From Cheap Air Travel Blog: Popular First Ladies Exhibit Returns to the Smithsonian
A wildly popular exhibition has returned to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. “The First Ladies” returned to the museum Saturday, showcasing dresses and personal effects that trace more than 100 years of the unofficial office of the first lady.
Over the years, “First Ladies” has attracted thousands of visitors arriving on flights to Washington D.C.
The first exhibition dedicated to the nation’s most influential women opened at the Smithsonian back in 1914. Since then, more than 10 versions have enjoyed successful runs in the nation’s capital.
According to a report in USA Today, every first lady since Helen Taft has followed the tradition of donating her inaugural gown to the museum’s collection. The exhibition is currently anchored by a stunning white dress worn by Michelle Obama.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sir Winston Churchill: Colourful colossus world figure
Sri Lanka Daily News: Sir Winston Churchill: Colourful colossus world figure
The 137th birth anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), the colossus world figure, British statesman, Prime Minister, falls tomorrow (November 30). He was born on November 30, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. He was the War Prime Minister from 1940-1945, then, again in 1951-1955. Undoubtedly, he was one of the leading figures in the 20th century. He changed the entire course of history of the world by motivating the British. He was mainly responsible in defeating the most ruthless Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler (1889-1945).
This colourful personality Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a man of many parts. He was a Warrior, crafty strategist, shrewd politician, a great orator and debater, strict disciplinarian, an administrator, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature (1953), wittiest politician and painter. He was a great national leader and patriot, who was mainly responsible and instrumental in saving the British civilization. He was a towering figure in the world political firmament. He was able to get to the heart of a problem quickly.
Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, to Marlborough family, home in Oxfordshire. Winston’s father was Lord Randolp Henry Spencer Churchill (1849-1895) a British statesman, Secretary of State of India (1885-1886), Chancellor of Exchequer (1886), a gifted speaker and a loyal member of the Conservative Party.
Winston’s parents selected a nanny - Elizabeth Everest, to look after little Winston. She became the confidante of Winston Churchill for 18 years. Once, Winston remarked.
“My mother shone like an Evening Star. I loved her immensely, but kept her at a distance.”
Winston Churchill studied at one of the prestigious public schools in England - Harrow. He was an average student. As a kid, he played with toy soldiers. His father admitted him to the leading military school - Sandhurst. He passed out 20th out of a batch of 120 cadets.
Serving the Army, his first assignment was in South Africa. He served in two wars between Afrikaners (Boers) and the Britishers in South Africa. Churchill played a role as a War Reporter in the second South African War in 1899. He was imprisoned in Pretoria, but after few months he escaped.
In 1900, he took upto politics and was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament. Winston Churchill was a man of principles. He crossed the floor and joined the Liberal Party in 1904. The Liberal Party of British grew out of the early 19th century. “The Liberal’s greatest leader was William Gladstone.
The predominant interest of the Liberal Party were free trade, religious and individual liberty, financial retrenchment, constitutional reforms etc.
As the first Lord of Admiralty under Herbert Asquith (1852-1928), Churchill expanded Britain’s Navy in preparation for World War I (1914-1918). World War I was due to an attack and an assassination of Austrian Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand by Serbs in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Austria declared war against Serbia from July 29, 1914. Germany declared war on Russia August 18, 1914 and France on August 3, 1914 and then Britain declared war on Germany.
In Llloyd George’s (1863-1945) Cabinet, Churchill served as the Secretary of State for war (1918-1921), and as the Colonial Secretary (1921-1922). He oversaw the creation of the Irish Free State. Then, he returned to power as the Chancellor of Exchequer (1923-1929) and served under Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) - Conservative Prime Minister (1923/24, 1924/29, 1935/37). From 1929 to 1939, Churchill was out of office. It should be mentioned here during this period he spoke against the rising threat of Nazi Germany.
On the outbreak of World War II - 1939 to 1945, Wisnton Churchill, once again became the First Lord of Admiralty. The World War II, began as an International conflict arising from disputes provoked by the Expansion of policies of Germany in Europe and Japan and in the Far East. An important highlight was Hitler’s Nazi Germany invaded Poland, whereupon Britian and France declared war on September 3, 1940.
The top three
In 1940, Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) as War Prime Minister. Churchill was at his best. He proved to be an inspiring war leader. He cultivated a close relationship with the Great American President - Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) - four times President. Churchill was the chief architect of the grand alliance - USA and USSR. On February, 1945, Chief Allied Leaders of the World War II, took place at Yalta in Cremia, Ukraine with victory over Germany, Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin met to discuss the final campaign of war and post war settlement.
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were three men who shaped modern Europe and the post war structure of international politics.
The extraordinary personal relationship evolved between the leaders of the greatest combination of Military Power in history - the grand Alliance of the second world war, popularly known as the “Big Three”, was the Force behind to defeat the Nazi Dictator Hitler of Germany. They met to plan the strategy in Teheran (1943) and Yalta (1945).
Witty, humerous and world leader
Wisnton Churchill was one of the wittiest politicians cum statesman the world has seen.
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were staying in a hotel in Yalta. Roosevelt, a polio victim, going on his wheel chair, kicked and opened the door of Churchill. He (Churchill) was caught with his pants down. Roosevelt said “Winston, so sorry.”
Churchill smiled broadly and uttered:-
“Come in. PM of England, United Kingdom, has nothing to hide from United States of America.”
Once a Labour Woman Parliamentarian growled in the House vehemently criticising Conservative Prime Minister Churchill. She said “Hon Speaker, if this man is my husband, I will add some “arsenic to his morning cup of coffee.” Cool as a cucumber, Churchill got up and replied “Hon Speaker, I will be too glad to drink the cup of coffee, rather than living with the Honourable Member.”
Good relationship with a “Comi is” like wooing a crocodile
On another occasion, Churchill described a Communist in this manner - “Trying to maintain good relationship with a Communist is like wooing a crocodile.
You do not know, whether to tickle it, under the chin or beat it over the head. When a crocodile opens its mouth, you cannot tell, whether he is trying to smile or preparing to eat you up.”
Meeting the Maker
He was very popular with mediamen. One day, a journalist questioned Churchill whether, he was ready to meet “His Maker.”
Churchill replied “Young Man, I am ever ready to meet my Maker, but whether my Maker is prepared for the Great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
Fountain of epigrams
Sir Winston Churchill was a real fountain of epigrams. One of his famous words; I quote
In war, resolution
In defeat, defiance
In victory, magnanimity
In peace, goodwill
Once Churchill said, “There are lot of lies going around the world and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”
On another occasion, Churchill uttered “never trust a man, who has not a single redeeming vice”
Politics a funny game
In 1945, Churchill was succeeded by Clement Atlee (1883-1969) as Labour Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951. He granted Independence to India, Sri Lanka and Burma. In the 1946 Parliamentary Elections, the man who saved Great Britain from Adolf Hitler, lost his Parliamentary seat. Politics is a funny and an unpredictable game.
Noble prize winner
Winston Churchill loved literature, history, art and painting. Among those books he wrote, the first book was The Story of the Malakand Field Force, History of the World War II, and History of the English Speaking People (1956-1958). He received the Noble Prize in 1953.
Churchill was in Parliament for nearly half a century. He was the Leader of the Opposition for six years, Prime Minister for 3 ½ years from October 1951. He resigned at the age of 80.
Silver tongued orator
Without any doubt, Winston Churchill was one of the best speakers, orators the world have witnessed. The effect of his words were electric.
The beauty was that Churchill mobilised the English language and sent it to battle. He deployed his power of oratory in their simplicity, majesty and eloquence. Gladstone, Lloyd George were orators. But, Churchill was in the forefront. Churchill addressed the hearts more than the brain.
On May 19, 1940, in his first broadcast as war Prime Minister - Winston Churchill stated; “I have formed an administration of men and women of every party and of almost every point of view. We have differed and quarreled in the past. Now, one bond, unites as all - to wage war until victory is won, never to surrender ourselves whatever the cost may be.”
Once in the Parliament, Churchill mentioned about his policy:
“It is to wage war by sea, land and air with all our might and with all, our strength that God give us and wage war against the monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the lamentable catalogue of human crime”.
“What is our aim?”
“It is victory, victory at all costs come then, let us go forward together with our united effort,”
In some of his speeches, he motivated the feelings of patriotism and the importance of unity.
“We had to think of the future and not the past. If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.”
Once a Home Guard guarding the beach asked Churchill - “Sir what to do if Germans landed?”
“Hit them on the head with broken bottles. It is all we have bloody got”, Churchill replied.
In one of the Churchill’s powerful speeches, he mentioned, “We shall do our best to be worthy of high honour. We shall fight on unconquerable, until the curse of Hitler is lifted from the brims of mankind. We are sure in the end all will come right.
On June 4, 1940 Churchill made this famous brilliant speech, which is quoted by many.
“We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France. We shall fight in the seas and oceans. We shall fight with the growing confidence and growing strength in the Air. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
From some of Churchill’s speeches:
The finest hour - House of Commons - 18/6/1940
“Upon the battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and Europe”.
“The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows he will have to break us in this island or lose the war”.
“If we can stand up to him (Hitler), all Europe may be freed and, the life of the world may move forward into the broad and sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including USA and all that we have known and cared for will sink into the abyss of a New Dark Era, made more sinister and perhaps more prolonged by the lights of perverted science.
Churchill was a Great Motivator. He addressed the nation “The battle of Britain is about two begin. The whole fury and the might, soon be turned on us. Let us therefore embrace ourselves, that if the British Empire and the Commonwealth lasts for thousand yeas, men will say - this is their finest hour.
In July 1899, Winston Churchill contested to enter Parliament. He was unsuccessful. In July 1900, he contested Oldham Seat and was elected. In 1904, he crossed the floor of the House and joined the Liberals, but in 1924, he resigned from the Liberal Party and joined the Conservative Party again.
Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier, on September 12, 1908. She was a tower of inspiration to him and was the wind behind his sails.
For the great services he rendered to Great Britain, United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II, honoured him with a knighthood.
The historians compare the magnificence of Sir Winston Churchill only with that of the Great Duke of Wellington, hundred years ago.
This great man, who saved Great Britain and its civilization, as well as the commonwealth countries, was laid to rest, at Bladon in Oxfordshire, less than a mile, from where he was born on November 30, 1874. He died on January 24, 1965.
Sir Winston Churchill was one of the greatest men of the 20th century.
The 137th birth anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), the colossus world figure, British statesman, Prime Minister, falls tomorrow (November 30). He was born on November 30, 1874 at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. He was the War Prime Minister from 1940-1945, then, again in 1951-1955. Undoubtedly, he was one of the leading figures in the 20th century. He changed the entire course of history of the world by motivating the British. He was mainly responsible in defeating the most ruthless Nazi Dictator Adolf Hitler (1889-1945).
This colourful personality Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was a man of many parts. He was a Warrior, crafty strategist, shrewd politician, a great orator and debater, strict disciplinarian, an administrator, Nobel Prize Winner for Literature (1953), wittiest politician and painter. He was a great national leader and patriot, who was mainly responsible and instrumental in saving the British civilization. He was a towering figure in the world political firmament. He was able to get to the heart of a problem quickly.
Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim Palace, to Marlborough family, home in Oxfordshire. Winston’s father was Lord Randolp Henry Spencer Churchill (1849-1895) a British statesman, Secretary of State of India (1885-1886), Chancellor of Exchequer (1886), a gifted speaker and a loyal member of the Conservative Party.
Winston’s parents selected a nanny - Elizabeth Everest, to look after little Winston. She became the confidante of Winston Churchill for 18 years. Once, Winston remarked.
“My mother shone like an Evening Star. I loved her immensely, but kept her at a distance.”
Winston Churchill studied at one of the prestigious public schools in England - Harrow. He was an average student. As a kid, he played with toy soldiers. His father admitted him to the leading military school - Sandhurst. He passed out 20th out of a batch of 120 cadets.
Serving the Army, his first assignment was in South Africa. He served in two wars between Afrikaners (Boers) and the Britishers in South Africa. Churchill played a role as a War Reporter in the second South African War in 1899. He was imprisoned in Pretoria, but after few months he escaped.
In 1900, he took upto politics and was elected as a Conservative Member of Parliament. Winston Churchill was a man of principles. He crossed the floor and joined the Liberal Party in 1904. The Liberal Party of British grew out of the early 19th century. “The Liberal’s greatest leader was William Gladstone.
The predominant interest of the Liberal Party were free trade, religious and individual liberty, financial retrenchment, constitutional reforms etc.
As the first Lord of Admiralty under Herbert Asquith (1852-1928), Churchill expanded Britain’s Navy in preparation for World War I (1914-1918). World War I was due to an attack and an assassination of Austrian Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand by Serbs in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. Austria declared war against Serbia from July 29, 1914. Germany declared war on Russia August 18, 1914 and France on August 3, 1914 and then Britain declared war on Germany.
In Llloyd George’s (1863-1945) Cabinet, Churchill served as the Secretary of State for war (1918-1921), and as the Colonial Secretary (1921-1922). He oversaw the creation of the Irish Free State. Then, he returned to power as the Chancellor of Exchequer (1923-1929) and served under Stanley Baldwin (1867-1947) - Conservative Prime Minister (1923/24, 1924/29, 1935/37). From 1929 to 1939, Churchill was out of office. It should be mentioned here during this period he spoke against the rising threat of Nazi Germany.
On the outbreak of World War II - 1939 to 1945, Wisnton Churchill, once again became the First Lord of Admiralty. The World War II, began as an International conflict arising from disputes provoked by the Expansion of policies of Germany in Europe and Japan and in the Far East. An important highlight was Hitler’s Nazi Germany invaded Poland, whereupon Britian and France declared war on September 3, 1940.
The top three
In 1940, Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain (1869-1940) as War Prime Minister. Churchill was at his best. He proved to be an inspiring war leader. He cultivated a close relationship with the Great American President - Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) - four times President. Churchill was the chief architect of the grand alliance - USA and USSR. On February, 1945, Chief Allied Leaders of the World War II, took place at Yalta in Cremia, Ukraine with victory over Germany, Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin met to discuss the final campaign of war and post war settlement.
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were three men who shaped modern Europe and the post war structure of international politics.
The extraordinary personal relationship evolved between the leaders of the greatest combination of Military Power in history - the grand Alliance of the second world war, popularly known as the “Big Three”, was the Force behind to defeat the Nazi Dictator Hitler of Germany. They met to plan the strategy in Teheran (1943) and Yalta (1945).
Witty, humerous and world leader
Wisnton Churchill was one of the wittiest politicians cum statesman the world has seen.
Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin were staying in a hotel in Yalta. Roosevelt, a polio victim, going on his wheel chair, kicked and opened the door of Churchill. He (Churchill) was caught with his pants down. Roosevelt said “Winston, so sorry.”
Churchill smiled broadly and uttered:-
“Come in. PM of England, United Kingdom, has nothing to hide from United States of America.”
Once a Labour Woman Parliamentarian growled in the House vehemently criticising Conservative Prime Minister Churchill. She said “Hon Speaker, if this man is my husband, I will add some “arsenic to his morning cup of coffee.” Cool as a cucumber, Churchill got up and replied “Hon Speaker, I will be too glad to drink the cup of coffee, rather than living with the Honourable Member.”
Good relationship with a “Comi is” like wooing a crocodile
On another occasion, Churchill described a Communist in this manner - “Trying to maintain good relationship with a Communist is like wooing a crocodile.
You do not know, whether to tickle it, under the chin or beat it over the head. When a crocodile opens its mouth, you cannot tell, whether he is trying to smile or preparing to eat you up.”
Meeting the Maker
He was very popular with mediamen. One day, a journalist questioned Churchill whether, he was ready to meet “His Maker.”
Churchill replied “Young Man, I am ever ready to meet my Maker, but whether my Maker is prepared for the Great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.”
Fountain of epigrams
Sir Winston Churchill was a real fountain of epigrams. One of his famous words; I quote
In war, resolution
In defeat, defiance
In victory, magnanimity
In peace, goodwill
Once Churchill said, “There are lot of lies going around the world and the worst of it is that half of them are true.”
On another occasion, Churchill uttered “never trust a man, who has not a single redeeming vice”
Politics a funny game
In 1945, Churchill was succeeded by Clement Atlee (1883-1969) as Labour Prime Minister from 1945 to 1951. He granted Independence to India, Sri Lanka and Burma. In the 1946 Parliamentary Elections, the man who saved Great Britain from Adolf Hitler, lost his Parliamentary seat. Politics is a funny and an unpredictable game.
Noble prize winner
Winston Churchill loved literature, history, art and painting. Among those books he wrote, the first book was The Story of the Malakand Field Force, History of the World War II, and History of the English Speaking People (1956-1958). He received the Noble Prize in 1953.
Churchill was in Parliament for nearly half a century. He was the Leader of the Opposition for six years, Prime Minister for 3 ½ years from October 1951. He resigned at the age of 80.
Silver tongued orator
Without any doubt, Winston Churchill was one of the best speakers, orators the world have witnessed. The effect of his words were electric.
The beauty was that Churchill mobilised the English language and sent it to battle. He deployed his power of oratory in their simplicity, majesty and eloquence. Gladstone, Lloyd George were orators. But, Churchill was in the forefront. Churchill addressed the hearts more than the brain.
On May 19, 1940, in his first broadcast as war Prime Minister - Winston Churchill stated; “I have formed an administration of men and women of every party and of almost every point of view. We have differed and quarreled in the past. Now, one bond, unites as all - to wage war until victory is won, never to surrender ourselves whatever the cost may be.”
Once in the Parliament, Churchill mentioned about his policy:
“It is to wage war by sea, land and air with all our might and with all, our strength that God give us and wage war against the monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the lamentable catalogue of human crime”.
“What is our aim?”
“It is victory, victory at all costs come then, let us go forward together with our united effort,”
In some of his speeches, he motivated the feelings of patriotism and the importance of unity.
“We had to think of the future and not the past. If we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future.”
Once a Home Guard guarding the beach asked Churchill - “Sir what to do if Germans landed?”
“Hit them on the head with broken bottles. It is all we have bloody got”, Churchill replied.
In one of the Churchill’s powerful speeches, he mentioned, “We shall do our best to be worthy of high honour. We shall fight on unconquerable, until the curse of Hitler is lifted from the brims of mankind. We are sure in the end all will come right.
On June 4, 1940 Churchill made this famous brilliant speech, which is quoted by many.
“We shall not flag or fail. We shall fight in France. We shall fight in the seas and oceans. We shall fight with the growing confidence and growing strength in the Air. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.
From some of Churchill’s speeches:
The finest hour - House of Commons - 18/6/1940
“Upon the battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and Europe”.
“The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows he will have to break us in this island or lose the war”.
“If we can stand up to him (Hitler), all Europe may be freed and, the life of the world may move forward into the broad and sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including USA and all that we have known and cared for will sink into the abyss of a New Dark Era, made more sinister and perhaps more prolonged by the lights of perverted science.
Churchill was a Great Motivator. He addressed the nation “The battle of Britain is about two begin. The whole fury and the might, soon be turned on us. Let us therefore embrace ourselves, that if the British Empire and the Commonwealth lasts for thousand yeas, men will say - this is their finest hour.
In July 1899, Winston Churchill contested to enter Parliament. He was unsuccessful. In July 1900, he contested Oldham Seat and was elected. In 1904, he crossed the floor of the House and joined the Liberals, but in 1924, he resigned from the Liberal Party and joined the Conservative Party again.
Winston Churchill married Clementine Hozier, on September 12, 1908. She was a tower of inspiration to him and was the wind behind his sails.
For the great services he rendered to Great Britain, United Kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II, honoured him with a knighthood.
The historians compare the magnificence of Sir Winston Churchill only with that of the Great Duke of Wellington, hundred years ago.
This great man, who saved Great Britain and its civilization, as well as the commonwealth countries, was laid to rest, at Bladon in Oxfordshire, less than a mile, from where he was born on November 30, 1874. He died on January 24, 1965.
Sir Winston Churchill was one of the greatest men of the 20th century.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
After Dersim apology we are moving to 1915 events – Taner Akcam
From AM News: After Dersim apology we are moving to 1915 events – Taner Akcam
YEREVAN.- Turkish government is supposedly preparing a gesture to the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, Turkish historian, professor at Clark University in the U.S. Taner Akcam told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
Commenting on the statement of Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Dersim massacres, Akcam noted that many documents are preserved which assert that the massacres were aimed at the extermination of a nation.
“It was one of the biggest taboos in Turkey. Many materials are preserved. Survivors of these events are still alive,” Akcam said.
The official number of victims of the pogroms makes 13,000, unofficial estimates reach 40 - 50 thousand. Armenians escaped from the 1915 Genocide and sheltered in Dersim villages, underwent double genocide in 1938.
It is still unclear whether it is time to review the great fire in Izmir in 1922, he added.
“We are definitely moving closer to 1915. I suppose that the Turkish government is preparing a gesture for the 2015 anniversary. I do not know what it might be, but do not be surprised if something happens,” he stressed.
As for the number of losses, the historian recalled that the official date said 800 thousand Armenians were killed, it refers only to Armenians who died during the First World War.
“There are no exact figures. We can say with confidence that during the Armenian Genocide about million people were killed,” he concluded.
YEREVAN.- Turkish government is supposedly preparing a gesture to the 100th anniversary of the 1915 Armenian Genocide, Turkish historian, professor at Clark University in the U.S. Taner Akcam told Armenian News-NEWS.am.
Commenting on the statement of Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding Dersim massacres, Akcam noted that many documents are preserved which assert that the massacres were aimed at the extermination of a nation.
“It was one of the biggest taboos in Turkey. Many materials are preserved. Survivors of these events are still alive,” Akcam said.
The official number of victims of the pogroms makes 13,000, unofficial estimates reach 40 - 50 thousand. Armenians escaped from the 1915 Genocide and sheltered in Dersim villages, underwent double genocide in 1938.
It is still unclear whether it is time to review the great fire in Izmir in 1922, he added.
“We are definitely moving closer to 1915. I suppose that the Turkish government is preparing a gesture for the 2015 anniversary. I do not know what it might be, but do not be surprised if something happens,” he stressed.
As for the number of losses, the historian recalled that the official date said 800 thousand Armenians were killed, it refers only to Armenians who died during the First World War.
“There are no exact figures. We can say with confidence that during the Armenian Genocide about million people were killed,” he concluded.
Monday, November 21, 2011
New posting schedule
Sorry for the long delay in posting - had some family issues.
The posting schedule for this blog - starting this Wednesday, Nov 23, will be Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Thanks for your patience!
The posting schedule for this blog - starting this Wednesday, Nov 23, will be Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Thanks for your patience!
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Reminder: All is Calm play in December
From Broadway.com: All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914 Plays the Pantages 12/15-18
All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, the moving production which has become a new holiday classic and an annual tradition for theatregoers, will return for six performances only, Thursday through Sunday, December 15-18, 2011 at the Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. With words and songs drawn from the era, All Is Calm recalls the remarkable, spontaneous World War I truce between Allied and German forces in No Man's Land over Christmas 1914. This compelling ode to peace was created by Theater Latté Da's artistic director Peter Rothstein and features Cantus, one of America's finest vocal ensembles, with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach. All Is Calm is a collaboration among Cantus, Theater Latté Da and Hennepin Theatre Trust. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m., Friday, Sept. 23. To purchase and for more information visit HennepinTheatreTrust.org.
All Is Calm relates an astounding moment in history when Allied and German soldiers laid down their arms to celebrate the holiday together by trading carols, sharing food and drink, playing soccer and burying each others' dead. In some places the truce lasted only a night, in others until New Year's Day. This dramatic re-telling contains quotes and readings from thirty World War I figures brought to life by actors Matt Rein, David Roberts and Alan Sorenson. The tapestry of sound performed by the artists of Cantus ranges from patriotic tunes and trench songs to medieVal Scottish ballads and holiday carols from England, Wales, France and Germany. The production opens with a set of carols arranged by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams for his own battalion.
Rothstein, who worked five years to develop All Is Calm, said "I wanted to tell the story in their words, so I created the drama primarily through found text including letters, official war documents, autobiographies, World War I poetry, grave stone inscriptions and even an old radio broadcast. I was able to spend time along the Western Front and conduct extensive research in Brussels, Ieper, Paris and London. It was incredibly powerful to stand on the very spot where this extraordinary happening took place. For decades, the Christmas truce was considered a romantic fable, however there is no doubt thousands of courageous men took part in this remarkable event."
Said musical arranger Erick Lichte, "All Is Calm allows Cantus to sing Christmas carols that everyone knows and loves, but when set in the context of trench warfare, take on a new poignancy. Music was an important part of life in the trenches and one of the primary factors that instigated the truce."
The world premiere of All Is Calm was broadcast live on Classical Minnesota Public Radio and has since been heard around the globe through American Public Media and the European Broadcast Union. The program won the Gold World Medal at the 2010 New York Festivals and the 2010 Gabriel Award, which honors works of excellence in broadcasting that serve audiences through the positive, creative treatment of concerns to humankind. The original All Is Calm cast recording from this highly acclaimed collaboration between Cantus and Theater Latté Da is available for purchase on CD and as a download at cantussings.org.
Reaction from the Press:
"A dramatic, real-life musing about the power this season has to make us stop, reflect, and decide to operate in a mode of peace."-Lani Willis, Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine
"A work of beauty...not only an outstanding piece of musical theater, but a brilliantly executed production that understands that its power comes from its simplicity."-Rob Hubbard, St. Paul Pioneer Press
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011, are priced at $27.50 and $35 for adults; $25 and $15 for seniors (age 62+), military/veterans and students (ages 6-18). Prices depend on seating preference. Additional fees may apply. Tickets may be purchased in person at the State Theatre Box Office (805 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, 55402), online at HennepinTheatreTrust.org, through Ticketmaster by calling 800.982.2787 or by visiting a Ticketmaster Ticket Center. Groups of 10 are eligible for discounts and should call 612.373.5665 for information and reservations. Performances are held at the Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 55403.
Performance dates and times: Thursday, Dec. 15 through Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011
Thursday, Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 18 at 1 and 6:30 p.m.
For more information on All Is Calm and other work by Cantus and Theater Latté Da please visit cantussings.org and latteda.org.
All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, the moving production which has become a new holiday classic and an annual tradition for theatregoers, will return for six performances only, Thursday through Sunday, December 15-18, 2011 at the Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis. With words and songs drawn from the era, All Is Calm recalls the remarkable, spontaneous World War I truce between Allied and German forces in No Man's Land over Christmas 1914. This compelling ode to peace was created by Theater Latté Da's artistic director Peter Rothstein and features Cantus, one of America's finest vocal ensembles, with musical arrangements by Erick Lichte and Timothy C. Takach. All Is Calm is a collaboration among Cantus, Theater Latté Da and Hennepin Theatre Trust. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m., Friday, Sept. 23. To purchase and for more information visit HennepinTheatreTrust.org.
All Is Calm relates an astounding moment in history when Allied and German soldiers laid down their arms to celebrate the holiday together by trading carols, sharing food and drink, playing soccer and burying each others' dead. In some places the truce lasted only a night, in others until New Year's Day. This dramatic re-telling contains quotes and readings from thirty World War I figures brought to life by actors Matt Rein, David Roberts and Alan Sorenson. The tapestry of sound performed by the artists of Cantus ranges from patriotic tunes and trench songs to medieVal Scottish ballads and holiday carols from England, Wales, France and Germany. The production opens with a set of carols arranged by English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams for his own battalion.
Rothstein, who worked five years to develop All Is Calm, said "I wanted to tell the story in their words, so I created the drama primarily through found text including letters, official war documents, autobiographies, World War I poetry, grave stone inscriptions and even an old radio broadcast. I was able to spend time along the Western Front and conduct extensive research in Brussels, Ieper, Paris and London. It was incredibly powerful to stand on the very spot where this extraordinary happening took place. For decades, the Christmas truce was considered a romantic fable, however there is no doubt thousands of courageous men took part in this remarkable event."
Said musical arranger Erick Lichte, "All Is Calm allows Cantus to sing Christmas carols that everyone knows and loves, but when set in the context of trench warfare, take on a new poignancy. Music was an important part of life in the trenches and one of the primary factors that instigated the truce."
The world premiere of All Is Calm was broadcast live on Classical Minnesota Public Radio and has since been heard around the globe through American Public Media and the European Broadcast Union. The program won the Gold World Medal at the 2010 New York Festivals and the 2010 Gabriel Award, which honors works of excellence in broadcasting that serve audiences through the positive, creative treatment of concerns to humankind. The original All Is Calm cast recording from this highly acclaimed collaboration between Cantus and Theater Latté Da is available for purchase on CD and as a download at cantussings.org.
Reaction from the Press:
"A dramatic, real-life musing about the power this season has to make us stop, reflect, and decide to operate in a mode of peace."-Lani Willis, Minneapolis St. Paul Magazine
"A work of beauty...not only an outstanding piece of musical theater, but a brilliantly executed production that understands that its power comes from its simplicity."-Rob Hubbard, St. Paul Pioneer Press
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011, are priced at $27.50 and $35 for adults; $25 and $15 for seniors (age 62+), military/veterans and students (ages 6-18). Prices depend on seating preference. Additional fees may apply. Tickets may be purchased in person at the State Theatre Box Office (805 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, 55402), online at HennepinTheatreTrust.org, through Ticketmaster by calling 800.982.2787 or by visiting a Ticketmaster Ticket Center. Groups of 10 are eligible for discounts and should call 612.373.5665 for information and reservations. Performances are held at the Pantages Theatre, 710 Hennepin Ave., Mpls., 55403.
Performance dates and times: Thursday, Dec. 15 through Sunday, Dec. 18, 2011
Thursday, Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Dec. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 17 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, Dec. 18 at 1 and 6:30 p.m.
For more information on All Is Calm and other work by Cantus and Theater Latté Da please visit cantussings.org and latteda.org.
Friday, November 11, 2011
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War, by Peter Englund – review
From The Guardian, Book Reviews, by Ian Thompson: The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War, by Peter Englund – review
The long summer that led up to the last days of peace in Europe in 1914 gave little hint of the storm to come. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo on 28 June, however, and the ensuing mobilisation of German troops, Kaiser Wilhelm II engulfed defenceless Belgium, and the world was set to witness one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. Through poison gas, starvation, shell fire and machine-gun, the first world war killed and wounded more than 35 million people, both military and civilian. The figure is so unimaginable, so monstrous, that it numbs. Few had reckoned on such a long, drawn-out saga of futility and wasted human lives.
By the conflict's end in November 1918, from the eastern border of France all the way through Asia to the Sea of Japan, not a single pre-war government remained in power. The once great German, Habsburg, Ottoman and Russian empires had fallen. Amid the moral and material ruins of postwar Europe, many hoped to see a heroic prelude to healing and renewal. Friends and family hurried to embrace the troops returning home; yet within days the exhilaration of their homecoming had evaporated. Paradoxically, some demobbed servicemen began to fear death in a way they had not encountered at the front. "I ought to have felt great joy, but it was as if a cold hand took me by the throat," records a Belgian fighter pilot. Was this the collapse that follows on from a "great relief"? The pilot's insight into his psychological state was rare among surviving combatants. Few were aware of the disturbance that lay ahead so soon after the armistice had been declared on 11 November.
In The Beauty and the Sorrow, an extraordinary new history of the first world war, we follow the lives of 20 people caught up in the conflict. Among them are an American ambulance driver, an English nurse in the Russian army, a South American adventurer fighting for the Turks, a 12-year-old German girl and several other civilians. In the course of 227 short chapters (some of them no more than a page long), they take turns to tell us what they saw or felt on a given day. Interspersed with authorial commentary, their testimonies make up a haunting chronicle, and a convocation of ghosts.
This is by no means a conventional history. Peter Englund, a Swedish academic historian and former war reporter, has created a sort of collective diary in which the unknown (or now largely forgotten) lives intertwine minutely and often poignantly. Throughout, effective use is made of diary accounts, letters, memoirs and other first-hand material.
For Laura de Turczynowicz, the American-born wife of a Polish aristocrat, the war is less an event to be followed than a condition to be endured. She has found herself stranded on the wrong side of the frontline in German-occupied Poland. Having commandeered her husband's estate, German troops begin to use starving Russian PoWs as slave labour. Laura reports her deep shock at the sight of men transformed into "animals, or even things". However, once people have been deprived of their humanity, it is much easier to kill them. All future dictatorships were to understand this. (The Jews in Hitler's cattle trucks were so degraded by their journey to Auschwitz that they were no longer Menschen – human beings – but animals to the slaughter.)
The book is thick with other forebodings of the second world war. A dapper Ottoman official, on orders from his paymasters in Constantinople, stands calmly by as Kurds bestially slaughter Armenian Christians in present-day Turkey. "He represents a new species in the bestiary of the young century," says Englund – that of the well-dressed, articulate mass murderer who condemns thousands to death at the mere stroke of a pen. In Nazi Germany such bureaucrats would become known as Schreibtischtäter – "desk-murderers". Apprenticeship in Ottoman obedience in April 1915 required a stunted moral imagination; lack of imagination (not sadism) had made the official cruel.
According to the author, the 1914–18 conflict heralded a new age of atrocity and diminished individual responsibility for it. Politicians, ideologues and army generals, by delegating unpleasantness down a chain of command, were able to ignore the moral consequences of their work. In a village deep in the Austro-Hungarian empire, an English red cross nurse called Florence Farmborough witnesses a "new and terrifying sound". Austrian artillery have begun to open fire simultaneously, again and again, to create maximum terror and destruction. "This is something new – artillery fire as a science," Englund comments.
Throughout the war, sympathy for victims was increasingly diminished by physical distance. The Austrian artillerymen were only dimly aware of the civilians and soldiers they targeted. If they could have seen the human devastation, how might they have reacted? In one extraordinary episode, an Allied airman is devastated to see a German pilot spiral fatally to the ground after his plane has been hit. Finally the airman has come to see "the human being" instead of "some kind of gigantic insect".
Many of the young men who joined up so eagerly in 1914 were quickly disillusioned. The "plodding drudgery" of trench warfare in Flanders and on the Somme took its toll. Day after day, the dead remained unburied; horses were slaughtered for food; amputees crowded the field hospitals. The nouveaux riches of Europe, meanwhile, grew fat on the munitions industry. In France and pre-fascist Italy the so-called pescecani (sharks) flaunted their war wealth in fancy clothes and conspicuous restaurant dining. The idea of a war without end suited them well: only the men at the front were pacifists now. Most of them would do anything to go home (even purposely contract venereal disease).
Michel Corday, a French civil servant, watches in disgust as black-marketeers in Paris fleece the unsuspecting war-wounded. To him, the glorious "war to end all wars" is now nothing but a "bitter and disillusioning defeat".
Inevitably, The Beauty and the Sorrow is a chronicle of human loss, atrocity and famine. What happened at the Marne, in the Ottoman province of Armenia, on the Gallipoli peninsula, at Ypres, in the Piave and on the Asiago plateau was tragic, inhuman. ("I have seen and done things I want to forget", PJ Harvey sings on her dark, Somme-haunted album Let England Shake.) Yet the horror is recorded here in plain, everyday speech. Amid the symbolic poppies and wreath-laying, Peter Englund's book stands out as a work of magnificent, elegiac seriousness.
Ian Thomson's biography of Primo Levi is published by Vintage.
St. Paul, MN: 'Silent Night' recounts Christmas Truce across no man's land
From Minnesota Public Radio: 'Silent Night' recounts Christmas Truce across no man's land
St. Paul, Minn. — The world premiere of "Silent Night," the operatic retelling of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914, will be presented by the Minnesota Opera on Saturday.
As befits a tale of the 'war to end all wars' the production is done on a huge scale. The premiere is the culmination of three years of effort by the creative team. Creating an opera takes time and a lot of people. In April, a full orchestra and a phalanx of big-voiced singers gathered at the Minnesota Opera Center in downtown Minneapolis to give "Silent Night" a test-run.
The piece is based on the 2005 French movie Joyeux Noel. It's the story of how an opera star visiting the trenches on Christmas Eve 1914 sang for the German troops. When French and British soldiers joined in from across no man's land the soldiers laid down their arms to celebrate the season together.
Hours later the carnage resumed.
Minnesota Opera Artistic Director Dale Johnson commissioned composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell to create the piece as part of the company's New Works Initiative. This story posed particular challenges, Campbell said.
"It's actually in five languages," he said. "But mostly in three languages, because I thought it was a very important aspect of these three cultures trying to communicate with each other and not necessarily knowing each others language, in German, French and Scottish."
At the April workshop, Campbell listened for how the words worked, but Puts was all about the music. "We have the amazing opportunity to have an entire orchestra here six or seven months before rehearsals will start," he smiled.
Mark Campbell, Kevin Puts
A celebrated composer, this is Puts' first opera. He learned how the music has to flow through the production, and how to leave time for dramatic stage action. He also learned how too much time can create "dead spots," and he identified some of those at the workshop in April.
"My score is completely marked up in red and yellow and all kinds of colors," Puts said in April. "In the next months I'll first revise the score and then I'll do an entire new set of orchestra parts and then I'll also revise the piano vocal score because that'll be what's used when rehearsals begin in October."
In November, just days before the premiere, a tech rehearsal takes place at the Ordway Center in St. Paul. Armed men stalk the building, dressed in WWI-era uniforms of the French, German and Scottish regiments. The stage is filled with a huge battlefield set which is soon swarming with men locked in the horrors of trench warfare.
Strangely, the violence accentuates the beauty of the music and the singing.
Puts said he's still trying to come to terms with it.
"It's more intense than I realized it would be," he said. "Just to see someone singing one of the arias and break down in the middle of it and then continue to sing. It's just an amazingly powerful thing for me and it's an element I am not used to."
Karin Wolverton,William Burden
Puts was struck by the amount of research the singers have done into their characters and the period. One singer researched shell-shock, as post traumatic stress disorder was known then, to incorporate it in his performance.
Seeing the production at this stage is exciting — and scary — Campbell said.
"The idea that an audience is going to watch it is terrifying," he said. "Because as a writer, I am always concerned &dmash; is the story clear enough? Are people in the back of the Ordway, are they going to be able to follow a certain character or something. That's the scary part."
The Minnesota Opera wants other audiences outside the state to experience "Silent Night." It's one of only three operas premiering in the U.S. this year. The work is a co-production of the Philadelphia Opera and several other companies are visiting St Paul this weekend to scout the show, and get a taste of the onstage blood and battle scenes.
St. Paul, Minn. — The world premiere of "Silent Night," the operatic retelling of the World War I Christmas Truce of 1914, will be presented by the Minnesota Opera on Saturday.
As befits a tale of the 'war to end all wars' the production is done on a huge scale. The premiere is the culmination of three years of effort by the creative team. Creating an opera takes time and a lot of people. In April, a full orchestra and a phalanx of big-voiced singers gathered at the Minnesota Opera Center in downtown Minneapolis to give "Silent Night" a test-run.
The piece is based on the 2005 French movie Joyeux Noel. It's the story of how an opera star visiting the trenches on Christmas Eve 1914 sang for the German troops. When French and British soldiers joined in from across no man's land the soldiers laid down their arms to celebrate the season together.
Hours later the carnage resumed.
Minnesota Opera Artistic Director Dale Johnson commissioned composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell to create the piece as part of the company's New Works Initiative. This story posed particular challenges, Campbell said.
"It's actually in five languages," he said. "But mostly in three languages, because I thought it was a very important aspect of these three cultures trying to communicate with each other and not necessarily knowing each others language, in German, French and Scottish."
At the April workshop, Campbell listened for how the words worked, but Puts was all about the music. "We have the amazing opportunity to have an entire orchestra here six or seven months before rehearsals will start," he smiled.
Mark Campbell, Kevin Puts
A celebrated composer, this is Puts' first opera. He learned how the music has to flow through the production, and how to leave time for dramatic stage action. He also learned how too much time can create "dead spots," and he identified some of those at the workshop in April.
"My score is completely marked up in red and yellow and all kinds of colors," Puts said in April. "In the next months I'll first revise the score and then I'll do an entire new set of orchestra parts and then I'll also revise the piano vocal score because that'll be what's used when rehearsals begin in October."
In November, just days before the premiere, a tech rehearsal takes place at the Ordway Center in St. Paul. Armed men stalk the building, dressed in WWI-era uniforms of the French, German and Scottish regiments. The stage is filled with a huge battlefield set which is soon swarming with men locked in the horrors of trench warfare.
Strangely, the violence accentuates the beauty of the music and the singing.
Puts said he's still trying to come to terms with it.
"It's more intense than I realized it would be," he said. "Just to see someone singing one of the arias and break down in the middle of it and then continue to sing. It's just an amazingly powerful thing for me and it's an element I am not used to."
Karin Wolverton,William Burden
Puts was struck by the amount of research the singers have done into their characters and the period. One singer researched shell-shock, as post traumatic stress disorder was known then, to incorporate it in his performance.
Seeing the production at this stage is exciting — and scary — Campbell said.
"The idea that an audience is going to watch it is terrifying," he said. "Because as a writer, I am always concerned &dmash; is the story clear enough? Are people in the back of the Ordway, are they going to be able to follow a certain character or something. That's the scary part."
The Minnesota Opera wants other audiences outside the state to experience "Silent Night." It's one of only three operas premiering in the U.S. this year. The work is a co-production of the Philadelphia Opera and several other companies are visiting St Paul this weekend to scout the show, and get a taste of the onstage blood and battle scenes.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
REVIEW: Vimy
From The Province: REVIEW: Vimy
The Battle of Vimy Ridge is an important chapter in our national mythology.
As the Great War raged on in April 1917, the struggle for a small rise of land in northern France cost Canada the lives of 3,600 men with more than twice as many more wounded.
But the Germans were driven back, and a strategic objective that the British and French armies had been unable to secure was won by the four divisions of Canadian troops fighting together for the first time.
Along with Ypres and the Somme, Passchendaele and Beaumont-Hamel, Vimy Ridge came to define Canada’s “coming of age” on the muddy, blood-soaked battlefields of the First World War.
In the run-up to Remembrance Day, Donna Spencer’s Firehall production of Vern Thiessen’s Vimy memorializes not the victory (which turned out to be strategically insignificant), but the individuals who sacrificed life, limb, happiness and sanity to achieve it.
Ironically, the play’s characters seem more representational than individual. Recovering in a field hospital after the battle are Native Canadian Mike (Ryan Cunningham) from Alberta, suffering the effects of poison gas; a shell-shocked Quebecker, Jean-Paul (Sean Harris Oliver); shrapnel-wounded Ontarian Will (Mack Gordon); and Sid (Sebastian Kroon) from Winnipeg, who has been blinded.
Watching over them, nurse Clare (Sasa Brown) pines for her fellow Nova Scotian soldier-boy, Laurie (Daryl King). (Apparently, no British Columbians fought at Vimy Ridge.) The play flashes back and forth from the battle’s aftermath to the battle itself and its preparations. We also get to know a little of each character’s background, although Thiessen never digs very deep. He’s more concerned with establishing their representative Canadianness in conversations about beer and hockey, language issues, canoes and mosquitoes.
Amid consistently strong acting, Cunningham is a standout both as Mike, conveying the terror of a gas attack, and as a French-speaking soldier humiliated by an anglophone officer. Oliver powerfully expresses Jean-Paul’s horrific experience on a firing squad executing a Canadian deserter. And Kroon is mesmerizing when Sid describes men and horses screaming and drowning in the shell holes of no man’s land. Brown’s nurse Clare holds the show together with good-humoured competence.
Craig Alfredson’s versatile set suggests both a hill and a war memorial, the hospital beds seemingly hewn out of monumental marble. James Proudfoot’s lighting and Marc Stewart’s sound design vividly evoke the chaos of battle. Sabrina Evertt’s uniforms help sustain the sense of authenticity.
Whether or not Canada “came of age” at Vimy Ridge, there’s no doubting the sacrifices and suffering of the Canadians who were there.
_________________
Vimy
Where: Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova St.
When: To Nov. 19
Tickets: $12-$30 at 604-689-0926 or www.firehallartscentre.ca
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/REVIEW+Vimy/5665980
The Battle of Vimy Ridge is an important chapter in our national mythology.
As the Great War raged on in April 1917, the struggle for a small rise of land in northern France cost Canada the lives of 3,600 men with more than twice as many more wounded.
But the Germans were driven back, and a strategic objective that the British and French armies had been unable to secure was won by the four divisions of Canadian troops fighting together for the first time.
Along with Ypres and the Somme, Passchendaele and Beaumont-Hamel, Vimy Ridge came to define Canada’s “coming of age” on the muddy, blood-soaked battlefields of the First World War.
In the run-up to Remembrance Day, Donna Spencer’s Firehall production of Vern Thiessen’s Vimy memorializes not the victory (which turned out to be strategically insignificant), but the individuals who sacrificed life, limb, happiness and sanity to achieve it.
Ironically, the play’s characters seem more representational than individual. Recovering in a field hospital after the battle are Native Canadian Mike (Ryan Cunningham) from Alberta, suffering the effects of poison gas; a shell-shocked Quebecker, Jean-Paul (Sean Harris Oliver); shrapnel-wounded Ontarian Will (Mack Gordon); and Sid (Sebastian Kroon) from Winnipeg, who has been blinded.
Watching over them, nurse Clare (Sasa Brown) pines for her fellow Nova Scotian soldier-boy, Laurie (Daryl King). (Apparently, no British Columbians fought at Vimy Ridge.) The play flashes back and forth from the battle’s aftermath to the battle itself and its preparations. We also get to know a little of each character’s background, although Thiessen never digs very deep. He’s more concerned with establishing their representative Canadianness in conversations about beer and hockey, language issues, canoes and mosquitoes.
Amid consistently strong acting, Cunningham is a standout both as Mike, conveying the terror of a gas attack, and as a French-speaking soldier humiliated by an anglophone officer. Oliver powerfully expresses Jean-Paul’s horrific experience on a firing squad executing a Canadian deserter. And Kroon is mesmerizing when Sid describes men and horses screaming and drowning in the shell holes of no man’s land. Brown’s nurse Clare holds the show together with good-humoured competence.
Craig Alfredson’s versatile set suggests both a hill and a war memorial, the hospital beds seemingly hewn out of monumental marble. James Proudfoot’s lighting and Marc Stewart’s sound design vividly evoke the chaos of battle. Sabrina Evertt’s uniforms help sustain the sense of authenticity.
Whether or not Canada “came of age” at Vimy Ridge, there’s no doubting the sacrifices and suffering of the Canadians who were there.
_________________
Vimy
Where: Firehall Arts Centre, 280 E. Cordova St.
When: To Nov. 19
Tickets: $12-$30 at 604-689-0926 or www.firehallartscentre.ca
Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/life/REVIEW+Vimy/5665980
Monday, November 7, 2011
Looking back: They used to call it ‘Armistice Day’
From Journal Standard.com: Looking back: They used to call it ‘Armistice Day’
The identity of this man is being sought. Is this really William Hobart Lebkicker?
Freeport, Ill. — We have a mystery here. Does anyone know who William Hobart Lebkicker was?
Dianne Jacobs of Shannon would like to know — and if he has any descendants in the area — so she can solve the mystery and present them with a book and some photographs.
Dianne’s late mother, Clara Rockey, had purchased at an auction, the book, “Honor Roll of the Great War, Stephenson County 1917-1919.” She found among the pages a group of photos, all unmarked, but apparently, of the same man.
The book is a listing of men from Stephenson County who served in World War I. An introduction explains, however, that it is not a complete listing as some people did not respond to requests for information. But the name of William Lebkicker is notated in ink, the only one so marked.
The book was compiled by Emil A. Hoefer and his office assistant, Vera (Mrs. Edwin) Scott from a questionnaire which had been distributed.
According to the book more than 1300 men, plus 10 women, from Stephenson County served in the various branches of the United States military service or organizations such as the Red Cross and YMCA. “The History of Stephenson County 1970” gives all the statistics on how many served in each branch of the service. We’re told that four of the 10 women who served were with the Red Cross, two as Army nurses, and one each as librarian, yeowoman, the Hospital Corps, and the YMCA.
Fifty-one men from the county gave their lives in that war, listed in the book as “Gold Star Men of Stephenson County.” A few died of the influenza which was rampant during that time. Wilbur Thomas Rawleigh, son of Freeport’s famed and legendary industrialist, W.T. Rawleigh, is said to be one of those flu victims. The band shell in Freeport’s Krape Park was given by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Koenig in his memory. Mrs. Koenig was the soldier’s sister. Also, Wilbur Park in Freeport, provided by W.T. himself, was named for the son.
The U.S. Enters the Fray
United States involvement in that war began when Congress declared war against Germany on April 6, 1917. Germany had declared War on Russia and France in the summer of 1914 and had invaded Belgium on Aug. 4 , 1914, the same day England declared war on Germany. Thus the Great War began, states the World War documentary.
After the U.S. Declaration of War, the book states, President Woodrow Wilson called for volunteers “and immediately, in Stephenson County, as in all parts of America, great numbers of young men volunteered. Because of the need for several million men, and because it was a more democratic method of raising vast armies, the Selective Service Act was passed May 18, 1917. June 26 the first American troops reached France, and clashed first with German soldiers Nov. 8.”
The 1970 county history gives a lengthy account of Stephenson County’s involvement in that war with names named and personal accounts from various soldiers who fought in it. It tells of the great response by people here in the war effort. The county joined in every national war effort, it says. Women entered the various programs to that end, some taking jobs at Stover Manufacturing . The Henney Motor Co. made an ambulance for the Western front paid for by local high school students with money they had earned. All kinds of supportive things were being done.
But there was a negative side on the local scene. Dissension arose here “at home” due to the strong feelings against the German nation at the time. German residents were labeled as “aliens” and the history states if they were not “naturalized,” they were required to register in Freeport, be finger-printed and provide four photographs of themselves. “It was an emotional time.”
The German Bank changed its name to the Stephenson County Bank and the Board of Education of Freeport District 145 voted to abolish the teaching of German. The newspapers reported almost daily acts of vandalism and harassment against the citizens of German origin.
The resentment must have ended though and sanity restored when the Armistice was signed and the guns silenced, as “Freeport and the county went mad. Bands played and people paraded.” Lena citizens loaded some 55 cars and “toured neighboring towns in sheer jubilation.” For a year returning veterans were greeted with celebrations. It was over and they didn’t come back until it was over over there, to quote a popular song of that era.
From that war, which became known as “The Great War,” the one “to end all wars,” was derived “Armistice Day,” to commemorate the anniversary of the signing of the armistice on Nov. 11, 1918. But as we know, the national holiday was appropriately re-named “Veterans Day” in 1954 to include all the nation’s military veterans. And soon we’ll be observing that holiday.
Now Who Was Pvt. Lebkicker?
Now, back to the mystery we referred to in the beginning. We’d like to know if anyone knew William Lebkicker. His name is marked in ink in the book, the only one so noted. A number of photographs, unmarked in any way but obviously of the same man, were found in the book by Diann Jacobs. She has to assume since that name was the only one marked among the long listing of veterans that the pictures are of him.
The notation with his name states that the soldier was “a 1st class Private, 28th Co., R.T.C. , Enlisted, Feb. 27, 1919, at Freeport, discharged July 17, 1919, at Camp Grant” (in Rockford). The listing states he served overseas for 13 months.
If anyone does have any information regarding Private William Lebkicker, we’d like to hear from them. Also, if you have a chance, and are interested, we’d recommend your getting hold of the 1970 county history and reading through that account of World War I. It’s really quite revealing of a war that seems to be fading into oblivion and deserves more.
Politics plays spoilsport to first world war soldier’s dream
From the Hill Post: Politics plays spoilsport to first world war soldier’s dream
Dehra Dun : It was the night of Nov 23-24 1914. The first battallion of the 39 Garhwal Rifles, representing the allied forces, was engaged in a do-or-die battle during the First World War at Festubird in France and were at the receiving end.
Naik Darban Singh Negi showing rare courage rose to the occasion and changed the fortunes of the battle. His bravery and valour displayed on the occasion was sent in dispatch by Field Marshall Frank to the British government. The London Gazeteer of 7 Dec 1914 announced that the brave Naik Negi had been awarded the highest decoration of war – The Victoria Cross.
On return home after the war, the then Viceroy of India asked Naik Darban Singh Negi for anything that he wanted in lieu of the chivalty and rare courage that he had shown against tough odds and turned sure defeat into victory. Perhaps any other person would have asked something for himself and his family, but Negi having seen the importance of railways during his campaign in Europe asked the then Viceroy to link the Karanprayag area to which he belonged with a rail road. In 1916, the first survey of the Rishikesh-Karanprayag line was done by the then British government in India and the second was done in 1923.
However, the proposed railway line, could not materialize and the project went on the back burner till Satpal Maharaj, Lok Sabha member from Garhwal became the minister of state for railways and in 1996, a full 80 years later another survey was got done for the line. The reason was that the earlier surveys were for laying a narrow gauge line and the need was for laying a broad gauge line. Incidentally, Maharaj had also made the announcement of the Rihikesh-Karanprayag line in his election manifesto.
And just when it seemed that the brave soldier’s dream of getting a rail road link to his native Karanprayag area will be fulfilled, with the Railways giving a nod to the project and the amount also having been sanctioned, and all set for AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi laying the foundation stone on Nov 9, the project seems to have been caught in a political quagmire. Had it not been for the Uttarakhand vidhan sabha elections due in February next year, perhaps there may not have been so much politics to the project.
Realising that the railway line could throw the dice in the favour of the Congress in the vidhan sabha elections, the BJP government in Uttarakhand has started putting up hurdles. First was opposition to Sonia Gandhi laying the foundation stone and now, which could throw the very project into doldrums, the state government claiming that the Railways has not acquired the land for the project. The state government has not even received a request from the Railways to lay the railway line and set up the railway stations along the route claimed revenue minister Diwakar Bhatt.
While the Railways maintains that the state governments normally acquire the land and give it for laying the railway lines, but if a formal request is required they will send it at the earliest. And while the ball is hit from one court to another creating controversy and uncertainty, it is the common man who stands to benefit the most once the railway line is laid, who stands to lose the most. Not to mention of the brave son-of-the-soil, Naik Darban Singh Negi whose soul will be feeling so let down by our modern day politicians, hell bent on political gains.
Dehra Dun : It was the night of Nov 23-24 1914. The first battallion of the 39 Garhwal Rifles, representing the allied forces, was engaged in a do-or-die battle during the First World War at Festubird in France and were at the receiving end.
Naik Darban Singh Negi showing rare courage rose to the occasion and changed the fortunes of the battle. His bravery and valour displayed on the occasion was sent in dispatch by Field Marshall Frank to the British government. The London Gazeteer of 7 Dec 1914 announced that the brave Naik Negi had been awarded the highest decoration of war – The Victoria Cross.
On return home after the war, the then Viceroy of India asked Naik Darban Singh Negi for anything that he wanted in lieu of the chivalty and rare courage that he had shown against tough odds and turned sure defeat into victory. Perhaps any other person would have asked something for himself and his family, but Negi having seen the importance of railways during his campaign in Europe asked the then Viceroy to link the Karanprayag area to which he belonged with a rail road. In 1916, the first survey of the Rishikesh-Karanprayag line was done by the then British government in India and the second was done in 1923.
However, the proposed railway line, could not materialize and the project went on the back burner till Satpal Maharaj, Lok Sabha member from Garhwal became the minister of state for railways and in 1996, a full 80 years later another survey was got done for the line. The reason was that the earlier surveys were for laying a narrow gauge line and the need was for laying a broad gauge line. Incidentally, Maharaj had also made the announcement of the Rihikesh-Karanprayag line in his election manifesto.
And just when it seemed that the brave soldier’s dream of getting a rail road link to his native Karanprayag area will be fulfilled, with the Railways giving a nod to the project and the amount also having been sanctioned, and all set for AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi laying the foundation stone on Nov 9, the project seems to have been caught in a political quagmire. Had it not been for the Uttarakhand vidhan sabha elections due in February next year, perhaps there may not have been so much politics to the project.
Realising that the railway line could throw the dice in the favour of the Congress in the vidhan sabha elections, the BJP government in Uttarakhand has started putting up hurdles. First was opposition to Sonia Gandhi laying the foundation stone and now, which could throw the very project into doldrums, the state government claiming that the Railways has not acquired the land for the project. The state government has not even received a request from the Railways to lay the railway line and set up the railway stations along the route claimed revenue minister Diwakar Bhatt.
While the Railways maintains that the state governments normally acquire the land and give it for laying the railway lines, but if a formal request is required they will send it at the earliest. And while the ball is hit from one court to another creating controversy and uncertainty, it is the common man who stands to benefit the most once the railway line is laid, who stands to lose the most. Not to mention of the brave son-of-the-soil, Naik Darban Singh Negi whose soul will be feeling so let down by our modern day politicians, hell bent on political gains.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Sabotage in New York Harbor
German Master Spy Franz Von Rintelen and his "pencil bomb" were responsible for acts of sabotage in the United States during World War I.
From Smithsonian.com, Past Imperfect: Sabotage in New York Harbor
All was dark and quiet on Black Tom Island in New York Harbor, not far from the Statue of Liberty, when small fires began to burn on the night of July 30, 1916. Some guards on the island sent for the Jersey City Fire Department, but others fled as quickly as they could, and for good reason: Black Tom was a major munitions depot, with several large “powder piers.” That night, Johnson Barge No. 17 was packed with 50 tons of TNT, and 69 railroad freight cars were storing more than a thousand tons of ammunition, all awaiting shipment to Britain and France. Despite America’s claim of neutrality in World War I, it was no secret that the United States was selling massive quantities of munitions to the British.
The guards who fled had the right idea. Just after 2:00 a.m., an explosion lit the skies—the equivalent of an earthquake measuring up to 5.5 on the Richter scale, according to a recent study. A series of blasts were heard and felt some 90 miles in every direction, even as far as Philadelphia. Nearly everyone in Manhattan and Jersey City was jolted awake, and many were thrown from their beds. Even the heaviest plate-glass windows in Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn shattered, and falling shards of glass preceded a mist of ash from the fire that followed the explosion. Immigrants on nearby Ellis Island had to be evacuated.
Peter Raceta, the captain of a flatbottom barge in the harbor, was in the cabin watching the fire on Black Tom with two other men. “When the explosion came, it seemed as if it was from above—zumpf!—like a Zeppelin bomb,” he told a reporter from the New York Times. “There were five or six other lighters alongside mine at the dock, and a tug was just coming up to drag us away.… I don’t know what became of the tug or the other lighters. It looked as if they all went up in the air.” Of the two men he was with, she said, “I didn’t see where they went, but I think they must be dead.”
Watchmen in the Woolworth building in Lower Manhattan saw the blast, and “thinking their time had come, got down on their knees and prayed,” one newspaper reported. The Statue of Liberty took more than $100,000 worth of damage; Lady Liberty’s torch, which was then open to visitors who could climb an interior ladder for a spectacular view, has been closed ever since. Onlookers in Manhattan watched as munition shells rocketed across the water and exploded a mile from the fires on Black Tom Island.
Flying bullets and shrapnel rendered firefighters powerless. Doctors and nurses arrived on the scene and tended to dozens of injured. The loss of life, however, was not great: Counts vary, but fewer than ten people perished in the explosions. However, the damage was estimated at more than $20 million, (nearly half a billion dollars today), and investigations eventually determined that the Black Tom explosions resulted from an enemy attack—what some historians regard as the first major terrorist attack on the United States by a foreign power.
In the days after the blasts, confusion reigned. Police arrested three railroad-company officials on charges of manslaughter, on the assumption that the fires began in two freight cars. Then guards at the pier were taken in for questioning; on the night of the explosions, they had lit smudge pots to keep mosquitoes away, and their carelessness with the pots was believed to have started the fires. But federal authorities could not trace the fire to the pots, and reports ultimately concluded that the blasts must have been accidental—even though several suspicious factory explosions in the United States, mostly around New York, pointed toward German spies and saboteurs. As Chad Millman points out in his book, The Detonators, there was a certain naivete at the time—President Woodrow Wilson could not bring himself to believe that Germans might be responsible for such destruction. Educated, industrious and neatly dressed, German-Americans’ perceived patriotism and commitment to life in America allowed them to integrate into society with less initial friction than other ethnic groups.
One of those newcomers to America was Count Johann Von Bernstorff, the German ambassador to Washington. He arrived in 1914 with a staff not of diplomats, but of intelligence operatives, and with millions of dollars earmarked to aid German war efforts by any means necessary. Von Bernstorff not only helped obtain forged passports for Germans who wanted to elude the Allied blockade, he also funded gun-running efforts, the sinking of American ships bringing supplies to Britain, and choking off supplies of phenol, used in the manufacture of explosives, in a conspiracy known as the Great Phenol Plot.
One of his master spies was Franz Von Rintelen, who had a “pencil bomb” designed for his use. Pencil bombs were cigar-sized charges filled with acids placed in copper chambers; the acids would ultimately eat their way through the copper and mingle, creating intense, silent flames. If designed and placed properly, a pencil bomb could be timed to detonate days later, while ships and their cargo were at sea. Von Rintelen is believed to have attacked 36 ships, destroying millions of dollars worth of cargo. With generous cash bribes, Von Rintelen had little problem gaining access to piers—which is how Michael Kristoff, a Slovak immigrant living in Bayonne, New Jersey, is believed to have gotten to the Black Tom munitions depot in July of 1916.
Investigators later learned from Kristoff’s landlord that he kept odd hours and sometimes came home at night with filthy hands and clothing, smelling of fuel. Along with two German saboteurs, Lothar Witzke and Kurt Jahnke, Kristoff is believed to have set the incendiary devices that caused the mayhem on Black Tom.
But it took years for investigators to piece together the evidence against the Germans in the bombing. The Mixed Claims Commission, set up after World War I to handle damage claims by companies and governments affected by German sabotage, awarded $50 million to plaintiffs in the Black Tom explosion—the largest damage claim of any in the war. Decades would pass, however, before Germany settled it. In the meantime, landfill projects eventually incorporated Black Tom Island into Liberty State Park. Now nothing remains of the munitions depot save a plaque marking the explosion that rocked the nation.
Sources
Books: The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice by Chad Millman, Little, Brown and Company, 2006. American Passage: This History of Ellis Island by Vincent J. Cannato, HarperCollins, 2009. Sabotage at Black Tom: Imperial Germany’s Secret War in America, 1914-1917, Algonquin Books, 1989.
Articles: “First Explosion Terrific” New York Times, July 31, 1916. “How Eyewitnesses Survived Explosion” New York Times, July 31, 1916. “Woolworth Tower Watchmen Pray” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 31, 1916. “Many Explosions Since War Began” New York Times, July 31, 1916. “Millions of Persons Heard and Felt Shock” New York Times, July 31, 1916. “N.Y. Firemen Work in Rain of Bullets” New York Times, July 31, 1916. “No Evidence of Plot in New York Explosion, Federal Agents Assert” Washington Post, July 31, 1916. “Statue of Liberty Damaged by Giant Ammunition Explosions” Washington Post, July 31, 1916. “Rail Heads Face Arrest in Pier Blast at N.Y.” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 1, 1916. “Black Tom Explosion” Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security, by Adrienne Wilmoth Lerner. http://www.faqs.org/espionage/Bl-Ch/Black-Tom-Explosion.html The Kiaser Sows Destruction: Protecting the Homeland the First Time Around by Michael Warner. Central Intelligence Agency https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article02.html
Taner Akçam wins free-speech case in European Court
From the Armedian Reporter: Taner Akçam wins free-speech case in European Court
Worcester, Mass. - The European Court of Human Rights ruled on October 25 that a violation was committed against freedom of expression in the case of Clark University Professor Taner Akçam.
Akçam, the first Turkish scholar to publicly express his conviction that the 1915 Armenian genocide occurred under the Ottoman Empire (of which Turkey is a successor state), brought his case to the European court to tackle the constant fear of prosecution that caused him to stop writing on the subject in 2007.
"There is no ‘Armenian' side or ‘Turkish' side to history," Akçam said in an October 27 interview with Today's Zaman, an English-language newspaper in Turkey. "To discuss what really happened in history is to speak freely and openly about it, without legends or myths."
Akçam holds the only endowed chair in the world dedicated to research and teaching on the subject of the Armenian Genocide. The ruling is the subject of intense discussion in Turkey where talk about the Genocide has long been criminalized.
Akçam, who has published widely on the subject of the Armenian Genocide, feared prosecution by the Turkish government under Article 301. The law makes it a crime to insult Turkishness and it has been used to prosecute writers and intellectuals, like Noble prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk. Although Turkey had not brought charges against Akçam under Article 301, he was the subject of numerous legal actions and the target of death threats and intimidation from Turkish ultranationalists. The court agreed with his claim that he faced risk of prosecution despite amendments having been made to the Turkish law.
In 2006, Professor Akçam wrote an editorial in the bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper AGOS to support his friend Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink, the late editor of AGOS, against the prosecution for the crime of "denigrating Turkishness" under Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code. He also requested, in an expression of solidarity, to be prosecuted on the same ground for his opinions on the Armenian issue Istanbul. Akçam's article led to three complaints being filed against him for allegedly denigrating Turkishness. Hrant Dink was assassinated in January 2007 in Istanbul.
"Article 301 is a murderous law that killed Hrant Dink and it has been killing the freedom of speech in Turkey," Akçam said. "Without acknowledging a historic wrongdoing there will be no democracy. Turkey should learn that facing history and coming to terms with past human rights abuses is not a crime but a prerequisite for peace and reconciliation in the region."
Despite not having "victim status," the court recognized that criminal complaints filed against Akçam for his views on the Armenians had become a campaign of harassment. The court further found that while the current government had made changes to the law, Akçam could not be sure that, in the future, he would be safe should there be a shift in political will or a change of policy by a new government, and there has been an interference with the exercise of his right to freedom of expression.
Akçam's case, though granted this important initial victory, is still open for three months to referral and review by the Grand Chamber of the Court. If a referral request is made but refused then the judgment will proceed in being executed by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe.
Akçam holds the Robert Aram and Marianne Kaloosdian and Stephen and Marian Mugar Endowed Chair of Armenian Genocide Studies at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Feb 11, 2012: Class Conflict at the Ludlow Massacre Site
Not specifically about WWI, except that it illustrates how people were treated in the early 1900s by government troops.
From Archaeological Institutue of America: Class Conflict at the Ludlow Massacre Site
Location:
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park
2301 West River Road
Dayton, OH 45418
United States
On the morning of April 20, 1914, Colorado National Guard troops opened fire on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colorado. The troops continued shooting until late afternoon, then swept through the camp looting it and setting it aflame. When the smoke cleared twenty of the camps inhabitants were dead including two women and eleven children. The “Ludlow Massacre” was the most important event of the 1913-1914 Colorado Coal Field War. However, most Americans know nothing about it. This talk describes the first-ever excavations of the Ludlow Tent Colony and what we’ve learned from them. It also discusses our involvement in winning Ludlow’s 2009 designation as a National Historical Landmark. This watershed development testifies to what can happen when historians, archaeologists, and citizens make common cause to commemorate events that are often neglected by official American history.
Thanks to the Archaeological Institute of America and the generosity of an anonymous donor, admission to Archaeological Institute of America/SunWatch Presentation Series is free and open to the public. All presentations begin at 10:30 and conclude by noon. Seating filled on first come, first seated basis. Admission fees apply for guests wishing to explore the Village or the Interpretive Center before or after the presentations.
Website: http://www.sunwatch.org
From Archaeological Institutue of America: Class Conflict at the Ludlow Massacre Site
Location:
SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park
2301 West River Road
Dayton, OH 45418
United States
On the morning of April 20, 1914, Colorado National Guard troops opened fire on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners at Ludlow, Colorado. The troops continued shooting until late afternoon, then swept through the camp looting it and setting it aflame. When the smoke cleared twenty of the camps inhabitants were dead including two women and eleven children. The “Ludlow Massacre” was the most important event of the 1913-1914 Colorado Coal Field War. However, most Americans know nothing about it. This talk describes the first-ever excavations of the Ludlow Tent Colony and what we’ve learned from them. It also discusses our involvement in winning Ludlow’s 2009 designation as a National Historical Landmark. This watershed development testifies to what can happen when historians, archaeologists, and citizens make common cause to commemorate events that are often neglected by official American history.
Thanks to the Archaeological Institute of America and the generosity of an anonymous donor, admission to Archaeological Institute of America/SunWatch Presentation Series is free and open to the public. All presentations begin at 10:30 and conclude by noon. Seating filled on first come, first seated basis. Admission fees apply for guests wishing to explore the Village or the Interpretive Center before or after the presentations.
Website: http://www.sunwatch.org
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