You Talking to Me?
On April 1, 1933—only two months after Hitler became German Chancellor, and five years before Kristallnacht—the Nazis organized a nationwide boycott of Jewish businesses. And they made sure that shoppers got the message.
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A solid wood table probably saved Hitler’s life on 20 June 1944 when Count Stauffenberg attempted to kill the Fuhrer with a bomb hidden in a briefcase.
Hitler’s trousers give some indication of the force of the blast.
Posted 25/2/2014
Weimar Out, Nazis In
Robert Liebman
Liza Minnelli, Cabaret
For British novelist Christopher Isherwood (1904-86), Berlin during the Weimar era held more appeal than London. Until Hitler arrived.
In 1929, Isherwood moved to Berlin, lived in rented rooms, taught English to support himself, and kept a diary which served as the basis for his short-story collection Goodbye to Berlin (1939).
The publication date is deceptive. He wrote most of the stories in the early 1930s before Hitler became Chancellor but while the Nazis were rising in power—and Hitler’s followers, the feral Brownshirts, roamed the streets. Isherwood captures the ethos of a German capital undergoing massive change. By the time (January 1933) Hitler became Chancellor, Isherwood’s Berlin sojourn was effectively over. Continue reading
Schloime, Meet Nachum; Saul, Meet Norman
by Robert Liebman
(Posted 23 February 2024)
The famous Bermuda Triangle swallows ships—supposedly.
The less well known Belarus-Latvia-Lithuania Triangle produces great Jewish-American writers—for real.
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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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If you had one job, and that job was to safeguard the Crown Jewels from the Nazis, where (and how) would you hide the priceless gems?
In October 1947, a Jewish-American writer, grandson of a Russian rabbi, completed page 721 of his 721-page novel and set off for a year in Paris with his wife. First novel. First wife.
His novel, published while he was in the French capital, met with widespread acclaim and he started a new novel, which he completed after returning home to New York. Short where his first novel was long, symbolic instead of realistic, and with a skimpy contrived plot, novel number two fell flat on its face.
When he died at the age of 83, his totals were ten novels, six wives and numerous awards—but the gong he yearned for most eluded him.
In September 1948, another young Jewish-American writer (the born-in-Canada variety), also the grandson of a Russian rabbi, went to Paris with his first wife. He already had two accompished but modest novels under his belt and was well into his third. He never finished it. Instead, he abruptly ditched it and started an entirely new work which he completed after returning to America several years later.
His original third novel, the one he jettisoned, would have been in the same competent but dreary league as his previous novels. His new work was a different species altogether, stylistically as well as in subject matter. It provided him with a lush new vein and he mined it to the hilt. When he died, aged 95, his tally was 13 novels, a mere five wives, and one Nobel Prize.
The futures for both writers turned on the novels they started in Paris, but why did this most inspirational of cities prove poisonous for one of them and magical for the other? Continue reading
American soldiers killed in battle were usually routinely buried with Christian gravestones—even if they were Jewish.
Such mistakes are now being identified and corrected.
This haunting image of a boy too young to be a menace to anyone is familiar as a stand-alone portrait. However, it is actually part of a group shot portraying SS men as well as their Jewish prisoners in the Warsaw Ghetto. Israeli President Menachem Begin (1913-92) had a copy on his desk.
About a dozen individuals are potentially identifiable from the original photograph, and there are several candidates for the boy with his hands up. Only one person has been definitely identified in the larger group.
An infant—traumatized, possibly injured and abandoned—was one of many victims when Japanese bombers blasted Shanghai South train station to smithereens in August 1937. “Bloody Saturday.”
We know the photographer: H. S. Wong (a.k.a Wong Hai-Sheng, Wang Xiaoting and by his nickname “Newsreel”). The baby’s identity, and fate, is clouded by various competing narratives. Continue reading
Before he reached the Rhine River in Germany, Patton bestrode the Seine in France and marked his territory: “Patton, after a flying visit, proudly announced to Bradley that he had ‘pissed in the river that morning.'” Antony Beevor, D-Day, quoting Martin Blumenson, ed., Patton Papers. See Patton Pis for more information.
Patton Pis pix from a personal collection. For more information, see the comments at the bottom of Patton Pis.
Abandon ship! Carrying civilians in 1941, the Zamzam was attacked and disabled by Atlantis, a German raider. A cunning photographer led to eventual revenge.
The bathtub? Adolf Hitler’s.
The beauty in the tub? Lee Miller, an American-born model, artist, photographer, and wartime photojournalist for British Vogue.
VJ-Day—Victory over Japan.
The good news was so good that they sealed it with a kiss. But who is the kisser—and who is the kissee?
Direct Hit The Temple—one of four Inns of Court in London—is located between Fleet Street and the River Thames, bordering London’s financial district and the heavily Jewish East End: ideal targets for Luftwaffe bombers.
Dead Snakes Can Bite Life magazine photographer George Strock came perilously close to losing his life. He was saved in a manner that has become a Hollywood staple.
And after his lucky escape, he took the first published photo of dead American soldiers. Continue reading
A Picture Too Far: Buna Beach and CensorshipWhen American military censors received the first photographs of dead Americans at Buna Beach, they worried that publication would be too upsetting for the general public. The photos were censored.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally approved publication—several months later. Continue reading
Phony WarWhen British Major William Martin’s body washed up near Spain in 1943, the Germans obtained a photo of his fiancée Pam – and Allied invasion plans. The Germans were delighted. So were the Allies. Continue reading
Dancing for Joy?Belgium. Nazi HQ, June 17, 1940. Germany overwhelmed France, and Hitler did a celebratory Chaplinesque two-step. Except that the apparent two-step did not happen.
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Stalin’s Jewish Ears – A Smoking Gun?Was Stalin Jewish? Hitler had suspicions – and theories, one of which was that Jews had, well, Jewish ears. To see for himself, the German leader ordered a headshot of his Soviet counterpart. Continue reading