partly

There is much going on in my life, most of which is post worthy. As usual, this means I'm not posting anything. I've got to figure that out sometime.

In the meantime, here is a Random Thought of the Day:

While checking out the headlines I came across "Sound of Music" Plan Protested, which talks about how there are plans to turn the von Trapp's Austrian house into a hotel and how the neighbors aren't fond of this idea. Standard stuff. However, in the middle of the article, there is this paragraph:

Baron Georg Ludwig von Trapp, the real-life widower, lived in the villa with his family from 1923 to 1938. After the Nazis confiscated the property in 1939, SS chief Heinrich Himmler moved in and stayed until 1945.

And my first thought was "Why would anyone want to stay in a house where Himmler lived?".

My daughter had an interesting comment the other day. She said: "Did you realize that every breath you take has been breathed by someone else -- thousands and thousands of people have already breathed the air that you do." (Being who she is, she followed that by saying "Einstein could have breathed the air already!".)

I just don't think I want to breathe the air that Himmler breathed. Or sleep in a room where he could have happily planned the death of millions. Most importantly, I wouldn't want to do either of those things without acknowledging what I was doing.

It seems like such a odd, throw-away line in the article. As much as I love the story in "The Sound of Music" and admire the perseverance of the van Trapp's, Himmler's presence in the house has much more of a historical impact. How many people visit the site without ever thinking about the evil that resided there after the von Trapp's left? How does the van Trapp's escape from Austria/defiance of the Nazis overshadow Himmler's role in the very Holocaust they were running from? How does Himmler get reduced down to an afterthought in an article about romance-driven tourist attraction?

It's a strange world we live in.