Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
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IN SLOW MOTION, IF YOU MISSED IT THE FIRST TIME… THAT IMPROBABLE ANNE FRANK/CHRIS ROCK SEGUE IN FULL
The death of Miep Gies, the Dutch woman who helped Anne Frank’s family hide from the Nazis, has depressed me again. Not that she has died, although obviously that is very sad. But rather that her death is such a noteworthy occasion. In 1940, a cabal of psychopaths seized control of her country, arbitrarily decreed 10% of the civilians therein enemies of the state and rapidly begin the process of herding them up and slaughtering them like cattle. Why are those who stuck their necks out to defend their friends and neighbours the ones who are considered remarkable? Why aren’t those who stood by and did nothing while their friends and neighbours were murdered the objects of our curiosity and fascination? However much we might prefer to ignore it, the evil of the Nazis, and the immense suffering of the Jews, were only sideshows to the biggest story of the Holocaust, which was that the vast majority of Europeans stood by and did nothing while six million Jews were killed?
Miep Gies never bragged about her role in helping the Franks, saying merely that she did what any other person would do. Is there any reason we should see this as modesty on her part? In a strange way, I’m reminded of that infamous Chris Rock routine (2min 10sec) in which he criticises black people who claim credit for doing merely what they’re supposed to do. Miep Gies was doing merely what she was supposed to do. As Chris Rock would put it, “We’re supposed to do that, you dumb motherfuckers.”
January 13th, 2010 at 11:22 am
I think its a bit of a big deal in the press now because she was the last of the Amsterdammers that helped the Franks. She is also remarkable in that not many ordinary people who defied the Nazis survived to tell the tale.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:30 am
I get that, I just think its depressing that the people who helped were the remarkable ones. I’d prefer to think that was the least anyone should have done.
January 13th, 2010 at 12:32 pm
http://www.joodsmonument.nl/?lang=en
click anywhere
thats holland alone
the scale is hard to get your head around
January 13th, 2010 at 2:01 pm
She did, as Chris Rock phrased it, what she was supposed to do, but under laws and circumstances that brought with it the threat of death. Hence the ordinary becomes extraordinary.
(According to wiki) She refused to join the Nazis under threat of deportation, she helped hide the Franks and taught them Dutch. After their capture she attempted a bribe for their release and she was the one who discovered and kept the diary that had such a profound affect.
She chose to do what was right over what was easy, and we’re not talking about just handing in a lost wallet of money or volunteering time to charity.
January 13th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Not to make light but did she seriously teach them Dutch? Cos thats reputedly a very difficult language to learn!
January 13th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Dunno about that Andy… Conal’s been there six years and he already knows how to order coffee.
January 13th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
coffee… coffee… (!)
shmoke and a pancake?
January 16th, 2010 at 5:10 am
end of the day
gaza
January 16th, 2010 at 8:04 am
A tenner says Conal contacts me within the next 24 hours and asks me to remove that comment. Call it a hunch.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:33 pm
ill take that bet
January 16th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
Between that and your Facebook status well…. it must have been a good night.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:46 pm
a twenty says that after reading your post his pride gets in the way and you don’t hear a word from him.
January 16th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
shiiiiiiiit. i think i owe you a twenty…
January 16th, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Fifty says he’s lying face down on the floor of his kitchen sobbing
January 16th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
double or nothing this moment has been a critical turning point in his life and we never hear from him again. only his gentle coos of ‘eoin, please! please! take down my post!’ will resonate for eternity.
current headline in Australian news right now…
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/entertainment/1000506/man-has-sunglasses-tattooed-on-face
whoa. hardcore.
January 16th, 2010 at 4:21 pm
Or or or… He fakes his own death, grows a moustache and returns as his own long lost cousin.
Slow news day in Oz, eh?
January 16th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
*they’re onto me*
January 16th, 2010 at 7:05 pm
So are you gonna explain yourself? I spent most of the Man U / Burnley match trying to think of Guy Incognito-esque pseudenyms you could use after your fake death…
Duncan Tryper