The “Katastrophe”

How do you avenge a certain murder, a given genocide, or a so-called holocaust on such a grand scale that to name the slaughtered, just two seconds each, would take almost 139 days with no breaks or intermissions during those long hours, let alone pity or shame? Do you begin by asking why before carrying out the retribution, or do you retaliate and ask the question after enough people are eliminated to satisfy your a-head-for-a-head brand of justice? Do you also take vengeance for all those that could have been born? Do the children pay for the crimes committed by the adults, or do you strike with the same measure and eradicate everyone fitting the profile? Do you kill them all in the same way, or do you devise more efficient methods of doing away with them? Do you show some mercy and spare exceptional ones, or do you lacerate every one of them until you face their last Mohican? Do you mark them to facilitate their identification? Do you break them up according to age, sex and what not? Do you take possession of all their assets, including those that define their humanity? Do you use selected ones for scientific experiments? Do you tell them they are going to die, or do you surprise them with skillful deception? Do you turn their lifeless bodies into ashes? Do you try to erase any other sign of their existence?

Instead, do you swallow your sour saliva and struggle to forgive them? Do you forgive but not forget? But who are you to forgive? Never forgive to never forget! Always remember! Think of the long hours that it took you to name them all: individuals, whole families, entire congregations, whose sole crime was that of belonging, willingly or unwillingly, to a singular system of belief or disbelief, to a long tradition of free thinkers, to a long line of discoverers, innovators, visionaries, reformers, and trendsetters. Think of their contributions to humanity, in every field, in every inhabited or colonised continent! Think of all the genius, talent, skill, ability, aptitude, flair, and knack that were lost! Think of all the tears! Think of all the tears! Think of all the hair! Think of all the laughter forever silenced! Think of all the love, loving, longing, then smouldering to satisfy wanton hatred, the carrying of a bad idea from bloodying generation to bloodying generation, the belief that all Germans, horned and hoofed devil worshippers, disease carriers and disseminators, blood spillers and drinkers, wicked communists, aberrant atheists, immoral infidels, are the cause of all evil, having killed the Saviour and declared God to be null!

And unto Abendroth was born Amery, and Amery begat Anselm, and Anselm begat Arnold, and Arnold begat Baldwin, and Baldwin begat Bartul, and Bartul begat Baum, and Baum begat Becker, and Becker begat Blauvelt, and Blauvelt begat Caroline, and Caroline begat Charles, and Charles begat Claget, and Claget begat Cuyler, and Cuyler begat Diefendorf, and Diefendorf begat Dodd, and Dodd begat Eberly, and Eberly begat Emma, and Emma begat Fake, and Fake begat Ferdinand, and Ferdinand begat Fleischer, and Fleischer begat Freud. No! Fleischer begat Gallup, and Gallup begat Goethe, and Goethe begat Germain, and Germain begat Getman, and Getman begat Gilbert, and Gilbert begat Godfrey, and Godfrey begat Haff, and Haff begat Hegel, and Hegel begat Heidegger, and Heidegger begat Hermance, and Hermance begat Ingram, and Ingram begat Jung, and Jung begat Kant, and Kant begat Knapp, and Knapp begat Lilienthal, and Lilienthal begat Maynard, and Maynard begat Mann, and Mann begat Marmaduke, and Marmaduke begat Nagel, and Nagel begat Nietzsche, and Nietzsche begat Ostheim, and Ostheim begat Putzkammer, and Putzkammer begat Querfurth, and Querfurth begat Rader, and Rader begat Schenck, and Schenck begat Segur, and Segur begat Talheimer, and Talheimer begat Ulm, and Ulm begat Volk, and Volk begat Wagner, and Wagner begat Werden, and Werden begat Wilhelmina, and Wilhelmina begat William, and William begat Xylander, and Xylander begat Yelin, and Yelin begat Zweiacker.

Having been executed, killed, murdered, and slain, after being banished, displaced, exiled, and expatriated from their native land following their refutation, rejection, renunciation, and repudiation of God, Germans found themselves in every country, kingdom, region, and territory that bore, endured, stomached, and tolerated them, especially places where God was principally a product and a commodity, mind you, not to be mocked, ridiculed, scoffed, or scorned, but accepted as here, there, and everywhere, before and after all has come and gone, almighty, all-powerful, invincible, and omnipotent, and good. They did what they could with the little they had. They peddled and touted anything and everything. They talked, not as much as they could have, but enough to be heard and understood. They sang, but no one could understand or appreciate their native tongue. They played beautifully, their music filling everyone listening with tenderness, happiness, and awe; awe of their courage, hardiness, resilience, and spirit; awe of their uncanny ability not only to survive but also to thrive.

Why did God give them so much and us so little? We believe in You, God; Germans do not! We trust You, God; Germans do not! We love You, God; Germans do not! We really love You, God. We love You so much that we are going to get rid of them for You. And as soon as we are done with them all, all will love You. But all is never all. Those lucky Fritzes, Huns, Jerries, and Krauts, a number of them that is, survived the great massacre, which they called the Katastrophe. And little by little, nach und nach, as they often intimated to one another, they educated the world about the Katastrophe by means of photographs, books, pictures, movies, television series, museums, commemorations, and a yearly day of remembrance that took place on one site in particular, the site of all sites, the site with no name, since to keep its name was to give it life when death was the only grant that it bestowed upon the soil that swallowed so many heaps of them, so many corpses of every size and shape, so many hands that gave out, so many faces that faced oblivion. The Katastrophe epitomised humanity’s basest act, that of stooping so low to get rid of those who did not fit an agreed upon profile; the profile of a thick fanatic, a hypocritical believer, a mongrel in disguise.

“Eine, zwei, drei; they must die!” they chanted in the full-house meetings, the second step that was going to lead to the Katastrophe, the first one being the idea of the annihilation of the Germans. We have to purify ourselves and remove them from our midst, here, there, and everywhere, so God can be good to us once again. As if God was ever good. Genealogical trees have to be traced for every family, so we can weed out every remaining German scrap. Our blood has to be cleansed of any Germanic elements, both dormant and active. The plan was simple: find them, detain them, confine them, use them, abuse them, and finally, eliminate them. “Eine, zwei, drei; they must fry!” though only chanted occasionally, would become the obvious extension of the first mantra. How else could you dispose of so many bodies?

Thus, the whole world, that is the most civilised countries, whether a country regarded itself as such or was so regarded — often the same thing — united for a common cause: the annihilation of the Germans. The creation of a German-free society was well on its way, well on its way, when something surprising transpired, so astonishing in fact, especially in its scope, that the common goal had turned into a common reprieve, which in turn brought about the rebirth and fruition of the German nation not only around the world, but on a piece of soil in the middle of Europe, a chunk surrounded by sworn enemies who harboured their continued destruction. But they proved to be hardy.