A Problem With Empathy.

It occurred to me Saturday night that I have a problem with empathy. On Sunday evenings, once everything’s taken care of, I settle down on the couch with the girls and watch America’s Funniest Home Videos. you know the kind of thing, videos of people doing silly stuff and things going wrong. My issue is that every time someone falls down, I feel it in my shins, as if it had just happened to me.

Last night I figured I’d watch the movie Life, but (spoiler alert) I couldn’t make it past the incident with Calvin and the hand. I think my empathy is currently in overdrive, so you can imagine how I’m enjoying reading Yisrael Gutman’s book, The Jews of Warsaw.

So far I’ve made it about a third of the way through, meaning he’s discussed the occupation and the establishment of the ghetto, and now he’s discussing the ghetto underground.

Black Box Factory.

The Black Box Factory isn’t a story about the Warsaw ghetto, Nazism, the holocaust, or anything about World War II, to set anyone’s mind at rest who might have thought that.

But there are certain parallels to be found here and in other aspects of human experience that I’ll be exploring after reading this book and before finalizing the outline for what I’ll call the ‘two parts’ of The Black Box Factory story.

The Ghetto.

Much of what transpired in the creation of the ghetto and the treatment of it’s inhabitants, can be safely deduced from the barbaric and inhumane nature of the Nazi regime that occupied Poland.

What I’ve found surprising is the very human nature of the people within the ghetto, and I’ll quickly discuss two of these aspects.

The Elite.

The first thing standing out to me is how Mr. Gutman has described that in the continual, perhaps exponential, impoverishment of the people and the descent into starvation, suffering was by no means evenly distributed among the population at large. While some were hawking what possessions they had left in order to buy food for their family, there were “cafés, nightclubs, restaurants and buffets – where the members of the new elite indulged themselves to the point of stupor.” [Gutman, P. 108]

I found this to be both disturbing and, after full reflection, no surprise at all. The people who got to enjoy lamb and concerts were these elites – made up of what Gutman called the “aristocracy” of smugglers, members of the “Thirteen” network – who seem to be Nazi stooges and gangsters, if I read their description correctly – members of the police, and “certain members of the Judenrat,” the Jewish authority in the ghetto. [Gutman, P. 108]

Doesn’t that sound about right? While the ordinary people starved, those in powerful or corruptible positions lived it up.

Nothing much changes.

Hunger Does Not Motivate Revolt.

I’d never thought about it, but the starved masses did not at any time rebel. Mr. Gutman provides a few reasons for this. The Jewish Police had, for one, begun to beat people, which he describes as a restraining influence. Meanwhile, the whole public was never subject to starvation at the same time together. Those “already in the grip of death had sunk below the ability to organize…” [Gutman, P. 109] while those facing the impending prospect of a similar situation clung to the hope that things would change.

He also describes “snatchers,” starving people who would accost those with food, snatch it from them and eat as much as they could, as quickly as they could, oblivious to the fact that an amassed crowd might have physically set upon them and beat them.

This struck me as perhaps a form of insanity – a complete inability to control ones self.

But what sticks in my memory is the hope that people clung to that the situation would improve before it came to their turn.

Hope is a starvation diet.

How Does This Relate To The Black Box Factory?

The Black Box Factory does not have the same ending as the Warsaw ghetto, or the same story, so I’m not spoiling anything about it by discussing what I’ve read here.

The important theme that is shared by both the ghetto and The Black Box Factory is man’s inhumane treatment of his fellows. I don’t see this as just Nazi cruelty to Jews, I see it as one group of humans cruelty toward another, innocent, group of humans. It is an aspect of humanity that rightly disgusts us, and we’re usually very happy to regard it as a facet of Nazism and move on, rather than face the fundamental truth that humans can be serious assholes, given the power and the excuse.

Up Next…

Hopefully, next week my Alpha will have gotten back to me with some feedback and I can leave this depressing subject in my rear view mirror, but I suspect that this will need at least another week.

Perhaps next week I’ll write about how the American healthcare system is the best in the world.

Sarcasm, anyone?

Until then, I hope everyone has a great week and finds more joyful things to read than my research material…

Categories: Black Box Factory, Research, The Warsaw Ghetto