THE BOOK OF LIFE, and War.
Dear Friends,
live Your dream, in the book of life.
Seeing the Book of Life beginning to take shape of its own, and while our world being on the brink of a war, made me think about how humanity had learned to accept the sacred writings as "the word of God", and how these writings had as often as not instructed humanity in God's Love had also been a source of contention between them, which led to war.
Historically, the evidence of this are legion, the crusades, forced conversions under penalty of death, covert assassinations, religious wars over obscure points. Even the great Akbar, who had contributed so many good and tolerant things to the people of his kingdom, was said to have slaughtered tens of thousands of innocents when they refused his religion. All this makes me think that the Word of God can be dangerous for us humans, or at least how it had been interpreted, as it had become a way of one man to force his will on another. But is this not bad thinking, bad religion? If God had meant for us to kill one another in His name, then why bother with teaching us of Love, if in the hands of men these words are garbled into a message of killing and hate?
For God's words to not be a book of Death, but rather the Book of Life, a book written by the lives and deeds of countless human beings born from a dim time lost in prehistory, and with names of all those yet unborn, then the words that had been given to us by our teachers and prophets must be looked upon through a filter of their followers: Are the words the source of unity and love, cooperation and compassion, of agreement between men and women, of Peace? Or are the words a source of contention, of hate and curses, of war and coercion? And if the latter, then reexamining these words, all of which had been written by good intentioned men, should become a priority of all future reforms of how humanity interprets these writings as being sacred. If the words are of God, then removing those from the writings that offend and lead to war and coercions should be a most easy task, since God is Love, and in His Will, this will happen in time almost of its own. Remembering that all the sacred writings were written by men, so that when the words are faulty (in their representation of God) and lead to contention, then removing or modifying such words will lead to much haggling among men, arguing and discoursing them to minutia; but they will nevertheless in the end arrive at words that are more unifying and amenable to people without coercion or offense. But if the words are the result of forces that have invaded the Earth with "satanic" like effects, (bearing in mind that humanity is the creator of its own evil spirits), then those words will be the hardest to remove, since they so closely represent all those things on Earth that had led to so much strife and killings. Those last words, though written from the heart at their time and timely then, these will only succumb to a spirit of love and unity and understanding after much gnashing of teeth, tearing of hair, and one's clothes, and cursing the other, even with threats of death. Those last words will also be the most important to change, for thus in them had been the spirits of men and not God, and without God they do not represent Life. Yet, in His infinite patience, God will see that even these are changed so that future generations of humanity will live in His, Her beauty and Peace.
...Just some reflections upon seeing the first pages of the deeds of humanity in the Book of Life...
Ivan
By Ivan A. on Saturday, August 2, 2003 - 05:49 pm:
Below is a description, with an analysis, of my new novel "Giammai! -Black Messiah", just completed.
If you can offer any help on how to get it to press, I would be most appreciative. I think it is an important historical story that must be told. Today's publishing market seems to be in a Great Depression, so any help is vital. Let me know if you know someone who can help.
Mars, the god of war, is approaching its closest distance from Earth in human history. Maybe by the time it is receding again, the world of war and conflict as we had known it will have moved towards a new hope of future peace.
Thanks my Friends.
Ivan
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ABOUT "GIAMMAI! - BLACK MESSIAH"
The story of "Giammai!" is of human survival under the deadly brutal conditions of a Nazi labor camp in Germany, in the final years of the war, where there was a special desperation of saving the children from the gas chambers. "Giammai" means "never".
The main characters, Kostia and Giammai, are two prisoners who find each other in the camp. Kostia, a nickname given to her by Giammai, is actually Olgha, a beautiful young woman from Eastern Europe set aside along with other women by the camp's commandant, Shwarz, as his personal treasure, "meine shatse", tradable for favors with high Nazi party officials. Her struggle is to maintain her dignity and honor in a world beset by brutality, hunger, and the dehumanizing nightmare of camp life. The prisoners are called laborers by the Nazis, but they know themselves as prisoners. The camp, never mentioned by name, is in fact considered a model camp north of Berlin, though the story reveals it to be anything but that. It is Kostia who writes the story, and it is her voice we hear first.
Her story focusses on a notebook left behind by Giammai, whose real name is Jeremiah, the other main character where he recorded his thoughts while at the camp. In it are gems of insight and revelations, of what is it about human beings who can do this to one another. He calls upon God, and questions whether God cares about us, or the devil. He also contrasts the belief in a Jewish God versus that of the Christians' God of love, and Mohammedans' God of mercy and compassion. In the book we then also hear his voice, as he narrates alternate chapters, so that we see things through both Kostia's and Giammai's eyes as they suffer camp life. With other characters, through extensive use of dialogue, it completes for us the picture of the hell they had all been cast into. The voices are both Christian and Jew, as well as both believers and non-believers.
This story of human brutality, self justified in the eyes of the Aryans, expressed largely by Shwartz, is made especially poignant when there is a directive issued by him to start destroying the children. There is already horrible tragedy at the camp's receiving depot for the families sent there, since they become separated, with women and very young children, along with the elderly and weak, all sent off to be killed at a nearby death camp. There they are gassed and cremated. At this camp, at the beginning of the story, the gas chambers had not yet been built, but as the camp population keeps rising due to the great influx from the Jewish ghettos of the Eastern countries, and later Hungary, the Germans find it necessary to increase their killing rate. The prisoners are continually told that if they are good workers, they will share in the glory of the Reich after the war, but everyone knows this is a lie. They know that eventually their fate is to go to the chimneys, which are spewing out the ash of those who had preceded them. At all cost, they resolve to keep their children from the same fate. Through a clever ruse, but one that sacrifices the lives of the children just arrived being sent to their death, they are able to preserve their own children, but that comes at a high price. The commandant discovers the ruse and orders specific children, those who had survived this long, and of whom we discover he is very fond, to be killed. Giammai with the help of others saves them again. Shwartz discovers this and punishes Giammai severely. Kostia, who had been fighting her own battles to save herself and the other women from the humiliation of being used as prostitutes by the high command, is in on Giammai's plans, and she too had been punished for standing up for their human rights of dignity. She, who is very white of Swedish descent, and Giammai, who is dark skinned, have a special love for each other, which filters throughout the story. As the war ends, she is saved by fleeing along with many of the other prisoners when the SS guards and officers abandon camp. Giammai is saved from death only by the approach of Soviet tanks who are coming to liberate the camp.
Throughout the story, there is evidence of how inhumane the grinding war machine, as executed by the SS and Slav guards, is towards the human beings who are trapped within it. We the readers very early in the story develop compassion for the survivors, but learn later that they too are not innocent, as they too are caught up on the machinery to survive. Betrayal, deceit, love, confusion, hunger, pain, fear, these are all stock in trade for survival. Yacob, a Jew from Poland, and Maria, an opera singer from Italy, sacrifice their lives to save the children. Renato and Livia, who had become close to Giammai and Kostia, are prominent figures in how desperate conditions are for those who love one another, for even love was not allowed. All the human emotions, dreams, hopes, are put on hold while at the camps, as the daily beatings and executions numb the soul against the unreal brutality created by the Nazi war machine.
There is an interesting philosophical twist to the story, in that Giammai is of mixed race, while his captors are so-called Aryan pure bloods. However, we see that it is Giammai and his consort of prisoners from all countries who are the pure beings, while the Aryans are monstrous devils. When Giammai shouts at a group of Jewish men reciting the prayer for the dead, "how can you still believe in God?" The men stop their prayer a moment to answer him with their silence, and then resume their prayer to God.
"Giammai" in Italian means "never", and Giammai's story is told to us by Kostia so that this would never ever happen again.
* * *
My personal interest in writing this story is due to the fact that I am a descendent of parents both of whom, along with their friends, had survived the Nazi labor camps in the last years of the war. When I was very young, and my parents and friends talked of what happened at the camps, I listened. But I also incorporated as many stories from written accounts of camp survivors, both Jewish and Gentile.
"Giammai! -Black Messiah ", the first four chapters, can be found on the net at:
http://www.humancafe.com/discus/messages/84/102.html
The story is twenty chapters, about 150 pages, and may be viewed in full upon request.
Ivan D. Alexander, author
ivan@humancafe.com
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ANALYSIS OF GIAMMAI
Giammai was a story written in black and white. It is a study in contrast between humanity at its best and its worst. The two main characters are likewise black and white, Giammai being of Afro mixed race, while the other main character narrating is very white, of Eastern European origin. The words used in the story are also consciously in contrast, with no effort made to soften the blow. Killing of children is not covered over with more acceptable euphemisms. It is simply killing, so that the characters themselves cease to feel their normal humanity and fall into a pattern of acceptance. The reader will likewise soon become inured to the horrors and find them normal, only later to awaken again and see how truly terrible this story of real events really was. The emotional impact that results from how it was written, and the words spoken by the characters, has the expected effect of bringing readers to tears, for so horrible was this human tragedy.
Some things in Giammai are never mentioned by name, out of respect for the dead. For example, the name of the Fuhrer is never mentioned. Nor is the name of the labor camp ever mentioned, for this is not a documentary but fiction, though the camp used in the story was a prominent one north of Berlin. Also, all the names are fiction except for Himmler, which is the only connection to the historical events. In fact, he did come to the camp on occasion, though the story told about him is fiction. The women set aside by the camp's commandant, whose name means "black" in German, Schwarz, is also fiction, though it was written this way to signal the plight of women everywhere who are used for sex, who are made into sex slaves. This is a problem still very much with us today. The story also contrasts the Aryans, who think themselves a master race, with the multitudes of ethnic backgrounds of the prisoners, who are keenly aware of their inferior status. Yet, it is the prisoners who rise above the inhumanity when they can, while the Aryans are shown to be the inhuman monsters they are.
The children, which is really what this story is about, are shown as being capable of unbelievable beauty, even miraculous beauty, though they are trapped in a world of horrors. That they can sing arias from an opera on such short notice may be unrealistic, but the point is that they can, which is a miracle. Seeing angels, or monsters, is how they cope with where they are, and is not unrealistic. The fact that these children were being killed indiscriminately is an historical fact, and that some survived is a miracle. In their wholesale murders there are no grey areas, only the contrast of what a terribly dark period of history blemished humanity at that time. It must never happen again.
Murder is not a mystery here, in stark contrast to normal social values. We struggle to protect the innocent, save lives, go through great lengths to ensure medical survival for each individual, and yet in war we kill en masse. How can humanity live with this unbelievable paradox? In murder mystery novels, we go through great lengths to solve who did it, what was the motive, why that specific victim. But in war, all such niceties of life are forgotten, and the enemy is dehumanized so that killing him, or her, becomes a normal act. This is the insanity. And it is this insanity, this en masse madness, that Giammai's story reveals to us. How could the hate of one man spill over onto so many, that killing becomes normal? Giammai, the reluctant and unselfconscious Messiah, has no answers, only observations, and the will to survive. This is represented by his little black notebook. In fact, he is not truly who we think he is, for there is a subtle shadow force behind him, Jan, who really is responsible for acts of saving others. This is the other paradox, that while we await a Messiah, there are already many who fill those shoes, and they are in each one of us when we do good, when we help, when we love.
The message delivered in Giammai's story is that God is everything, and we are everything. We are God's will in each thing we do. We are capable of good as much as evil. The choice always comes down to what it is we want from God. And if we want good, this too can happen. It simply had not happened enough. The story of Giammai says that it can happen, and that we are the ones who can make good on God's promise to us, that we are His children. If we believe this, and focus on the good, on loving one another, on seeing each other as fellow souls on this planet together, it will happen. We can live in freedom with the right to being who we are. This freedom is our inalienable right, and no twisted demented minds should ever take that away from us again.
This is what went into the story. What the reader gets out of it is how that story plays out for each one of us. Giammai's story is one of our human redemption. --IDA
ivan@humancafe.com
By Anonymous on Friday, January 21, 2005 - 10:26 am:
you know you got it in the book of life when the difficult becomese easy. hope replaces despair, joy sadness, fear with trust. live your dream. you will know you got it when it becomes easy.