Thank you for that. But it shaped who we are today.
My great grandfather was a leftist and out spoken against the Franco dictatorship and their abuses. For that, he was dragged out of the house he shared with his wife and five children, including my grandafther, the only boy and the eldest. He was shot on the street next to their house.
My grandfather was 12 at the time. He became an ardent communist as a result, due to a hatred of the rightist regime. When he came of age, he too, was arrested. But he had tons of friends who had connections and he was eventually released.
My dad came to this country at age 21. He was unable to go back to visit for the next ten years. He left his entire support system behind - his huge family, his community, etc., and worked his behind off for my mom and his kids. He only went back after ten years because his mother was dying. He didn't dare go back before because coming from the family he did, the regime would not have looked kindly on his leaving and he could have been at risk of arrest. It was bitterly hard for him.
On the other side, my grandparents were very young parents when war broke out in Holland and the Nazi's occupied their country. My grandfather, a big, strong policeman at the time, wept when his little country's efforts to protect their nation, failed. But after that, he joined the thousands of brave, young Dutch people who formed an underground to resist the occupiers. My grandmother did things like delivered illegal British newspapers to people, after curfew. They had no other source of news. She almost got caught when a neighbor freaked and opened the door wide, letting light out into the street, after she knocked and gave him his paper. He got too excited I guess but it immediately sparked the sound of boots rushing to his home (the city was in blackout and the curfew meant no citizen could be outside their homes).
My grandmother hid in a drainage ditch with her bike when she heard the boots. She saw the neighbor slowly reveal what he had behind his back and point towards her home. She rushed down a back alley and she and my grandfather and their two little kids rushed to flush and burn all the illegal newspapers they had.
My grandfather has privileges as a police officer. He could walk around the city unfettered. He was to report suspicion things he saw regarding Nazi activity by writing code on a small piece of paper and putting it behind a loose brick in a wall. he only saw something once though, when he saw soldiers putting U-boats into the harbor. He reported via the slip of paper and on illegal radio they later heard of a massive shelling of U-boats in the English channel. He wondered if that was because of what he saw and reported.
He and his buddies also did other things. Many he would never talk about. One he did talk about was holding up a Nazi supply truck. The whole neighborhood, most of whom were starving at the time, had a feast for a week from the proceeds of the theft of Dutch products being shipped to German officials. I have a feeling that the driver did not survive that encounter but my grandfather didn't say.
I am very proud of my lineage. I think about how scary it would be to speak out knowing your own dad was assassinated in the street for it or being part of a secret, underground resistance movement when it could cost you your life and leave your children parent-less. I often wonder if I would have the same courage to speak out or stand up for my beliefs in the face of such horror.
But their experiences have given me an enormous appreciation for the protections our constitution afford us. Even when those protections taste bitter because they protect an obvious child killer.
It rankles but it is necessary so the things that happened to my family can't happen to us.
rayer:
