Standing Still - In Memoriam
About 20 minutes ago, the Israeli Memorial Day for the Holocaust and Bravery began, so I am going to re-share this post I wrote of it a while back:
Please watch the following video, it's from the busiest major road in my country, taken at 10 AM. Note that it is not staged in any way or form:
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This is footage from the, well, for lack of a better way to put it, one of Israel's (Jewish majority's) two secular high holy days, the Holocaust Remembrance day. On 10 AM during the Holocaust Remembrance Day, once at 6 PM the evening of the Soldiers' and War casaulties' memorial day, and once at 10 AM the day of. The two occasions are one week apart.
Standing during the siren is voluntary, no one forces you to stand (but you might get evil glares should you not stand in public). Many people stand up even when they are alone in a room with no one to observe them. This is part of the (Jewish) Israeli culture. As I thought of what I wanted to write here I noticed I've said much of it in my post about Grave of the Fireflies, which I've described as a "Holocaust Movie". But it still holds.
Last Monday was the Holocaust Memorial Day, and as I stood, I felt a slight lump in the back of my throat, and I thought of the fact I have a really hard time feeling sadness due to real life, and am much more likely to feel it due to narratives in media - and I thought that the Holocaust Day is a day that is all about making the Holocaust into a narrative, of telling us its narrative. Note, I am not using "Narrative" in the derogatory way it is often used in modern deconstructionist works, but at face value - it has a story to tell, it tells by way of a story.
Yearly speeches at school, meeting in homeroom classes and talking about the Holocaust, the radio having nothing but melancholy songs, etc. Think of sequences in anime where someone dies or you say goodbye to someone, and you have dozens or hundreds of people in the street, and the synchronicity of all these participants in and of itself lends gravitas to the scene. This is what you see above in the video, the fact that it's not staged is impressive - meaning, it leaves an impression on you.
Think Katniss' farewell to Rue in The Hunger Games, think saying goodbye to Laxux in Fairy Tail, and a great many other such sequences. Think even how impressive the following is, though it's staged and has no real world implications:
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I've read something interesting about the siren, and how everyone stands still - standing still is exactly what memorial days, what remembrance is all about. You take a moment to stop advancing, you stay in the unmoving time, you think back to the past. And then, it passes, and everyone goes back to the moving time, you let go of the past and return your walk into the future.
But every so often you stop, you stand still, the world stands still, and you remember. Remember the narrative that you've been told, the narrative that you create and propagate by standing still. You take the past with you.
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In a world where history is being rewritten and denied, that singular moment of standing still tells the world the holocaust tale. It says Take heed, you all might forget, books can be rewritten, images photoshopped but we will never forget. It says this is our past, our heritage, a symbol of our nationhood, we will not forget.
This is a beautiful expression of nationhood and patriotism. No fanfare, no music, no gun salutes just introspection and silence. Beautiful.
As I said elsewhere, I think it's a mistake to look at it that way. It is a moment of solidarity with humanity. Not just with our people, with our nation, with our religion.
I actually find it sad that when people hear "solidarity," they think of nationalism and patriotism, rather than the wider solidarity with humanity. Especially as patriotism and nationalism is solidarity by defining who belongs, and just as importantly, who doesn't. Which is what led to the Holocaust.
And it is moving. It is like standing in grief.
Deeply moving, the amount of respect here gives me the chills (in a good way) -- so often remembrance becomes a time to have a picnic and drink.
In solidarity! <3
Solidarity definitely is the topic at hand here. Not just solidarity with people of your country, though I guess in the memorial day for people who died in wars or from terrorism is mostly that, but the Holocaust Memorial Day? It's solidarity, not even with just other jews, not just even with all the people the Nazis killed, but with humanity, as a whole.
It's about respecting humanity, and thinking of humanity, from its best to its worst.
Impressive. Seriously impressive.
I live in a country where Memorial Day is a good time for a mattress sale and Veterans day is a farce. Where Patriotism is celebrated loudly and often but where remembrance is seldom done.
Just saying with actions "Never Forget". I am in awe.
Thank you for sharing this.
Yeah, Memorial Day in America from what I know is just a holiday, just an excuse for a long weekend. I wonder if part of it is that in Israel, there's a mandatory military service, so everyone knows people who died in the army, and most people you meet are veterans (I am too, for instance, as are my parents, my siblings, almost all my cousins, uncles, etc. and we're not a "military family", it's just the norm here).
I wonder too if in America, the schism and lack of solidarity leads to the political divide, or whether it's the other way around.
And it's not about patriotism, it's about solidarity. It's a shame that the way most people think of patriotism and nationalism when they hear solidarity, because what that means is, solidarity with some, by presenting ourselves as distinct from others. Showing we belong, by showing those who don't.
And if you follow that path, you stop feeling as if everyone belongs, and slowly, the sense of solidarity erodes.
Powerful post. This beautifully embodies cultural reverence.
You take a moment to stop advancing, you stay in the unmoving time, you think back to the past.
Cultural reverence, a culture of reverence, or reverence of culture? An interesting question.
And yeah, that video makes me go still, it feels stronger than even standing, seeing it from outside.
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