Posts tagged ‘World War II’
Entertaining Interview with Alan Furst
I came late to Twitter, but I’ve come to rely on it and—dare I say?—enjoy it. Why? Because of days like Monday, when author Susan Orlean, whom I follow, alerted me to an NPR interview with Alan Furst ’67g, who has a new book, Spies of the Balkans, coming out today.
The original tweet came from a book critic at The New York Times, Dwight Garner, who wrote: “Alan Furst, charming as hell on Morning Edition. Made me want to pack a few of his novels for the weekend.” Orlean, who re-tweeted Garner’s post, agreed. I dug up the interview (which you can listen to here), and I, too, was charmed.
A couple of highlights from Furst, whom we profiled in our May/June 2008 issue:
—Agreeing with host Steve Inskeep that his favorite characters are the morally ambiguous ones: “Absolutely because those are the readers of the book; those are the people who are going to say, well, what would I do—and no kidding, what would I do? What would I really do? It’s always nice to think that you would be a hero. On the other hand, that might have something to do with what’s going to happen to your wife, what’s going to happen to your children, what’s going to happen to your parents. It’s not a clean business.”
—On why he continually returns to the early years of World War II and the period just before it: “You know, the human spirit was at its worst and at its best. Don’t ask me why. It just was. And this period, 1933 to 1942, I’ve begun to think of it as an enormous room with a thousand corners. There are so many stories and so many places, all of them so different. So it’s always up to me to find another great story.”
And this morning, I found this NPR review of the new book, which says Furst is “working at the top of his powers.”
Lori Shontz, senior editor
Luther Smith, Former Tuskegee Airman, Dies
We profiled Smith in our Sept-Oct 2007 issue.
We learned this week of the death of Luther Smith ’77, who was one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen in World War II and whose story we told in our September-October 2007 issue.
At a time when segregation was still the norm in the United States—this was two decades before the civil rights movement—African Americans didn’t have much of a role in the military. But a group of black pilots known as the Tuskegee Airmen served as escorts for American bomber pilots in Europe during the war, never once losing a bomber.
Smith himself flew 133 such missions. On his last flight, he had to eject from his burning plane; he was badly injured, and spent seven months as a prisoner of war.
After leaving the military, he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa, worked at GE for more than 35 years, and along the way earned a master’s in engineering from Penn State Great Valley. He retired in 1988 and lived for many years in Villanova, Pa., before he died on Wednesday at the age of 89.
The Delaware County Times has a lengthy story about Smith here.
Tina Hay, editor
Alan Furst in the NYT Travel Section
The cover story of the Travel section in today’s New York Times has a pretty nice Penn State connection.
It’s a look at the city of Warsaw—how charismatic it was in the days before World War II, how thoroughly it was battered during the war, and how it was rebuilt in the years afterward.
The basis for the Times’ article is the novel by Alan Furst ’67g, The Spies of Warsaw, which was released in paperback earlier this summer. (We profiled Furst, a Penn State Alumni Fellow, in May-June 2008 issue, when the hardcover version of the book was published.)
“[T]he setting for his spies’ intrigues—the leafy boulevards, grand ballrooms, romantic cafes, lively salons and sinister back streets of a city on the cusp of catastrophe—is vividly rendered,” according to the Times article.
Despite the rebuilding efforts, “[T]he Warsaw of old is gone forever. And it is that lost city, the grand, glittering and vibrant prewar capital, that Mr. Furst conjures in The Spies of Warsaw. In his city, the Warsaw of memory is in the present, and the future ticks ominously on every page.”
Tina Hay, editor
Big Honors for “Our Lady”
Got an e-mail yesterday from Judy Maltz, one of the three Penn State faculty members behind the film No. 4 Street of Our Lady, which we wrote about in our Nov-Dec 2008 issue. She was writing to say that the film won the grand prize for best feature documentary at the Rhode Island International Film Festival last weekend.
The film tells of the heroism of a Polish Catholic woman, Francisca Halamajowa, who successfully hid 16 of her Jewish neighbors from the Nazis during World War II. One of those she saved was Herb Maltz, Judy Maltz’s father.
What’s especially cool is that the Rhode Island International Film Festival is an Academy-Award qualifying festival—meaning that No. 4 Street of Our Lady may be eligible to compete for an Oscar.
Tina Hay, editor
‘Street of Our Lady’ Wins National Award
Penn State filmmakers Judy Maltz, Barbara Bird, and Richie Sherman have shared some good news with us: Their documentary No. 4 Street of Our Lady won a Golden Eagle Award during the spring CINE competition.
Francisca Halamajowa
The movie tells how Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish Catholic, hid Jewish families from the Nazis. The 15 people she saved—including Maltz’s father and grandparents—were among only 30 Jews who survived in the town of Sokal, out of an original 6,000.
Past winners of the CINE Golden Eagle have included Ken Burns, Steven Spielberg, and Martin Scorsese.
You can find out more about the film in Vicki Glembocki’s award-winning story from the Nov./Dec. 2008 Penn Stater (note: clicking on that link downloads a PDF) and at the film’s Web site.
—Chas Brua, contributing editor
‘Street of Our Lady’ in Philadelphia
Francisca Halamajowa
We just noticed that No. 4 Street of Our Lady, made by three filmmakers from Penn State, is scheduled to be shown in Philadelphia in August. The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies hasn’t announced an exact date yet for the screening, but a genealogical blogger lists the film as having been confirmed for showing. The film made its world premiere in State College at the beginning of March.
As our November/December issue described, No. 4 Street of Our Lady tells how Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish Catholic in the town of Sokal, hid more than a dozen Jewish neighbors on her property for almost two years, right under the noses of the Nazis. Sixty years later, some of the survivors went back to Sokal with filmmakers Judy Maltz, Barbara Bird, and Richie Sherman—a powerful experience for all.
Chas Brua, contributing editor
No. 4 Street of Our Lady
Francisca Halamajowa with daughter Hela
I went to the State Theatre yesterday to see the premiere of No. 4 Street of Our Lady, a documentary made by three filmmakers from Penn State and chronicled in the November/December Penn Stater. What a powerful movie. Barely a dry eye at the end.
It told the story of Francisca Halamajowa, a Polish Catholic who risked her life by hiding 16 of her Jewish neighbors in her home during World War II—one family in a hole under her kitchen floor, and two families in a hayloft in her pigsty.
All this happened while there were Nazi troops camped out by the pigsty. The very shrewd Francisca warned the troops that if they stayed there and the pigsty were hit, well, you can imagine what would happen—so the troops moved a few hundred feet from there, although they remained on her property. Of the Jews harbored by Francisca, 15 survived. They have 100 descendants living today. Herb Maltz, one of the survivors and the father of Penn State filmmaker Judy Maltz, was among the people at the screening. (Today’s Centre Daily Times also has a good article about the screening.)
During a brief Q & A after the show, the question was asked, “Would you do the same?” I believe that without a doubt, I would. If I could help save one or more lives and it cost me my own, it would be well worth it.
Judy Maltz and the other Penn State filmmakers—Barbara Bird and Richie Sherman—plan to release the movie in several languages, including Hebrew, German, French, Spanish, and Ukrainian. Another screening, for middle and high school students, is scheduled for April 22 at Drew University in Madison, N.J.
Barb Marshall, editorial assistant
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