A true story and not just based on truth
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The point of encounter between my search for Maya … and historical censorship that persists with censoring.
A true story and not just based on truth by: Ofer Sarenka Aloni
My name is Ofer (Hebrew for ‘deer’). I am named for my aunt Sarenka (Polish for ‘deer’), who roused the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In February 2012 I discovered something which Prof. Israel Gutman defined as rare and unique, “because there is no other documentation”, key persons were wowed by it, but somewhere in the gloomy corridors of the ‘Memory Police’ a decision was made: to censor my findings, along with me too, and what really happened 70 years ago at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a rebellion which is the foundation of current democracy. And why was this material, and I, censored? Because the leaders fled…so Professor Gutman whispered to me.
My journey will remind you of the rebellion against the gravity of our own habitual approaches (historical, too) as we move towards the path 2 Hope…. for a person without hope is considered as though dead.
I recommend you start tracking the fingerprints of your history – your families – despite, or because of, all the walls you’ll come up against.
Then you'll be linking to the DNA of your personal “self”, and be exposed to your current existence in all its force, for our past is the foundation of our future.
Epigraph code 2 Hope
is a journey – historical, philosophical, current – and I am still on my way. It aims to reveal the singular point of connection between one person and another: the heart, serving as the vanishing point.
But to enlighten a spiritual point, one is best assisted by a parable or legend or narrative. Here’s a historical narrative on the most important issue in the world: the heart.
So here’s my story, for you, in brief and straight to your heart:
There was a young woman, named Sarenka. Surely she kissed her baby girl as she handed her into another’s care. It was World War II and Sarenka, 21 years old, returned to the heart of the action, standing by her comrades in the locked-down Warsaw Ghetto to rebel against the Nazis! And many are the questions that arise about Sarenka…
What is this connection to the heart that, for its sake, Sarenka handed her baby into another person’s care? Are we capable of comprehending this connection in our web-dominated
generation, in our technology-commanded world, that tramples simple humanity?
Did a woman rouse the most important rebellion ever in the world, and are the ‘memory police’ censoring this knowledge?
With this true story, which seeks to rouse and awaken, I invite you to join me in my journey of writing through your reading and join me, also, in rebelling against the ‘force of gravity’ within ourselves – our habituality – as you move along your personal path into our shared hope.
Front cover of the book “code 2 Hope”
code 2 Hope
Holocaust or Hope (it’s your choice…)
Rebel against the force of gravity with your personal path towards our shared hope: are you coming?
My historical, philosophical, here and now journey (and I'm still on my way)
Back cover for the book code 2 Hope
In February 2012, in Tel Aviv, “the code 2 Hope” was found.
It is a treasure chest of the personal, the social and the historical; and it slumbered, a stone unturned, for 69 years in a worn tin box. Its red paint seemed to blush at history’s shame, for its contents held news of WWII, chilling accounts in hand written letters and photographs that all deal with hope – and hope is the foundation of our existence, for a person without hope is likened to the dead.
The finder of this box is an author and artist who has spent his entire life exploring hope. Perhaps this focus came to him by being named for his aunt who penned those letters and is captured smiling in the rare photograph with Mordechai Anilewicz, thought to be the commander of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, a rebellion that is the inspiration for my, and your, existence.
Where was God in the Holocaust? Incredibly, He was there…
Was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising the basis for the concept of “rebellion of the youth” in the world, and the inspiration behind modern democracy? Absolutely.
Are we in an even more dangerous position than we were just prior to the outbreak of WWII? Nazism was influenced by the industrial revolution, but we are in the web generation, and impacted even more, as we carry our cellphones in our shirt or jacket pocket, covering our hearts with mechanism.
Who discovered hope against the backdrop of the Holocaust? If it could be found then, can’t we find it now? We did, but have forgotten about it because of habits that bog us down.
Did a woman rouse the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, rebelling against Nazism, that first civil rebellion in the world which inspired modern democracy? It’s certainly looking that way. As happens so often, a woman is there behind the scenes (and in this book, too) – so why do men try to erase this fact?
Who has seen? and who has heard? of Maya, the rebel’s daughter, handed into care for the sake of this rebellion, much like a “female binding of Isaac”?
One of the familiar symbols of the Holocaust heritage: sculptor Nathan Rappaport’s monument in Warsaw, cut from the stone that Hitler had earmarked for his victory arch. In front, Mordechai Anilewicz. Behind him, a young woman holding her infant, her gaze turned back, to hope. Is she Sarenka, pivot of this story, my aunt for whom I am named, and the inspiration for this sculpture?