Nobody's Girl: My To Why

The day after watching the movie, Nuremberg, the chronicle of the events leading up to and including the Nuremberg Trial of Nazi war crimes, I started reading Nobody’s Girl, a memoir of surviving abuse and fighting for justice by Virginia Roberts Giuffre. It is her autobiography of her sexual abuse from her early years through the time she is trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell.

Both experiences document the cruelty of what human beings can do to one another. It is a cautionary tale for the rest of us not to think that inhumanity to our fellow men and women can’t happen again. Sexual abuse continues today and Hamas and the Israeli dehumanization of the Palestinians are still close at hand as well as the failure of Trump to stop the Russians in their war against the Ukrainian people. The peace plan should not be complicated. Russia invaded a sovereign territory and has committed war crimes. They should just be stopped and forced to pay restitution for the property of the Ukrainian people. The invader should be punished! Putin should go to trial.

Man’s inhumanity to man has been on full display. Keep all of that in mind if you choose to read Nobody’s Girl. The heart of the story that Virginia Roberts Giuffre writes with her co-author is found in the title, Nobody’s Girl. I wondered about that title before beginning to read the book. How was it chosen? Why nobody as part of the title? How is it tied to Nuremberg, the slaughter of Jewish people on October 7, 2024 in Israel, and the genocide of the Palestinians?

The title with the word nobody points to not belonging and being seen as “the other,” It was the now deceased Dr. Paul Farmer, infectious disease doctor who went to places like Haiti and on distant shores who said, “The idea that some lives value less, is the root of all that is wrong in this world.”

The golden rule is a universal ethical standard for what we value when we say: “Do unto others what you would have them do to you. Treat others as you want to be treated.” Simple in its acclamation but complex in its execution.

It is true of all the examples that I mentioned at the outset that man’s inhumanity to man occurs when we see people as “the other,” “less than”, “not worthy of being somebody”.

I saw this connection most vividly when I read Nobody’s Girl. When you are relegated to “the other,” “you feel less than and not worthy of being somebody. It is why Jesse Jackson, the civil rights activist, had the mantra spoken to the black community, “You are somebody.”

The Nazis had the “other” in the Jewish people, Putin had his “other” in the people of Ukraine, and Maxwell and Epstein had their “other” in Virginia. They don’t deserve what we have. They really aren’t human is the launch pad for such terrible behavior. I noticed something while reading Guiffre’s story. She is abused by her father and her uncle at an early age; she is homeless; she can’t go home as she is on her own; she meets Maxwell and Epstein and her sexual abuse by others becomes even more a part of her life. She feels less than all others. She is treated as the ultimate other by those she encounters. She is an object. She does not feel as though she belongs to anything or anyone except those who demean her.

She has lost her “my”!  She can’t say my family, my friend, my trusted advisor or my anything. Nobody is the right word for the title and the right description of her plight. There is nothing that can complete that critical thought to give her a purpose as her “my” has no echo of a connection. Without a sense of belonging, of a life-giving connection, without a my, she can’t find her why, a question that could lead her to a purpose, a way to connect, a way to find a better way forward with hope no longer to be the other but to be somebody. It’s so clear and so evident.

Nobody is our enemy as it is the language of despair. We and why, that feeling that we are valued and connected to others with a sense of purpose, are our allies to create that feeling of somebody for that sacred connection of trust in others because “the idea that some lives value less is  the root of all that is wrong in the world.” (Dr. Paul Farmer)