The Last Witness

by Jerry Amernic

  “Tell me.”

  “She would take a diced onion and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Then a pound of minced lamb. Then she’d take a clove of garlic, a carrot and it was a big carrot, and some beef and then she’d chop some tomatoes, add a little corn flour, a pinch of salt and pepper, and two pounds of potatoes.”

  “You mean grams. People don’t talk about pounds anymore. Not for food anyway.”

  “It was pounds then. That’s how I remember it. Then she’d put in some butter and mix it all up. Oh and one more thing.”

  “What?”

  “Worcestershire sauce. She would add Worcestershire sauce.”

  “It’s incredible you remember all that. The recipe I mean.”

  “I used to make it too. It was a lot better than the stuff they serve around here.”

  Mary Lou laughed.

  “My mother would make it,” he said. “It was good.”

  “Your mother?”

  “My adopted mother. My real mother died when I was a little boy.”

  “Jack, I know this is hard for you.”

  “No it’s not. It’s good to remember. I like to remember my parents.”

  “How old were you when you lost them?”

  “Four.”

  “Four? Four years old. How terrible to lose your parents when you’re so young.”

  “When you’re that young it’s your whole world.” Jack looked up and thought for a moment. “You don’t think I’m making this up, do you?”

  “I don’t think you made up that shepherd’s pie recipe.”

  “I can still taste it.” He licked his lips.

  “No Jack, I don’t think you’re making anything up.”

  “But those students. They think I’m crazy.”

  “What do they know?”

  “Not much. I wonder what they learn there.”

  “Where?”

  “At school. They think history is the last ten years and that’s it. Did I ever tell you that my great-granddaughter is a history teacher?”

  “No. You must be proud of her.”

  Jack nodded. “The other day she sent me one of those 3D things.”

  “What?”

  “An email. By 3D.”

  “You mean a 3DE?”

  “Yes that’s it.”

  “So Jack what do you want me to tell these reporters? The one from the Times and the people at that ezine. They all want you.”

  “Tell them I’m here and I’d be happy to talk to them.”

  “You sure?”

  “Why not? They’ve already got a good story, don’t they?”

  “What’s that?”

  “I’m a hundred years old. Or did you forget?”

  Kitchener, Ontario, 2036

  11

  The Upper Grand District School Board met every month, and while schoolteachers didn’t take part in the proceedings, Christine Fisher was a special guest since the board was going to hear her out. She had sent them a 3DE objecting to the standard issue text – An Overview of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries – for her Grade 8 history course. This being her first year of teaching, she had hoped the message and her appearance before them wouldn’t put her in bad stead with the members. They were all seated around a long, rectangular table at the education administration building.

  Christine recognized the woman who served as Chair, a high school principal with over thirty years of teaching to her credit. Christine also recognized the face and knew the name of John Salmon, head of the history department at one of Wellington County’s high schools. He had helped set curriculum for the board’s history program. The others she didn’t know.

  “Christine Fisher teaches Grade 8 history at Williamsburg Senior Public School,” said the Chair. “Her 3DE to the board asked that we reconsider the text being used for her course. I believe all of you were copied?”

  Everyone said they were.

  “Good. Well we’d like to welcome you to the board. I understand this is your first year of teaching?”

  Christine said it was.

  “So you have not yet taught a full term?”

  “That’s right.”

  “So my question is this. How can you come to us recommending a change to the curriculum when you have yet to see the benefit of how your students react to the program? Don’t you think it’s a little premature?”

  There were chuckles around the table.

  “I mean you haven’t even got your feet wet,” the Chair said.

  Christine hesitated before responding. “The course I teach is history in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,” she said. “And that includes the First World War and the Second World War from the last century. The text for this course doesn’t mention the holocaust at all and I think that is a glaring error of omission.”

  “Why?”

  The question was posed by John Salmon, long-time member of the school board.

  “Why?” said Christine. “Because it is. The holocaust was one of the most significant … probably the most significant event … of that entire war.”

  “I don’t think so,” Salmon said. “The Second World War was about the defeat of Nazi Germany by the Allies and the Russians. It was about an imperialist authoritarian regime that wanted to enslave all of Europe. I’ve taught it for twenty-five years and the prime pedagogical requirements of that episode of the twentieth century are that the Allied forces fought Germany and its fellow Axis nations on the western front and the Russians fought them on the eastern front. It’s military history.”

  “Yes it’s military history,” said Christine, “but …”

  “For many years the suffering of the Jews at the hands of Nazi Germany was included in how this period was taught in our schools,” said Salmon, his eyes moving around the table, connecting with each board member. “But the teaching of this period has changed over the years and I think that’s a good thing.”

  “Yes it has changed,” said Christine. “I have some of the old textbooks with me and it’s very clear what’s been happening.”

  “What’s been happening?” the Chair asked.

  Christine took out three books. Hardcover books.

  “I haven’t seen one of those in a long time,” said one of the members. “How old are they?”

  “This one was published in 1988,” said Christine.

  “An antique.”

  “Well antique or not it has over four hundred pages and at one time it was a primer on the twentieth century.”

  “A very poor text that one,” Salmon said.

  Christine let it pass. “If you look at the index you can see there are thirteen pages devoted to World War I,” she said. “That’s what they called it then. And for World War II … or the Second World War … only eight pages. That was it. As for the holocaust …”

  “Let’s get something straight,” Salmon said and he pointed to Christine. “You are referring to the Jewish holocaust, I believe. In the current vernacular the word holocaust refers to the massacre of fifty thousand Christians seven years ago. The Great Holocaust of 2029. That of course was the Middle East crisis precipitated by a group of Muslims who had been converting to Christianity in the Malatya province of Turkey and who then began publishing biblical literature and proselytizing. It was the Syrians in particular … and they’re right across the border … who became very upset with that and started slitting throats.”

  My God, Christine thought to herself. The man is an encyclopedia.

  “Please continue,” said the Chair, motioning to Christine, who could only say that she had lost her train of thought. “You were referring to this 1988 text book and its shortfalls.”

  “Yes that’s right. As for the Jewish holocaust there was only one paragraph … one paragraph about the extermination of six million people.”

  “Extermination?” said Salmon. “You speak of them as if they were termites.”

  “Well they …”

  “Now hold on a minute. When we teach histor
y to young students and we’re talking about Grade 8 here we must stick to the facts. The known facts. There is no doubt that Jews were persecuted by Nazi Germany. But there is considerable doubt as to the magnitude of that persecution. Our history text books should not be in the business of perpetuating religious dogma.”

  “Religious dogma?” said Christine.

  “It’s a history class. Not a religion class.”

  The chair interrupted. “Mr. Salmon, this young lady has brought several of these old books with her. Why don’t we hear what she has to say and then we can discuss the matter? Please proceed.”

  “Thank you Madam Chair,” said Christine, convinced by now that she had alienated the section head of the history department. “As I said this textbook from 1988 had one paragraph about the holocaust … the Jewish holocaust … and incidentally on page 155 it does mention the figure of six million dead.”

  Salmon was shaking his head back and forth. Christine went on to the next text.

  “Now if we go to 1996 we have this textbook. There is a chapter on World War II … I mean the Second World War … and two full pages on the Nazi death camps.” She opened up the book to a two-page spread. On one side was a photograph of Jews in striped clothes standing behind a barbed-wire fence. “It talks about the Final Solution. It talks about the death camps at Dachau and Bergen-Belsen.”

  “There is a lot of scholarly debate about that,” shot back Salmon. “On one side you have the point of view that these were death camps, pure and simple, and on the other side something less than that. The term has often been mentioned but …” and his voice trailed off.

  Christine tried to plod ahead with her argument, but felt she was sinking into a quagmire. “This book talks about Treblinka, Sobibor, Maidanek and Auschwitz … and these ones were all death camps.” A surge of confidence and she tossed a glance at Salmon. No reaction. “It talks about the gas chambers and how the Nazis dropped Zyklon B gas through an opening in the ceiling.”

  “Does it say how many Jews were killed by the Nazis?” asked Salmon.

  “Yes,” said Christine, consulting the book. “It says right here. ‘It is estimated that six million people were put to death.’”

  “Estimated.”

  “Yes.”

  Salmon looked over to the Chair. “Can I say something?”

  “Go ahead,” said the Chair.

  “Having this kind of material in a history class … any history class … but especially for kids in senior public school can be very damaging. It uses estimates … she said so herself … and innuendo. Estimates and innuendo do not belong in a history text.”

  All around the table were nods from the other board members, and then one of them interjected.

  “That photograph,” said a woman, pointing to the book in Christine’s hand. “I have a problem with a photograph like that.”

  “Why?” said Christine.

  “It’s in bad taste. We’re talking about thirteen-year-olds. I don’t think they should be seeing things like that. It’s bad enough we’re talking about war. We aren’t showing them pictures of bodies being ripped apart, are we? I’m glad we don’t have photographs like that anymore, never mind 3D images in the e-readers we use now. That kind of thing was traumatic for those kids. I don’t think we should be in the business of upsetting them.”

  “I tend to agree,” said Salmon, “provided we don’t shortchange history.”

  The Chair nodded in approval. She looked at Christine. “You have other books with you?”

  “Yes I do. This one here is from the year 2000. It lumps in the Great Depression and World War II … sorry … the Second World War … into one chapter. There are three pages on the holocaust … the Jewish holocaust … so we can see a trend here. As we proceed from one book to the next … and I’m talking about forty years ago … the teaching of the holocaust was actually increasing but ever since 2000 the opposite has been happening.” Christine put another book on the table. “This is the standard history textbook from 2012. It has four pages on the Second World War and one paragraph on the Jewish holocaust. That was the last hardcover. Now this is the text from 2018. It was the first e-reader issued for this course. A pocket kindle.”

  “Another antique. Look how big it is.”

  It was the same person who had denigrated the old textbook earlier.

  “There is but one line … one sentence … on the Jewish holocaust,” said Christine.

  “That thing is so big it wouldn’t even fit in your hand.”

  “It was almost twenty years ago,” said Christine.

  “Yes,” said the Chair. “When that came out it was revolutionary but look, we’re not here to discuss technology. We’re here to discuss content. Are we not?”

  Christine gave her a nod. “That’s right,” she said. “But the point I want to make is that first e-reader or not, there was only one sentence on the Jewish holocaust. One sentence. And this here is what we’re using now.”

  She took out her latest mini kindle. It contained all the books and source materials for Grade 8 students.

  “The text for the course is called An Overview of the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries and it was released just last year so it’s new. There is absolutely no mention of the Jewish holocaust in it … nothing at all … but there are several pages about the Christian holocaust of 2029 in Turkey.”

  “The Christian holocaust?” said Salmon. “You mean the holocaust, don’t you? The Great Holocaust.”

  Salmon looked like he was getting angry.

  “Look,” said Salmon. “This whole thing is ridiculous. We’re talking about the teaching of history. When we teach Grade 8 history do we tell them about the persecution of early Christians at the hands of the Romans? No. And if we did that would belong in a religion class in a private school setup. They can teach that in a bible class or in a Jewish school if they want but certainly not in a public school. It has no place in a public school. When we teach Grade 8 history do we tell them about the genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Turks during the First World War? No. The government of Turkey has never even acknowledged that such an event took place. When we teach Grade 8 history do we tell them about massacres in Africa where tribalism is rampant even today? No. Places like Rwanda and Darfur and Zimbabwe hold little meaning for kids in Grade 8. They couldn’t even find these places on a map. Lots of them couldn’t find Africa on a map.”

  “What about black kids in Grade 8?” one of the board members asked.

  “That is a good question,” Salmon said. “But we don’t have many black kids in Grade 8 in our schools. Not here in Wellington County. The point I’m trying to make is that history has to be relevant to our students and even if they are black kids are you suggesting we turn around the curriculum in order to meet their needs? Just because they happen to be black and because many generations ago their ancestors might have come from Africa? If we did that then we’d have to do the same for every other kid and consider where they came from. Why you would be teaching a different course for every student.”

  The Chair nodded her head in agreement. Salmon went on.

  “In a history class and in a history text we should stick to known facts and not become engaged in hyperbole. The fact of the matter is nobody knows exactly how many Jews were killed by the Nazis a hundred years ago. It’s impossible to know.”

  “Do we even know for certain if there was a program designed to kill Jews?”

  It was a man not much older than Christine.

  “Of course there was,” said Christine. “That goes without saying.”

  “How do we know that?” he said. “How do you know?”

  Christine didn’t want to get into it, but they weren’t giving her much choice. “My great-grandfather is a survivor of the holocaust,” she said. “The Jewish holocaust. He was born in Poland in 1939 and he was in a camp. Auschwitz. I know first-hand what he went through.”

  “You know first-hand?” said Salmon. “How is
that?”

  “He told me.”

  “Ah he told you. And as a teacher do you believe everything that everybody tells you?”

  Christine was taken aback with that one.

  “I see what the situation is now,” said Salmon. “With this young lady the problem is … personal. She’s Jewish and …”

  “Who said I was Jewish?” Christine said.

  “You did, didn’t you?”

  “No. I’m Catholic and so is my great-grandfather. But he was born a Jew and he was at Auschwitz.”

  The Chair broke in. “This man, your great-grandfather, he’s alive today?”

  Christine nodded.

  “How old is he, Christine?”

  She was calling her Christine now. Not a good sign.

  “He’s ninety-seven.”

  “Ninety-seven?” repeated the Chair.

  Salmon was smiling. “He’d have to be if what she says is true. So I gather he would’ve been one or two years old when he was at Auschwitz which begs the question. How can he remember things if he was only one or two years old at the time?”

  “He was four years old,” said Christine.

  “We are splitting hairs,” Salmon said.

  “I think we are too,” said the Chair.

  “Wait a minute.” It was the woman who had objected to the photograph from the old text book. “A lot of terrible things have happened in history with people having absolutely no regard for other people. I don’t think the purpose of Grade 8 history is to horrify young minds with the brutality of the human race. If anything we want to give them hope. We don’t have to spell things out graphically like they used to years ago. That was wrong and that’s why the practise was stopped. Even when our texts tell them about the Great Holocaust … and I think we have an obligation to tell them about that … we don’t have to do it graphically.”

  “So this is all about sanitizing the Jewish holocaust?” said Christine. “Is that it?”

  “No.” Salmon again. “It’s not about sanitizing anything. It’s about reporting known facts in a way that young minds can process. Six million Jews dead at the hands of Nazi Germany is not a known fact. Neither is five million dead or three million dead. We just don’t know. We do know however that fifty thousand Christians were slaughtered in Turkey by fundamentalist Muslims. It’s all documented and it’s recent history.”