Showing posts with label Nazi Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nazi Germany. Show all posts
4th October 2015
As a writer it's always exciting when awaiting a publisher's imminent verdict on a new manuscript. My two latest ones, called Lamplight and Vichyssoise, are books 1 and 2 of my David Klein series set in wartime Germany and France - the latter covering transportation of a victim to the notorious Drancy camp. Both are a lifetime's work. So it was with annoyance that I read of the recent shenannigans in Nice, where the Alpes-Maritimes prefecture unfurled a giant Nazi banner over the front of the building, in the middle of the historic Vieille Ville area and the Cours Saleya antiques market. Yes, this happened last week! Had the neo-Nazis made a terrible come-back? No, it turned out to be for a film. Realising the commotion that it caused, the prefecture then put out an explanatory press release at the end of the afternoon. The film, like my book, is also set during the dark times of Jewish deportations to Drancy. But what kind of idiocy is it to put a Nazi flag on a prefecture building, causing many, particularly the elderly who remember, to cry out? Him indoors said it didn't help that the maire's name is Adolphe!! You couldn't make it up.
24th November 2008
Many of you familiar with my blogs lately will know that I'm not a great advocate of celebrity for its own sake. Fame should come from extraordinary feats of skill or bravery, especially for life-time achievements. When I look at Britain's new year's honours lists, for example, I gnash my teeth in frustration at the number of so-called celebrities who have achieved fame simply by their looks or being in the right place at the right time.
It was all the more remarkable, therefore, that I heard of two well-deserved honours for a woman called Simone Veil. It's not often we hear of someone being awarded not only a British damehood but also be elected to the Académie Française, the centuries-old body that acts as guardian of the French language.
Her story is remarkable. She was born in Nice in 1927. Her family was sent to Auschwitz during WW2, where most of them perished. At the age of 18, Veil began studying law and preparing for a life in politics. When she became Minister of Health in the goverment of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1974, Veil helped to legalise abortion. She was then elected first female president of the European parliament in Strasbourg and, in 1998, she was instrumental in pushing for a treaty to establish a constitution for Europe.
What a story! Not many of us who were belittled by Germany during the war, would then set about rising the ranks and personally achieving miraculous results during a lifetime's work. At the age of 81, here is one lady who truly deserves her honours.
Now we have a black President, who represents thousands of downtrodden slaves in America's past, I will look for a future Jewish or Gypsy leader of Germany. Having seen what Veil has done, anything is possible.
It was all the more remarkable, therefore, that I heard of two well-deserved honours for a woman called Simone Veil. It's not often we hear of someone being awarded not only a British damehood but also be elected to the Académie Française, the centuries-old body that acts as guardian of the French language.
Her story is remarkable. She was born in Nice in 1927. Her family was sent to Auschwitz during WW2, where most of them perished. At the age of 18, Veil began studying law and preparing for a life in politics. When she became Minister of Health in the goverment of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing in 1974, Veil helped to legalise abortion. She was then elected first female president of the European parliament in Strasbourg and, in 1998, she was instrumental in pushing for a treaty to establish a constitution for Europe.
What a story! Not many of us who were belittled by Germany during the war, would then set about rising the ranks and personally achieving miraculous results during a lifetime's work. At the age of 81, here is one lady who truly deserves her honours.
Now we have a black President, who represents thousands of downtrodden slaves in America's past, I will look for a future Jewish or Gypsy leader of Germany. Having seen what Veil has done, anything is possible.
29th August 2008
Watching last night's TV made me mull over a lot of things. In the programme 'Who do you think you are', Jerry Springer was attempting to trace his ancestors. Quite apart from the anguish of revisiting the horrors of Nazi Germany, he was able to see and feel some of the all-too-real artefacts of that time: newspaper stories, buildings, trains. It became clear to him that these tactile objects from that time weren't merely the remnants from one lunatic dictator's rule, but represented the actual feelings of the general German population 70 years ago. After watching the programme, I looked out of the window and realised that today I was living my life in what was once German-occupied territory. How is it that for such a long time we have been free from world war? Could it be that the EU, for all its bureaucracy and accusations of identity-blocking, is something not to be abhored but to be lauded? Since moving away from the UK, I've come to realise that people become too-insular and narrow-focused living tightly-packed together, brain-washed by all the strident messages from the local media. Pause a while, give yourself time to stand and stare. The more democracies there are which are willing to sign peace treaties with each other, the more chance the people of the world can live without fear or restriction. If this is what the EU has done, then I'm all in favour of it. Nazi Germany must NEVER happen again.
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