Sunday, April 13, 2025
Publications since the Shroud of Turin 1988 Radiocarbon Dating
Saturday, April 12, 2025
Snow White 2025 Review
Snow White 2025
Ever have one of those days when no
matter how hard you try to be rational, pleasant, and productive, the universe
seems to hate you? You walk out the door and a pigeon poops on your head? You cross the street and a cab
splashes you? You show up for work and everyone blames you for every snafu?
Relax. At least you are not the 2025 film Snow White.
Snow White is a musical fantasy produced by Walt
Disney Pictures. Marc Webb directs. Erin Cressida Wilson wrote the screenplay.
Her best-known work is Secretary, an explicit exploration of a
sadomasochistic relationship between a submissive secretary and her dominant
boss. The songs "Heigh ho," and "Whistle While You Work,"
from the 1937 Snow White, but with new lyrics, re-appear. The song "Someday
My Prince Will Come" is cut. Lyrics to new songs in the film are by EGOT-winners
Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Snow White is 109 minutes long. It opened in
the U.S. on March 21, 2025.
Some scenes in Snow White put a smile on my face and made me laugh out loud. I'd rate the film three out of five stars. What handicaps Snow White is not so much Woke, as it is the Disneyfication of the source material. More on that, below, after a bit of background.
I'll be posting non-Polish-Jewish related material for a while
As I've mentioned before, I'll be posting non-Polish-Jewish related material here for a while, and maybe forever.
I had another blog for such material, but Google hid it because I criticized a religion one must never criticize, and also a fad one must never criticize. So now that blog is still on the web, you just can't see it.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Just saying Hi
I haven't been posting much lately. That's not because a lot has not been going on. A lot has been going on. An American governmental figure insulted Poland and Poland's leadership. A new American president is betraying American values and alliances. Lech Walesa and other prominent Polish heroes spoke out in opposition. And world class scholars of fascism are relating what's happening in Washington and in the country to grim historical events, like the rise of fascism in early twentieth century Europe.
Praying.
PS: Not interested in debating with Trump supporters in the comments section, so if you feel tempted to mount a defense of any of this, please do that in a different venue. Thank you in advance.
The Ratline: The Exalted Life and Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive. Book review
The Ratline: The Exalted Life and
Mysterious Death of a Nazi Fugitive was
published by Knopf on February 2, 2021. It is 417 pages long, inclusive of
endnotes and a bibliography. Black-and-white photos illustrate the text.
Ratline recounts the encounter between author
Philippe Sands, a Jewish-British lawyer and law professor and descendant of
Holocaust victims, and Horst von Wachter, the son of a Nazi war criminal. Baron
Otto Gustav von Wachter (1901 – 1949) was Austrian born. He was an early and
enthusiastic member of the Nazi party, joining the Nazi Sturmabteilung or Storm
Troopers in 1923. He eventually rose to SS-Gruppenfuhrer, or major general rank.
He served under Governor General Hans Frank, the notorious "Butcher of Poland,"
in Krakow and Galicia in Nazi-occupied Polish and Ukrainian territory. Wachter
sent Jews, non-Jewish Poles, and other victims of Nazism to their deaths. After
the war, Wachter hid out in the Austrian Alps. He eventually made his way to
Italy, hoping to travel, via ratlines, that is, escape routes for Nazis, to
safety in South America. Instead, he sickened and died in Italy.
Otto von Wachter married Charlotte
Bleckmann in 1932. They had six children. Charlotte was an active diarist and
letter-writer. Horst, their son, shared his extensive trove of documents with
author Sands.
The Ratline has received rave reviews from both readers and professional reviewers. The book did not work for me, for reasons I'll outline, below, after a discussion of the book's reception and a summary of its contents.
Friday, February 21, 2025
Presence 2024 Movie Review. A Small Film Succeeds Where Bigger Films Failed.
A small film succeeds where bigger films failed
"For English, press one."
"Please listen carefully. Our menu options
have changed."
"Your call is important to us.
Please stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order it was
received."
"All our representatives are
helping others. We will return your call at a time convenient to us, after you have
fallen to the floor and are sobbing uncontrollably."
Some of us have lost some genetic
lottery. Cancer haunts our families. We hear these phrases when, struggling to
sound calm, we inquire about our loved ones, when we schedule ourselves, and
when we request our prognosis.
Which is worse, a cancer diagnosis or
navigating the health care steeple chase? A twenty-something girl treats you
like a slab of meat while shoving you into a big machine. God didn't gift
cancer cells with awareness. When those cells attack your body it doesn't say
anything about human nature. When a fellow human is mean to you for no good
reason as you shiver from cold, fear, and shame in your hospital gown, it gets
to you.
In November, 2024, I coped with my
latest perch on the limin between life and death as I usually do. I
wasn't taking drugs. I was cleaning, writing, hiking, bopping to great music, soaking
in hot baths, shopping for groceries, and going to the movies. These activities
are my therapy, my miracle drugs, and my best friends.
Friends? "Cancer ghosting" is a
thing. The people around you recoil from you. At first, I felt marooned. But
then I realized that their ghosting me was just nature taking its course. I was
updating my will, giving away belongings, and wondering whether I'd soon be
reunited with departed loved ones. The folks who retreated from me were,
simply, living in, and involved with, a different dispensation. They were
moving through the colorful, physical, concrete world of life, with all its
promises of tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow. My friends were doing that
necessary work that we all do – investing in life while alive, and avoiding
death. Cancer ghosting can leave you feeling very alone, but as Nietzsche said,
when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you. At least the abyss
was willing to hang out with me.
In January, 2025, I was going for a walk
and listening to NPR over my headphones. When I tune in I usually hear a story
about how blacks are suffering in white supremacist America, or how gays are
suffering in homophobic America. I wait out the propaganda and listen for the quality
programming that sneaks in.
A man was speaking. He was a white guy,
older, even-tempered, quietly and intelligently witty, at home in the world and
with himself. Ghost stories, the man was
saying, are "essentially hopeful … the very premise means that there's an
afterlife. Something comes beyond" death, he said. I am intimidated by
scary movies but this guy was giving me a new way to look at them.
The man continued in a voice, that,
unlike so much I hear on NPR, was not shrill, or griping, or demanding, or
haranguing. In this same tone of voice, this man might be ordering a car part
or telling a child a bedtime story. This mature man knew that sometimes you
win, and sometimes you lose, and he recognized that it all comes out in the
wash.
"In my own life," he said, "during
periods that I would describe as traumatic, I felt more open to people around
me, and maybe had a little easier time perceiving their own difficulties or
their own pain. I wondered, if a person goes through trauma, does that open you
up to sense other things that you couldn't sense before?" He mentioned a
girl named Chloe. Chloe, he said, is "an open wound. She's been through
this horrific experience, and so she is open to the universe." It is kind,
this man was saying, to make eye contact with someone in pain and to say,
"I'm sorry that you suffer."
This man didn't have an ax to grind. He was
speaking in the most universal terms about trauma and death. He wasn't talking
about how hard it is to be black and to have a ghost in your house, or to be
trans and to go through trauma, or to be gay and to get a scary diagnosis. He
was talking about universal stuff: life, death, the space between. His speech
was not excluding, dividing, singling out for blame, or for settling scores.
His speech was inviting and truly inclusive. Such speech is rare on NPR. He
sounded the way you'd imagine a small town doctor in a Norman Rockwell painting
would sound. His words were the most soothing words I had heard in my latest
dance with death.
That man is screenwriter David Koepp. Let's see if you've heard of the films for which he wrote the script: Jurassic Park, Mission Impossible, Spider Man, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Carlito's Way, Stir of Echoes, Ghost Town, Panic Room, and other films. His output has earned billions of dollars worldwide. Koepp has written the script for the 2024 film Presence, a ghost story. Well, I'll be darned. I had sought comfort from friends, who "ghosted" me, and from a Catholic priest, who did not have time for me. Once again, Hollywood was coming to the rescue.
Saturday, February 1, 2025
The Brutalist 2024 Movie Review: Overrated, Bloated, Self-Indulgent Agitprop
The Brutalist is a Must-See Masterpiece
Or is it self-indulgent, exploitative,
Hollywood agitprop?
I have never witnessed the avalanche of
acclaim for a new release such as I've seen for the 2024 film The Brutalist.
The Brutalist is the biopic of a fictional character. Adrien Brody plays
Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor who is commissioned to build a Doylestown,
Pennsylvania community center in the Brutalist architectural style. A man of
intense artistic dedication and integrity, he overcomes roadblocks, and realizes
his dream.
Why is a movie about a Hungarian
immigrant in Doylestown, PA advancing like a tornado through a wheat field, toppling
critics into adoring prostration? Filmmaker Brady Corbet doesn't understand. "If
something is really radical, people initially don't like it … people are
connecting with The Brutalist … I'm completely confused."
Below, a review of reaction to the film, a summary of the film, and then my own take on The Brutalist.
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Queer 2024 Starring Daniel Craig Movie Review
Google has made my other blog invisible. Until I find a solution to that, for the time being, I will be posting material that I would have posted on the other blog here. It will not be related to Polish Jewish relations.
Below, a review of the "Queer," a 2024 film starring Daniel Craig.
Beat ideas literally killed people
The 2024 film Queer
is inspired by a novella by Beat Movement co-founder William S. Burroughs.
Burroughs wrote Queer in 1952, but it was not published till 1985. Queer
is directed by award-winning, 53-year-old Italian director Luca Guadagnino.
Guadagnino has won praise for his films Call Me By Your Name, Bones and All,
and Challengers. Between 2006 and 2021, star Daniel Craig played
James Bond. After retiring as Bond, Craig took on the role of detective Benoit
Blanc in the "Knives Out" franchise. Co-star Drew Starkey is a newcomer.
He has made an impression playing a troubled teen on the Netflix drama Outer
Banks.
Queer's thin plot: an American, William Lee
(Daniel Craig) is pursuing a life of casual hook-ups and drug use in Mexico in
the 1950s. There, Lee encounters the much younger Eugene Allerton (Drew
Starkey), a former sailor. Craig is 56; Starkey is 31. Starkey appears to be in
his early twenties in Queer. Lee lusts after Allerton, but Allerton
keeps his emotional and physical distance from Lee, even while they are having
sex.
Many read the film as a treatment of unrequited love. Wikipedia classifies Queer as a "period romantic drama." For director Luca Guadagnino, Queer is "about connection. When you meet someone with whom you know you have a connection, no matter what complications arise, no matter what the cultural or emotional interruptions … the strength of it is eternal." Guadagnino says Queer is "a story of unsynchronized love." Daniel Craig insists that "Allerton is as in love with Lee as Lee is in love with Allerton … Allerton just can't show it." Queer, Craig says "deals with many universal themes about love, desire, loneliness and the need to connect."
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Monday, January 27, 2025
"Auschwitz did not suddenly fall from the sky," Marian Turski / Moishe Turbowicz, 98-year-old Auschwitz Survivor
Auschwitz crept up, tiptoed along with small steps, moved closer and closer, until the things that happened here began.
Thou shalt not
be indifferent in the face of lies about history.
Thou shalt not
be indifferent when the past is distorted for today’s political needs.
Thou shalt not
be indifferent when any minority faces discrimination.
Thou shalt not
be indifferent when any authority violates the existing social contract.
Be faithful to
this commandment. The Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not be indifferent.”
Marian Turski,
Polish-Jewish Holocaust survivor
birth name:
Moshe Turbowicz
Esteemed
gathered people, friends, I am one of those still alive and few who were in
this place almost until the last moment before liberation. On January 18, my
so-called evacuation from the Auschwitz camp began, which after six and a half
days turned out to be a Death March for more than half of my fellow prisoners.
We were together in a 600-person column. In all probability, I will not live to
see another anniversary. Such are human rights.
So forgive me if there will be some
emotion in what I will say. This is what I would like to say first of all to my
daughter, my granddaughter, whom I thank for being here in the hall, my
grandson: I am talking about those who are the same age as my daughter, my
grandchildren, and so about the new generation, especially the youngest, the
very youngest, even younger than them.
When the World War broke out, I was a
teenager. My father was a soldier and was badly shot in the lungs. It was a
tragedy for our family. My mother came from the Polish-Lithuanian-Belarusian
border, where armies rolled through, pillaging, plundering, raping, burning
villages, so as not to leave anything for those who would come after them. So
you could say that I knew first-hand, from my father and mother, what war was.
But despite everything, although it was only 20, 25 years, it seemed as distant
as the Polish uprisings of the 19th century, as the French Revolution.
When I meet young people today, I
realize that after 75 years they seem a little tired of this topic: war, the
Holocaust, the Shoah, and genocide. I understand them. That is why I promise
you, young people, that I will not tell you about my suffering. I will not tell
you about my experiences, my two Death Marches, how I ended the war weighing 32
kilograms, on the verge of exhaustion and life. I will not tell you about what
was the worst, the tragedy of separation from loved ones, when after the
selection you sense what awaits them. No, I will not talk about it. I would
like to talk to my daughter's generation and my grandchildren's generation
about yourselves.
I see that Mr. President of Austria
Alexander Van der Bellen is among us. Do you remember, Mr. President, when you
hosted me and the leadership of the International Auschwitz Committee, when we
talked about those times? At one point you used the following phrase:
"Auschwitz ist nicht vom Himmel gefallen". Auschwitz did not fall
from the sky. We could say, as we say here: obvious obviousness.
Of course it didn't fall from the sky.
This may seem like a trivial statement, but there is a profound and very
important mental shortcut in it. Let's travel for a moment in our thoughts, in
our imagination, to the early 1930s in Berlin. We are almost in the city
center. The district is called Bayerisches Viertel, the Bavarian Quarter. Three
stops from Kudamm, the zoo. Where the metro station is today, there is
Bayerischer Park - Bavarian Park. And then one day in those early 1930s a
sign appears on the benches: "Jews are not allowed to sit on these
benches." You could say: unpleasant, unfair, it's not OK, but after all
there are so many benches around, you can sit somewhere else, there is no misfortune.
It was a district inhabited by German
intelligentsia of Jewish origin, Albert Einstein, Nobel Prize winner Nelly
Sachs, industrialist, politician, and Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau lived
there. Then a sign appeared in the swimming pool: "Jews are not allowed in
this swimming pool." Again, you could say: it's not pleasant, but Berlin
has so many places to swim, so many lakes, canals, almost Venice, so you can go
somewhere else.
At the same time, a sign appears
somewhere: "Jews are not allowed to belong to German singing
associations". So what? They want to sing, make music, let them gather
separately, they will sing. Then a sign and an order appears: "Jewish, non-Aryan
children are not allowed to play with German, Aryan children". They will
play by themselves. And then a sign appears: "We sell bread and food
products to Jews only after 5 p.m.". This is already a complication,
because there is less choice, but after all you can also shop after 5 p.m.
Attention, attention, we are starting to
get used to the idea that someone can be excluded, that someone can be
stigmatized, that someone can be alienated. And so slowly, gradually, day by day, people are starting
to get used to it – both victims and perpetrators and witnesses, those we call
bystanders , are starting to get used to the idea and thought that this
minority that produced Einstein, Nelly Sachs, Heinrich Heine, the Mendelssohns,
is different, that it can be pushed out of society, that these are alien
people, that these are people who spread germs, epidemics. This is already
terrible, dangerous. This is the beginning of what may happen in a moment.
The government of the time is on the one
hand pursuing a clever policy, because, for example, it is meeting the workers'
demands. May 1st has never been celebrated in Germany – here they are. On a day
off from work, they are introducing Kraft durch Freude ["strength through
joy"]. So an element of workers' holidays. They are able to overcome
unemployment, they are able to play on national dignity: "Germany, rise
from the shame of Versailles. Restore your pride". And at the same time,
this government sees that people are slowly becoming numb, indifferent. They
stop reacting to evil. And then the government can afford to further accelerate
the process of evil.
And then it all comes suddenly, namely:
a ban on hiring Jews for work, a ban on emigration. And then there will be
quick sending to ghettos: to Riga, to Kaunas, to my ghetto, the Łódź ghetto –
Litzmannstadt. From there, most will be sent to Kulmhof, Chełmno nad Nerem,
where they will be murdered with exhaust gases in trucks, and the rest will go
to Auschwitz, where they will be murdered with Zyklon B in modern gas chambers. And here, what the president said is
true: “Auschwitz did not suddenly fall from the sky.” Auschwitz stomped,
toddled with small steps, approached, until what happened here happened.
My daughter, my granddaughter, my
daughter's peers, my granddaughter's peers – you may not know the name Primo
Levi. Primo Levi was one of the most famous prisoners of this camp. Primo Levi
once used the following phrase: "It happened, which means it can happen.
It means it can happen everywhere, all over the world."
I will share with you one personal
memory: in '65 I was on a scholarship in the United States in America and that
was the height of the battle for human rights, for civil rights, for the rights
of the African-American people. I had the honor of marching with Martin Luther
King from Selma to Montgomery. And then people who learned that I had been in
Auschwitz asked me: "Do you think that something like this could only
happen in Germany? Could it happen somewhere else?" And I told them:
"It can happen here. If you violate civil rights, if you don't appreciate
the rights of minorities, if you eliminate them. If you bend the law, as they
did in Selma, then this can happen." What to do? You yourselves, I told
them, if you can defend the constitution, your rights, your democratic order,
by defending the rights of minorities - then you can overcome it.
In Europe, we mostly come from the
Judeo-Christian tradition. Both believers and non-believers accept the Ten
Commandments as their canon of civilization. My friend, the president of the
International Auschwitz Committee, Roman Kent, who spoke here five years ago
during the previous anniversary, could not come here today. He came up with the
11th commandment, which is the experience of the Shoah, the Holocaust, the
terrible era of contempt. It goes like this: do not be indifferent.
And this is what I would like to tell my
daughter, this is what I would like to tell my grandchildren. My daughter's
peers, my grandchildren's peers, wherever they live: in Poland, in Israel, in
America, in Western Europe, in Eastern Europe. This is very important. Do not
be indifferent when you see historical lies. Do not be indifferent when you see
that the past is being stretched to suit current political needs. Do not be
indifferent when any minority is discriminated against. The essence of democracy
is that the majority rules, but democracy is that the rights of minorities must
be protected. Do not be indifferent when any authority violates accepted social
agreements, already existing. Be faithful to the commandment. Eleventh
commandment: do not be indifferent.
Because if you do, you won't even
realize that some Auschwitz will suddenly fall from the sky on you, on your
descendants.
Source is here https://www.polityka.pl/tygodnikpolityka/kraj/1940080,1,marian-turski-auschwitz-nie-spadlo-z-nieba-nie-badzcie-obojetni.read
Coming Out As Pro Israel on Facebook
This essay is about ten years old. All too pertinent today as it was then.Today of course is the 80th anniversary of the Red Army moving in to Auschwitz,
and Holocaust Reembrace Day
![]() |
Hadas Fogel |
Coming Out As Pro-Israel on Facebook
I recently spelled out my support for Israel on Facebook. This
is new for me. I'm an American baby boomer, and I always took it for granted
that my country supported Israel, and that forces infinitely more powerful than
I had the job covered. There's another reason I previously hadn't said much
about Israel. I'm Polish-Slovak-American, and I am Catholic. Polish Catholics
are stereotyped as the world's worst antisemites. Poles suck antisemitism with
their mother's milk, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir famously declared.
My book, "Bieganski, the Brute Polak Stereotype,"
is devoted to analysis of this negative image of Poles and other Eastern
Europeans. In "Bieganski" I am very critical of prominent Jewish
authors and scholars. I have received hate mail on a weekly basis for over a
decade. This messy reality is part of why I hadn't previously spelled out my
support for Israel.
On June 12, 2014 three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped. That triggered combat between Israelis and Hamas in Gaza. This conflict dominated the headlines and suddenly, for the first time in my life, I felt called publicly to articulate why I support Israel.
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
Monday, January 20, 2025
"Berlin Diary" and Poles Fighting Heroically; Poles Assessed as Not Human; Poles Executed for "Race Pollution"
A friend is reading Berlin Diary. He sends me screencaps of pages.
A Pole executed for contact with a German.
Poles fighting heroically against Nazis.
Germans saying that Poles are not human.
If only people other than my friend were aware of this history.
Thursday, January 9, 2025
Alan Dershowitz Lies and Mongers Hatred against Christians -- Again
Alan Dershowitz is a confused old man, an attention whore, and a dishonest hate monger who kisses Trump's behind. But you knew all that.
Someone I thought of as a "friend" sent me the article, below. It is full of lies and hatred.
I reminded this "friend" that Christians are the most persecuted religious group in the world today, and that spreading hate and lies like this is used to justify that persecution.
I have a lot going on in my personal life so I don't have time to go through this lousy piece of blood libel point by point, but maybe someone will want to address this in the comments section. Fact based, hate free comments only. Resisting the hatred of some not all Jews for Christians DOES NOT justify responding with antisemitism.
And, no, I do not support any identification of Jesus with Muslim Arabs. Jesus was a JEW. No debate. It's the rest of the Dershowitz piece, full of hate mongering lies, that is vile.
PS: I'm dealing with life/death health issues and I have been doing so since a medical emergency in early November. It's been two months of fear, sadness, what work can I get done before I die, including work on Bieganski, looking at the will, the card donating my body to medical research, and endless medical appointments and big medical bills.
A social media friend, someone I liked and trusted, someone I'd known for ten previous years, in the midst of all this, a person who had previously said that she "loved" me, called me "vile" "pathetic" and a supporter of terrorism because I supported Kalama Harris in the 2024 presidential election, and was very opposed to Trump.
And then the piece below comes in my mailbox the very day I had surgery.
These two communications epitomize disregard for the humanity of the person to whom one is speaking. In both cases, my interlocutor was a Jewish person who saw me, in the moment, only as a -- what -- non-Jew? Enemy? Catholic? Polish Catholic?
Not as a human being they'd been friends with for years, a supporter of Israel, someone focused on life/death issues.
Just a person to bash.
No, this is not how all Jews behave. No, this is not a comment on a religion or an ethnicity. It's a comment on my own personal experience in the past months, an experience that happened more than once, with others as well.
People resorting to tribalism and forgetting humanity. People of all stripes do it. To the extent that Jews do it, I hope some will choose to examine this behavior and address it.
and to Jewish friends who did not take this route, thank you.
The Dershowitz piece is below.