History

"History"
--by Daniel Droller
The day had been going slowly. On other days I had been more successful in my research on the connection between Switzerland and Nazi gold. However, today I
hadn't found anything substantial yet. I couldn't stop myself from looking at my watch to see if a time had come when I could take the shuttle back to Washington.
Josh, the other intern, had been luckier. He had found a new piece of information dealing with Herman Goering. Like other information we had uncovered at the
National Archives 2, it could be extremely important for the Senate Banking
Committee, or just a widely know fact with which we would be wasting our
supervisor's time. At any rate, he flagged it for copying and kept on searching his box.
I finished my box of files, checked my watch again, and decided that I could search
through one more box before I had to take the hour-long bus ride back. The group
of records on the next cart was marked "Top Secret Intercepted Messages from the
U.S. Military Attaché in Berne, Switzerland, to the War Department in Washington D.C." Following the Archives' procedures, I took one box off of the cart, then one
folder out of the box, put the box in the middle of the table, and started looking through documents in the folder.
In this folder there was one document that caught my eye. It was dated "23
February 1945" and contained information sent to Washington on bombings of the
previous day. Many of the documents I had gone through had recounted battles and bombings as well as the areas affected by these. What was different about this document was that the cities listed as being bombed were Swiss cities. This was
very strange because Switzerland was a neutral country and its cities shouldn't have been bombed. I recognized the names of many of the cities that were mentioned in the message, since I had gone to visit these when I had visited my mother's family in Switzerland. They were listed as follows:
B-17's. Fighters at 1240 machine0gunned military post near Lohn north of
Scahffhausen. 3 wounded.
At 1235 Stein on Rhine bombed. 7 dead. 16 wounded. 3 children missing.
About halfway through the list I saw the following:
At 1345 BB-17's bombed Rafz. 8 dead, houses destroyed.
I was shocked. My mother is from Rafz, and most of her family still lives there. Even more disturbing was the date of the message. My mother would have been only four
years old.
"Josh, you'll never guess what I just found! The town where my Mom grew up was bombed. She was ... four years old! This is so weird!"
"Yeah, that is pretty weird." Obviously, Josh wasn't as enthusiastic as I was.
I stayed until the last shuttle at 6:00 to go through the rest of the boxes on the cart,
but didn't find anything nearly as good. I really couldn't believe it, my Mom had
never mentioned anything about a bombing, and I assumed that she didn't remember it. This made me even more excited because I had uncovered a piece of
my history. I couldn't wait to call home that night.
When I got to the dorm, I said "hi" to a few of the ballerinas and other interns I had
met that summer, and ran up to my room. As soon as I got in, I picked up the phone
and called home.
"Yallo?"
"Hey, Moms!"
"Hi, Daniel. How was work? Did you find anything for Alfonse?"
"Not really, Moms, but…"
"How are the ballerinas?"
"Fine, but Moms. Listen. What do you remember about February 22, 1945?"
There was slight hesitation on her end of the line. It was only for a few seconds, but
I thought that I had stumped her. She was only four years old at the time of the
bombing; she shouldn't remember. But in a few seconds she spoke. The jovial
manner of before had been replaced by one solemnity. She had remembered.
"That was the day the Americans bombed Rafz." ANALYSIS
"History" is about the discovery of one's past. Droller describes his findings of a
small, yet significant, piece of history concerning his mother. The reader is not given
a complete picture of the applicant's background. Instead, the essay succeeds in revealing one personal and meaningful moment in Droller's life that would otherwise
not have been captured by the rest of his application.
Through his essay, Droller describes how he accidentally came across a part of his
history. What most stands out is the shock and surprise that he feels with his
newfound information. While Droller does tell us outright about his excitement, "I
had uncovered a piece of my history," he also illustrates his enthusiasm with the
description of his telephone conversation and his impatience to reveal his findings.
This leaves the reader wanting to learn more about the details of the bombing and
how it affected his family.
The essay's form could, however, be made stronger. Despite the defining moment found at the very end of the essay, the opening has little direction. There isn't much indication as to the main point of the essay. A reader would probably be more
interested in the details surrounding the bombing, shedding more light on the
relationship between mother and son. We are not shown how this discovery affected their relationship or if Droller now thinks differently about his mother based on what
she went through during her childhood. A detailed account of the author's interactions with his mother, and his knowledge of his mother's childhood, might have made the final realization about the bombing more emotional and revealing
about Droller's character.