Kevin Still Hates That We're Jewish-- He Thinks That I'm Advocating Apostasy; But I'm Actually, Among Other Things, Holding Great-Granduncle Carl Up As a Hero

First, the part where I supplemented my original reply:

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2011/03/the_depths_of_f.html

Even more pro-FDR sources are conceding (even if between the lines) that FDR was a notorious, pro-Grand Mufti, pro-Hitler Anti Semite.

In a message... [I wrote]:

http://www.newsweek.com/1994/04/17/did-fdr-betray-the-jews.html

So why did Great-Grandma let the Anti Semites and Anti Missionaries scare her into enabling the murder of Vilmosz, David, Pepi, and their side of the family? Great-Granduncle Carl didn't.

In a message, [Kevin, who is being cocky and actually being rude as well as assuming in his position that the letters couldn't have been translated or that I could read at least the dates in Slovakian and/or maybe even Yidish] writes:
No mistake was uncovered. You wouldn't be able to read the letters anyway because they are written in Slovak. I don't appreciate your rudeness after the help I gave you in your genealogical quest...

My original reply:

I'm not trying to be rude, but I'm being blunt. Besides, as I said, " if the letters weren't so bad, why did Grandaunt Mary Ann not give the dates or specific contents of the letters?" Both of us have seen that this is a clear pattern in certainly the Fosko Family (I never heard that your great-granddad was sent away, let alone that you existed, for example!).



These cover ups (so many of them) have divided our family on our common and all sides right here in America; and some of us aren't even talking to each other because of the "Who's not telling what?" and "Who's hiding what?" games? Besides, how can we forgive and bring redemption into and out of family situations which we don't even know-- or talk-- about?



Whenever I heard Andrew and Julia Fosko Rusnak spoken of-- they were immigrants from Slovakia or Czechoslovakia who married in 1905, had kids, etc.. Never did I know that our family (even if I disagreed with some of the intent of their decisions)-- for example-- came over here to escape persecution after we couldn't assimilate in Slovakia; and many of us weren't just Crypto Jews (although some were, which is where I disagree with the intent: regardless of the meshuga AntiSemitism in the Church, we should've given Jesus a chance in our lives; and if and when our relatives thought that we were joining the traitors, so what?! And many of us were Jews who believed in Jesus; we were just too damned afraid and too damned quiet to emphasize that part) .



Truth is a lot better (even if stranger and more disquieting) than fiction. By the way, I look at Great-Granduncles Andy, Carl, and Joe all the more as heroes for their going over there (Well, Great-Granduncles Carl and Joe were able to; but on the homefront, there was still Anti Semitism and also that "You can't be a Jew for Jesus!" attitude that Great-Granduncle Andy had to deal with every day!).



And for example, with Great-Granduncle Carl; how would you have liked to ever have the possibility that you may have to step into especially Czechoslovakia and Hungary if the war took you there, particularly when the Germans were looking for Jewish (even Messianic (Christian) Jewish) military personnel and civilians to kidnap and ship off to murder and POW-murder camps? And given that the Rusnaks were a prominent family in Kosice, (Czecho)Slovakia (Kassa, Hungary); the Germans and other Anti Semites would be on the lookout for Rusnaks trying to come in and help Vilmosz et. al.-- and other Jewish people trying to help others.



(By the way, I'm not saying that, that excuses Great-Grandma's stopping to write either: letters seemed bad enough to smuggle; but Great-Granduncle Carl put himself there for his country and fellow Jews in and who were certainly at risk because the Holocaust-- even if you were in a Jew in the Allied Countries, you were at risk; and actually, that's part of why Great-Grandma should've helped instead of hurt Vilmosz et. al. all the more: so to speak and pardon my language, screw FDR and his isolationist, pro-UN and pro-Grand Mufti, Anti-Jewish and Anti-Israel policies!



(FDR was a known Anti Semite who wanted to not just stay out of ending the Holocaust and out of World War, but also to hurt the Jews and-- for a lack of a better term and if you will, since this how Anti Semites like FDR would've thought-- "let Europe take care of the Jews". FDR actually even wrote a letter saying that he did not support the founding of a Jewish state in the Middle East, and he appointed Bernard Baruch as his scapegoat to take blame for what was often called "The Jew Deal".)



Given, then, the example of the recollection of FDRs and other Anti-Semitic WASPs-- and Anti-Semitic Europe-- on one hand, and the Antimissionary (Anti-Messianic-Jewish) crowd on the other; Great-Granduncles Carl, Joseph, and Andy, and others who have a place of honor within the family history and within history; shouldn't we at least tell what really happened to honor those who did the right thing and brought redemption into and out of our family, instead of covering even the good up with the bad?



As I said, for instance, Great-Granduncle Carl did put himself over there knowing that the European Theater could take him in the footsteps of his parents and right into the hands of Germans who were looking for more Jewish Rusnaks and other Jews to kidnap and imprison in murder camps-- and what Mary Rusnak Gaydos did makes her brother Carl all the braver and more righteous: Sgt. Carl Rusnak basically stood up and said by standing up, "I'm going to go over there and help our family, help our fellow Jews, and help my native country-- even if many of them don't like Jews! I'm not going to let the Anti Semites and Antimissionaries scare me out of doing the right thing."



Nicole