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Ancestor Worship
"And can anyone tell me the name of the little boy two from the end of the second row? The little dark haired boy with the round face." Liberman turned around to his class to see who had their hand raised. "Octavia Wolf." "Adolf Hitler, sir." "Adolf Hitler. And what do we know about Adolf Hitler?" Mindful of their teacher's ancestry the class trotted out all the bad and hideous things. "And tell me, ladies and gentlemen, knowing what we know and being who and what we are, would it be right to terminate this child now. Would we be within our rights to take this little man from school and destroy his life?" He looked around them and smiled as he saw their conflict. "No. We would not be right. Can anyone tell me why? Octavia?" "Because he hasn't done anything wrong." "Exactly. That little boy standing there for his school photograph is as innocent as the millions of people he would later condemn to death." "Wouldn't it also change history, sir?" "Yes Mr. Franklin, it would. It would cause a .....?" "Chronoclasm," the class said together. "A chronoclasm probably of gigantic and unknowable consequences. Without that little boy and what he experiences from here on in, there might well never be a second world war, never be a final solution. And what would that mean? It would mean millions of lives saved, maybe, but it might also mean millions of lives lost in a totally different way. It could mean that certain people do not embark on career choices that save sick people or stop aircraft crashing. We cannot know. I think in all probability I would now be talking to a totally different class of students," he grinned, "if I was talking at all. And the fact that I am means that no one ever took away my ancestors' choice of emigrating to America or dying in a gas chamber." He looked at his watch. "Very strange as it may seem to you, ladies and gentlemen, our time is up. I can't take you back to a time when you would not be late for your next classes if we stay here any longer." |