Poland Protests Netflix Documentary "The Devil Next Door"

Warsaw (AFP) - Poland has complained to Netflix that a Holocaust documentary series on Nazi German death camps "rewrites history" by featuring an "incorrect" map.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki called on the popular US streaming and production website to correct the "terrible mistake" that he believed had been "committed unintentionally".

A Netflix consultant in Poland who only identified herself as Malgorzata told AFP on Tuesday the company was "treating the issue as a priority" and that its headquarters would soon issue an official statement.

"Netflix did not intend to offend anyone or compromise any values," she added.

The Auschwitz memorial museum also tweeted that historical and geographical information in the Netflix documentary about the locations of Nazi death camps was "simply wrong"...

Full story here

Poland Seizes Two for Plotting Attacks on Muslims: Reuters

Full story here

Go See "Jojo Rabbit"

I love movies and I love writing movie reviews. I'm not going to write a review of "Jojo Rabbit." I'm just going to say, "Go see Jojo Rabbit." This movie made me and the person I saw it with laugh, cry, and think. It's the best theatrical-release movie I've seen in 2019, and 2019 is almost over. It's audacious, courageous, moving, unforgettable, original, deeply human, and it gets under your skin. Reward this kind of filmmaking with your ticket-buying dollars.

"Jojo Rabbit" is about a ten-year-old Hitler Youth member living in a German city during the waning days of World War II. He's just a child so he has swallowed Nazi ideology whole. He has an imaginary friend: Adolf Hitler. Jojo lives with his mother, and he attends Hitler Youth meetings.

Making a comedy about Nazism is a tough task. Many have tried and failed. One false move and this movie would be splat all over the floor. There are no false moves. "Jojo Rabbit" is supremely confident. It moves like a well-oiled machine. I don't want to say much more because I want you to be surprised and delighted as I was.

I can say the performances are terrific. I found Sam Rockwell, as a Hitler Youth commander, to be particularly compelling. His final scene in this film is one that will stay with me for a long time.

Scarlett Johansson as Jojo's mother ripped my heart right out of my chest. Rebel Wilson is hysterically funny. Thomasin McKenzie has the gravity of a veteran performer twice her age, and when she finally smiles an innocent, little girl smile it tugs at your heart. Archie Yates, as Jojo's fat friend, is adorable. The tall, thin, pale man who played the Gestapo commander is appropriately terrifying and also funny.

This may have been a low-budget movie but the production values are high. The interiors send you back in time eighty years. Scarlett Johansson wears a green art-deco sweater I wanted to reach through the screen and borrow, and maybe never return.

Taika Waititi as Hitler is, at first, simply funny. But then there's a scene where he really unleashes, and it's terrifying. It's clear that Waititi has watched video of Hitler giving speeches and managed to mimic every crazed, hate-mongering gesture.

Go see this movie. Please. And you're welcome.

Roman Polanski New Rape Accusation Before His Dreyfus Film Opens

Another woman has made a credible rape accusation against Roman Polanski. He is about to open a new movie about the Dreyfus Affair. Story in New York Times here. 

SNL: Bad, Bigoted Polaks; Superior Blacks

The sketch, below, is from 2017. I have no excuses for waiting this long to post it. I wanted to post it sooner but time is always an issue. 

High school students visit a tenement museum and two tenement immigrant reenactors depict Polish immigrants as horrible, ignorant bigots. The black student is their moral superior and he corrects them about their bigotry. 

Yes, this is the same Saturday Night Live that recently made a big stink about hiring, and then firing, white male Shane Gillis because they determined his material to be racist against Asians. 

And yes this is the same Saturday Night Live that adored John Belushi who made jokes about an Asian Samurai and a Greek diner worker and recently aired a sketch about horny, elderly Italians making love while cooking spaghetti sauce and hosting their grandchildren. 

I can't emphasize too much here: Polaks are bad because Polaks are bigots. Polaks are the go-to haters of the woke. 

Polonia, Please Donate / Thank you for your donations!

Earlier today, I posted the message, below, soliciting funds to get me to Washington, DC, to speak as an invited speaker at the "Poland First to Fight" conference. 

I hoped to raise about a hundred dollars for transport to and from DC, snacks, and public transportation fares. 

I am so touched and delighted to learn from Paypal that I have indeed raised that sum, from Polish and none Polish patrons alike. 

GOD BLESS YOU ALL! 

And see you in DC! 

For those who won't be at the conference, I hope to post detailed accounts on the Bieganski blog. 

xxx ooo xxx

I've been asked to speak about Bieganski, the Brute Polak at the upcoming "Poland: First to Fight" conference. I am delighted. I love speaking about Bieganski. 

To attend this conference, I will need money: for travel expenses, for lodging, and for snacks. 

Those who have read my book God through Binoculars have an idea of my financial situation. Bottom line, I live in poverty, and have done so for years. Further, in the past few months I've been hit by several severe financial blows, including massive medical expenses not covered by insurance. 

Want to support your story, the Polish story, being told? Donate. I'm not asking for a lot. If I could raise a hundred bucks, that would put my mind at ease. I'd be able to afford DC public transportation, travel, and snacks. 

One kind soul has already donated. That person should *not* donate again. Thank you. And bless you. :-) 

How to donate? There is a donate button to the right of this blog post. Just move your cursor to the right and scroll down. Screencap, below. 

If you don't want to use paypal, send me an email and I can give you an address. 

Thanks in advance. 

Julien Bryan's Siege. Warsaw during German Nazi Blitzkrieg, September, 1939

Julien Bryan made the film "Siege" about Poland during the first days of WW II.

Byran shot the famous image of an innocent Polish woman murdered by German Nazis during the blitzkrieg against Poland in September, 1939.

About this picture, Bryan said,

"As we drove by a small field at the edge of town we were just a few minutes too late to witness a tragic event, the most incredible of all. Seven women had been digging potatoes in a field. There was no flour in their district, and they were desperate for food.

Suddenly two German planes appeared from nowhere and dropped two bombs only two hundred yards away on a small home. Two women in the house were killed. The potato diggers dropped flat upon the ground, hoping to be unnoticed. After the bombers had gone, the women returned to their work. They had to have food.

But the Nazi fliers were not satisfied with their work. In a few minutes they came back and swooped down to within two hundred feet of the ground, this time raking the field with machine-gun fire. Two of the seven women were killed. The other five escaped somehow. 

While I was photographing the bodies, a little ten-year old girl came running up and stood transfixed by one of the dead. The woman was her older sister. The child had never before seen death and couldn't understand why her sister would not speak to her...The child looked at us in bewilderment.

I threw my arm about her and held her tightly, trying to comfort her. She cried. So did I and the two Polish officers who were with me..."

You can read about that little girl, seventy years later, in this article

Byran's film Siege is on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQ1VO3n-zR8

Anyone interested in Warsaw during the Blitzkrieg should read The Mermaid and the Messerschmidt reviewed here.