Posted 30/1/2024
Polina, Molotov’s Jewish Wife
Robert Liebman
Hitler needed it, to pave the way for his powerful Wehrmacht to attack Poland. Stalin needed it, to buy time to bulk up his Red Army.* On 23 August 1939, their foreign secretaries delivered it: the non-aggression Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact.
Bitter enemies—Communist Soviet Union and Fascist Germany—instantly became allies.
A week later, on 1 September, Germany invaded Poland. The Second World War in Europe had begun.
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Nobel Prizes for Literature: An Explosive Mix
Robert Liebman
In literature as in the sciences, a disproportionately high number of prizes have gone to Jews.
This particular collection is a bit meshuganah.
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Shot by a Jew
By Robert Liebman
A gaggle of American GI’s (Government Issue = soldier) raise the Stars and Stripes on a bomb-damaged hilltop.
A sailor and a nurse enjoy a passionate kiss in Times Square.
General Douglas MacArthur returns, knee-deep, to the Philippines.
The truly iconic photographs from the Second World War are instantly familiar. We can picture them from a brief description alone; we do not actually need to see them. Continue reading
Broadway Bubbies
By Robert Liebman
The entrepreneurs who launched America’s movie industry a century ago are household names today, men such as Szmuel Gelbfisz, Karl Laemmle and Adolf Zukory.
Gelbfisz? Laemmle? Zukory? Household names? In whose house?
Szmuel Gelbfisz preferred to be known as Samuel Goldwyn and, with Marcus Loew and Louis B. Mayer, formed MGM. Adolph Zukory dropped his Novelty Fur Company and the last letter of his surname to run Paramount Pictures. Bored with office work, Karl Laemmle created Universal Pictures.
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