The title phrase was found in a most wonderful book written by Alice Hoffman, entitled When We Flew Away, subtitled A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary. Hoffman climbed into Anne's mind, her thinking, her feelings, her behavior and her discoveries. The reader is there, on the page, in every letter and cannot get up and away, even if one would want to. This presentation of Anne is even more poignant as we watch the development of what would have been a most beautiful, productive, creative contributing citizen of the world, all the time knowing what would happen. The relationships with her sister, knowing that sisters are more than friends, along with a deeper more mature understanding of and relationship with her parents, especially her mother, and the depth of her grief at the loss of her champion, her grandmother. What are the "last things" of the year? It is the loss of innocence of Anne along with the loss of innocence and state of denial of reality of the Jewish community. Furthermore, it was the loss of the parent as the all-powerful protector of family, as both mother and father were helpless against the juggernaut of the Nazis, its strength, and ability to co-opt people of the conquered nations. It is a loss of the time of childhood, a robbery of discovery of a world and finding one's place in it. Instead of that time everything had to be rushed for time was not their friend. It certainly was not on their side.
As the novel unfolds one can see the unstated parallel to our times. More last things. The last time a Jew can feel safe. The last time one can walk with blinders on thinking that people accept us. The last time we can actually believe we have found a home. The last time we can trust our friends. The last time we can believe in the certainty of anything and everything. The last time we have any control over our own lives. The last time we can at least try to craft our own life and its ending. The last time we will be recognized as a human being, treated as such rather than kicked to the curb and burned as trash. And worse.
"We do not create our own destiny. We participate in its unfolding" (David Richo)
Yes and no. While one individual can be seemingly powerless before the forces of fate and the inevitabilities of that fate, one individual and another and another and another ...and on and on. we can have some influence upon the unfolding of life around us. We can possibly influence smaller segments of fate, though not necessarily the larger picture, as that picture. is too overwhelming, certainly for a small group.
That was this situation for Anne, her family. and all of the Jews in Netherlands, in fact, all the Jews of the conquered territories. Individual incremental decisions made by the individuals led them to this point and the amalgamation of those decisions could have changed or influenced at least part of their fates. So yes. we participate in the unfolding, often too weak to change it universally, but with an input of our own, apparent inevitable destiny can be affected and changed to varying degrees. If we abandon that belief, we abandon hope.
Hope is what Anne refused to concede as a loss, and in fact, embraced any and all signs of hope, represented by the magpie who follows her, even as she combats the growing numbers of black moths in her life. Those black moths ever increasing in number, chew away at the fabric of her life and the fabric of all children of the time. She is fierce in striving to live the normal life of a bright and intuitive child, even as we, the readers, stand outside her words, her life, as we shout to her of an upcoming, unable to be stopped or denied force. We shout, we cry, as we stand by powerless to change the past, weeping for the doomed children.
Some of those tears are unfortunately to be shared with our present and a possible future. Shakespeare tells us in Macbeth that “... oftentimes to win us to our harm, The instruments of darkness tell us truths." It is now upon us to feel the weight of the burden. Will we stand by silently acquiescent in the inevitability of a return of the horror. of the years of the Holocaust. Or do we strive to change it? To forestall it? In fact, to deny it. Do we, can we “rage against the dying of the light" and in fact change a purported ultimate destiny? Will we stand head high, shoulders back, accept the lessons of history, and heed the advice of RBG? “Fight for the things you care about but do it in a way that will lead others to join you”.
Unfortunately, humanity does not have a great record in combating Evil. We deny its existence. We wake up too late down the road and resist the truth laid out before us. In doing so we actually aid the forces of Evil and seal our own destiny. We must change. We must not give up, for the lives of present day and future kids, every Anne, Margot, Peter, 'Hello', calls out to us. Every child born or as yet unborn deserves a life. One with friendly magpies and black moths nowhere to be found. Every parent deserves to live in a world where they are the successful protectors of their children.
It is not impossible, though extremely difficult. That little bird of hope escaped from Pandoras's box of woes and ills and remains with us. She remains in flight, and we must strive to fly with her, even, especially, in the face of the most daunting of situations. As powerful as fate is, humanity can craft another fate. A better one. We must feel that knowledge in our bones and act upon it. It will not be easy. but is the only way forward. Why was all this to happen? Could it not have been prevented? The answer, unfortunately, is not a sure thing. It is a possible maybe.
To enable hope means we must acknowledge the presence and reality of Evil. We must learn from our children who see first the black moths so eager to chew up the fabric of life. W.H. Auden tells us "Evil is unspectacular and always human and shares our bed and eats at our table.” No one person walks around with a capital E on a shirt. Evil hides in public and does not ring huge bells to forewarn. In fact, if we hear the tolling of those bells, it is way late. Perhaps too late. Evil can disguise itself and we must be able to see through those disguises no matter how beautiful and tempting they appear.
We must believe we can make a difference and can change the destiny assigned to us and to others, though only via massive effort. See the truth and act accordingly and swiftly. Undertake to change that which appears to be etched in stone. Every fate, every preordained destiny of an individual that we can change for the better is a victory, albeit it with difficulty. Think how many Annes we could have saved. How many future children would have been born? Perhaps to save this world from its own folly. If only. if only.
"Anne perished at the age of fifteen in Bergen Belsen concentration camp."
No. More.
Alice Hoffman closes with the following passage. taken from her Afterword. The very last words echo in my head for they were among the last words spoken by my Yitzy. It is a request. made by people who wish to be remembered. and should not have to be made by a child. Think how many children we could have saved if we had spent the money on research, on fixing this world, rather than by destroying it with weapons of war and playing deadly games of chicken between posturing nations and people of over inflated egos.
“Anne was special... a brilliant writer and a lively mind, but she was also ordinary. In a way that is precisely what makes her so special to us. She was the girl we all are, lovable and exasperating and smart. She was a dreamer and a realist, but more than anything, she was a girl who wanted a future. That is something she deserved and when we remember her and the fate of her people, we are honoring not only Anne, but all who were lost during the war. Remember us, the diary tells us in every single line, which is why it should be required reading for every child."
Remember us.
Remember me
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