Earnestness alert....been on my mind for a while and I finally committed it to paper. And made a donation to RAICES (link below).
Sidonie at the Border
Those who think it’s a good idea to remove children from
their parents and put them in detainment camps might be well advised to read
Erich Hackl’s 1989 book, Farewell Sidonie (in German: Abschied von
Sidonie). It’s out of print, but it’s available in German and in English
translation on Amazon.
Farewell Sidonie recounts the short life of a Roma
(“gypsy”) girl whose mother left her in front of a hospital as an infant in 1933,
and who was taken in and raised by a working-class couple in the Austrian town
of Sierning. Sidonie’s foster parents
love her dearly. After the third Reich
comes to power, authorities at several levels pressure Sidonie’s parents to give
her up. Ultimately Sidonie is taken from
her family. An officious social worker delivers
her to the detainment camp outside of town where other Roma, including some of Sidonie’s
biological relatives, are located. A few
days later, the camp is dissolved and the residents are taken by train to
Auschwitz/Birkenau. Sidonie dies in Auschwitz
shortly thereafter, of disease or heartbreak.
Hackl fictionalizes scenes and dialog, but the facts of
Sidonie’s life, transport, and death are drawn from archival research, and from
interviews with relatives and others who recalled the little girl’s presence in
their community.
So yeah, it’s tempting to mail a copy of this paperback to
every member of the current administration.
But that’s not the real point of the book.
The real point of the story is how LITTLE effort it would
have taken to keep Sidonie safe and with the family that knows and loves
her. No-one in this story needs to be a
hero, although Sidonie’s foster parents emerge as quietly heroic. No-one needs to violate a direct order, or
hide someone in an attic or basement, or endure hunger in order to feed someone
who is ineligible for a ration card.
Ultimately, it is suggested, Sidonie would have remained safe had local neighbors,
teachers, clergy and social service workers not repeatedly pointed out
Sidonie’s differentness. Ultimately, an overzealous social worker goes out of
her way to determine that Sidonie should be removed from her family and placed
in an internment camp. The bar for keeping Sidonie safe is a low one, and the
adults in Sidonie’s community repeatedly fail to meet it.
Then, as now, the community has their reasons. Sidonie is a gypsy, not an Austrian citizen. She is not a good student. She will, it is suggested, ultimately be a
drain on social resources. Repeatedly, adults
who come into contact with Sidonie feel that her presence is an affront: she
should not be burdening their school system, their health care system, the
foster care system. And of course, her
dark skin is a continuing affront to neighbors and the wider community.
Today this book reads not just as an indictment of
our government, but as a challenge to each of us. If simple inaction would have gone a long way
toward protecting Sidonie, it seems like we could each take a simple action now
to help protect the children at the United States border. A call or letter to our congressperson documenting
outrage, a donation to RAICES or to the ACLU's initiative to protect immigrant's rights perhaps.
Today there is a public kindergarten named after Sidonie Adlersburg
in the Austrian town of Sierning. Let’s take action now, and not wait two
generations and then name a public school after Jakelin Caal Maquin (age 7) or FelipeGomez Alonzo (age 8).
