[Cz-L] blocked memories

The recent exchange of messages has opened up many sweet memories - strawbe=
rry, raspberry, cherry and rose  jam after meals - we had none of the soft=
 drinks that proliferate in our world today and ruin teeth and arteries bu=
t we had Sodawasser mit Himbersaft; a couple of spoon-fulls into the water a=
nd stir.  A big treat.
 
To protect us from pain our minds tend to bury and block bad memories. Ma=
ny who suffered through the Holocaust can't talk about it. A friend from Cze=
rnowitz who came to New York in the early 1950s would become vague when I as=
ked him about what happened in all those years during the war.  From him I=
 never heard about the Ghetto or Transnistria. 
He said, "I remember a lof of cars and trucks and motorbikes left on the st=
reet.  When the Germans were retreating and the Russians were on their hee=
ls, when they ran out of gas, they would just leave their vehicles and run o=
n foot." That's all he could tell me and then he would switch the subject.
Likewise for over 70 years my memory had blocked out an incident that took =
place when I would have been about five. I had been walking on Herrengasse w=
ith my Freulein (nanny)  There was a street photographer who had taken our=
 picture on a couple of occasions. He liked children and would talk to me wh=
enever we saw him.  On this day suddenly there was a mob of people marchin=
g up the street.  I think they were Cuzisten. 
The photographer ran out into the middle of the street some forty feet ahea=
d of the moband was backing up taking pictures of them.  Three or four fro=
m the mob suddenly rushed forward and knocked down the photographer and then=
 the mob walked over him. My Freulein grabbed me and covered my eyes and pul=
led me away from there.  I hadn't recalled this in over 50 years.  My me=
mory had blocked it out because it was a traumatic experience.  It gets =
me boiling and gets my blood pressure up even today as I recall it.
Andy
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Received on 2008-07-02 12:05:21