season.

I'm not sure I knew what that prayer was about or that it could be used for other occasions. 

 I'm glad to have learned it today.  

* * *

The next stop for the refugees was Hoboken New Jersey.

How far is that from Manhattan?

Really. I just want an excuse to look at Google Maps.

Oh.

It's right across from Manhattan.

The documentary says the refugees were ferried across.

Is there still a ferry?

I really should know more about New York geography.

Oh!!!!

It's the Lincoln Tunnel that gets you from Manhattan to Hoboken.

I think I will always associate the Lincoln Tunnel with The Stand.

Google Maps has Street View in the tunnel.  So you can play The Stand in your imagination.

Now I'm sitting here wondering....why was that scene scary?  It wasn't like there were any zombies.

Dead-dead bodies seem really tame when you compare them to zombies.

Or did something supernatural happen?

Did someone have a hallucination?

* * *

I can't tell if I'm actually moving through the tunnel, or if it's just the same scene repeated.

* * *

I was moving!

I got to the exit.

Or entrance?

Am I on the New Jersey side or Manhattan?

* * *

New Jersey.

This is SO fun.

And this is why I look for excuses to play on Google Maps.

I should get back to the documentary.

* * *

In Hoboken, the refugees were deloused which involved showers and separations of husbands and wives.  This was terrifying, because showers and forced separations were cornerstones of the Nazi concentration camp experience.

Were the people running the refugee program not aware of the shower and separation trauma?  Or were they lacking sensitivity?

Of course, showers had to happen.  But it probably could have done without separating the men and women.

Well...I guess they wouldn't just throw men and women together in the shower.  It would probably taken too long to allow each couple a private shower together.

I don't know.

Maybe it had to be done that way.

Hopefully, there was compassion and understanding, though.

* * *

After Hoboken, that evening, the refugees were put on a train and taken to Oswego.  

The trains, too, were bad-memory triggers.

The train stopped at Fort Ontario on the morning of August 5.

Looking at the Time and Date website.

August 3 would have been a Thursday in 1944.  

So on Thursday, they arrived, took the Ferry to Hoboken, had the scary showers/delousing, and then got on a train.

August 5 is Saturday. So I guess it was a pretty long train ride.

Were there bathrooms on the train?

Did they stop somewhere to go to the bathroom?

* * *

When the refugees arrived at their new home, they were upset to see that there was a high barbed wire fence.

A survivor named Leon Levitch says, Why?  Why us? We are the victims of the Nazis. Why should they put us in the barbed wire?

It's kind of like someone kept prisoner by a serial killer.  The police find them.  They're rescued.  They think they're going to be given a lot of attention and TLC.  Then instead, they're thrown in a prison cell.

The feelings that go along with those stories seem so familar to me.

I think it's probably what happens to Black people on a fairly regular basis.

Or at least...that whole thing of them being in danger or a victim of crime. They call the police, and instead of being rescued, they're questioned in a hostile manner and/or arrested.

I want to imagine that despite the roughness of the situation—the delousing, the separating of men and women, the train wire, the barbed wire...that the humans taking care of the refugees were much softer.  I hope most of them were warm and welcoming instead of hostile.

* * *

The barbed wire was not put there for refugees.

It had been up before.

The fort was over a century old—built in 1755.  It played a part in the Revolutionary and Civil War.

Soldiers once slept in what had now become the home of the refugees.

The documentary says the refugees weren't very interested in the history. They didn't want to be in what they saw as a prison.

They protested.

I wonder how many right-wing, anti-immigration Jews know about Safe Haven. Would they support the Jews being put behind barbed wire?

How would they feel knowing that the Jewish refugees protested?

* * *

The documentary includes an interview with the shelter director—Joseph Smart.

He says the refugees felt that they had been misled in Italy.  They thought they were coming to America as honored guests.

I would have expected to be an honored guest if I survived a horrific ordeal.

But I think that rarely happens for refugees.

I am wondering, though...if they had known what had awaited them, would they have said: No thank you.

I doubt it.

I am torn between two sides of myself.

Side A:  Beggars can't be chosen.  They should just be happy and grateful to be safe and away from the Nazis.

Side B:  People who escape horrific trauma should be treated like royalty.  They should get comforts and treats.

I know this is probably highly inappropriate but right now I'm wondering how the Oceanic Six were treated when they got rescued.

I can't remember.

I vaguely remember them being interviewed.

* * *

Smart had also worked in the Japanese concentration camps of World War II.

He wasn't happy with that role and then thought Oswego would be a chance to redeem himself

He says that instead he found himself running yet another small concentration camp.

I have added, Smart to my list of post ideas, by the way.

* * *

The refugees had no papers.

All they had was a tag they wore that read "Excess Baggage."

Uh...ouch.

A survivor says, We had become excess baggage in a very real way.  People didn't want us. We were excess.  We were disposed of—at least that was our experience for several years.

That makes me sad. And scared. And worried.

Because there are so many refugees.

And there will be more and more.

No. I'm not scared of the refugees.

I'm scared of all the shitty people who want to keep refugees out of their countries

*.* * 

Now I'm onto the breakfast scene.

Again, I'm torn.

A part of me is sad that these people are in a concentration camp.

Another part of me is thinking...this reminds me of summer camp!

I love summer camp....like in an idyllic memory kind of way.

* * *

Okay.

Good news.

It sounds like the breakfast was plentiful.

A survivor says she had seven eggs.

And there's also mention of bread and cereal.

There's just something so wonderful about camp breakfast...waking up, getting dressed...people wearing sweatshirts because it's a bit chilly.  

I guess it's kind of like a cruise breakfast.

But I think camp is better.

I'm not good at having strong scent memories.  But one of the ones I sort of have...and strongly.... is the smell and feel of my old camp sleeping bag.

* * *

Is there a camp for autistic people I can work at?

It would have to be one that is actually autistic friendly and not some kind of intervention thing.

It would, of course, have to welcome autistic adults as staff.

When I worked at a Cystic Fibrosis camp...no, I don't have CF.  But there were counselors and counselors-in-training who had CF.  I think it would be insulting not to.  And same goes for Autism.

* * *

It's over 24 hours later.

I haven't been back on my laptop all day.

I come back and see autism stuff instead of Holocaust stuff.

Because I started researching autism camps yesterday.

But now camp feels like a really bad idea for me.

I don't think it would work with my OCD/contamination issues.

Also...I don't think I want to be a counselor.

I'd rather be one of the campers.

* * *

I feel I should add that it has crossed my mind how (extra) difficult refugee situations would be for me with my OCD.

Or any disaster situation.

Recently, I imagined being on the Lost island and how it would bother me...all these people going to the bathroom and not being able to wash their hands.

Or maybe the ocean with the salt water would appease me?

I'm not sure.

I'm very big on soap.

* * *

If it were a zombie apocalypse, there'd be no worries.

I'm a very slow runner.  

I don't think my zombie-self would have OCD.

* * *

Getting back to the documentary....

* * *

Shit.

The documentary, for some reason, started back at 0:00.

But it's not too much of a shit.  Because I had written down above where I left off!

I had just done that to display how long it's taking me to get through a documentary...because I interrupt so much.   I guess it turns out there was another purpose to it all.

A side benefit.  

* * *

I was wrong.

I wrote the time stamp the time before last...not the last time I watched.

Oops.

But I did write down the scene I was on.

Breakfast.

So I should be able to find that pretty easily.

* * *

I have found the breakfast scene.

Breakfast included bananas.

I had paused, the other day, before hearing that.

* * *

Visitors from the area came to visit the refugees.

I was bracing for stories of antisemitism and xenophobia.  But so far, it's positive.  The people were friendly and brought gifts.  

Now they're talking about a survivor named Adam Munz. He was seventeen at the time of arrival.  There was a recreation hall with ping pong paddles and table but no balls.

I imagine the missing ball thing happens at a lot of refugee centers, schools, community centers, etc.

Anyway, this is sweet.

Munz had a dime.  He asked a resident of Oswego to buy him some ping pong balls, and the person came back with three.

Oh!  Now it's gone from a heart-warming story to a comedy.

Munz messed up his newbie English.  He meant to show gratitude by saying You're a big ace but instead said You're a big ass.

Fortunately, the big ass/ace had a good sense of humor about it....was understanding.

* * *

The documentary talks about how the news of the refugees was overshadowed by news of war-fighting in Europe.

In Oswego, the news was on page 12 of the newspaper.

The refugees were quarantined for a month for health issues.

Some (most?) of the refugees were frustrated with this, because they wanted to go out and visit relatives who already lived in the United States.

They wanted to be FREE.

With this, I'm more on the side of the government.  I'm probably somewhat influenced by Covid.  But...I think even without that storyline in all our lives, I think I'd still be pro-quarantine.

Yeah. I would be.

Because when it was Johnny Depp's dogs vs. Australian quarantine, I was totally on Australia's side.

All that being said...the Oswego people were separated not by Plexiglas and masks but by a chain-link fence.

That's not a very impressive quarantine.

I think the documentary wants me to be angry that families had to share news of tragedy through this fence.  But while I'm not okay with the tragedy, I'm not outraged by the delivery.  These days we get bad news via Facebook, Instagram, texts, emails, etc.

I'm not complaining about that either.

Bad news is bad news no matter how it's delivered.

Well...I take that back.  I think it's preferable NOT to get bad news via social media.

* * *

This is really jumping around.

But I've had an uncomfortable thought that's been plaguing me.

The uncomfortable thought is that I might have been wrong about something in my last post.

I had written about how us Earthlings are usually not good at saving people from genocide.  Yeah. Some folks get saved.  But I thought most were left to perish.

Then the other day I listened to a Washington Post editorial about how Germany has gone from really shit to extraordinarily awesome.  And they mentioned Germany taking in a million or so Syrian Refugees.

I don't know what percentage of Syrian refugees have been saved from the Syrian crisis.  But a million refugees....that's pretty good.  I think?  It's better than 982.

And maybe we've done okay as well?

How many Syrians have come here?

Well...Lord Wiki says it was 300,000 in Germany not a million.  I might have misheard the editorial.  Or maybe it's gone up since Lord Wiki did his research.

As for the United States, Statista says between 2015-2017 around 22,000 Syrian refugees were let in.  

From 2018-2021, less than a thousand a year have been brought in.

Lord Wiki says that Donald Trump suspended Syrians finding refuge here with an executive order.

I don't know if that order still stands or if there are just less refugees needing a home now.

I'm ignorant when it comes to the Syrian refugee crisis.

Sorry.

* * *

Although Europe and the United States have taken in a number of Syrian refugees...Turkey and other Middle Eastern countries took in much more.

Turkey has taken in at least 3.5 million.  But all this involves lots of political drama that I'm not going to learn about right now.

* * *

Getting back to the documentary,

The Jews in Oswego started a synagogue in the camp and set up a Kosher kitchen.

That's good.

My heart was feeling warm and hopeful.  Then Ruth Gruber reminded me that it wasn't all sunshine and lollipops, because these rescued Jews had family back in Europe.  So they weren't just balancing the relief of being rescued with disgruntlement over their new home.  They were also dealing with grief and the not-knowing if their loved ones back in Europe were dead or alive.

A few weeks after the refugees arrived in Oswego, they held a wedding.  Two of the occupants had fallen in love while fleeing the Nazis.

The quarantine ended on September 1.  So that was a little less than month.

The documentary says that 5000 people came to visit.

All in one day?

I wonder if most were relatives or friends.

How many were just curious and/or friendly neighbors?  

Did people just freely arrive?  Did they have to sign up and get approval?

I'm sitting here asking questions that the documentary might answer if I unpause it and give them a chance.

* * *

The refugees were given some added freedoms.

They could leave the camp.  But they had to have a pass; they couldn't leave Oswego; and they had to return in six hours.

I think that's better than what people in detention centers get these days.

Yeah.

Snopes says that yes refugees are allowed to leave detention centers.  They're not prisoners.  If they want to leave, all they have to do is walk out.

And return to their original countries.

How generous we've become.

Oh.  And escaping a detention center is akin to escaping prison.

Also...skimming this for now.

But migrants have to pay for their own airfare to get out.

So even if they wanted to get back to their original country, that might be impossible.

Might is probably an understatement.

I imagine most refugees and migrants are lacking the funds needed.

*.* *

Back to Oswego 1944....

The children were allowed to go to school.  Some of the adult refugees enrolled in a teacher's college.

What is education like for today's refugees in the United States?

This government site says: 

Currently, there are over 4.7 million foreign born individuals enrolled in pre-kindergarten to postsecondary education, representing 6% of the total student population. Another 20 million students are the children of foreign born parents.

As a nation of immigrants, America has benefited from the vitality and enthusiasm brought to its shores by those seeking a better life. Successful immigrant and refugee integration efforts build the capacity of schools and early learning programs, communities, organizations, and other stakeholders to support the civic, linguistic, and economic integration of immigrants.

That's good.  I like that.

What about children in detention centers? 

How many kids are in detention centers?

*.* *

The National Council of State Legislatures says that in 2019, unaccompanied 69,488 children were in detention centers.

Lord Wiki says the NCSL is nonpartisan.  But they don't seem very Trump supporting...at least not in their page about detained children.

As for the kids, I wonder how many came into the United States without adults and how many were separated from their adults.

And what happens to families who come together and are not separated.  Are they all put in detention together?  For how long?  Where do they go afterward?

* * *

I'm going to read this long article about migrants in Politico.  

The beginning reminds me somewhat of the people in the Safe Haven Documentary.

A family of three kids escaped Venezuela and imagined they were going to find....a place where they would finally be free from hunger and police harassment and could simply be kids.

Instead when they came to the United States, they found very harsh conditions.

Politico says they slept on cement floors in cold cinder block cells.  

Federal court rulings have said children may not be held in border patrol facilities for more than 72 hours.  But the article says more than 220,000 kids have been held longer than what's supposed to be allowed.

How much longer?

Well...even if it was less than 72 hours...even if it was four or five hours.  It's a horrible way to be welcomed into a country.

The thing is, a lot of people do NOT want migrants to feel welcomed.

That attitude is pretty understandable when coming hundreds of years ago from Native Americans.  It's not understandable coming from people who have parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. that were immigrants.  

* * *

Sorry. I'm going to jump subjects here.  But just know...that what I wrote above made me think of this.

I struggle to understand people who are angry that the Biden Administration is helping people with their college loans.  Some argue that it's not fair, because they didn't have this kind of help when they were paying off their loans.

For now...I'm just going to ignore the fact that college has become so much more expensive than it was back in those olden days.

But I thought of an analogy from my own life.

I listen to this autism podcast with these super neurodivergent-affirming therapists, and it makes me wish that I had these therapists when I was young. 

I sometimes envy the children getting diagnosed these days who have had this level of support.  

But I'm not going to sit around pouting and saying, I didn't get support for my autism when I was a child, so that's how it should be for all kids now and forever.

I think we can wish we had something we didn't. I think we can envy those who are getting what we didn't get.  But at the same time, we can be glad things are changing for the better.

Note:  These therapists I wish I had are unfortunately still probably in the minority.  Autism therapy is still often about helping children overcome autism rather than learning to live with it and embrace it.  

* * *

Getting back to the Politico article

The article says, In recent years, public reports of child detentions by the Border Patrol included only unaccompanied minors, omitting tens of thousands of children in families.

I do feel I hear more about unaccompanied children.

So....

Trump enacted something called Title 42 Emergency Order.  This is where the government can immediately expel people who crossed the border without authorization/permission.  The reasoning was to help keep Covid out.

Biden took office.  He asked for unaccompanied children to be exempt—let them stay.  But children in families weren't offered the same refuge.

Biden tried to lift Title 42.   A judge in Louisiana put a halt to his lifting.

I vaguely remember hearing about that.

I'm not sure what's going on with it these days.

* * *

Politico has a graphic with the detention center statistics.

Two centers are in California.

Two are in Arizona.

Five are in Texas.

I wonder what's the closest to us.  Well...because we live in Texas.

It's in....

Big Bend Texas which is about 2 hours and 45 minutes south-west of us.

In the Big Bend Texas Border Control Facility, 27% of the detainees are children.  

The average amount of time that kids stay there is 58 hours.

Twenty percent of the kids stay for over 72 hours.

I think the treatment in the center is more important than the length.

I mean not that I think it would be good for kids to be stuck in there for months or years.  

But if it were a decent place, I don't think it would be a problem for kids to be in there for 72 hours or....72 days.

The conditions, though, are far from decent.

Some of the shitty things listed in the article.

A) Children being cursed and yelled at

B) Children being kicked and shoved.

C) Stale food and food that made kids sick

D) Sick kids not given medical care

E) Toilets and showers lacking privacy

F) Kids kept in dirty clothing.

G) Very cold air-conditioning.  (since running AC is expensive, it makes me wonder if this is purposely used as a form of torture/punishment)

The detention centers kind of lay in the middle of Nazi death camps and the Safe Haven in Oswego.

OR...at least of what I know of Oswego so far.

But Oswego seems pretty decent compared to what people today are getting in Texas, Arizona, and California.

* * *

Now the article returns to the family from the beginning.

Two sisters were put in a cell.  It had a dirty sink and a toilet with no privacy.  It was just there in the middle where other migrants could watch them using the bathroom.

Another family's experience:

A teen girl developed a sore throat, cough, and headache. During the pandemic. She was told medication wasn't available and also, in a dismissive way, told she wouldn't die.

For five days, they had no toothbrush and no shower.

* * *

The excuse that some conservatives use for not wanting more brown people in their country is that these migrants are opportunists and not legitimate asylum seekers.

They might say escaping government persecution is different than simply wanting a life improvement.

But I'm not sure why people would put their lives and the lives of their family in danger just so they can achieve a bit of upward mobility.

Nope.

As the Politico article explains.  It's more likely things like rise in gang violence and parents worrying their teens will be forced to join.

Hurricane damage.

Drought.

Political and economic instability.

It's very much not like me wanting to move to Australia, because I love the accents and feel some kind of spiritual connection.  And wild parrots are super cool. 

 * * *

One little complaint/disagreement I have with the mindset of this Politico article is there's this idea that the border facilities should be improved for children.

But...uh....

Maybe they need to be improved for the adults as well??

To be fair, though. The person writing the article...people (Anna Flagg and Julia Preston) probably care very much about adults.  But they're probably trying to reach people whose hearts are chilled towards brown and Black immigrants. 

I wonder if anyone tried to plea for the Jews in Europe that way.  Yes. I know you think Jews are vermin—dangerous, controlling, money hungry.  But some of them are just innocent little children!  

Note: I should mention that the article was actually written for an organization called The Marshall Project.  And they gave permission to Politico to reprint it.  I saw that before and then forgot; but was reminded when I looked for the names of the writer.  

* * *

Ah...some good news.

Border Patrol has begun hiring cleaning staff, medical staff, and childcare assistants.  

Hopefully they're hiring decent people and not abusive ones.

They're also providing some laundry rooms and play spaces.

Hopefully also decent showers and toilets.

I think we can find a compromise between open borders and abusive, unwelcoming prison-like centers.

* * *

Getting back to the Jews (and others) in 1944 Oswego.  

I lost my place again in the video.

I don't think I got far past the breakfast scene.

I think Robert Clary was talking about education.

That got me down a rabbit hole towards education for migrants today.

Now I'm realizing I never made it to my intended destination.

I'm not up to going back down that rabbit hole.

Maybe I'll run into it another day.  On purpose or on accident.

* * *

Now we're running into some antisemitism.

Ralph Faust, the principal of the high school in Oswego, wanted the president of the student council to give a welcoming speech.

The president objected to it. His feeling was that the refugees shouldn't be in the school nor the community without the school or community improving of it first.

I imagine this is one of those tricks where you hide your bigotry behind a dislike of big government.  Instead of openly saying, I hate Jews and think they should stay and die in Europe, you pretend your grievance is with the Federal Government not asking permission of the local government.  

One of the survivors is asked if she encountered antisemitism.  She said she didn't.  And for any that happened (not to her personally) she says, I don't know that it was really antisemitism, or anti-foreigners, or anti a lot of people suddenly invading this peaceful little town.

She's more generous than me.

But I think she has a point.

I think we can assume antisemitism too easily.  But we can also make the opposite mistake and overlook it.

This goes for all kinds of bigotry.

Going back to modern immigration.  If someone wants to greatly limit immigration, I'm likely to assume they're racist.  But if I learn more about them and learn they're equally intent on pushing back white immigrants (which are often called expats) and they're pushing for better access to birth control and abortion I'm going to rethink my assessment and decide they're fighting against over-population.

* * *

Eleanor Roosevelt visited the Oswego shelter six weeks after the refugees arrived.

She was not happy that the refugees were being kept behind a fence. AND...

She did NOT wear a jacket that said, I Really Don't Care.  Do U?

A survivor is asked if he thinks Mrs. Roosevelt scolded her husband about this when she got home. He says yes and that he thinks the president probably just ignored her.

I can relate to trying to advise a powerful man and having my advice swiftly ignored or vetoed.  Not that I'm delusional enough to believe ALL my advice is correct.  But it gets to the point where I have to wonder if my advice is deliberately vetoed BECAUSE I'm a woman.  Or it could be that powerful men need to feel that they're the ones laying down the law.

I'm rambling about this and the Roosevelt story is all imagined. She might not have even mentioned it upon returning to the White House.

* * *

I think I'm going to stop here and then continue at 34:00 of 57:23 in part 3.

Hopefully, I can get the last 20 minutes into one post and there won't be a part 4.

Strange...I just had a strong dream flash when writing the above sentence.

I think I've mentioned these before.....

Yes...found it.  

Read my novel: The Dead are Online