Tr. Anthea Bell
This secondhand memory going back over half a century is horrible enough, yet it is only a tiny part of what we do not know.
What we do not know. On the Natural History of Destruction
is a pair of strong arms that grasp you by your shoulders and force you round to face the sight of things you want forgotten: we would rather medicate pain than deal with it. Sebald remarks the paucity in German society of attempts to be with the horrors of WWII. Sebald points out a conspicuous absence through admission that borders on denial. It seems that German literature, with a few exceptions, has acknowledged that the horrors (Stalingrad to U-boats to Auschwitz to Dresden to Surrender to Nazism) of WWII happened, but has gone no further. We did it. It happened. You did it. We've moved on. But Sebald argues that this sort of approach to such horrific atrocities is a very cheap escape.With a coldly critical eye, Sebald proceeds to slowly turn each page of the lauded German literature that claims to deal with the most evil and painful aspects of WWII. Mostly he finds that people do not deal with it. History and remembrance begin somewhere after 1947 or even later. And who can blame them? Who can face these things? Who wouldn't rather not know?
We like our wars to be won or over. That was then and now we're here and no longer there. Think of Iraq. Most of the Americans you ask about it will tell you that we just need to get out of there. Whether they were against it from the first, fully in support of it, disillusioned, or never really cared, the near-unanimous stance now seems to be that it's time to leave. Even those who believe we must stay in Iraq out of a responsibility to provide stability think the sooner we get out the better. And how will we deal with it? It's over. Think about the first Gulf War...what war? It happened, sure it was tough, all war is, but it's over now, we've moved on, they've moved on. Everyone's doing their thing...
We don't want to deal with our wars anymore than the Germans wanted to deal with theirs. Without doubt the collective culpability of societies like Germany and Japan after WWII was far greater and a much harder weight to slide out from under, but whether you would find the US guilty in either Iraq war or not, you cannot doubt that we do not want to deal with it.
The closest anyone comes is to talk about the returning veterans with PTSD or the collateral damage (all those other people who happen to be killed, dismembered, or in other ways have the life in their bodies displaced). But think about it: what have you heard that faces the Iraq War? What have you seen? What do you know?
The 'second-hand memory going back over half a century' that Sebald cites is this:
There was a bunker built in the middle of the meadow, said to be bombproof, made of concrete with a pitched roof....Fourteen hundred people took shelter there after the first night of terror. The bunker received a direct hit and burst apart. The extent of what happened then must have been apocalyptic....Hundreds of people outside, including my mother, were waiting to be taken to an assembly camp in Pinneberg. To reach the trucks, they had to climb over mountains of corpses, some completely dismembered, all lying around on the meadow among the remains of the former bombproof bunker. Many could not help vomiting when they saw the scene, many vomited as they trampled over the dead, others collapsed and lost consciousness. So my mother told me.
Remember that this is only a tiny part of what we do not know. So then think of what you do know about Iraq, Afghanistan, or the first Gulf War. It is very many very horrible things, what we do not know.
I remember watching the opening movements of 'Shock and Awe' on the television, live. In that unique green of nightvision, things flashed in the Iraqi night sky. I watched this on television. This was people dying. This was death. This was people hiding in their basements because the buildings were being unbuilt. And I called it 'the opening movements'.
Have you ever seen such a small moment of violence....some image or footage of a shattered limb or a corpse....and felt it in your stomach and your heart because it was real and horrible and you could imagine it being your limb, your corpse? Always remember that it was only a tiny part of what we do not know. Vollmann's question comes back: How can we not know what goes on in this world?
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