The Answers Lie With My Ancestors (WARNING: Depections of Nazi Brutality)
We won't be going in there alone....I meant my ancestors. I will call into the past. Far back to the beginning of time and beg them to come and help me at the judgement. I will reach back and draw them into me and they must come. For at this moment I am the whole reason they have existed at all.
Joseph Cinque, Amistad
"Wow," Twilight said, lying on the bed. I was sitting next to her, holding my family's photo album in my lap. She was looking at the old black-and-white photograph on the first page. "This looks like some of the photos from Applejack's family reunions," she said. She looked at the large gathering of people in the picture, which had the year "1936" stenciled on it. It was a rural setting, with people wearing both traditional garbs and suits. There were 56 people standing for the picture in three rows. My pinky hovered around the suited, mustached-man sitting third from center, holding a pretty woman wearing a beautiful wedding gown.
"This is Grandpa Franz," I said wistfully. Twilight looked at the picture intensely.
"Take away the moustache, and you look like him a little bit," she said with a smile. I let out a warm smile at that, because dad would always tell me the same thing. I moved my finger with her picture of the well-dressed woman.
"This was Grandma Ruth."
"This was their marriage," Twilight inferred.
"Yep. Franz was one of the most eligible bachelors in town", I said with a smile.
"How," Twilight asked.
"Franz owned a glass factory."
"Glass," Twilight asked.
"Yep. Czech glass was, and still is, highly prized and valued," I said, gesturing to the vases near my window. "My grandfather made those vases after he reopened his factory in America."
"Really," she said, looking and the clear glass structure. She was mesmerized by the patterns, which in Equestria were hard to come buy. "They look really pretty."
"Yep," I said with some pride. "My Grandpa came from a comfortably middle class family in Karlovy Vary, a spa town in what is now the Czech Republic. His father, Saul, was a tobacco dealer, who gave young Franz a small loan to run his own glass shop. By the time he was 26, Franz owned one of the largest glass factories in Karlovy Vary."
"He must've been famous," Twilight said.
"Well, not famous per se," I said. "But he did have a strong local reputation. Which earned him the attention of another popular woman."
A well-dressed man walked down street with the confident aura of a nobleman. All around him, he heard praises and cheers from around him.
"Hello, Herr Direktor", said a man laying bricks.
"Hello," the man said, not breaking his stride.
"Hello, Herr Direktor", a woman said, selling melons from a small stand.
"Hello," he said again. He looked up with pride and his factory, Glasfabrik.
When he walked inside, his employees all stood up, as if a prince entered. They all offered him warm, genuine greetings. His office assistant, a 19 year old blond named Gunther, gave him an unusually enthusiastic greeting and a rapid handshake.
"Good day Herr Direktor", he said with an extremely wide green. "Lovely suit".
"Thank you Gunther," he said in a polite tone that masked his annoyance. He had long grown jaded by Gunther's brownnosing, but Gunther was at least someone who could match his kissing up with actual work. " He walked into his office, to find a familiar woman sitting in his chair.
"Fraulein Feinstein", he said in a playful tone. "Why are you in my chair?"
Ruth Feinstein looked almost like a Hollywood actress, with her luxurious clothing, and her brunette hair rolled up into a nape.
"Can't I visit an old friend," Ruth said, in an almost playful tone. "I also feel so lonely without you around."
"We had lunch yesterday," Franz said.
"I already miss you," she said in a voice that made it sound like she was mourning. "Please, please breakfast with me." Franz put on the face of a knight.
"Very well, I shall save you from your loneliness," he said in a brave tone. Ruth jumped from her chair, and Franz ran to her, embracing her and giving the lonely woman a lot of kisses.
"So your Grandma Ruth married your grandpa because he was rich," Twilight asked.
"Not exactly," I said with a wry grin. He pointed to the wedding picture, and placed his finger on the third man from the left. It was a middle age suited man with considerable weight on him. "Ruth's father, Mr. Solomon Feinstein, also owned a glass factory. He and Grandpa Franz were rivals in Karlovy Vary, and Mr. Feinstein felt upstaged by seeing someone so young gain ground. Grandpa Franz's with Ruth was subversive fun. But then Mr. Feinstein found out how his daughter was cavorting with his worst enemy."
"What happened," Twilight asked. "Did Mr. Feinstein forbid their relationship? Did he lock Ruth in a castle?"
"No," I said with a smile. "Mr. Feinstein decided that a marriage between his daughter and his business rival could mean his business and Franz's business could merge."
"Really," Twilight asked.
"Yep, Mr. Feinstein was a shrewd, hungry man," I said. "But it paid off". I pulled up another picture, showing Franz's factory in 1937. It was much bigger thanks to large scale investment from Mr. Feinstein and his banking friends.
"So by 1937, Mr. Feinstein and Franz owned one of the largest glass factories in Czechoslovakia," I narrated. "Also, my Aunt Esther was born," I said, pointing to a picture of Franz and Ruth holding their infant daughter. The little baby wore some fancy looking dress. "Overall, life was pretty good for my grandparents."
"And then came the Nazis," Twilight inferred. She scrunched her face. "I'm trying to remember....something involving...Mue-Nich."
"Mue-nik," I said, correcting her. "Karlovy Vary was located in the Sudetenland. While under Czechoslovakian rule, it was full of ethnic Germans. Hitler dreamed of uniting Germans under one large German super-state, and the Sudetenland was one of his targets." My faced turned sour. "However, instead of defending Czechoslovakia's sovereignty, Britain's Prime Minister, Mr. Chamberlain, didn't want to fight a world war, so he basically allowed the Germans to take Czechoslovakia without a fight." I narrowed my eyes. "At the Munich Agreement, Chamberlain declared he had brought 'peace in our time'." Twilight snorted at that as well.
"Of course, he hadn't. By the time the Second World War happened, the Nazis scooped up the rest of Czechoslovakia. They turned the Czech part into a German territory and made Slovakia into a puppet state."
"And Grandpa Franz's fortunes, well...decline."
Franz Klein solemnly watched at the Swastika was hoisted over the townhall with a sickening grumble in his stomach. He saw the numerous Hitler youth repainting the signs of their town, to show it was renamed Karlsbad. As he walked to work, he noticed others weren't greeting him as warmly as they used too.
When he got to the factory, he noticed his employees also didn't greet him joyfully.
"Jew! What the hell are you doing here?!"
Franz' heckles were raised when he realized who was shouting that.
Gunther walked out of Franz's office, wearing one of his suits.
"Gunther," Franz said with disbelief. "What is the meaning of this!" Gunther gave Franz a look of smug satisfaction.
"Your filthy race has robbing us blind," Gunther shouted. "I am taking back what belongs to the Volksdeutsche." Franz looked with shock. He heard the same Nazi nonsense before. Gunther said it, but in a way that had little conviction.
"Get out of my building," he said quietly but firmly,"and take off my-" he felt a blow to the back of his head. Dazed he fell to the ground. He then felt himself being lifted up by two sets of arms.
Two Nazi soldiers lifted him up by his neck and arm and brought him to face Gunther, whose grin was unbelievably arrogant.
"As of today, this factory has been taken from your filthy Jew hands, and returned to proper German control," Gunther gloated, holding up the form that showed it now belonged to him. Franz glared at him in impotent rage.
"Now," Gunther said. "Remove this rat from my building." The two Nazi thugs began dragging Franz out of the building.
"Traitor," Franz shouted. Gunther, rather then watch him and laugh, turned away from him, and returned to his office with disinterest, seeing Franz as little more then a pest that needed to be removed. His employees ignored him completely, being more interested in their work. Some, however, worked with sorrowful expressions on their faces.
Franz was brutally tossed out onto the street, landing hard on his right shoulder. He pulled himself up, feeling a deep emptiness in his stomach. He saw a mob had gathered near the street, jeering and hollering at something. He walked toward it, and what he saw made his throat go dry.
His father-in-law was walking down the road, barefoot and in only his pajamas, being shadowed by two Nazi soldiers. He was forced to wear a sign that said. "I'm a pig who forces himself on German girls." His face was one of deep shame. All around, a crowed was jeering at him.
"Jew!"
"Pig!"
Someone from the crowd, a young boy, threw a rotten tomato at Mr. Feinstein. His face turned red at that insult, and the fat man lunged toward the little snot who had thrown it at him. However, he was knocked to the ground by the two Nazi soldiers, and viciously beaten by them. All the while, the crowd cheered on this attack, even as Mr. Feinstein cried for help.
Franz meekly turned away, feeling tears roll down his eyes.
Twilight looked like she was about to cry.
"That's, that's-horrible," Twilight said in a sad tone. "I can't believe Gunther would do that."
"Well, Grandpa Franz told me he wasn't that surprised," I said with some disdain. "Gunther was always a simpering jerk. He would kiss up to the thing that offered him the most loot." I let out a frown. "In fact, Franz believed that Gunther might have been a Nazi spy."
"Really," Twilight asked.
"Nazis rewarded their followers. There was no other way Gunther could've taken over the factory unless he had been working for the Nazis from the start."
"And...no one bothered to help him or Mr. Feinstein," Twilight said with disbelief.
"Well," I said uneasily. "There were some Sudeten Germans who were pro-Nazi, believing the Czechoslovak government didn't care about them. There was some discrimination of Sudeten Germans, and so many really did want to become part of Germany. When Hitler wanted to takeover the place, they jumped at the chance. They really thought Mr. Feinstein and Franz were monsters because they were Jews. Some, like Gunther, were just opportunists who were seeking ill-gotten gains." I let out a sigh. "But most people were scared. They were afraid of the Nazis, who would punish anyone who showed even the slightest sympathy to Germans. A lot of the people who jeered at Mr. Feinstein were just people who were themselves afraid of the Nazis too."
Twilight looked downcast at that.
"Someone should've done something," Twilight said with frustration.
"Twilight-,"
"IT'S JUST SO UNFAIR," Twilight yelled. "All those people were-
"TWILIGHT," I yelled. Twilight yelled. "Let me ask you this. Let's say you have no special powers, no nice princesses who will come and rescue you, and you live in a country where your leaders will imprison, kill, and torture you and your family if you don't go along with their rules." Twilight paused. "Are you really telling me you would risk you and your family's lives, knowing that someone won't rescue you, and not having any magic that could help you?" Twilight looked down, unable to even look me in the eye, and whimpered a bit.
"I mean, there are people who do risk their lives, but a lot of other people have a lot to lose when they do," I said in a sympathetic tone. She raised her head toward me.
"Well, whatever happened to Mr. Feinstein," Twilight asked.
"Well, that was the last time Franz ever saw him," I said sadly. "He was sent to a concentration camp. Franz doesn't know the full story, but he most likely died." Twilight's eyes looked like they were about to water.
"And as for my grandparents, it only got worse...."
Franz drove his car, a 1934 Lincoln KB, along the dirt road to his home on the outskirts of town. He drove home in a daze. While he unconsciously followed the traffic laws, he didn't care about the world around him He didn't even care how unruly his clothes were. He didn't know what he was going to say to Ruth.
He was broken from his shock when he saw a military truck in front of his driveway. He stopped his car and pulled out.
Ruth came to him, and pulled him into a desperate hug. She was wearing a plain ordinary dress, and her beautiful face was soaked with tears.
"Ruth," Franz said with concern. "What's wrong?"
"The Germans are taking everything," she yelled. Franz looked as the soldiers taking everything and loading it onto the truck. Tables, silverware, paintings, pottery, everything they could carry.
One vicious looking soldier, most likely the commander, walked up to them. His head was shaved, and his eyes and smile were cold as ice.
"You Jews," the man bellowed. "Help us pack everything"
"No," Franz and Ruth said, trying to retain some dignity. The German commander, rather then being annoyed, looked even more amused. He snapped his fingers, and two soldiers, their faces stoic, held a crying infant Esther. The commander held a gun to their daughter's head.
"Stop, stop," Ruth shrieked. "We'll do it." Ruth and Franz tearfully went into the house, but were then stopped by the Commander.
"This is mine," the commander said, taking away Franz's watch. Franz and Ruth stood dumbly.
"MOVE", the commander yelled, and the two tearfully helped load their possessions into the German's truck. "And maybe I'll give you a slice of bread," the commander said with a laugh.
"They took everything from him," Twilight said with disbelief.
"Well, not everything," I said. "Franz kept an emergency bank account in Switzerland. He used the money he stashed away to bribe a diplomat into giving him, Ruth, and Esther visas to go to America. They reached New York in July 1939, with only their clothes on their back, and a couple of suitcases." I pulled out a photo that was taken of my grandparents and aunt when they reached America. They were standing on a dock with happy smiles on their faces.
"Was the rest of his family able to get out of Germany," Twilight asked me with some hope. A sighed and shook my head.
"Well, no," I grabbed the old wedding photo. "All but one of the people in this picture...my father never saw them again." Twilight again looked sad. "Grandpa Franz lost over 50 members of his family. Grandma Ruth lost 38". Twilight looked like she was about to cry. I rubbed her back again to sooth her.
"So...who was the one who survived," Twilight asked, holding back her tears. I put my finger on the one woman with long brunette hair and a plain white dress sitting in the back.
"My great aunt Rachel," I said. "Franz's younger sister."
"I didn't see her in any of the old photos your Grandpa had," Twilight said.
"Well," I said with a smile. "Aunt Rachel was a bit of a rebel. She had little respect for authority. She did what were considered male hobbies like driving cars. And she did something that my great-grandfather Saul never forgave."
"What," Twilight asked.
"She married a non-Jew. A gentile," I said with an odd smile.
"Really," Twilight asked with some confusion and anger. "If Jews were persecuted, then why didn't Saul no better?"
"Being a victim of discrimination doesn't mean you can't discriminate," I said. "Anyways, Rachel married an employee of Saul, a Slovak laborer named Boris Horvath in 1935. She was thrown out of the family, and Saul burned all of the photos."
"Wow," Twilight said. "Then why was she at Franz's wedding?"
"Franz wasn't that religious. He also loved Rachel a lot, and still talked to her when the rest of the family didn't".
"So what happened to Rachel," Twilight asked.
"Well as I said, Slovakia was turned into a puppet state," I continued. "By this time, Rachel and Boris were living in Bratislava. Boris was self-employed as a carpenter, earning an OK living, and Rachel was raising her first son, Adam."
"So did the same things happen to the...Jews in Slovakia."
"Yes, but it wasn't the Germans doing it," I said with some sadness. "It was the German's puppet leader, a fanatical anti-Semite named Tiso. He persecuted the Jews out of his own free will."
Two thugs broke into Boris' shop, much to his anger. Their uniforms revealed them to be Tiso's thugs, and they happily stole his tools.
"What are you German dogs doing," he bellowed. The two thugs bristled a bit at his insult, but kept their composure.
"You are a Jew lover. You fell in love with some bitch parasite," they sneered.
"So we are going to give it back to you," the other one yelled and knocked over his work table. Boris raised his fists. His muscled arms showed that he could easily break these two idiots in two, and he noticed the two didn't have-or were too stupid to be trusted with-guns.
"You don't scare me," Boris yelled. But to his horror, Rachel stepped in.
"What are you doing," Rachel yelled. The two men seized their vandalism and theft and soon grabbed her.
"So this is your little Jewish whore," one of the men said, trying to rip her clothes off.
"Stop," Boris yelled. Before he could do anything, the other man held a knife to her throat.
"Come near us, and the whore gets it," the man with the knife said. The other man creepily stroked Rachel's hair. She struggled and struggled against the other man's tight grip.
"Attack them Boris," she yelled. "These two are just cowards." Boris weighed his options. While he had a temper, he wasn't an idiot. Their knife could be faster then his fists.
"What do you want," Boris said with anger.
"To punish you for your insolence," the lunatic with the knife.
"Or we'll punish her," the man holding the struggling and yelling Rachel said with a lecherous. Eventually he was exasperated with her resistance.
"Shut up you whore," he said, slapping Rachel.
"Fine," Boris said, lowering his fists. "Do want you want." He closes his eyes, trying to block the pain as the two monsters beat him badly. Despite the pain, he only thought of Rachel and Adam.
"They beat Boris so bad he lost an eye," I said with a frown. Twilight looked horrified. "Like I said Twilight. A lot of people have no good options in life. Many people have to choose the best out of a thousand bad options." I paused. "Of course, the Nazis eventually gave the Jews...no options." Twilight's eyes widened at my words.
"You mean...Rachel and her family were sent to..." Twilight stammered a bit, unable to say the words.
"Death camps," I said. Twilight blanched.
"Not initially. When the deportations started in 1942, the Germans claimed that Jews were being 'resettled in the East'." I let out a small smile. "But Aunt Rachel, rebellious and hateful toward Tiso, learned right away not to trust the Nazis."
"So what did she do," Twilight asked.
"Boris' friend, Andrez Varga was a member of the Slovak resistance," I said.
"I thought you said most people didn't resist," Twilight said.
"The average person didn't, but there were people who did," I said proudly. "Andrez had no children or wife, so he had nothing really to lose. With his help, Boris, Rachel, and Adam were smuggled out of Bratislava, just before the deportations began."
"Where did they go," Twilight asked.
"They lived for a couple of years in a remote village, working as peasants under false names," I said. "Varga's friend, Alexander Nagy, owned a farm and was a childless farmer. They worked unforgiving land 12 hours a day, eating little but bread and butter and some beef."
"That doesn't sound fun," Twilight said.
"Compared to what was happening in the death camps, it was paradise," I said.
"I guess," Twilight admitted.
"For a while, Tiso stopped the deportation of Jews. Tiso considered himself to be a pious Christian," I said. "So when Christian authorities complained, he stopped them." My face twisted into a small scowl. "But only after he sent tens of thousands of Jews to their doom. Then a year before the war ended," I said narrowing my eyes and clenching my fist.
It was evening. The family of three slept on the hard wooden floor in a small room after a brutal day pulling weeds, the home lit by candles. No matter how many times they slept on it, it still wasn't comfortable.
A knock at the door woke them up. Boris tiredly rose, but Alexander stopped him, saying he would get it. He opened the door, to the sight of SS soldiers and their vicious guard dogs.
The SS rushed in, and knocked Alexander to the ground, who fell with a yell. Boris, Rachel and Adam woke up to the yell, and an SS officer burst in.
"Here are the vermin," the man shouted. Adam, unaware of what happened, yawned.
"Mommy," Adam said tiredly. "What's happening." The SS heard the child, and seized him by his hair, who started crying.
Before Rachel and Boris could even do anything, two other SS soldiers burst, grabbing the couple separately, and parading them out onto the lawn in front of the farmhouse.
Outside, Alexander, Boris, and Rachel saw a sight that infuriated them: the old peasant woman, Natalia, grinning at them with her thin face.
"There are the traitors," she practically cackled, pointing to the two men. "And their Jewish whore." Adam's loud cries interrupted them. The SS man holding the boy held a gun to his head.
"I am giving you to the count of three to shut up," the SS man with a voice as cold as ice. "One..." Rachel and Boris began crying and begging their son to stop, while Alexander looked broken. "Two..." the boy still cried, while Natalia looked on with joy. "Three..."
I stopped speaking, unable to talk about it.
"That soldier didn't kill a...a..colt for crying, did he" Twilight asked desperately. I didn't say anything, but my silence said anything more then words. Twilight understood, and looked like she was about to cry. I lowered my head, and didn't notice Twilight approaching me.
To my surprise, I felt warm forelegs and warm, feathery wings surrounding me. I looked up and saw Twilight was giving me a hug. Without realizing it, I began crying a bit too.
"Jake, I'm so sorry," Twilight said in a soothing voice. "Talking about this must be hard for you."
"It was even harder for Aunt Rachel and Grandpa Franz to talk about," I said, tears pouring down my eyes.
"But why are you telling me this," Twilight said, releasing me.
"Because you deserve to know how rotten humans get," Jake said. "It is only fair for you to know if you want Equestria and Earth to have relations." I took deep breaths to get control of myself.
"So yeah," I said. "They shot Adam. Alexander, Rachel, and Boris, they got put on one of the last trains to Auschwitz."
"What happened to them?"
"Alexander, I don't know," I said. "He was most likely sent to Auschwitz, where he died. Boris and Rachel both got sent there. You arrived at a platform, where German officers selected you. If you were young, old, and/or infirm, they send you right to the gas chambers. If you were fit for work, they took your clothes, your hair, any gold fillings on your teeth, and put you to work in brutal conditions. Some people had only a few bowls of soup for a week. You got lucky if they sometimes gave you jam. But even following the rules didn't save you. Some guards would torture you if they felt like it."
"Jew," the shrill woman yelled at the being once known as Rachel, who put down a box of nails she was carrying. Her hair had been shaved off. She was forced to wear nothing but a filthy stripped uniform. Her face looked utterly broken, and her body so thin, those who looked could see ribs through her uniform. She looked at her tattoo on her arm which read "A12679".
Irma Grese looked at A12679 like she was an amusing play toy. Outwardly, Irma's face made her seem like an innocent woman. Her eyes and smile revealed something else.
"Come with me," Grese said, beckoning A12679. A12679 followed her to some room, which was totally dirty and covered with boxes and junk.
"Clean up this room, Jew in less then ten seconds," she said. "Or else." A12679 cleaned like a robot, even knowing that the room was too big to clean in such little time, but she tried anyways.
"You lazy shit," Grese yelled after ten seconds passed, although she seemed happy. She knocked A12679 to the ground, kicking her and beating her. Despite the pain, A12679 let out nothing more then a small moan.
"Now do 100 pushups, or die," Grese said. A12679 obeyed.
"How could somepony live through something so horrible," Twilight said, her face filled with horror.
"I don't know," I said, shaking my head a bit. "She did."
"What happened to Boris," I asked.
"According to one witness," I said. "A week before the camps were liberated, Boris collapsed from exhaustion. A Nazi officer immediately walked up to him and injected him with gasoline. It killed him instantly." Twilight again looked shaken.
"He...he...almost made it," Twilight said sadly. "He was so close."
"Sometimes in life, you can lose badly," I said simply.
"So how did Rachel survive," Twilight said.
"Are you sure you want me to tell you," I warned. "It is not going to be pretty." Twilight nodded her head.
"Well, in the last days of the war, the Nazis tried to hide their crimes," I said. "So when they closed Auschwitz, they tried their best to murder any remaining survivors. Some were killed, others were taken into Germany itself to other concentration camps. Great Aunt Rachel, however, hid in the most morbid way possible".
A12679-no, Rachel hid under a tank, hoping the Nazi pigs would avoid her. But thanks to her dogs, she knew that to be an impossibility. She looked around, trying to find someway to hide. She saw a pile of dirt and a shovel nearby. With resignation, she walked over to it, and began stripping off her clothes.
The pair of Nazi guards walked by half-buried corpse.
"Lets get rid of this trash," he said in a panic.
"No time," the other said. Had the two men had better ears, they would've heard the corpse breathing heavily.
"So she played dead for two days straight while hiding under dirt without even falling asleep," Twilight asked.
"Yep," I said. I was stunned that Twilight looked more intrigued then shocked. "You don't seem disturbed."
"I mean, that sounds incredible," Twilight said with a smile. "She was able to maintain an image of death for so long."
"Yes," I said. "After that, the Soviets found her with other survivors. A few months later, she was sent to a Displaced Person camp." In my photo album, I pointed to a picture of her with the year 1946 written on it in pencil. While Rachel became healthy and fit, her face in the photo showed the tiredness of a woman 50 years older.
"Jake, I appreciate you telling me your family history," Twilight said. "But, I don't know how it is supposed to convince me that humans and ponies should meet."
"Well, I'm going to show you why," I said. I turned to another page, which showed two pictures. It showed my grandparents playing with two children: one was a 7 year old girl, the other was a 3 year old boy, with the year "1943" written in pencil. The other showed Great Aunt Rachel in a wedding dress and a resplendent smile. standing next to her was a tall, fit American soldier with a goofy smile on his otherwise serious face. The year "1947" was written in pencil.
"Aww," Twilight said, looking at the babies. "Who are they?"
"That's my aunt Esther," I said, pointing to the girl. "That's my father, Saul Jr." She glanced at the wedding photo with a smile. "That's Great Aunt Rachel," Twilight asked with joy. I nodded my head. "Who did she marry?"
"An American soldier named Ross Tanner. Tell me Twilight," I asked. "How does she look?"
"She looks so...happy," Twilight said. She then looked at me with sad eyes. "How could she look so happy, after everything she went through?"
"Because Rachel was a strong woman," I said simply said. I then rolled past pages and pages of the lives of my grandparents and great-uncle. They showed happy memories of family, success, and milestones. Vacations, birthdays, parties, holidays. Each one made Twilight smile a little more.
I then pointed to a photo that was labeled 1993. It showed dozens of family and friends dancing into a circle, while in the center was some hapless kid who looked alarmed at being lifted into a high chair.
"Who is this," I said, pointing at the kid. Twilight looked, at gave a small snicker.
"That's you," she said. "You look like you saw a monster," she said chuckling. "Was this your... Bar Mitzvah?"
"Yeah," I said, giving her a sheepish smile. "Who else do you see."
"There's your dad lifting you up," she said. "There's Great Aunt Rachel and Grandpa Franz," she said.
"And," I said.
"Your mom, Laura, your cousins, your sisters, your friends," I then pulled out Franz's wedding photo, and silently asked Twilight to compare the two.
"So your saying," Twilight said. "That even though Franz and Rachel lost everything and were betrayed, they were able to rebuild their lives and start new families and make new friends."
"Yes," I said, giving Twilight a proud smile. "It is true that human beings can do horrible things for terrible reasons. It is true they can cause suffering to each other." I paused. "But human beings can also survive the most horrific odds and rebuild."
"Jews in particular are a people who have suffered more hardship and terror then any other people, but despite it, they were able to rebuild and prosper". I said. "Yes, Hitler managed to decimate entire families and communities. But his dream of a Jew-free world never came to pass." I said with a smile. "Despite the horrors he and his fellow cretins inflicted, the Jewish people outlasted him. The survivors of his madness, like my ancestors, went on to build new lives and start new families in America, in Israel, and in other places. Despite the danger, there were people who were brave enough, like Alexander, to shelter my Great Aunt Rachel." I gave her a solemn look.
"Twilight, you aren't wrong to think that one day, some evil dictator might rise up and try to get rid of ponies. But I am confident that if the Jewish people could survive these hardships, the ponies of Equestria could survive what ever is thrown at them." Twilight let out a small smile, and galloped over to give me another great hug.
"Thank you Jake," she said with a tender smile. She then released me, her muzzle twisted into a frown. "But still, we need to prepare if some human tries to do anything evil, or some evil ponies get their hooves on human weapons."
"I'm sure you can talk about it with the President the next time you too meet," I said with a smile. "Besides, I might have some ideas."
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No need for the warning when you have Auschwitz Birkenau main entrance as the fiction front picture. But thanks anyway
This chapter feels like the story is going to end soon please don't let that happen
It a good thing that Nazi Germany got curb stomped by the US and USSR mainly
That is a very well written story so far. I really enjoy it, its touching, it has the right approach, the main character is objective even though his relation to WW2 is very subjective and emotional. It also shows a different view, forgiving, understanding, and so on and so on.
It would be nice if you also mentioned other groups who were on Hitler's to do list. Homosexuals, the Polish, the Russians, the communists (and every other person who believed in some variant of marxism) cripples, mentally sick, Roma\Romany (Gypsies) Catholics, Atheists, etc.
I’m sorry if it will sound harsh and disrespectful, but it's not all about the Jews. Imagine there being a alternative world where not the Jews but some other ethnic group was on Hitler's priority. They would get sent to Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Dachau and other camps to be annihilated, among them Jews. However there would be very little mention of them in stories like this one, that they were also getting mass murdered. It wouldn't feel nice would it?
Personally I don't care (even if it looks like I do) the story is great as it is. I just wanted to leave a word of advice.
Keep on writting! Have a good day!
wait until she hears about "holodomor" genocide. "sigh" poor ukrainians.
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*DEAFINING FREEDOM!*
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i.redd.it/tn5obt6s2c811.png
*Laughs in communism*
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Always fun when people underestimate the importance of one country providing absolute intelligence and aerial superiority for the entire war, isn't it?
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Thank you.
Look.
I've been previously accused in the comments section of having an "anti-Christian" bias (which is an odd thing to hear on a website about magic ponies), or that have been selective in my exploration of atrocities, or that I've been biased in focus on the Holocaust.
I want to say now that this was NOT my intention. I was not trying to gloss over things like the persecution of the Poles. I was not trying to downplay the suffering Ukrainians and Russians endured.
The main human character is descended from Jewish refugees, and the nephew of someone who survived the death camps. So, of course, his focus will be on the thing that nearly prevented him from being born.
Like all people, we have our bias. My hope, again, was that I was creating a character who was relatable, and whose attributes go beyond merely being the "human being who finds ponies." Bias is a natural thing.
I was not trying to exclude, merely create a personal background that, though fictional, is reflective of the time period. And which can help raise our pony protagonist's view of humanity.
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I see World War II like this:
England provided the hope. (Winston Churchill alone helped maintain resistance against the Nazis in 1940 when many in the British government wanted peace)
The USSR provided the bodies. (27 million Soviets died during the war)
The US provided the goods (Lend-Lease was critical for England and China, while it was also vital for the Soviet Union)
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I believe the reason why Christianity is often talked about when it comes to religion is because not only can people make fun of it without much issue, but people in the West aren’t familiar with Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Those three religions aren’t prevalent in the Western World and are thus not talked about because people know little to nothing about them. Last time people try to joke about Islam it didn’t end well because unlike in the West, religion is taken seriously and not like some joke.
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it was less of a genocide and more of a symptom of bad economic policies and the ruthlessness of Stalin in his quest for industrialization. also collective farms
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A lot of nations do recognize it as genocide, as their are some signs that he did everything he could to help starve Ukrainians.
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its recognized as a genocide because the majority of farms were in the ukraine so when the farmers had a famine it was worst in the ukraine because ukraine had the most farms
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There is absolutely no problem with that from my side, I understand your goal and the concept of this story, I really like it. I just wanted to leave something as a advice merely because I had experience with triggered people.
As I wrote earlier, I am personally good with what you wrote, its great. I would myself be a giant fucking hypocrite, if I had something against the way the story goes and the idea of it. Since I myself had ideas for stories in which there was a guy or woman with polish background so that I could do something similar with the Warsaw Uprising or the Katyn Massacre as you do with the Holocaust in this story.
I’m sorry If what I said made you frustrated, getting comments from people constantly with complaints is annoying. Especially in a topic like this.
Keep up the great work, the story shows one way to look at it. Others could have wrote it differently, you did it your way and as far as it goes you’re doing it great. I don’t hold any venom in me, just wanted to give a advice to avoid unnecessary turmoil. (People who might get upset)
I hope the story will evolve, that Twilight will visit Auschwitz, meet some of the Righteous among the Nations or perhaps get to know the term of Holohoax to strengthen her argument about humanity’s stupidity.
Keep up the great work, have a nice day!
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Wow, this is probably one of the only Alondro comments without dislikes. What madness has this world come to
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I think my subconscious expecting this, seeing as the number 50 was floating in my mind as I wrote that line.
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Once in a while, yes, Alondro does take off that cover of insanity to make a serious point. It doesn't happen often, though.
More common is when he does make a good point, but it's overshadowed by crazy ramblings and inimical word use in the same comment.
Other times, he's just plain loco.
Sympathy to Jews?
More reasons not to mess with them.
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I really don't think we can overestimate how important the air and sea superiority provided by England too, never mind breaking all the german codes.
Whelp, another chapter, another plethora of philosophical debates between otherwise lighthearted readers. Now I feel depressed, hopeful and even more curious about the future of the story.
Also, border control? I mean, that’d be a lot easier to do if you just had a small gateway portal between the two worlds. No need for a wall.
Surely you ponies can survive having 30% of you killed off? You're still not selling this.
A more logical argument (and Twilight seems like the kind of pony for whom a logical argument might be the right approach) seems to me to be that humans have barely ever gone into a foreign land they don't have an ancient history with, to kill the people there. It's generally locals who get the mass murder treatment.
The main exception I can think of is Belgium and the Congo, and that can be pinned squarely on the king; when the people found out, it was stopped immediately. Native Americans are kind of a second but they kind of ended up under 'locals' after a while. Either way, outright colonialism is severely out of fashion with no sign of its coming back.
As horrible as it is, Twilight, this is something one really needs to consider.
I like to think of this quote, Twilight, and I think that it's something that you would like.
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it—always.” —Mahatma Gandhi
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And those collective farms *defiantly* screwed up because of gross incompetence that caused 10 million Ukrainians to starve, and that *was not* on purpose by Stalin to weaken Ukrain so that it couldn't even hope to fight for independence.
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The constructs we make for themselves are the bedrocks of entire civilizations. These edifices, that started their existence to ensure our collective survival, are how we even make our ways through the world to begin with; that's as profound a measure as the digits upon your limbs. You should not belittle it for being "made" because it is a multi-generational endeavor to create a successful civilization, and yet it can all be torn down within the time of just one generation.
While the Family history is emotional i can't really see Twilight changing her mind about the whole thing, just because of "hitlers system failed to kill them all".
Although i imagine a limited contact scenario and information exchange to learn from each others pasts.
And thus a preventive law was created in Equestria outlaw and ban any form of organized religion.
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No, it was because the government was confiscating all the grain to feed the industrial workers, and the collective farms were forced upon the people who didn't like them nor really tried to farm as no matter what they did it would all be confiscated anyway.
It already did fight for independence and it failed, twice. And even after the holodomor the ukraine far-right guerilla warfare group continued to exist and if anything grew because of the famine.
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UK provided B L O C K A D E EVERYTHING. As was their time-honored tradition, really. German economy sucked, and Europe's conquest made it worse, so starving them out (primarily of oil) proved just as effective as throwing bodies at them.
And US provided, yeah, industrial superiority. I think they were the only nation really capable of world war. It payed very well to have time and knowledge to gear up in relative peace and quiet (and favourable geography, like massive oil reserves within easy reach), and they entered the war having overall superior equipment to anyone else. Sherman hull, able to be transported anywhere in the world and do consistently well once it arrived. A self-loading rifle that's baseline for the army, compared to bolt-actions for everyone else. Complete motorization. Peerless logistics system. And so on. With that and the fact the the whole world owed them afterwards, well it's no wonder they got to where they are today.
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Or as I and a number of other people sum up what won the Allies WWII:
British Intelligence
Russian Blood
American Steel
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Mmm, might be you need to take a brief 20th century history course. Lots of wonderful and curious things you're gonna discover there. Unless, of course, you're thinking in percentages, and not absolute numbers, but in that case your argument takes a truly interesting turn.
I wonder when do you think Christianity started, because it can actually be traced back all the way to 0 AD or beyond. And most of that time it was THE european religion, a second government when the clergy wanted to. And people were even happier doing all sorts of fun things onto their neightbours, because, well, God forgives all, you just need to repent (or, better yet, purchase an indulgence :3)
The only thing they really lack is the ability to project MAD parity with humanity. You might call it 'responsibility' and 'drive', I suppose. Unless they can access human dream realm, in which case, no, they aren't lacking anything :3
Here's a funny thing you might not realise. Every nation has or had early on in their existence a... call it mythological definition of what they are as a nation (not a state or land, dependancy of some royal family, but as a nation, people standing on their own). Some do even now, for example, I'm Ukrainian, I know what I've been taught in school in the 90ies and 2000's. There's a joke going about it, that the monkey came from the Ukrainian. But anyway. What feelgood things Germans deluded themselves with is almost irrelevant because everyone else did it as well. Them proceeding to fight a hopeless war against the world has little to do with it, it's a combination of purely practical factors. Desperation after Versailles treaty, economic failure of government, financial elites deciding to back an extremist who promised them quick fixes, and so on. It could be anyone. History decided it had to be them.
The 'religion leading to morality' bit has been beaten to death (ha!) in this topic already, I'm not touching it.
Such a shame her conversation partner isn't a good Christian socialist philosopher, he'd tell her off ;)
Ohoho yes, humanity much prefers to attribute the BAD things to a single person. It was Hitler, all Hitler, there was no one alive in Germany at the time. Just Hitler. And SS. It was Churchill. It was Stalin. It was... The list goes on, and on, and on.
Actually, the only difference with the good things is, they usually have a name AND faceless 'people' attached to it. After all, it's a free feelgood thing, even a century later you can read about it and feel national pride. In the end, humans are so miniscule and insignificant in the face of history, there's no point in trying to play it any other way.
Perhaps one of the main appeal of ponies is, they're very much NOT like that.
Read this after being redirected from a Facebook Page, My Little pony friendship Is Philosophical." The question was, "Are humans Evil?"
So first of all I recently found out some of my own family survived the Jewish Holocaust in WW2, and it was surprising to hear about my own family members, however I always knew this was a dark chapter in human history and the crimes committed were monstrous. Yes it happened, and some Jewish people still hold onto feelings of what I would call hatred at this event. Holding onto hatred will not bring about healing, or forgiveness. Not forgetting what was done is different then not forgiving. there are still people in Germany who hold onto the Nazi beliefs, and there are people in the United States that do as well.
It's an interesting story this fan fiction because in The Land of Equestria there's no story similar, except possibly King Sombra. He enslaves the population to do his work, and he is portrayed as being quite evil. The fact that some stories mirror and are similar to human behavior in the G4 series is partially what I think makes My Little Pony friendship Is Magic such a great series, and i don't think the writers would touch on such a dark subject as this in detail. I am impressed to see this story and I think it is a good story to tell.
To answer the question, " Are Humans Evil" I'm going to quote the Holy Bible.
Genesis 8:21 New International Version (NIV)
21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
Luke 18:19 NIV
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone.
In my own lifetime I once believed everyone was good, and had the potential to be good. Over time I myself have discovered that people seem to do what is in their own best interest, and not really consider those around them. I do believe that most people have the potential to do good, but not all people care to do so. Some don't seem to care about anyone but themselves at all, and they really don't care who gets hurt, or what gets damaged along the way.
Discrimination happens all the time in so many different ways, racism, classisim,sexism, etc. We being human don't always care to see it. It can be as simple as thinking,"This person is LGTBQ, they have no place in my life." Or, " I hate those stupid Christian sheeple that blindly following an imaginary God." Or as in this story, the Jews who were inferior to all the Nazis who believed they are the "Master Race," so they were carted off for annihilation, like garbage.
So In my opinion I see a creator who made everything there is, made the planets, put animals and man on earth, and gave man freewill to do as he pleases, and yest set simple boundaries for them to follow. At some point there may be a creator who judges everything in creation, most likely mankind, on an individual personal basis. Asking us something like," What did you do with your time there that I gave you? Did you love each other, did you feed the hungry, did you help those less fortunate then yourself?" I would think if I was Adolf Hitler. I would cringe at that question, because how can you lie to a God who knows your heart, and the reasons you did the things you did in life?
Also no, I'm not perfect, I struggle with all kinds of feelings, emotions, ideas that seem right to me, but may actually turn out to be not good for everyone. I sometimes judge people without knowing who they are, what their story is, and sometimes I feel badly because I know better at this point, but yet I sometimes let my emotions get the better of me. I'm learning as you hopefully are too. One thing that helps me is this,
" Matthew 22:34-40
Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Perhaps if mankind treated each other with love and respect, we could solve some problems, instead of making new ones? Like some of the examples our cartoon ponies try to show us in this great cartoon?
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You really need to open your eyes after getting your head out of the dirt if you think the things people do have gotten less cruel with technology advancing considering wars are still happening and all the crap going on in China, north Korea hell even America.
A person is intelligent and a logical thinker, people are panicky dangerous wild animals.- Agent K men in black
Yes