Tom Stoppard's stunning 'Leopoldstadt' at Shakespeare Theatre

Shakespeare Theatre Company's Leopoldstadt opens with a happy Christmas scene/Teresa Castracane, photo

Leopoldstadt is the name of a district outside Vienna which was the most cosmopolitan of cities in the late 19th century, with celebrated music, theatre, and the arts. Many of Leopoldstadt's residents were Jewish, and notable residents have included Billy Wilder and Johann Strauss and his son.

The play, Leopoldstadt won the Tony Award for Best Play in 2023, making Sir Tom Stoppard, the playwright, the winner of five Tonys for Best Play, more than anyone else, he, the author of more than 35 stage plays.

Stoppard is famous for his comedic, realistic portrayals of society and the issues of the day, but Leopoldstadt is no comedy.

The cover of Shakespeare Theatre Company's program is a photograph of a young Stoppard (now 87) when he was a toddler, although he says Leopoldstadt is not an autobiographical play.

The production opens upon a luxurious set at the home of a wealthy Jewish family amidst ostensibly happy times in 1899 with a holiday celebration and a Christmas tree.

Critical family members are introduced and we follow them along as they grow up and mature with stops in 1924, 1938, and 1955. Due to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, the family disintegrates.

Hermann (Nael Nacer) becomes the new "papist" in the group, so tabbed by Grandma Emilia, (Phyllis Kay) the family's strong matriarch. Hermann realizes he'll never be successful in Vienna as a Jew and he marries a Catholic.

Over time, scenes grow darker, more somber. Books disappear from shelves; the increasingly bleak chambers match the dull clothing.

The cast of Shakespeare Theatre Company's Leopoldstadt/ Teresa Castracane, photo

Even with the big family tree included in the program, it is not easy keeping up with the large cast (22) and who's who, but that remains secondary to the message.

STC's production is outstanding and certain to linger: the costumes (Victorian for a while), the sets, the acting, the sounds. The sounds! They’re excruciating as the play develops. The Nazi noises; the explosions, the sirens, the pounding at the door (by Jane Shaw).

You know the ending but getting to it with the Merz family and their slow recognition over the years of the harsh realities of their futures; their avoidance of what they knew was likely to be.

And who can blame them?

Stoppard was an adult before he learned of his Jewish background, that all his grandparents and three of his mother's sisters who were Jewish died in the Holocaust. Stoppard was born in Czechoslovakia whose father died when he was 4. His mother married a British officer whose surname Stoppard adopted.

According to program notes, Stoppard did not write Leopoldstadt until after his mother’s death.

Three generations celebrate their existence until there is no more. A theatre classic which reminds us it can happen again. And it is.

Six young local actors are the delightful children who perform at alternate shows: Harrison Morford, William Morford, Teddy Schechter, Adrianna Weir, Mila Weir, and Audrey Ella Wolff.

Everything about the performance is stunning, from the lighting (by Robert Wierzel) to costumes (by Alex Jaeger), and acting (director, Carey Perloff).

Other production designers are Ken McDonald, scenics; Tom Watson, wigs and hair; Yuki Izumihara, projections.

Director Perloff's family also was affected by the Nazis: Her mother had to flee Vienna in 1938.


What: Leopoldstadt

When: Now through Dec. 29, 2024

Where: Shakespeare Theatre Company, Harman Hall, 610 F St., NW, Washington, D.C. 20004

Duration: Approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes with one 15-minute intermission (but it seems much shorter).

Single tickets start at $35. Call the box office at 202-547-1122. Visit ShakespeareTheatre.org.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Anderson House remembers the Sullivans

 

The Sullivan brothers on board USS Juneau: From left, Joseph, Francis, Albert, Madison, and George Sullivan, U.S. Naval Historical Center, created Feb. 14, 1942  on the day of the ship's commissioning/Wikipedia

The 1944 movie, The Sullivans, was renamed, The Fighting Sullivans/From a poster at Anderson House's exhibition, Affairs of State: 118 Years of Diplomacy at Anderson House

Although it's been more than 80 years since the grandfather she never knew died with his four brothers in World War II on the same ship, Kelly Sullivan was unable to stop her tears during her presentation this summer about her famed family at the Anderson House, the home of the American Revolution Institute at the Society of the Cincinnati.

At the event, Ms. Sullivan's tears weren't the only ones which flowed, men's or women's. 

Two of the five Purple Hearts presented at Anderson House in 1944 to Thomas and Alleta Sullivan for their sons' valor in World War II, on display at  Affairs of State: 118 Years of Diplomacy at Anderson House/photo by Patricia Leslie

Kelly Sullivan speaks about her grandfather, Albert Sullivan and his brothers, at an Anderson House lecture/photo by Patricia Leslie

During the Battle of Guadalcanal, the Japanese torpedoed and sunk the USS Juneau on Nov. 13, 1942, eventually killing her grandfather and four uncles, all onboard.

Contrary to widespread belief, there is no legislation prohibiting family members from serving on the same ship, Ms. Sullivan said.

She is the granddaughter of Albert Sullivan, the only brother who was married and had a son, Jimmy, who, with his wife, had Kelly and her brother and sister.

Kelly Sullivan speaks about her grandfather, Albert Sullivan and his brothers, at an Anderson House lecture/photo by Patricia Leslie

The Sullivan Brothers were a close knit band who requested to be on the same ship, which rests still today in the Pacific Ocean, only discovered on St. Patrick's Day, Mar. 17, 2018, by shipwreck explorer, Microsoft's Paul Allen and his crew, Kelly said.

During the war, rumors of the brothers' deaths floated through their hometown of Waterloo, Iowa, until their mother, Alleta Sullivan, finally wrote a moving letter of inquiry to the U. S. Navy. 

While she read her great-grandmother's letter out loud to the audience, Kelly Sullivan stopped every few seconds to catch her breath.

Shortly after Mrs. Sullivan's letter was delivered to the Navy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt answered Mrs. Sullivan on January 13, 1943, confirming the deaths of her sons. 

Now, a museum in Waterloo honors the five men and other veterans, one of several places where the Sullivans are remembered. The U.S. Navy named two destroyers after them; a New York pier is named in their honor, and they were the subject of a 1944 movie, The Sullivans (renamed The Fighting  Sullivans).

Kelly Sullivan asked members of the audience attending the free lecture, to remember the sacrifices which  servicemen and women make daily for the United States and to thank them.

Anderson House, headquarters of the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati/photo by Patricia Leslie

Anderson House, headquarters of the American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati/photo by Patricia Leslie

Ms. Sullivan's presentation was part of the exhibition,  Affairs of State: 118 Years of Diplomacy at Anderson House, open to all during regular open hours. (Please see below.)

Although 100 survived the original torpedo and Juneau sinking, when the Navy finally got its paperwork together days later and undertook recovery operations, only 10 crew members were found still alive floating in the water amid hazardous conditions and sharks, according to Wikipedia.

What:  Affairs of State:  118 Years of Diplomacy and Entertaining at Anderson House

When: Now through Dec. 31, 2023, Tuesday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. and Sunday, 12 - 4 p.m. Closed on major holidays and meetings of the Society of the Cincinnati. Check here.

Where:  Anderson House, 2118 Massachusetts Ave., Washington, D.C. NW 20008

How much:  No charge.

Metro station:  Dupont Circle.  Exit at Q Street/North exit. At the top of the escalator, turn left on Q Street.

For more information: (202) 785-2040 

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'Daughters of Yalta,' a must for Russian and WWII history buffs

Sex, lives, and history are all parts of the sagas in Daughters of Yalta: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War by Catherine Grace Katz who describes the lives of three young women who attended the 1945 Yalta Conference with their dads, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Averill Harriman, the U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union.

The conference was a meeting of Great Britain, the U.S. and the Soviet Union, considered the "Big Three" World War II allies, to discuss strategies on Russia's Black Sea for the ending of the war and what to do with Poland and Germany.

For those who may not be historians like I am not, the book sheds light on the ending of WWII and the division of Germany and how countries' borders are sometimes determined as much as cutting a pie to pieces.

The Daughters were Sarah Churchill, 30, who later became an actress; Kathy Harriman, 27, who lived with her dad in Moscow for several years before Yalta and spoke fluent Russian which came in handy at the conference; and Anna Roosevelt, 38, who constantly worried about her father's health. (He died two months after the conference ended.)

The book details the day-to-day (sometimes hourly) activities the trio enjoyed (or tolerated): their day trips, room arrangements, negotiations, love affairs, late nights and social hours with fine descriptions of meals including a Russian dinner which started at 9 p.m. and ended at 1 a.m., with 45 toasts, 20 courses (fried horse mackerel was one dish), 24 male guests, and Mss. Churchill, Harriman, and Roosevelt.


(The Russians always tried to outdo themselves with huge splashes of generosity, omnipresent vodka and the modernization of a Romanov palace for use as lodging at the conference.)

Kathy Harriman knew about her dad's affair with Pamela Churchill (whom he married 26 years later); Sarah Churchill knew about her sister-in-law's affair with the ambassador; Anna knew about her father's affair with Lucy Mercer, as daughter even helped arrange trysts and attempted to keep the relationship hidden from her mother, Eleanor. (Talk about mother/daughter relationships!)

The Americans and Russians expected their rooms were bugged. They were. Soviet spy Alger Hiss, a representative of the U.S. at Yalta, figures predominately in the book.

FDR worked hard to preserve his relationship with Stalin which Churchill resisted. The Americans and the British wanted to stop Russia from overtaking Poland to also serve as notice for other East European nations.

FDR worked out a secret agreement with Stalin for the Soviets to declare war in the Pacific which they did two days after the U.S. dropped the bomb on Hiroshima August 6, 1945. The Japanese surrendered August 15, 1945.

President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill both believed the conference was a success but worldwide criticism began almost immediately when it ended. French leader Charles de Gaulle was furious France was excluded from Yalta.

FDR looked exceedingly ill at the conference, and his constant smoking exacerbated his condition. When he died, Moscow honored his memory by hanging red flags with black borders throughout the city.

At the Washington History Seminar where Ms. Katz delivered her book in rapid-fire delivery last month (possibly trying to get as much in before her time expired), Allida Black, an Eleanor Roosevelt scholar and a panelist on the program asked Ms. Katz why she had mostly ignored ER in her book which Ms. Katz denied, but I have to agree with Dr. Black. Unlike the roles played by Clementine Churchill and Marie Harriman, mothers of the other two "daughters," "ER" commands little space.

Until I got going in the book, I thought (and hoped) Joseph Stalin's daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, might be one of the main characters; nyet.

And it's hardly likely she would have been, said Serhii Plokhii, a professor of Ukrainian history at Harvard and another panelist at the WHS presentation.

At the time of the Yalta Conference, according to Dr. Plokhii, Svetlana was only19 and hardly one to be supported by her dad. Although she did speak English, she was traumatized as a teen to learn her mother had died from suicide. Svetlana had married in her teen years, and her father refused to meet the groom. It was not the best of times for father and daughter's relationship.

Neither Wikipedia nor History.com have any mention of the daughters on their Yalta pages nor does History.com list Averill Harriman.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until the end of the book that I discovered the listing of key delegates, but I found myself often using the essential map showing the lodging locations and the Black Sea and the Allies' meeting place. Thank you, author and publisher, for including!

It was difficult at times for me to keep the three women separate, and more in-depth biography about each at the beginning of the book would have helped and referencing them by whole names instead of first names only.

The book doesn't end with Yalta: Ms. Katz fills us in on the lives of the three women until their deaths; some, sad; some, happy and glamorous as is life, told in Sarah Churchill's autobiography Keep on Dancing, published in 1981, the year before she died, in Christopher Ogden's biography of Pamela Harriman, Life of the Party; and among the pages of Mother and Daughter: The Letters of Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt, edited by Bernard Asbell.

Biographies of Ms. Harriman and Ms. Roosevelt have yet to be published.

For the second Daughters' edition, I wish for photos of Clementine Churchill and Marie Harriman.

Ms. Katz said the publisher, Houghton Mifflin, became interested early on in her book and paid her expenses.  She spent 18 months conducting research, she said at the WHS, and 18 months writing.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Book review: 'Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up' is highly recommended

 

The chief message to journalists: Don't give up.

If I were in charge of reading lists for journalism students, this would be on it, a story within a story of how a civilization was decimated by the atomic bomb, and how the people bombed lived to tell about it.

Which they did to John Hersey, reporter and novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize for A Bell for Adano, his first novel, the year before the bomb was dropped.

Lesley M. M. Blume's Fallout: The Hiroshima Coverup and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World (2020) follows Mr. Hersey's account of his interviews with six bomb victims and the secret production of the story in the New Yorker which published the report in a 31,000 word issue, the first time it devoted its entire issue to a single topic.

In the article which came out a little more than a year after the bomb dropped, Mr. Hersey describes the U.S. government's efforts to withhold the effects.

The story portrayed for the first time, Japanese as human beings, like me and you, ordinary people (p. 127). Until the story, Americans resisted considering their enemy across the sea as anything but murderers intent on destroying their nation. But the bomb drop on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945 shattered the lives of civilians, children, families, people.

First atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan by B-29 superfortresses on August 6, 1945. Title from item. "Official photograph furnished by Headquarters, A.A.F. AC/AS-2"--stamped on back of print. "If published credit U.S. Army, A.A.F. photo"--stamped on back of print. Photo number: A-58914 AC. Forms part of the National Committee on Atomic Information records at the Library of Congress. PR 13 CN 1995:068 (1 AA size box)

Ms. Blum describes Mr. Hersey's three weeks in Japan interviewing survivors who became the focus of his article. How he got there and got "in" Hiroshima are important pieces of the story's puzzle.

His collaboration with the New Yorker's co-founder, Harold Ross, and an editor, William Shawn, were so secret, they kept the subject hidden from the magazine's staff who wondered about content missing for the next edition.

Two other journalists had earlier written about Hiroshima, but their reports were dismissed, although their reporting led to a requirement that reporters must be accompanied by an official.

Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett ridiculed "housetrained reporters" who simply wrote what the U.S. government wished (p. 30).

Worried about the U.S. military's response to the article, the New Yorker's trio passed it pre-publication for muster to Leslie Groves, the director of the Manhattan Project which developed the bomb. Surprisingly, with slight edits, he okayed it.

Tormented throughout his work, Hersey was horrified that a single bomb could cause so much destruction (p. 72).

One of the victims described eyes which melted, the liquid flowing down what used to be faces on people still alive.

Many ran naked through the streets.

Skin peeled off.

A baby choked on dirt swallowed in a collapsed house. The mother refused to relinquish her child's decomposing body for days (p. 85).

To escape the fires, some jumped into one of Hiroshima's seven rivers where bodies of massacred victims floated (p. 92).

Civilians appeared "like a procession of ghosts," one survivor told Mr. Hersey (p. 84).

Of 300 doctors in Hiroshima, 270 died or were wounded; nurses lost 1,654 of their 1,780 to death or injury (p. 89).

By November 30, 1945 the death count reached 78,000 with 14,000 people still missing.

Burned legs show the effects of atomic bombs on people who survived.Otis Historical Archives of “National Museum of Health & Medicine” (OTIS Archive 1)/Creative Commons, Wikipedia.

Partially incinerated child in Nagasaki. Photo from Japanese photographer Yōsuke Yamahata, one day after the blast and building fires had subsided. Once the American forces had Japan under military control, they imposed censorship on all such images including those from the conventional bombing of Tokyo which prevented the distribution of Yamahata's photographs. These restrictions were lifted in 1952  http://www.noorderlicht.com/en/archive/yosuke-yamahata/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=66792817. 

On a press tour of facilities in New Mexico, Lieutenant General Groves told reporters that the number of Japanese who died from radiation was "very small" (p. 45) and that Hiroshima was "essentially radiation-free" (p. 46).

Speaking to the Senate Special Committee on Atomic Energy, he quoted doctors who said death by radiation "is a very pleasant way to die" (p. 47). Mr. Groves had no apologies for the bomb drop, unlike some scientists who showed misgivings (p. 146).

The day after Victory over Japan was declared on August 14, 1945, a poll showed the majority of Americans approved the bombings, and almost 25% said they wished America had bombed more (p. 24).

After the story was published, the eyewitness subjects applauded Mr. Hersey's acuity in retelling their lives.

The article was printed as a book, Hiroshima, which became a worldwide phenomenon which has never gone out of print, selling three million copies and available in several languages. At publication it was picked up by 500 radio stations, including the BBC, and thrust Mr. Hersey into the limelight, a position he resisted.

The welcome epilogue brings the reader up-to-date with key characters, but a glossary of them would have amplified the content and made it easier to follow, a wish I have for most books I read.

This is a small book with an index of almost 100 pages which consumes almost a third of the total pages. I wished for more research, a longer book with additional "behind-the-scenes" descriptions.

Still, a book to be reckoned with and acknowledged as another chapter in America's gruesome past.

patricialesli@gmail.com

Movie review: 'Jojo Rabbit' is a sleeper hit!

It's one of the Year's Top 10!
 
The audience rates Jojo Rabbit at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and the critics, 79% (ho hum), so you know it's got to be good since the audience is always right.

"Adolph" (Taika Waititi, the director) is the imaginary friend of "Jojo" (Roman Griffith Davis) in Jojo Rabbit

Easy prediction:  Jojo will make the Top 10 Oscar "Best Movies" list of 2019, practically assured by its inclusion in the Golden Globe nominations.

But Best Actor for a 12-year-old (Roman Griffith Davis)? Naaawwww....just call me ageist. 

What's required for admittance to Jojo is an open mind and tolerance since this is billed as a "black comedy," and that it is, folks. (Parent's warning: It's okay for mature tweens, but the story will be hard to follow for younger children.)

My Jewish friends may find the World War II Nazi Germany setting intolerable, but the negativity gradually collapses to opposition in Jojo, with its underlying theme which strengthens as the show progresses without becoming overbearing.
 
Jojo Rabbit has a horrid rabbit exchange, but this is a satire, and I know PETA would not let anything happen to a silly rabbit.  

Writer, director, "Polynesian Jew" Taika Waititi (who based Jojo on a story by Christine Leunens) has placed himself in a major role (an imaginary Adolph Hitler) who befriends "Jojo" (Master Davis), a member of Hitler's Youth Army. The lad is a bit uncertain what it all means, but there's a surprise in his attic which grows on him and becomes a life lesson.

In this blend of light sci-fi with a fabulous score (by Michael Giacchino), I can assure you no one will be bored.

Jojo has a ton of great actors but none better than Stephen Merchant as the despised straight-up German officer who, I hope, earns a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Just one look and a few wordless seconds with this awful person are all that are necessary for his persona as Mr. Evil to emerge.

A Best Supporting Actress nod will likely go to Tomasin McKenzie (who's only 19 years old herself, but never mind). The casting crew deserves a nomination for choosing the other knockouts who include Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson, Sam Rockwell, and Archie Yates (a darling boy), among many.

With hate crimes on the rise, exacerbated by world leaders' ignorance, narcissism, self-righteousness, and ethnocentrism, the movie's message subtly undergirds the content which I hope leaves viewers with heightened sensitivities to better acceptance of those who may be different from you and from me. 

patricialesli@gmail.com

National Archives receives WWII diary in signing ceremony

 Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, shows pages from the diary of S. Lane Faison, Jr., given by the Foundation to National Archives/Photo by Patricia Leslie

Pages from the diary of S. Lane Faison, Jr. given by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art to National Archives/Photo by Patricia Leslie


 In a signing ceremony Monday morning at the U.S. National Archives, on the eve of the 74th anniversary of the suicide of Adolph Hitler, a diary kept by a U.S. Navy Reservist about Nazi art theft in World War II was donated to the National Archives by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.

The diarist, S. Lane Faison, Jr. (1907-2006), recorded observations he made during 1950 and 1951 when he directed the Munich Central Collecting Point which was a storehouse and distribution center for the recovery of art the Nazis seized from museums and private collectors.

A page from the diary of S. Lane Faison, Jr. given by the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art to National Archives/Photo by Patricia Leslie


 Since the National Archives affords access to records by all and Monuments Men wants as many persons to see the documents as possible, it made sense for Archives to have the diary, Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation, said at the ceremony.

Earlier, Mr. Faison's four sons had given the book to the Foundation.

 

Dr. Greg Bradsher, senior archivist and "expert on Holocaust-era asset records," with S. Lane Faison, Jr.'s diary/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

From left, Dr. Greg Bradsher, senior archivist, with Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, at the signing ceremony at National Archives for the gift acceptance from the Monuments Men Foundation to Archives of S. Lane Faison, Jr.'s diary. Open on the table are pages from one of 43 "Hitler's Albums" recovered and at Archives/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The diary will be reunited with 43 volumes of the "Hitler Albums" which have been recovered and already given by the Foundation to the Archives where they may be digitally accessed. The Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg , the Nazi task force devoted to seizing art and other valuables, compiled the albums, perhaps for the pleasure of Hitler who loved art, Mr. Edsel said.

The volumes are among the estimated 100 albums of photographs of stolen art the Nazis kept with careful documentation about each piece, including the rightful owner, said Dr. Greg Bradsher, senior archivist at Archives and "expert on Holocaust-era assets," according to an Archives statement.

A page from one of "Hitler's Albums" on display at the signing ceremony for the gift acceptance of the diary of S. Lane Faison, Jr. by National Archives from the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A photograph of a stolen painting from one of "Hitler's Albums." Under the photograph is picture identification (below)/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In a "Hitler Album," the identification page underneath the photo which identifies the painting and the family from whom the Nazis stole it, as carefully recorded by the Nazis/Photo by Patricia Leslie


 The majority of the volumes are still missing, and presumably sitting in attics, barns, old houses and garages. A team of about five researchers from the Foundation is actively searching for them, Mr. Edsel said.

It is a crime for anyone to knowingly sell historical documents, artifacts and other records.

The albums were all the same size, Dr. Bradsher said, and were used as evidence during the Nuremberg trials.

Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, notes that not all 43  recovered "Hitler Albums" have title pages. The one on display has a title page/Photo by Patricia Leslie

On the left is David Ferriero, archivist of the U.S., who signed documents to accept the gift of the diary of S. Lane Faison, Jr. from the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art,. Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men, is on the right and, standing, is Dr. Greg Bradsher, senior archivist/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From left, David Ferriero, archivist of the U.S., Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, and Dr. Greg Bradsher at the signing ceremony at National Archives for the gift from the Monuments Men Foundation of the diary of S. Lane Faison, Jr. to National Archives/Photo by Patricia Leslie


 Mr. Edsel said art was extremely important to Hitler who kept volumes of it from the time he was 16 until he died, including some of the "Hitler Albums."

During the war, General Dwight D. Eisenhower issued more than one order to Allied troops that they leave premises as they found them and not take souvenirs, Mr. Edsel and Dr. Bradsher said. With teenaged and 20-something aged soldiers, the order was difficult to follow and enforce.

Today, these sites would be treated as crime scenes, said Mr. Edsel who wrote The Monuments Men which was picked up by George Clooney and made into a film in 2014.

From left, David Ferriero, archivist of the U.S., Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, and Dr. Greg Bradsher with S. Lane Faison. Jr.'s diary/Photo by Patricia Leslie

From left, David Ferriero, archivist of the U.S., Dr. Greg Bradsher, senior archivist, and Robert Edsel, chairman of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art, with S. Lane Faison. Jr.'s diary on the left on the table and, on the right, one of 43 recovered "Hitler Albums"/Photo by Patricia Leslie

At Williams College, Mr. Faison was the director of the Museum of Art and headed the art history department where one of his students was recently retired National Gallery of Art director, Earl A. Powell III. Photographs of looted art and memorabilia seized by the Nazis may also be found at the National Gallery’s own Munich Central Collecting Point Archive.

Mr. Faison was born in Washington, D.C.

According to Hilary Parkinson of the Archives' public affairs office:

"The diary will be available to the public in NARA’s textual research room at College Park in the near future. We will be exploring options for providing access to digital images once the diary has been transferred to College Park.
 

"Some of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) Photograph Albums have been digitized and can be seen here."

Also present at the ceremony was David Ferriero, archivist of the United States.

patricialesli@gmail.com

For film archives: 'After Auschwitz'

In a new chapter of the wrenching Holocaust story comes a sad and remarkable documentary, After Auschwitz, by Jon Kean about six women who survived Nazi death camps to cross the Atlantic, marry, and become successful American citizens.

After release by American and Russian soldiers into the woods and on the streets of Germany at the close of World War II, these women struggled at times with new found freedoms, but eventually, in gradual transformations, could claim victory over fear, brutality, and starvation.

Testaments to their miracles of human perseverance, persistence, and sheer drive are understated descriptions of these pioneers.

Without giving the contents much thought in advance, I anticipated a quarter of the film to be scenes before and after the concentration camps, but I was wrong.  Gruesome visuals filled far more than 25 percent, no pictures or videos which I recognized.  This is not for the weak.

That the movie was a long time in production is not surprising given the years the directors/producers/researchers must have spent  searching for film to match the ladies' stories, and they found them!

After you get out of prison and are set free, where do you go to look for your parents? Or your brother? Or cousins or old friends?

One woman made it back to her home town on foot to find her family's house occupied by a new family who wore her family's clothing.
 
About 75 percent of Holocaust victims who lived were the only members of their families to survive.

One of the women cautions at the end: It can happen again, and it is happening, in Sudan and other places. Large numbers of skeptics deny the existence of the Holocaust. Violence, intolerance, and discrimination against those who may differ from you and from me are found every day in the news.
At Rotten Tomatoes the film's score is 100%.

Photographs and brief biographical sketches of the film's six women, some of whom are deceased, may be found at the movie's website here.

They are:
 
Eva (Schick) Beckmann, born in Prague, Czechoslovakia

Rena (Honigman) Drexler, born in Sosnowiec, Poland

Renee (Weinfeld) Firestone, born in Uzhorod, Czechoslovakia

Erika (Engel) Jacoby, born in Miscolc, Hungary

Lili (Nutkowicz) Majzner, born in Lodz, Poland

Linda (Scheffer) Sherman, born in Amsterdam, Holland

patricialesli@gmail.com

WWII planes over the National Mall

WWII planes head toward the National Mall, Washington, D.C. on May 8, 2015 to honor WWII veterans on the 70th anniversary of the Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

In the far distance to the right of the Washington Monument in the picture above, beyond the piles of dirt on the National Mall (groundskeeping maintenance) come the first of 56 vintage World War II planes which flew over the Mall on May 8, 2015 to honor veterans and those who built the tanks, ships, and aircraft for the U.S. war effort. It was the 70th anniversary of the Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945.

 

Pilots flew the aircraft in historically sequenced formation, representing the war's major battles:  Pearl Harbor, Midway, Guadalcanal, D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, and Iwo Jima.  The sounds and rumbles of the engines in the distance which preceded the planes' appearances in the sky, heightened expectations among the crowd and were some of the exhibition's best effects, bringing back memories of yesterday when the nation was more united and focused on a common enemy.

 

Joining thousands who came to watch the 40 minute show, which began at 12:10 p.m., were more than 400 WWII veterans, according to an afternoon statement from the offices of the Arsenal of Democracy Flyover which coordinated the event with the Federal Aviation Administration, Transportation Security Administration, National Park Service, U.S. Secret Service, and U.S. Capitol Police.  Late television news reports said a fire caused one plane to drop out of formation during the flight (pictured below), but the Arsenal office said it was only a precaution.

 

About 20 of the planes will be on display at the Smithsonian's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum,  at Chantilly, VA near the Dulles International Airport on Saturday, May 9, 2015 from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.  Admission is free, but parking is $15.

 

If you can identify any of the planes below, write soon.  The pictures were taken from the west side of the Mall, near the Smithsonian Metro station.

WWII planes head toward the National Mall, Washington, D.C. on May 8, 2015 to honor WWII veterans on the 70th anniversary of the Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes head toward the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015 to honor WWII veterans on the 70th anniversary of the Victory in Europe Day, May 8, 1945/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane (Lockheed P-38 Lightning?) over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015 /Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015 /Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015 /Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C.  May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

While flying over the National Mall in Washington, D.C. on May 8, 2015, one of the WWII planes falls out of formation and heads towards National Airport for repair/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

A WWII plane over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

In the distance is one of the really big (!) planes flying back to its base after flying over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

The mission is completed, and it's time to return to base after flying over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015/Photo by Patricia Leslie

WWII planes over the National Mall, Washington, D.C. May 8, 2015 with the "Missing Man" formation which ended the show/Photo by Patricia Leslie

 

patricialesli@gmail.com