Challenging the Cynical Exploitation of Trauma
Introduction
Gaslight: 1. to psychologically manipulate (a person) usually over an extended period of time so that the victim questions the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and experiences confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, and doubts concerning their own emotional or mental stability: to subject (someone) to gaslighting. 2. to grossly mislead or deceive (someone) especially for one’s own advantage
GASLIGHTED: A decimated and obliterated landscape forms the backdrop of the collage that most likely brought you to this essay. This dystopian backdrop is an actual picture of Gaza, the occupied Palestinian territory currently being methodically destroyed with the full support and backing of the United States government and political class. GASLIGHTED is both the name of the collage and the reality for those being victimized. On the TV screen we see a representation of our imperial mainstream media with Dana Bash, a shameless operative for political Zionism, highlighting a bitter irony: the American public does not learn about the worst crimes of the Zionist occupation in Palestine because the media generally hides and downplays these crimes. The hand reaching out with the gas lamp from underneath the rubble represents an acknowledgement of this gaslighting and this twisting and denying of reality. The faces in the smoke emanating from the gas lamp are actual Holocaust victims, many of whom suffered unspeakable horrors. They look down in judgement at what is being cynically and cruelly done in their name, reminding us that one day there will be a reckoning.
In the art studio where I generate most of my content these days there’s a wall where I’m mapping out the relatively “hidden history” of Sobibór, the fourth deadliest nazi extermination camp where up to 300,000 people were brutally murdered. On October 14th, 1943, the Jewish prisoners rose up against their tormentors and escaped through a mine field under a hail of bullets; this was the most successful nazi camp uprising that you’ve probably never heard of. These histories are worth revisiting today as an antidote to the poisonous propaganda we’re constantly bombarded with. Nonstop lies and manipulations in service of apartheid, Islamophobia and colonialism are daily insults to our intelligence, and there needs to be a response. This is part of the response to the targeted manipulation of the American public. Those of us who understand these issues cannot be silent, especially as we see the Holocaust and Jewish insecurity/historical trauma being mobilized as unquestionable justifications for the genocide of Palestinians and the loss of our right to free speech and dissent. The cynical nature of all of this is especially obvious to Black Americans who can’t help but notice that our centuries-long history of suffering and dispossession here in Amerikkka has not led to any special treatment or privileges; quite the opposite as we’re often told to shut up about the past, forget about reparations and move on.
My perspectives on the topics covered in this essay diverge from the mainstream insofar as I’m interested in these histories in service of liberation and social justice, not as excuses to support apartheid, racism and colonialism. I am also interested in helping to neutralize and respond to the despicable propaganda that has been deployed against the Palestinians. Calling it propaganda is generous when often it is blatant and bold faced lying; regardless, what we have seen directed towards Palestinians is very similar to the sexual demonization Black men faced here in Amerikkka during the Jim Crow era that led to many lynchings.
“History is the best teacher” is a motto I believe in. The histories and narratives I’m researching and mapping out are part of my independent research and conceptual art project inspired by the incredibly interesting WWII diaries of anti-Zionist scholar and Holocaust survivor Victor Klemperer; more and more this project is increasingly concerned with rescuing the past from the abuse of memory taking place in the present. Considering the aforementioned recent behavior (and silence) of “respectable” and established Holocaust remembrance institutions, there certainly needs to be an intervention, and soon. The photos I’ve found myself drawn to most often recently are of a young woman named Liselotte Karoline Rosenstiel; in these photos her gaze is exceptionally arresting. When I find myself on the verge of giving in to hatred after being thoroughly disgusted and enraged by what is happening today, I look at these photos as a reminder to press on and hold on to my humanity.
I first became acquainted with this young woman’s story while living in Germany last year; while doing some research I came across a very interesting article that lays out the basic details of her life in great detail, including her role in the October 14th uprising at Sobibór. “Luka,” as she was known by her friends and family, had some interesting similarities with the much more well known Anne Frank. Both were born into middle class, assimilated German Jewish families; both fled with their families to the Netherlands to escape nazi persecution; both were eventually arrested and deported to a nazi camp. My critique of the oversaturation of Anne Frank content in the mainstream is that it obscures other important histories from that time. Anne Frank is of course important, but her story is only one story among many, and in my opinion, it’s a story for beginners and for children. We must dig deeper and find those histories that can more directly speak to the experiences of adults because it is adults who have the social, political and economic power to change the terrible trajectory we are on.
Looking at Luka’s photos, it is not difficult to understand why the Holocaust looms so large compared to other genocides. She looks exactly like many young women you might see today in Amerikkka, Canada, the UK, Germany, France, and so forth. It is actually quite uncanny how modern the photographs look. Not long ago, not far away indeed. Those who have been conditioned by a white dominated society to place added value on white skin and white experiences can look at her and see something familiar, something that resonates. My goal here is to use this to our advantage to show the connections between then and now, between the experiences of this young woman and the experiences of those facing and experiencing genocide today. Because ultimately, the same forces are at work — the forces of dehumanization, demonization, collective punishment and the fact that Luka and many people like her were not viewed as worth saving.
A few points are necessary to fully understand the context of the situation Luka Rosenstiel found herself in. The desire of the nazis to punish and murder the Jews of Europe increased as they began struggling militarily against the Soviet Union; according to their demented worldview, the Soviet Union was a proxy of a nefarious global system dominated by Jews who were attempting to wipe out the “Aryan” race. Luka Rosenstiel was deported with her family to Sobibór in early 1943 soon after the defeat of the nazi army at Stalingrad, the point when nazi Germany officially began losing the war. We also must fully understand that the camps the nazis set up in Poland were literally hell on earth, something akin to the lowest circle of Dante’s Inferno or Hieronymous Bosch’s visions of torment and suffering; and Sobibór was among one of the worst places one could find oneself. Located in an extremely isolated and far flung area near the Polish border with Belarus, the motto “abandon hope all ye who enter here” was particularly relevant there. Because unlike the sprawling industrial complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau where thousands chosen for slave labor had some slim chance of survival, almost no one survived the “Action Reinhardt” camps, the camps created explicitly for the purpose of exterminating the Jews of Poland and eastern Europe (most Western European Jews were sent directly from France, Belgium, Italy etc directly to Auschwitz). But of course there are always exceptions, and my research is especially interested in these exceptions and hidden corners because they can be especially instructive. While most Jews living in the Netherlands were sent to Auschwitz, Luka found herself among the 34,313 people transported from the Netherlands to Sobibór between March and July of 1943. Only 18 people survived.
One aspect of history that has some relevance for today is that humiliating, torturing and killing Jewish people was a key component of the “war of extermination” the nazis were waging against the Soviet Union. As mentioned above, the nazis considered all Jews to be either in cahoots or sympathetic to Bolshevism, an ideology they were hell bent on destroying. And one of the most efficient ways to destroy an ideology is to destroy the people who might become its adherents. This is the situation innocent civilians like Luka Rosenstiel found themselves enmeshed in. We should view the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust through this lens: regular people who were demonized, given no opportunity to defend themselves and then declared to be guilty and deserving of punishment. And they certainly were punished. Consider the following article excerpts:
Conditions for those forced to live inside Sobibór were extremely difficult, unsanitary and uncertain. As well as forced labour, the Arbeitshäftlinge were sometimes made to take part in recreational activities, such as dancing or singing, as a form of humiliation and entertainment for SS officials. Female prisoners were also frequently victims of sexual violence and assault by SS officers working at the camp.
Additionally:
“Starting during summer 1942, when the Germans began selecting women from the deportation trains to work as forced laborers at Sobibór, sexual assault on the part of individual Trawnikis became a regular feature of camp life. … Sexual violence seems to have escalated to such an extent that the SS personnel had to intervene.”
The intersection of sexual assault and the Holocaust is a relatively new field of research. For many years taboos and sexism prevented the stories of girls, women, LGBTQ people and some men from being told. Our understanding of this genocide is not complete without an awareness of these experiences. Before learning about the sexual violence aspect of Sobibór and the Action Reinhardt camps, I naively thought that perhaps Luka was “lucky” to have been chosen and given a reprieve from immediate death, one of only a handful of people selected from her transport. I know better now. While her brother and father were sent directly to the horror of the gas chambers, over the next seven months until the uprising Luka faced the slow burn horror of daily life in an extermination camp, working sunup to sun down as a literal slave sorting and packaging the clothes and belongings of murdered people (everything stolen from people murdered at these camps was sent back to Germany). And if one of the nazis or Ukrainian guards wanted to take advantage of a woman they found attractive? There was practically nothing stopping them. Jewish women and girls deported to the Action Reinhardt camps were literally in the middle of nowhere, captured by their enemies and totally at their mercy. After the October 14th uprising Luka was seen traveling with a small group of fellow escaped prisoners, most of whom were later caught and murdered. My mind almost does not want to face the violence and terror she and others almost certainly endured. But we must face these things because as James Baldwin said, nothing can be changed until it is faced. What’s happening in Gaza today is proof of this.
When I look at Luka Rosenstiel’s photo I cannot help but think about what it means to be an innocent civilian who finds oneself caught up in a brutal conflict, deprived of your home and creature comforts, imprisoned and subjected to all manner of abuse and mistreatment simply because of your association with a targeted group. The problem we face at the moment is that many people refuse to see that what was unacceptable back then is also unacceptable today. Unfortunately, if someone has darker skin or an Arabic sounding name, they are not offered the same sympathy and consideration as Anne Frank and Luka Rosenstiel. Unfortunately, many of those whose eyes get moist at the thought of what Jewish women suffered during the Holocaust have no sympathy at all for what Palestinian women and girls are suffering today.
We really must unpack what is at the root of this lack of concern for Palestinian women and girls whose abuse in Israeli prisons and detention is well documented. Where are the pink pussy hats mobilizing for these people? Where are the Hollywood stars and civil society organizations? No one seems to care. The reports of sexual violence and abuse taking place at the hands of the IDF in Gaza are overlooked even as we see video after video of IDF soldiers alluding to their crimes with a wink and a nod. Only someone committed to living in a fairy tale world could deny the subtext to the many videos of Israeli soldiers cavorting around in the lingerie and underwear of dead or displaced women.
What’s particularly cynical and unforgivable about what’s happening today is that real pain, real trauma and real anxiety are being hijacked to support the infliction of pain, suffering and terror on the Palestinians. Especially for those with personal connections to this history, they can for sure feel it in their bones, and this leaves them open to skillful manipulation. Those who desire to demonize the Palestinians and delegitimize their struggle for human rights and independence knew exactly what angle to use because it’s been used so successfully in the past. Think about how six million Black Americans were driven out of the south by Jim Crow and racial terrorism. Many Black men were lynched based on false rape allegations; that’s a simple fact. This happened in Namibia as well, where German colonists smeared those who resisted colonialism as rapists despite the fact that German colonists were in fact the ones preying on African women. It is impossible to discuss colonialism honestly without talking about sex, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and the way sex has been used as a weapon. We must also contend with the ways white womanhood, white women victimhood and white women’s tears are weaponized and used to further the goals of the global white supremacist system.
I believe that what is necessary is a revolution in the way we approach Holocaust education. No longer can the Holocaust be used as a tool of oppression to silence critics of genocide, racism, apartheid and ethnic cleansing. No longer can clannish exclusivity be invoked when people who are not Jewish attempt to investigate these matters. Most mainstream Holocaust organizations have shown that they are essentially front groups for political Zionism and nothing more. They are morally bankrupt, willing to whore themselves to the rich and powerful and well connected while ignoring and even legitimizing an ongoing crime against humanity in Gaza. We cannot allow Luka Rosenstiel and others to have their memories tarnished and abused by those who would use their tragedy to support creating more tragedies. It is simply beyond obscenity and it must not be allowed to continue.
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