Attila, Fencer, Jew

poem

Peter W. Petschauer

Abstract

I rediscovered you
not so long ago
on the Internet, no less.
Surely not by accident –
this other man with my father’s name,
Hungarian and Jew, journalist and fencer!

Keywords:

Attila the Hun, father-son relationship, Jewish identity, journalissm, poem, psychohistory, psychology of terror, terrorism

I rediscovered you
not so long ago
on the Internet, no less.
Surely not by accident –
this other man with my father’s name,
Hungarian and Jew, journalist and fencer!

Did my father know you?
Did you know my father?
Did either of you know Wilda?
The actor and writer –
our namesake in Prague?
A Jew as well, unlike my father,
who thought himself German –
from another province of Austria-Hungary.
The empire that had been home for you all.

Page 160

Self-inflicted war destroyed
this collection of nations and ethnicities.
At Versailles the Allies freed each of you
from your imperial home —
they said you should fend for yourself.
Instead, you fought one another –
having discovered your separate identities.

What were your parents thinking
when they named you Attila –
scourge of Europe centuries ago?
Did they anticipate your fame –
at the Olympics in 1928 and 1932?

Fencing was your métier.
You harvested medals –
became a national hero –
celebrated in press and radio.
But the Nazis overran your country.
And like your namesake in Prague –
they tortured you to death
in a concentration camp.

Attila, how dare you disturb
my peace with your heritage?
A heritage that questions my own?
German and American –
son of a German from Slovenia.

Did my father know you?
Did my father know of you?
Did my father stay quiet –
to avoid guilt by association
and death by camp?

Page 161

About the author

Peter W. Petschauer

Peter W. Petschauer, PhD, New York University, taught at Appalachian State University, 1968-2006. (Now a writer and poet.) Initially courses in European and Russian History, later women and children.

Several administrative positions.

Also chair of Appalachian’s faculty senate and then chair of UNC-System’s faculty assembly.

Now on two arts-related boards at ASU and on two boards of psychohistorical journals.

Books: Faustina. Ein freies Mädchen und eine gefangene Fürstin. Das einzigartige Paar auf dem Römerhof bei Erlstätt (Faustina. A free girl and a captive duchess. The unique pair on the Roman farm near Erlstätt), 2025;Was man so Alles lernt, (All the Things one Learns) 2024; In Troubled Times Beauty. Listen to Rarely Heard Voices (poetry), 2022; An Immigrant in the 1960s. Finding Hope and Success in New York City; Hopes and Fears. Past and Present (poetry); A Perfect Portrait, about a young female artist in 18^th-century Weimar; In the Face of Evil. The Sustenance of Traditions; The Father and the SS.