Mocking History?

A very interesting point in Chapter 5 was the narrators mocking tone towards major occurences in Billy´s life. For example, the differences in terms of the treatment the Germans gave the Englishmen, Russians, and Americans covered a wide range. Englishmen supposedly had become officers and monitored the camp, yet it seems harsh they would betray their nation after fighting for it. Hard for me to accept, but I would also act this way. "With desperate times comes desperate measures." I once heard this and completely support the message; eventhough I´ve never been in a position so demanding, if need was unbearable, I´d probably take many unmoral decisions. Patrotism would be the last thing on my mind, were I part of the Englishmen. Amazingly, on page 95, the Englishmen refer to the Germans as "Jerry" and thank the Americans for putting up a good show, promising "Jerry was on the run."

The narrator insists these men made "war look stylish and reasonable, and fun", yet the English make it obvious they can´t wait to be back in England, and one of the reasons may be the lack of female companionship. Men are often sex-driven and nowadays, very scandalous about it. I find it offensive towards the female figure, thus I often feel men are controlled by their animal insitinct. This is contradictory because most men strive to leave their "animality" behind and often insult each other with animal characteristics.    

I feel a bit crestfallen by how a human´s death is compared to water´s, animals, and champagne´s "death." I don´t mean to undervalue animal life, but I do feel like something as simple as a drink shouldn´t be considered as valuable as human life. "So it goes."

Shockingly, Americans and Russians don´t live in squalor. Billy is clearly treated the worst, even his fellow Americans treat him in an irrespectful way, but in the book´s context, the life quality exceeds anyhting I ever imagined for war prisioners during the Holocaust. Their welcome included "a safety razor, a washcloth, a package of razor blades, a chocolate bar, two cigars, a bar of soap, ten cigarettes, a box of matches, a pencil, and a candle." Actually, it was considered a miracle to have a pencil, and you were really lucky if you had more than a stub. Afterwards, the narrator mentions a ghastly "fact", the candles and soap were made of fat from Gypsies, Jews, communists, "and other enemies of the state." I suddenly remembered my visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which I visited long time ago, but still haven´t been able to forget. These places are made to honor the dead and remind people what happened,. Nevertheless, I´d still like to consign the following memories into oblivion:

 

1. An actual boxcar from WWII as part of the exposition.

2. The testimonies written by various survivors.

3. Germans boasted that they filled pillows with Jews´ hair and made furniture with skin.

4. Nazis used to experiment on prisoners to develop cures for diseases and military equipment.

This last point leads me to think that Billy may be crazy, and that his "abductions" by Trafalmadorians were what he made up to ignore or overcome experiments he was sumitted to, but this is only an idea.