The Ultimate Responsibility

Musings #94
Started January 11, 2005
Rosh Chodesh, The First of Shvat

The Ultimate Responsibility

When I began this musing a few days ago, I was certain that the “Ultimate Responsibility” was to take responsibility for oneself, but now after ”the “Prince Harry in Nazi Uniform” affair, I must amend that. We must, also, teach our children to learn from history.

Our ultimate responsibility to pass on to the next generation is that they must take responsibility for their lives, their education and their futures. It’s probably the hardest thing for us to do as parents and educators.

So many times we’re tempted to just clean up the mess they’ve made or say that it’s our fault, or the teacher’s or the school’s that they’ve failed. But if we do that, we’re training them for failure.

Yes, this is how I began a few days ago, and now “responsibility” has taken on a different hue.

Prince Harry, the second son of Prince Charles and Diana wore a Nazi officers uniform to a “costume ball.” Not only didn’t Harry consider it problematic, but his older the brother, Prince William, considered the “smarter” of the two, was with him when he picked it out. Apparently, neither of the two, nor the shopkeeper, nor anyone around them, had even the foggiest idea that it would cause a major public, political and international scandal.

Personally I’m relieved that it caused a scandal, though I’m surprised and disappointed at the points that others are bringing up. So far, the scandal is focusing on the Jewish issue:
The Sun, which broke the Nazi gaffe story yesterday, quoted an unnamed royal source as saying that Charles also told his older son, William, to travel with Harry to Auschwitz.
"Their father has visited Auschwitz himself and believes Harry and William would both benefit by grasping a greater understanding of the horrors by actually visiting. http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Charles-incandescent/2005/01/14/1105582699246.html?oneclick=true

That’s helpful, but I’m amazed that the British haven’t made much more of an issue of the fact that just sixty years ago the Nazis were still waging war against Britain, and that England was bombed repeatedly. Ninety-two thousand, six hundred and seventy three (92,673) civilians were killed; homes and buildings were destroyed. Two hundred sixty-four thousand, four hundred and forty-three (264,443) troops were also killed by the Nazis and their allies.

A more frightening implication is that these two young men are the products of Great Britain’s elite private education, and neither had any idea of the brutality of the Nazi regime. Their peers are, like themselves, being prepared for powerful national and international positions. That should make your blood run cold.

Barely sixty years after the Allied forces, led by the United States, defeated the Nazis, barely sixty years after the Nazi Army viciously attacked Great Britain, numbers two and three in line to the British throne think it’s perfectly fine to wear a Nazi uniform to a party. Honestly, this concerns me more than the Jewish issue.

Re: the Jewish issue, read:

http://me-ander.blogspot.com/2005/01/prince-harry-and-nazis.html

In terms of the big picture, the fact that Britain’s elite does not know history is dangerous for the entire world. Because:

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana

I can’t resist contrasting this to this week’s Maftir, the last few sentences of the Torah Portion of the week from Shmot, Exodus XIII, 14-16, when the Children of Israel are commanded to tell their children the story of how G-d took them out of slavery, out of Egypt. And now thousands of years later, the majority of Jews, even those who do not keep the “everyday commandments” do some sort of symbolic Passover seder to commemorate that G-d took us out of Egypt. It is this national memory that has kept us existing as a people for thousands of years, while the nations and cultures that once oppressed us are no longer to be found.

Batya Medad, Shiloh
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