ADRIAN GOLDBERG'S BLOG
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

WHY I WEAR A POPPY

1/11/2014

6 Comments

 
Picture
Visitors have been warned off visiting Paul Cummin's ceramic poppies at the Tower of London because of overcrowding.  I'm not surprised.  When I visited earlier this week, it was impossible to get a moment's contemplation to survey the meaning of the flowers, as thousands of gawping visitors (myself included) jostled for the best spot to take a snap or get a better a better view.

In case you don't know Cummins has made 888,246 of the symbolic blooms, which will be filling up the Tower moat in the build-up to Remembrance Sunday.  Unfortunately, the meaning of the loss and sacrifice they represent is rather lost in the scramble to catch up with the capital's latest "must see" exhibit.

Don't worry if you miss it - just make sure you buy an ordinary poppy instead.  And wear it with pride.  I always do.  Here's why.  If it wasn't for the British people and their military forces I almost certainly wouldn't be sitting here writing this today.

My dad grew up in a German town called Ratibor, and although he was Jewish, there was such a small community, he went to a Christian school.  His family were not the Jews of the ghettos as they are so often portrayed in the movies - they were secular, integrated.  Everyday people.  Ordinary Germans.  

My grandfather ran a coaching inn, and there's a family photograph of him and his father in German army uniform all kitted out for action in the Great War.  Yes, they too were willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for their country - only for the "other" side.

None of this mattered to Hitler whose psychopathic bloodlust willed the extermination of my Dad's family and his entire race.  

Thankfully, in the months leading up to WW2, it didn't seem to matter to the British people either - but in a rather different and humane way.  Under a programme called Kindertransport founded by Sir Nicholas Winton young Jewish kids from  were allowed into this country from Germany and other parts of Europe provided they could find a sponsor willing to house them.  10,000 Jewish youngsters were saved in this way.

My Dad was one of the lucky ones.  He was taken on by a farmer in Derbyshire and at the age of 13, put to work in the fields.  It was tough, agricultural toil.   He was an adolescent lad, separated from his family and all he knew and placed in an alien landscape.  He couldn't even speak the language.  But it was better than the alternative.

His brother Werner was taken in by a kindly lady in Southampton who we knew as "Auntie Gladys".  Being 11, he was sent to school, and went on to become an architect and town planner in Guildford.

They were the only members of their immediate family to survive.  Parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles all perished in The Holocaust.

It wasn't just Kindertransport that saved them of course.  That's where the Army, Navy and Royal Air Force come into it.  In the first two years of the war, Britain stood virtually alone against the Nazi menace.  Once the Allies came on board many thousands more British and Empire troops gave their lives.

If they hadn't done so, and had the Nazis rolled over this country, what hope then for my Dad and his brother? And what chance of life then for me and my kids?

That's why you shouldn't fret too much if you haven't joined the sharp elbows in the throng surrounding Paul Cummins installation in London.   The poppies that count are on a street corner near you, now.  Please give generously.

Picture
My Dad - Rudy Goldberg
6 Comments
Louise Hatcher
1/11/2014 01:35:06 am

Well I didn't know that! Very interesting read Goldie xxx

Reply
David Page
1/11/2014 04:14:43 am

Nicely written 'Gob on a stick'. The story makes Sir Nicholas Winton's achievement personal and since I know you even better. Well done and best wishes to your Dad and the family. You are a good man.

Reply
Colm O'Connor
1/11/2014 08:10:57 am

Hi Adrian
For me, the poppy issue it more complicated, but before explaining why, I must say that I find the post really moving and I think it's right to acknowledge the importance of the role and sacrifice of allied soldiers in the liberation of Europe. Furthermore the generosity of those involved in the kinder-transport programme should not be forgotten.

Now for my objections to the poppy:
1. The 'lest we forget' logic excludes civilian casualties which were nearly as high in scale. For this reason I favour the lesser-known white poppy which commemorates all victims.
2. The poppy (as far as I know) commemorates the 'sacrifice' of all British service personnel in all recent wars. What your post does, I think, is take the most morally sound of these wars (not with-standing the war crimes carried out by some of the same British forces e.g. the bombing of Dresden) and projects this moral purpose on to the other conflicts. Needless to say I object to this inference. Should we commemorate the role of British airmen in the gasing of Kurds in Iraq in 1920. This is perhaps the first use of air power against civilian targets- not the attacks of the Condor Legions in Spain in the late 1930s. Should the veterans of the Black and Tans be commemorated for their sacrifice and service in Ireland? Their role was anti-democratic. Should the service of the Paras who murdered 14 civilians on Bloody Sunday be commemorated? There are many other examples that could be given as I'm sure you know.
3. I don't accept the tone of WW1 commemoration, either in the UK, or increasingly in Ireland. Traditionally the Poppy was objected to in Ireland for nationalist reasons: it is not on this basis that I object. Rather, I feel that the Poppy reframes the reality of that war. Cameron and others portray the 'sacrifice' of the soldiers who were either killed or maimed as being in defence of British 'freedom' and the British 'way of life'. I think most object people would rather regard the war as an Imperial game of chess, in which millions of (generally poor) men died without really having any real quarrel. In what way (Mr Cameron) was the Kaiser threatening the British way of life? Was he planning an invasion? No- rather he was trying to emulate the British Empire, albeit in a clumsy, undiplomatic and risky manner. In reality WW1 most men joined for one of the following reasons (it seems to me):
a. they volunteered after hearing misleading xenophobic hype.
b. they volunteered as a result of economic need.
c. they volunteered in order to find adventure after hearing jingoistic lies
d. they were pressurised into joining through propaganda e.g. 'The Pals Batallions' and by women giving white feathers to those not wishing to go.

4. I dislike the sentiment of the poem Flanders Fields. The following lines are jingoinstic infact, not pacific in any way.
'Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If you break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields'
The poems of Siegfried Sassoon or Wilfred Owen would be more appropriate sources of remembrance, but they would be remembering in a more critical way than Cameron etc. would like.

5. However all of these reasons are dwarfed by the fact that, after 1916, when all of these manipulations became less effective, most men were conscripted. thus:

Many of those who died or were maimed or were shot for 'desertion' or who were shell-shocked were not volunteers. They did not sacrifice themselves; rather they were sacrificed, by an arrogant imperialist upper-class, who cared nothing about them.

Thus I would not wear the poppy as I believe it is, by definition some-what jingoist; I think it masks the manipulation of young men by previous governments and the wasting of their lives and thus, makes the whole thing more likely to happen again. We would be better served to remember the motiviations and interests of the powerful and means through which they manipulate the populace; one of which is, in my opinion, the poppy.

Reply
Wakey
2/11/2014 12:31:25 am

Adrian, my reason for wearing a poopy is more personal. When I was growing up my next door neighbour had fought in WW1 and had been awarded a medal for an act of extreme bravery at Ypres. He was a kind and gentle man who rarely spoke of the horrors he had witnessed. Like many young men he signed up as he believed it was his duty to seve King & Country. Irrespective of the why's and wherefore's these people made sacrifices so that we can have the freedoms we have today. That's why I wear a poppy and it always reminds me of that lovely old man and the part he played in my childhood

Reply
Veron Graham
3/11/2014 10:58:41 am

Well written Adrian.

It's the current /recent wars that have prompted me to wear one.

I've struggled with the notion of fighting for freedom in the world wars; as a black Briton of Caribbean descent, my forebears fought too but they didn't experience this freedom when they came here in the 50s. Our war was only just beginning.

The fact Hitler and Austria-Hungary drove towards war trying to.emulate the British Empire which enslaved people of colour around the world further sticks in my throat.

Still when I think of people half my age dying in war, I wear my poppy with pride and gratitude for them now.

Reply
Paula Elenor
4/11/2014 06:20:17 am

Dear Adrian
Thanks for this moving piece - a fitting tribute to your Dad too.
I always wear a poppy as an act of remembrance for all those who died in both world wars. And it makes me think about young men who have died in recent and current conflicts from all faiths and backgrounds across the world. I don' t think wearing a poppy encourages a rush into nationalistic gung-ho military action; rather it is a reminder that we should not rush into anything catastrophic, but also that some things really are worth fighting for. It is up to all of us to make our own meanings and convey them to others.

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    ​Radio, TV and podcasts

    @bylinetimespod 

    @TheLiquidatorP1

    Film maker

    CV - BBC 1 Watchdog, 5 Live Investigates.

    [email protected]

    Archives

    September 2022
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2018
    December 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    January 2017
    September 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014

    Categories

    All
    Music

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.