Rita Gabis is the author of two
books of poetry, co-author of a book on the craft of writing, and currently at
work on "A Guest at the Shooters' Banquet" — a memoir due out from
Bloomsbury US in the fall of 2015. Her awards include residencies at Yaddo and
the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, as well as grants from the
Connecticut State Arts foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts
(NYFA). Her publication list includes Harvard Review, The Massachusetts Review,
Poetry, and most recently Salamander and the anthology "Lit from Inside: Forty Years of
Poetry from Alice James Books." She lives in
New York City where she teaches Creative Writing at Hunter College. Her latest book is A
Guest at the Shooters' Banquet: My Grandfather's SS Past, My Jewish Family, A
Search for the Truth, in
which she investigates her grandfather’s hidden past during the Holocaust.
1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
I became "hooked" on history at a very young
age. I was always a voracious reader and
some of my favorite books as a young girl were biographies of historical
figures. Harriet Tubman, Abigail Adams,
and George Washington Carver are just a handful of many I read eagerly. I loved the feeling of being given access to
a different life, time, and place and vividly recall sitting on the carpeted
floor of the library near the history and biography shelves with a huge stack
of books beside me.
2. What
role does history play or has it played in your personal life?
The role of history in my personal life is
immense. I am the child of first and second generation immigrants from
Eastern Europe, Jewish on my father's side, Catholic on my mother's. As a
teen, I discovered the writing of James Baldwin and his quote "know whence
you came and there is no limit to where you can go" became a
favorite. To me both then and now, the quote means, know the personal
history of those who brought you into this world, and know as much as you can
of the world they and those who came before them were born into. Without that,
self-knowledge is hard to come by. In addition, my mother was a great traveler
and in preparation for each journey she schooled herself deeply in the history
of places as varied as Egypt, China, and Turkey. Today, she is no longer able
to travel, but the places she explored and their distinct histories are among
her most valued treasures. Through her I learned that history is a door
to a deeper experience of the life we live in the moment.
3. How
is/How was history a part of your professional life/career?
In my professional life as both a writer and a teacher
of writing, history is vital. I have just finished writing a family
memoir after five years of sifting through historical documents in several
different languages and conducting interviews with elderly people about their
experiences before, during, and after WWII. Beyond that, when I teach
creative writing I my students read many different kinds of writers. If
the writers I assign are not contemporary, I always ask my students to learn
about the time period in which the writer lived and wrote. That
historical context is not always necessary to fall in love with a poem or a novel
or a short story, but sometimes it can give the reader/aspiring writer
wonderful insight into both the author and the work of art. It also helps
the writer understand how she or he is influenced by their own time.
4. Why is
studying/knowing history important?
Studying history is essential! First of all, it
makes your world larger and when your world view is deeper and richer, your
ideas and your sense of self and possibility become deeper and richer as
well. History forces us to ask what kind of people we want to be in the
world in our own time. When we read about lives lived before us or events
that took place before our time we become more aware of the fact that people
impact the world(s)--both large and small--they live in. What do we want
our impact to be? How do we want the world to change? What part of
history do we wish we could have taken part in? What historical period or
event do we hope never happens again? Often these questions help to shape
the choices we make about what we want to study in college or make our life's
work about. The history of a crucial vaccine might make you want to
become a medical researcher/scientist. A knowledge of the history of
slavery might compel you to become a civil rights lawyer!
5. What is
your favorite period or aspect of history to learn about and why?
My "favorite" period in history…well
"favorite" is perhaps the wrong word. My latest book is about
the Holocaust, the German occupation of Eastern Europe during WWII, and local
collaboration in the massacres of both Jews and non-combatant Poles during that
same war. As I said earlier, for five years I immersed myself in this
horrific time period. In order to write my book, I had to learn
everything I could about the terrible atrocities that occurred in a particular
region of Lithuania, an Eastern European country roughly the size of New
Jersey. In addition, I had to learn about the broader history of the
country to understand the lasting impact of earlier wars and occupations.
Much of what I researched was heartbreaking, I also learned about acts of great
courage and compassion. We live in a world where genocide continues
everyday, so I feel that the work I did for my book which is about the past,
helps me to understand the present.
6. Tell us about your book A Guest at the
Shooters' Banquet: My Grandfather's SS Past, My Jewish Family, A Search for the
Truth?
As I mentioned earlier, I come from a blended
family. My Lithuanian Catholic mother emigrated from Lithuania to the
United States with her father and her siblings several years after the
war. My Jewish father's parents came to the United States from Eastern
Europe via London around 1910 after a wave of pogroms or mass killings of Jews
in the Ukraine and Belorussia in particular convinced them that it was too
dangerous to stay in Eastern Europe. I had always been told that my
Lithuanian Catholic grandfather fought against the Russians who invaded
Lithuania before the Germans and who arrested thousands (including my Lithuanian
grandmother) and sent them to prison or labor camps in what was known as the
Siberian gulag. But after my Jewish father died, I found myself wanting
to learn more about his history and the history of the Lithuanian side of my
family. I began doing research and eventually asked my mother what
exactly her father did during the war. This is how I learned that he
worked under the Gestapo as a Chief of Security police. The security
police in Lithuania were responsible for finding Communists, runaway Jews, and
anyone involved in sabotaging the German occupation force and the German war
effort. Many members of the security police were part of shooting squads
active particularly at the beginning of the war. These squads murdered
95% of the Jewish population of Lithuania by shooting them at sites all over
the country where pits had been dug and then covered up with dirt and lime when
the killing was done.
7. What
prompted you to undertake project and how did it change you?
Researching and writing "A Guest at the Shooters'
Banquet: My Grandfather and the SS, My Jewish Family, A Search for the
Truth" changed my life in many ways. It forced me to confront a
multifaceted, horrific reality about a family member I had known and
loved. It challenged me to do my research carefully, to not jump to easy
conclusions, to travel to the country where my mother and her father were born
many times and learn as much as I could about the country's history both during
my grandfather's early life and many decades before. I had to ask myself
what being "half-Jewish" and "half-Lithuanian" meant to
me. I had to write about my grandfather's actions during the war as his
granddaughter but also as a researcher. I had to let as much of the
"truth" as I could discover be more important than the bonds of
family and the silences within my family. I set out with a simple
question: did my grandfather hurt anyone during the war? I
interviewed people who told me of the most difficult events in their
lives. I had to honor the trust they placed in me and at the same time,
continue to check their stories against other stories, documents, the work of
many other historians. Memory is a wild card. But memory is also
who we were, what we lived through, who we have become. I was determined
that the war stories people were courageous enough to tell me would not be lost
and that my grandfather's actions be presented within the framework of his
history--his childhood, his young adulthood, who he hoped to be, who he became.
Dean
Karayanis Dean earned an
Animal Science degree from Rutgers University and also wrote for Rutgers’
newspaper which indulged his love of history and other subjects as well. After
years in veterinary medicine, Dean dedicated himself to writing full time. His
resume includes a stint working for President Bill Clinton’s White House
political adviser, writing and appearing in comedy opens on Rush
Limbaugh the Television Show, web production, and authoring Regional Greek Cooking
with his
wife — the daughter of a history teacher in Canada. He lives in New Jersey
where he continues to work on novels of historical fiction.
1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on
history?
I
guess I have always been what they call an "old soul." I knew that my
mother had suffered through the Blitz as a little girl in London, so I felt
drawn to the period of World War Two at an early age. After all, had Hitler hit
the mark, I would not have been born. Plus, our area of Bergen County, New
Jersey, is quite rich with Revolutionary War history, and I felt as if George
Washington was around any given corner, as the signs pointed to his Retreat Route all along my daily routes.
I
attended Lincoln School in Bergenfield, New Jersey, for Kindergarten through
sixth grade. I remember looking at the Great Emancipator's craggy, resolute but
sad face and wanting to learn more about him. Our school song, incidentally,
was written to John Philip Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever, and I
still hear the words in my head all the years later, even when playing it
myself back in my marching band days at Cresskill High School and at Rutgers
University.
2. What role does history play or has it played
in your personal life?
As
I grew older, I saw history as a great road map to life, almost like a secret
store of knowledge that only I possessed. The people who came before us
lived lives. They made mistakes and failed. They worked hard and had great
triumphs. Why stumble around in the dark and suffer the same pitfalls when we
could learn, say, from Theodore Roosevelt or Winston Churchill what not to
do? At different times in life, I've looked to different historical figures for
inspiration, to take the best parts of them and try to improve the worst parts
of myself.
For
example, William McKinley, our 25th president (1897-1901). After the assassin
Leon Czolgosz shot him, the crowd at Buffalo's Temple of Music began to beat
Czolgosz and call for his lynching. McKinley had taken bullets to the chest and
stomach, so he had to be in great pain as blood spread across his shirt. But he
used what little breath he had to command his guards, "Go easy on him
boys," and then to say, "Don't let them hurt him." His next
thoughts were of his wife, Ida, telling his secretary, "Be careful how you
tell her."
I
am often humbled by that moment in McKinley's life, and how he faced death in
his final hours, saying, "It's God's will, not ours. God's will be
done," and how that moment inspired the shocked and heartbroken nation. He
had been, after all, the most popular president since Lincoln. I know that if I
was in McKinley's shoes -- shot twice after surviving four years serving for
the Union in the Civil War -- I'd be very different. Who wouldn't be? Most
people would be mad at their guards (the Secret Service only took over
protection of the president after this incident), mad at the assassin, and mad
at God.
But
McKinley had a modest, quite temperament. Even when shot and bleeding, he
thought only of others. Examples like that inspire me to be a better person.
3. How is/How was history a part of your
professional life/career?
Well,
I'm hosting The
History Author Show, and I've done other history-related writings, including for my
day jobs. In the news business, I'm always there with this or that reference to
the past -- or correction when some politician gets a fact or a quote wrong.
Once, when I worked for a pet TV show, I did a segment called Breed of the
Week, which I would always start off with a short package on the history of
each dog or cat. My degree, by the way, is in Animal Science, showing that you
can use and benefit from history in any field.
4. Why is studying/knowing history important?
I
can expand on my answer above, I guess, and the metaphor. I recently
interviewed Rinker Buck, author of The Oregon Trail: A New American
Journey.
Literally nobody alive could tell him how to make that trip. Nobody could tell
him if he'd get over some rough patches of mountains, or how often to shoe the
mules, or how many spare brake pads to pack. So he had to relearn all those
things along the way -- with the help of his brother Nick, who is fortunately a
mechanic.
If
there had been pioneers alive that Rinker Buck could have asked for advice,
he'd have certainly taken it. As it was, he read all the trail journals and
diaries he could. Imagine how much easier the trip would have been had he had
first-hand advice, or how much harder it would have been if he'd skipped all
the material written by people who'd gone over the trail in the mid-1800s.
Well,
wherever we aim to go in life, there's someone who has traveled that trail
before us. Read and learn from their lessons. Let them make mistakes and solve
problems so we don't have to struggle quite so hard.
Supreme
City by Donald L. Miller and
Madison's Gift by David O. Stewart are also great examples of
what you can learn in history. I asked Don Miller if he had given our
current New York City Mayor, Bill de Blasio, a copy of the Supreme City,
because de Blasio is infamously, chronically late. You see, Mayor Jimmy Walker
was also always late back in the Jazz Age, but he had such charm and good humor
that everyone forgave him.
In Madison's
Gift, David O. Stewart discusses how the 4th president honestly evaluated
his weaknesses and sought out people like his wife
Dolley or George Washington who had what he lacked. Those are great
lessons for anyone.
Without
history, we're driving to a place we've never been without reading the owners
manual of the car or using any sort of road map or GPS. Sure, you can do it,
but it's a lot harder.
5. What is your favorite period or aspect of
history to learn about and why?
I
can sit looking at old pictures of New York City or reading archive news
stories about it all day, specifically William McKinley's era. Here I can
mention another book: New York City in the Gilded Age, by my friend Esther
Crain of Ephemeral New York. That period is not too terribly far from ours,
or so different. At least when I was growing up, it still seemed recent. Plus,
you can still see so many of the legacies of those days today.
It's
after the Civil War, but before the World Wars, so the Gilded Age sort of gets
lost. Again, I guess it's part of my quest for secret or forgotten knowledge.
People tend to look at the U.S. presidents between Lincoln and Theodore
Roosevelt as a blur of bearded, mutton-chopped faces. But they are quite
interesting, and there's a real tug-of-war between the executive and
legislative branches during that time, as Congress tries to draw back some of
the power it lost to Lincoln when he was fighting the rebellion.
6. What is the premise of the History Author
Show?
Well,
as we write on iTunes and elsewhere where people find us: "A special
book, person or place has the power to transport us into the past, to times and
moments long before we were born. You may reach the last page of a biography
and mourn a person who died a century ago, or meet a fictional character so
vivid, you become lifelong friends. The History Author Show vaults beyond the
usual layman's questions, and offers a show by history lovers for history
lovers. Enjoy fascinating guests who write history in their daily lives,
including award-winning writers from publishers like Simon & Schuster.
These are the people who build time machines with their words."
7. What can listeners expect to hear in your
shows?
You're
going to hear more from Pulitzer Prize-winning authors like Michael Hiltzik ("Big
Science") and New York Times best-sellers like the other authors I've
mentioned. But my correspondents and I are also going to cast a wide net for
people who may never write their experiences in a book, but who are the keepers
of history just the same. For example, you'll hear my interview with Dan
Demiglio
from Callahan’s
Hot Dogs.
Dan's
grandfather bought a simple hot dog stand in New Jersey after he returned from
serving in World War Two (Dan always wears his dog tags), and it endured for
over half a century at the same location, growing into a legend. Dan made a
deathbed promise to his grandfather that he'd take over the business, which is
all he'd ever dreamed of doing. Even when his family sold the original
restaurant (where my parents had their first date), Dan was undeterred. He
resurrected the business a few years ago, and it has exploded across northern
New Jersey as people race to taste a bite of the past. I like to say Dan is
writing history with ketchup and mustard, just as his grandfather did in
1950.
You'll
also hear us on location at places like the James A Garfield National Historic Site, or talking to people
with famous ancestors like Jonathan Sandys, the great-grandson of Winston
Churchill -- who has an upcoming book called God & Churchill: How the Great
Leader's Sense of Divine Destiny Changed His Troubled World and Offers Hope for
Ours. Generally,
you're just going to hear some real conversations with passionate people,
excited to share the stories of people who passed this way on the trail before
all of us.
Rita Gabis is the author of two
books of poetry, co-author of a book on the craft of writing, and currently at
work on "A Guest at the Shooters' Banquet" — a memoir due out from
Bloomsbury US in the fall of 2015. Her awards include residencies at Yaddo and
the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, as well as grants from the
Connecticut State Arts foundation and the New York Foundation for the Arts
(NYFA). Her publication list includes Harvard Review, The Massachusetts Review,
Poetry, and most recently Salamander and the anthology "Lit from Inside: Forty Years of
Poetry from Alice James Books." She lives in
New York City where she teaches Creative Writing at Hunter College. Her latest book is A
Guest at the Shooters' Banquet: My Grandfather's SS Past, My Jewish Family, A
Search for the Truth, in
which she investigates her grandfather’s hidden past during the Holocaust.
1. How and/or when did you get you hooked on history?
6. Tell us about your book A Guest at the
Shooters' Banquet: My Grandfather's SS Past, My Jewish Family, A Search for the
Truth?
