{"id":2546,"date":"2015-08-15T18:52:59","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T00:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=2546"},"modified":"2015-08-15T18:52:59","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T00:52:59","slug":"two-quotes-on-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/08\/two-quotes-on-violence.html","title":{"rendered":"Two quotes on violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

From Under the Same Sky, by Joseph Kim, the memoir of life in North Korea I wrote about a couple days ago<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I started kindergarten that year and met my first school friends \u2014 and my first mean kids, too. \u00a0In North Korea, when you go to school, you aren\u2019t ranked academically, but by your ability to fight. \u00a0Literally. \u00a0I can tell you who was the number-one boy in my first-grade class, and the number seven \u2014 and the numbers refer to only one thing: \u00a0how good a battler you are, as judged by your classmates. \u00a0The schools encouraged this kind of thinking: \u00a0for example, when a child fails to show up for class, the teacher doesn\u2019t call the parents and ask about the absence (to begin with, there are no phones). \u00a0Instead, she sends a group of the toughest students to yell at the kid. \u00a0Sometimes they even beat the boy until he agrees to come back. \u00a0(p. 10)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From German Boy<\/em>, by Wolfgang W.E. Samuel, which I\u2019m in the middle of reading now (though I might set this aside, as I just checked out Fiorina\u2019s Tough Choices<\/em> from the library), recounting the author\u2019s signing up for the Jungvolk (the organization for ages 10 \u2013 13, prior to joining the Hitler Jungend) in April 1945:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow old are you?\u201d he screamed into my face. \u00a0I was terrified of him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen,\u201d I said in a whisper. \u00a0\u201cI am ten years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen did you turn ten?\u201d \u00a0He continued shouting loudldy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second of February.\u201d \u00a0I knew I was in deep trouble. \u00a0It was April. \u00a0He came around the counter and stopped in front of me with anger lighting up his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou little swine,\u201d he said in a lowered tone of voice. \u00a0\u201cWhy didn\u2019t you come and register in February when you turned ten? \u00a0Don\u2019t you like the Hitler Youth? \u00a0Maybe this little swine doesn\u2019t like us.\u201d \u00a0He was shouting again, laughing loudly, and mimicking surprise by throwing his arms in the air. \u00a0My tormentor turned to face his fellow Hitler Youths behind the counter. \u00a0No one responded to his act. \u00a0Others were yelling at a pair of unfortunates like me whom I had not seen as I entered.<\/p>\n

As he turned back toward me, I quickly said, \u201cI am a Fl\u00fcchtling<\/em> [refugee]. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t register in February. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFill out this form,\u201d he said in an almost civil tone of voice, handing me a stubby, dull pencil and a form. . . . \u00a0As I got to the door and was about to reach for the handle I muttered an embarrassed \u201cHeilitler<\/em>,\u201d slurring the words as I always had in the past when I used the embarrassing greeting. \u00a0. . .<\/p>\n

A fist smashed into the right side of my head, downward across my face. \u00a0I fell to my knees on the dirty wooden floor. \u00a0My nose bled profusely. \u00a0Blood dripped onto the raw unpainted floorboards. \u00a0I was both stunned and confused. \u00a0I got back on my feet and looked around frantically, trying to figure out who had hit me, and raised my arms in front of my face to defend myself against further blows. \u00a0I was close to tears, but I didn\u2019t cry. \u00a0I couldn\u2019t let them see me cry, and I wanted out of this awful place. \u00a0I wanted my mother. \u00a0Several Hitler Youths gathered around me, shouting and screaming. \u00a0They had not heard me give the German greeting loudly enough and with sufficient respect for the F\u00fchrer. \u00a0(p. 84 ff.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is one small scene from the book, which mostly recounts the postwar years, but it fits which another book I read some years ago, which describes the Hitler Youth not in line with the Leni Reifenstahl image of happily marching blond boys, but awash in bullying and brutality.<\/p>\n

Now, I don\u2019t have a big point to make, but I was struck by these two passages and thought they merited sharing.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Under the Same Sky, by Joseph Kim, the memoir of life in North Korea I wrote about a couple days ago: I started kindergarten that year and met my first school friends \u2014 and my first mean kids, too. \u00a0In North Korea, when you go to school, you aren\u2019t ranked academically, but by your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nTwo quotes on violence<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"From Under the Same Sky, by Joseph Kim, the memoir of life in North Korea I wrote about a couple days ago: I started kindergarten that year and met my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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