Martin Gilbert

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2015/04/sir-martin-gilbert-historian-of-hope

Patience Won World Wars I and II

https://www.nationalreview.com/2001/11/war-and-patience-jonah-goldberg/

War's End

children of Breslau
drag suitcases behind their mothers
watch slips os paper floating to earth.
they fall like snow
their message echoing across
time, "Germans, surrender now!
Nothing will happen to you."

800,00 people
wait just outside the bombers'
reach
too late to escape
they clog the train stations,
their babies in strollers filled
with pots and pans
while the men keep watch
from church steeples
machine guns in hand
benign protection against
the 90.000 souls
who perished in the cold.

Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company

Just in from a performance of Analogy/Dora: Tramontane, which is based on an oral history of Dora Amelan and her experiences during World War II.  The work is brilliant and combines theater, dance, dialogue, and original live music.  Its complexity is ground breaking and shines a new light on dance.  I was struck how the dancers so eloquently became actors in telling the story.  Bravo!

For an insightful review, please read:   http://forward.com/culture/309905/a-slow-dance-through-history/

Stolen Nazi Art

     A German man is being investigated for hoarding about 3,000 paintings that were stolen during World War II, some of it from Jews literally on their way to their deaths.

     The paintings are now being inspected by art historians and preservationists.  There are paintings by Matisse, Klee, Monet and Cezanne, among many others.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26746697

World War II Veterans of Edgecombe County, North Carolina

     This spring, we lost Joel Bourne, one of the founders of the Edgecombe County Veterans' Museum.  Joel was a World War II vet, and you can see his photograph in the Museum, along with hundred of others.  Joel was simply one of the very best people in the area and he was constantly doing things to make the county a better place for all.
     Among other things, Joel put up quite a sum of his own money to renovate the old Colonial Theatre.  And he and some other good buddies, many of them World War II vets, contributed much time and labor to organizing the museum, located next door to the Museum.
     There is another noteworthy veteran from Edgecombe County, David Gatlin.  He flew over 200 missions during World War II.  He lives in Florida, while his brother James Earl, lives in Tarboro.  You can purchase David Gatlin's book describing his war experiences at the Museum.
     I think it's remarkable for such a small town to have had such a large number of veterans from World War II.  We owe them a huge debt for their efforts to make the world a safe place again.