Author Archives: robert1

Christopher Isherwood Shoots Weimar Berlin

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

The Jewish Daughter

Posted 30/1/2024

Polina, Molotov’s Jewish Wife

Robert Liebman

Polina-MolotovaHitler 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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Kosher Nobels

Nobel Prizes for Literature: An Explosive Mix

Robert Liebman

Nobel PrizeIn 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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Photographers and World War II

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: Birth, Bar Mitzvah and Beyond

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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Rabbi Grandpas for Genes, Paris for Inspiration

Schemers and Dreamers, Ids and Yids

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.

Nobel Prize

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

Gravestones

 

Normandy American CemeteryAmerican soldiers killed in battle were usually routinely buried with Christian gravestones—even if they were Jewish.

Such mistakes are now being identified and corrected.

 

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Hands Up!

Hands Up!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.

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The Bleeding Infant on Bloody Saturday

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

Patton’s Pesky Pistol

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.

Buna Beach Censorship Battle

A Picture Too Far: Buna Beach and Censorship

When 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

Pam: Wartime Fiancee and Operation Mincemeat

Phony War

When 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

Stalin’s Jewish Ears?

Hoffmann and Stalin Toast One another at Nazi-Soviet Pact signingStalin’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