Gare's Blog

Oldest Holocaust Survivor Dies

3/4/2014

Alice Hertz-Sommer

Chopin saved her life.

Alice Herz-Sommer died at the age of 110. She had survived two years in the brutal German camp, Theresiendstadt. Alice said that it was Chopin who helped her keep going and allowed her and her young son to live.
She had been a well-known pianist before the war. Once the Nazis invaded her homeland, Czechoslovakia, she began to study Chopin's Études. There are 27 solo pieces and Alice became an expert on the pieces. She said that the pieces offered her a wonderful distraction in times of great peril.
Chopin was her escape and her salvation. She said, "I thought if I learned to play them, they would save my life." And, they did. She played concerts at the camp and she was saved from any deportation lists.
After the war, Alice and her son emigrated to Israel where she taught at what is now the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance. A number of documentaries on her life were filmed. The most recent being, "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life." It won the 2014 Oscar for short documentary.

We have lost one more important voice on World War II, but her story lives on in the films that recorded her amazing life and survival.

See the NY Times link for more on this fascinating woman:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/28/world/europe/alice-herz-sommer-pianist-who-survived-holocaust-dies-at-110.html?_r=0

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D-day on the normandy beaches

11/15/2013

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The Denver Post runs a "plog", or photo blog on their site. One such blog-post is about the "D-Day, on the Normandy beaches". The blog is well worth visiting!
[Link to the blog]

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World War II Alive and Well

11/2/2013

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It seems that we can't get enough of World War II. The New York Times recent article, "Never Found, Architect of Holocaust Said to Be in Jewish Cemetery" [See: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/01/world/europe/muller-an-architect-of-the-holocaust-is-said-to-be-buried-in-jewish-cemetery-in-berlin.html?_r=0] tells the rather odd tale that one of the architects of the Holocaust, Heinrich Müller, is buried in an old Jewish cemetery. If he is, then fate is really capricious. There is no forensic evidence, but still the idea sends chills.

George Clooney is still on his roll with World War II movies and Monuments Men is due out shortly. This tale of Americans who rescued art from the Nazis will no doubt be exciting and generate a lot of publicity. The search for art stolen by the Nazis remains an ongoing quest, with "found" pieces surfacing each year.

Current mystery writer, Sara Paretsky, uses World War II as a backdrop in her latest novel, "Critical Mass." This excellent mystery tells the tale of past and present as a World War II refugee's work on computers reaches into the present. The novel shows how we never escape the past and it surely influences the present. Her main character, V.I. Warshawksi has a loving, but at times brittle, relationship with her surrogate mother, Lottie Herschel, who escaped from Vienna on the Kindertransport. Suddenly V.I. finds herself examining Lottie's past as well as her current client and their relationship to a Jewish female scientist who worked at a slave camp during World War II. The novel touches not only on World War II, but also on the role [or lack of credit] for female scientists in the 1930-50s and how little they were given credit for their accomplishments. The novel is part historical as it flashes between time periods, a complex mystery, and a tale of mothers and daughters. As usual, Paretsky weave life lessons into a page-turning mystery. Another home run for the acclaimed writer.

And, of course, the BBC has never abandoned World War II. Catch up on Spies of Warsaw. The four episodes follow a "spy" during World War II who tries to do the right thing, but are caught up in politics and his love for a married woman. Then there is the fascinating "Cambridge Spies." The documentary builds the background of the spies from Cambridge. We've all heard their names: Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, and Anthony Blunt, but it is thrilling to discover Donald Maclean who was also part of the group. The series focuses on those four, while the documentary tells the story of the Cambridge Five. Why did these men of privilege turn to spying? They did not do it for money as recent spies, such as Aldridge have, but rather for ideology. Fueled by hate of Fascism and a passion for social justice, they spied for Russia during critical times in the Cold War.

Plus the movie of The Book Thief is due out. The book was amazing and the movie had gotten good press. Similar in theme to In Hitler's Backyard.

So World War II continues in articles, stories, and movies.

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The Boys in the Boat

8/7/2013

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If you are looking for a solid read about World War II and the 1936 Olympics, I highly recommend The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown. Brown weaves a fascinating tale of how a team of poor farm boys won an Olympic gold medal for rowing.

Rowing was (and some might say still is) considered an elite sport. The sport of Ivy League colleges and definitely prominent on the East Coast. But a team of strong, competitive boys from Washington State University beat all the odds and won a gold medal. Their eight-man crew worked hard and learned to work as one unit.

Brown does a masterful job of creating a strong narrative so you feel as if you are reading a fast-paced, exciting novel rather than a true, nonfiction account. Slowly building the characters of the team, the reader soon is enmeshed in the lives of the rowers. We see how they struggle in the Great Depression to stay in school. Rowing becomes the one safety net for the boys. Their coach, a former Gold medalist, drives them hard, but Brown lets you see what the coach sees in these boys. It is their strength of character and trust in each other that makes this team special.

While their journey to Berlin is exciting, Brown deftly weaves life in Germany to contrast with the team. You glimpse Hitler and his regime and how Goebbels manipulates and builds the German propaganda machine. He brings you in to the German Third Reich as you see Leni Riefenstahl create her masterwork about the German Olympics in 1936.

The story focuses on Joe Rantz, a solid, farm boy, who is so poor that he has to wear the same sweater to every practice until it almost falls of him. Yet you see the strong, solid character that Joe has and as he makes his way through college and onto the varsity rowing team, you cheer his accomplishments and fear his failures.

The book paints a clear picture of what life in 1936 was like both in America and Germany. With backstories of love, determination, and finally victory, for those who love World War II, it is not a book to be missed.

Penguin, a company that has a strong line of World War II titles, publishes the book.

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The Writer’s Life and World War II

6/30/2013

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Ideas for novels are all around us. I find myself eavesdropping on conversations while out to dinner or standing in line at the supermarket. I hope I’ll remember the key word or phrase that triggered an idea for a novel. Most often I don’t. I have plenty of pads with lines and sentences scribbled on them, but I no longer remember the framework for the novel. But that’s fine. I’ll soon hear something else that will trigger an idea. Often family and friends will see me drift off while we are out and depending on their mood, they either simply roll their eyes knowing I’m off in search of the next great American novel or filming a movie in my head or they snap at me to come back to Earth.

Stories fascinate me. Everyone has one, but I must admit some are better at sharing him or her than others. My Aunt Rose had a great many stories and I can still see her blue eyes dance as she told them. The same story was never told in quite the same manner. She’d always add a new detail or change the atmosphere ever so slightly that even though you’d heard the story before, it became new. I wish I had her gift. It’s probably why when I write I continually search for that one line that will define a character or moment. One of my favorite creations are the lists that Gertrude keeps making in In Hitler’s Backyard. I like way the lists change. Talking with a book club at a local library I was thrilled when reader asked me why her lists changed. It was great to be able to explore my thinking with an audience. Since we write alone, it’s always a thrill to explain and share the process.

While conversations and family stories spark ideas, many ideas in my future writing folder are newspaper articles with sentences with exclamation marks across them. Recently I saw a headline about Kindertransport and its 75th anniversary. Immediately I saw children on a boat, longing for their parents, and their fear of what kind of life lay ahead of them. I wondered if there was a way to write a story about Kindertransport and the Orphan Trains. Should it be historical fiction or narrative nonfiction? I think in then end it would/will be historical fiction as I’m a lousy fact checker and don’t want facts to get in the way of my narrative. (Though I must admit having a person who had lived the narrative of In Hitler’s Backyard proved a wonderful source and made the novel seem much more real.) I would have the book fact checked, just by a person who is better at that than I am.

Then there was the story about the man who has lived a quiet life since World War II, but it turns out he was a Nazi guard. I guess the word is alleged as he is being brought to trial. This is why World War II fascinates me. There are so many stories, both big and small. For example, my father never really talked about the war. I don’t think he saw horrible things. He was a navigator on a plane. He wanted to be a pilot but his eyes were too bad. I think it is the regret he was only a navigator that bothered him, not what he saw. But maybe I’m wrong. Even when he knew his time was limited, he didn’t talk about it.

The woman who inspired In Hitler’s Backyard lectures locally about the war. She does it because she never wants what happened to be repeated. The cast of characters in World War II are just too fascinating and I doubt interest in it will ever wane. Teens flock to her talks and sit there fascinated. There are no vampires or romances and yet her story remains compelling.

The larger theme of good versus evil is there, but I think it is the smaller stories that rivet us. I’m reading Life After Life. It’s a great read and I recommend it. It’s full of subtle details and little, everyday happenings. Yet the main character, Ursula quotes Donne, her favorite poet and other greats in literature. She is a character full of wisdom and yet as a reader, you question her choices. It’s a wonderful choice for a book club. And even better, one episode in the novel takes place at the Eagle’s Nest, the same setting as In Hitler’s Backyard.

Recently a teacher told me she is using my novel to compare and contrast with Anne Frank. She wants the kids to compare their different lives. I love it. As an author, you long for people to read and discuss your book. (And let’s be honest here, to buy it, too!) I told her when she does the unit, I will happily write some questions for the kids to think and write about.

I’m hoping to write a novel that is not historical in nature. But I must admit World War II keeps calling me. Maybe I’ll just keep the theme of good versus evil and see if I can write in a different time period. Stay tuned.

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The World War II Shadow

5/5/2013

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The World War II Shadow
World War II has been over for almost 70 years, but it still casts a shadow over literature and the movies. It symbolizes the ultimate war between good and evil. It was a war where you could identify the heroes and the villains. And those personalities still fascinate us.

Hitler remains one of the most evil and intriguing characters to walk across the stage. Was there any good in him? From Charlie Chaplin on, actors have tried to find some humanity in him. Most have not found any. There a brief moments when he appears normal, but the moments are very few and fleeting. His terrible deeds outnumber and overshadow any trace of humanity. Where did his hatred come from and why was it so intense? He failed as an art student. Many people do not succeed. What made Hitler the fanatic that he was?

These are the type of questions that continue to fascinate. For if Hitler is the face of evil, then the men, women, and children who opposed him are the many heroes in the saga of World War II. There are the every day Germans who quietly helped their neighbors. There are the families who saved Jewish people when they could, like the family that tried to save Anne Frank. There are the people like Schindler, who was a "good" German, yet worked to protect people. World War II offers us many threads. It is a tangled story of emotions, beliefs, and impulses.

Stories from World War II keep surfacing. Recently a German woman revealed she had been on of Hitler's teen taste-testers. She tasted Hitler's food first. Hitler was convinced there was a conspiracy to poison him. The search for Nazis has not stopped. World War II is an era that will always intrigue and fascinate us, whether we are reading adult novels or YA ones.

Here are some great novels that explore that era. Most can be found at local bookstores, Amazon.com, your local library, or Barnes and Noble. Curl up and travel back in time.

Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History.
(Soon to be a major movie with George Clooney!)

At the same time Adolf Hitler was attempting to take over the western world, his armies were methodically seeking and hoarding the finest art treasures in Europe. The Fuehrer had begun cataloging the art he planned to collect as well as the art he would destroy: "degenerate" works he despised.

In a race against time, behind enemy lines, often unarmed, a special force of American and British museum directors, curators, art historians, and others, called the Monuments Men, risked their lives scouring Europe to prevent the destruction of thousands of years of culture.

Focusing on the eleven-month period between D-Day and V-E Day, this fascinating account follows six Monuments Men and their impossible mission to save the world's great art from the Nazis.

HHhH
HHhH: “Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich”, or “Himmler’s brain is called Heydrich”. The most dangerous man in Hitler’s cabinet, Reinhard Heydrich was known as the “Butcher of Prague.” He was feared by all and loathed by most. With his cold Aryan features and implacable cruelty, Heydrich seemed indestructible—until two men, a Slovak and a Czech recruited by the British secret service, killed him in broad daylight on a bustling street in Prague, and thus changed the course of History.

A seemingly effortlessly blend of historical truth, personal memory, and Laurent Binet’s remarkable imagination, HHhH—an international bestseller and winner of the prestigious Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman—is a work at once thrilling and intellectually engrossing, a fast-paced novel of the Second World War that is also a profound meditation on the nature of writing and the debt we owe to history.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.

There are plenty of other books about World War II. Some authors to check out are: Alan Furst, Phillip Kerr, and Joseph Kanon.

There are great YA novels dealing with World War II. Two excellent ones are: Farewell to Manzanar and Number the Stars. Two good novels that are great to compare and contrast and to be part of a Holocaust unit are: The Diary of Anne Frank and In Hitler's Backyard.

And this doesn't even address the many movies. Next blog, the movies!

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Oldest Holocaust Survivor Dies

D-day on the normandy beaches

World War II Alive and Well

The Boys in the Boat

The Writer’s Life and World War II

The World War II Shadow

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