Just a Little Bit Closer

With  temperatures predicted to remain in the low 30s and snow in the forecast for the week ahead, I feel comfortable believing that winter is now upon us.  Though I'm not usually a fan of the cold months, I am very much looking forward to seeing the city covered in a blanket of snow, especially because I have imagined visiting a white market all my life in my dreams of the quintessential Christmas.  Once Advent begins this weekend, I can justify listening to the Philadelphia Brass' Christmas carols recording, or indulge in Pavarotti's album of Catholic hymns.  Three weeks of teaching remain, and if the past two weeks are any indication of how time will pass, I'll be on my flight from Munich to Boston via Heathrow before I know it. 

My seminar at the university falls within the curriculum for a Master's program, so most of the students are a few years older than I, and the work load is quite demanding.  It focuses on using a database of video interviews with Holocaust survivors, perpetrators, and liberators, which was actually established by Stephen Spielberg after he completed filming Schindler's List in 1993.  The semester began by understanding the art, if you will, of interviewing - techniques, psychological underpinnings, historical reliance, format, presentation, etc.  For the past six weeks or so, we each have been working on our semester project, picking a particular theme or angle, and creating an 8 minute video by cutting one person's multi-hour testimony into a cohesive narrative about that perspective.  Thinking in line with my research, I wanted to investigate how religious and national identity play a role in emotional attachment to a traumatic event, which, in this case was the loss of one's entire family to the Holocaust.  I selected a woman whose parents sent her to London from Berlin in 1939 at the age of 11, before the "Final Solution" was agreed upon.  She was raised Jewish, but adopted the Anglican faith of her foster family.  During her formative years at a Church of England boarding school, she decided to convert to Roman Catholicism.  She had said that her German accent was the subject of many jokes at school, which she found tremendously harmful, because back home she was ostracized for not being German, and here, she was mocked for being German.  Confusion.  Was she German?  Was she English?  Was she Jewish?  Anglican? Catholic?  At the war's end, and to to her death, she did not know.  She felt nothing for religion, believing that religion only divides people.  Her case is particularly interesting in that, although she was called a "Holocaust survivor," she experienced the genocide from afar, from Great Britain.  She saw no one murdered, she did not live in the camps, she did not ride on an overfilled cattle car, she did not smell death, she saw not one S.S. soldier.  In comparison to other witnesses' testimonies, hers is entirely devoid of affect and is wholly objective.  It was such a stark difference to others that I have viewed, that it made me realize that how one identifies oneself is directly linked to affective response, which, in this case, can also be attributed to physical distance, removal, from the source of trauma.  Last Thursday, we were supposed to have submitted our videos online, but, what I didn't realize was that we had an oral presentation.  Naturally, I was the first selected to go.  So, on the spot, in German, I explained my thought process, my reasons for selecting the clips I had, and analyzing my thesis in front of the class, which actually went a lot smoother than I had thought.  Afterwards, I entertained a Q&A session with my classmates on Holocaust education in the U.S. (which coincidentally mirrors the relation between Holocaust and individual that my project illustrated / i.e., distance) and Europe, as well as trends in national identity, particularly in German-speaking countries, in the post-war period.  I answered questions for nearly 45 minutes, and I know it was really enlightening for both my classmates and myself - totally enjoyed it. The best part about it, I've completed my work for the entire semester, and all I have to do now is watch and listen to my classmates' reports.  Another cool thing about the language - my classmates address me as "Herr Kollege," which just sounds nice!

Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I went out to dinner with friends to SoCal and Thai restaurants, respectively.  It was a little taste of home, and a big taste of spice, which was heavenly!  Austrians are afraid of spice, I feel, and boy, was it nice to have that tingling sensation again.  

After teaching Wednesday morning, I was off to Vienna for a few hours.  The Fulbright Commission had arranged a reception at the American ambassador's residence in a beautiful neighborhood of the city.  Upon arrival, the sun was out (which was not the case back in Salzburg), it was in the mid-50s, and it was just so great to be back.  It was straight to dinner with several other researchers, and then right to the reception for a punctual 6pm arrival.  *Necessary Tangent - Austrians are positively horrible at indoor climate control.  Imagine this: its snowing outside, you're wearing a heavy woolen coat, with a sweater underneath.  The moment you step inside, your glasses fog up and you begin sweating uncontrollably because its 85 degrees inside!  This was certainly the case at this reception.  50 people inside a small-ish room, wearing wool suits, etc., and it was at least 80 degrees in there - no exaggeration.  Classrooms, the buses, restaurants...they're all the same.  Open a window!  End rant.*  As nice as the evening was, I had to rush out a bit early to catch the train back to Salzburg because I had early classes the next morning.  Too, too short of a time in Vienna.  I wish I could have stayed overnight and maybe met up with a few friends for coffee or a concert, but that'll have to wait until the next time.

I have a four day weekend this time around (yay!), and instead of travelling, I've decided to enjoy a relaxing weekend here.  Today was some work in the morning, and then sampling a hole-in-the-wall café in the Altstadt which makes various fresh Strudels each day and which comes highly recommended.  Tomorrow, it's some more paperwork, some Christmas shopping, and a quaint Christmas market in a palace courtyard just south of the city, and on Sunday a small group of us will be going to the Salzburg vs. Vienna football match, which is supposedly the game of the year, deciding first and second place positions in their league.  I can get used to weekends like this.