The Nazis and the Occult Paul Roland

I read quite a few books on Nazism and such matters and was immediately drawn to this volume when I saw it going cheap. It was the title that grabbed me. I had assumed the author would try and argue the case that the Nazis were greatly influenced by occult forces. However, he does not do that. The book is quite well written but its sources are often dubious, as he admits, and so the reader gets a little frustrated by it.

Day Off Week 7 2024

A good day on Tuesday. I was going to read about Post-impressionists but my copy had been damaged at some point before I bought it so I had to bin that and turn to the one on Expressionists (Schiele, Munch, etc). Didn't enjoy them as much as the impressionists. I worked on one or two of my other blogs, including this one here. In the afternoon Eleri and I went to see One Life the olm about Nicholas Winterton and his rescue of children from Prague in the thirties. Very moving. When we came out of the cinema we heard of the death of Steve Wright, who we have both enjoyed over the years. An emotional moment after such a film. No pancakes today but we enjoyed hoe made burgers and then watched the last in the current series of BBC's Silent Witness. We enjoy it but it is a funny old series with more quirks than Quirky Mcquirky.

Day off Week 48 2019

Pretty typical week off this week - reading, walking, Private Eye, TV, etc. I read most of Mission at Nuremberg which I started reading a while back then put down but took up again recently having read the HHhH book. The whole Nazi era is endlessly fascinating and there were things here I did not know or had forgotten. I read a much shorter book on similar lines by F T Grossmith many years ago. This is a larger book that gives you the whole of the life of Major Gerecke the Protestant chaplain as well as plenty of other material on the history of chaplaincy, Lutheranism, etc, etc. The writer is lucid and fair minded but liberal in his theology. It is clear that several Nazis made credible professions of faith and some refused to believe but it is hard to be sure what to make of it all. In many ways Gerecke's pastoral work was similar to that of any other pastor.

Day off Week 7 2019

This week's day off came around rather quickly this time. I woke in an unhelpful mood and could not settle to anything at first. I had arranged a mid-morning coffee time and prayer meeting around 11 (we are having a week of prayer meetings). The wives of our two deacons came, one with her three home schooled children. We were joined for good or ill by two ladies from the area we know. Like others from the area, they are very exercised about a plan to remove over 90 trees from the immediate area this month and that issue threatened to dominate rather but we got through somehow. After that I took Alffi for a walk and made a big dent in this Costa prize winning book The cut out girl which is very good. In the evening after Eleri returned home we watched the latest Shetland on BBC. We love Shetland. It not only gives you a detective mystery to ponder that being in an isolated community has that Agatha Christie Country House quality that these things need but there is a sort of stillness that you get that is very attractive. I'm always planning to visit while watching but probably never will.

Darkest Hour

We went to the cinema this week to see Gary Oldman as Churchill in Darkest Hour  During the early days of World War II, Neville Chamberlain is out of favour and so a new PM is needed, namely Winston Churchill, who many people are not sure about. He must decide whether to negotiate with Hitler or fight on against incredible odds. You know what happens but this film will give you some new insights into the whole thing, perhaps. What we have here, of course, is what they now call "dramatic truth" rather than very much you will find in a history book. The secretary featured in the film, for example did not start work until a year later. It is true that Churchill often disappeared from Downing Street or the Cabinet War Rooms and appeared somewhere in London to talk to the public and find out what they were thinking but what we get in the film is pure imagination. As a young man such things woud have bothered me but I now see what we want is an enjoyable film that gives you the gist of what happened. That's want this film does. It is a reminder of the wonderful providence of God towards this nation all those years ago. Let's not forget it.

Dunkirk

We got to see the film Dunkirk last week. I don't need to say anything about it except that it is worth seeing. It attempts to give us the experience , which is an obvious thing to do, which menas little explanation and lots of action. Some of the story choices seem strange and people have had a field day with all the inaccuracies of various sorts. I was interested to learn that the man on whom the Mark Rylance character was based had been second officer on the Titanic. The air, land, seainterchange is doen very well. I picked up no hints to the marvellous providenc of God that some speak of and thought the film was generally anti-war, partly by dint of its accuracy. I remember visiting Dunkirk one day on a school trip to Ostende when I was 12. I was surprised when one of my sons (the history graduate I note) told me that the first revelation for him on seeing the film was that Dunkirk is in France not Scotland! 

Unbroken Review

A shorter version of this review also appears in the February ET

Many readers will be aware of the book War and grace by Don Stephens, a collection of short biographies of Christians from the two world wars, that was published in 2005 and again, in a new edition, last year.

The first story in that book concerns an American of Italian extraction called Louis Zamperini. The new edition reveals that he died on July 2, 2014 and mentions the 2010 biography Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and the then forthcoming film of the same name, directed by Angelina Jolie. This film has now appeared, going on general release in British cinemas on Boxing Day, 2014.

We are always looking for ways to introduce Christ to our unbelieving neighbours and so the fact that a biopic about a Christian has appeared is good news. Sadly, the film, unlike the book that it is drawn from, chooses very much to downplay the fact that Zamperini became a Christian after the war and spent much of his life talking about Christ and the forgiveness that can be found only in him.

In his book, Don Stephens prefaces his life of Zamperini with seven summarising bullet points. The first five of these are well covered in the film.

The three middle points are covered the most extensively – An Air force bomb aimer, decorated for gallantry in action; a survivor of 47 days adrift on a life raft; an ill-treated prisoner of war of the Japanese for two and a half years. The bulk of the film looks at these periods, most of the time being devoted to his harrowing years as a POW when a man known as 'The bird' did all that he possibly could to 'break' his prisoner. Much of this, which includes a great deal of senseless violence, does not make pleasant viewing. Hence the '15' certificate. If you do see this film, be prepared for that. Zamperini had recurring nightmares after his experiences, until he came to Christ. One can imagine some people having nightmares after watching this presentation.

The first two bullet points (a juvenile delinquent in California and an Olympic runner at the Berlin Games of 1936) are covered in the film by means of flashbacks that bring out his Italian background, the racism he suffered, his delinquency and the way his older brother eventually steered him in a better direction by means of sport, leading to some success at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

As for Stephens' final two bullet points – a drunkard who almost wrecked his marriage and a Christian – these are almost entirely ignored. The main film ends when the war ends and just a few subsequent points are covered in a brief epilogue, where written material is combined with contemporary stills to fill in the rest of the story.

All this means that the only real Christian elements in the film itself are a snatch from a sermon by a Roman clergyman when Zamperini was a boy (blurring the fact that he later rejected Catholicism for the gospel), his prayer in the life raft that he would dedicate his life to God if he survived and some conversations about God with his fellow survivor Russell Phillips.

It is hard to understand why the film makers were not keener to depict the moment when Zamperini returned to Japan after the war in 1950 and, having preached to his former guards, warmly shook them by the hand and expressed his forgiveness. They chose not to do it this way, however.

That still leaves us with an opportunity to take advantage of the brief spotlight on Zamperini to draw attention to him and his Saviour by means of Don Stephens' book or other materials that do highlight his conversion and Christian life.

One other point to make, if it is not too esoteric, is that if you watch the film carefully you will notice that sometimes Zamperini is framed in an iconically Christ-like way. Further, near the end we see him symbolically crucified, symbolically dead, symbolically raised and this is followed by a symbolic pouring out of the Spirit and a mass baptism. Some have also detected his representative character, his temptation by Satan and his final ascension too. These elements may be helpful or unhelpful in the long run but are worth keeping in mind.

D-Day Veterans Lucky or spared by God?

As I listened to the D-Day celebrations today one word seemed to be coming up with depressing monotony, the word luck. They nearly all seem to think they were simply lucky to survive. Look at these examples

• “I’m glad I’m here. Because I’m lucky to be here,” William Roberts said. He will celebrate his 102nd birthday next month.
• Fred Morgan says he only survived because of "luck", telling us "I did get sprayed with shrapnel a couple times but not serious enough to evacuate me."
• D-day veterans each have unique stories to tell. Each feels lucky to have survived. They are thankful for the recognition given them Friday. Harry Evans “I had a lot of luck, there was no doubt about it,” he said. “I do appreciate that now. Times like these trigger your memories, but at the time there were so many people killed, all that was in your mind was getting through.” Harry, who later married Maud and had two sons, Graham and Peter, made a return trip to Normandy on his 80th birthday to show his family where he had fought. Today the former Co-op manager will remember his comrades privately at home in Kingsfield Care Centre, Ashton.
• Edgar Bedard "I was one of the lucky ones," he said of his wartime service.
• "All my friends are dead now,” says Mr. Jock Hutton. “We would go to gatherings together but now I’m on my own. But I’m happy. I’ve been lucky. I’ve had a different life.”
• "I was lucky," said Frank Agoglia, a retired NYPD detective, recalling his D-Day crash. "I'm fortunate to be here today. I know that."
• One British veteran, 89-year-old Ken Godfrey, was applauded by well-wishers who shouted “bravo” and “thank you” as, medals clinking on his chest, he walked the mile-long path to Bayeux cemetery. “My main memory is wading through the sea with water up to my chest,” he said. “But I don’t like to talk about the fighting. If people ask, I just say we had a hairy time. But I’m lucky that I survived.”

And then with a little search I found something more like it from American Henry Langreher. "They say there are no atheists in foxholes, but I was one," he said. "But my wife prayed for me, and I came to know God, and ever since then I've tried to please him." Langrehr was awarded two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts for his service. In Washington, D.C., in 2007, he and six others received the Legion of Honor, France's highest award, for their roles in liberating France from the Nazis. "Henry Langrehr, you are a hero," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said as he pinned a medal to Langrehr's lapel. Langrehr brushes off that label. "Not a day goes by but that I don't think of my friends killed in France," he said. "I'm not a hero. They are, because they gave their lives. I don't know why, but God spared me, and I'm grateful for every day."

Christ or Hitler?

I was attracted to this book by its title. It contains a collection of anecdotes and biographical material by Wilhelm Busch (1897-1966) complied and translated by Christian Puritz. We usually only hear about Bonhoeffer and may be Niemoller so it is good to get another voice. Busch, a pietist in the state church, is quit frank about the failure of the German churches but also displays the quiet courage that he and several others did show in a period of intense opposition. Busch lived a long life and so only a relatively small portion (at the end) deals directly with the stand against the Nazis. The whole book is full of interest, however, and serves as an encouragements and a challenge to Christians today in various circumstances, especially pastors. I particularly liked the anecdote of Martin Niemoller's father. He was not allowed to preach but he was allowed to read Scripture. He was able to read Psalm 73 in such a way that every Nazi in the place knowing exactly where they stood. See page 203.

"Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?” Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. ... "

Diary of a man in despair

I currently seem to be drawn to books about the world wars. Diary of a man in despair came out in English translation in 1974. I became aware if it reading Richard Evans trilogy on the whole Nazi movement. It's taking me a little while to get round to reading it. Friedrich Malleczewen was a very cultured writer who the Nazis eventually caught up with and killed even though he was a minor character in every sense and no agitator. He kept a secret diary through the year wars and before which is a fascinating and well written read. Not sensationalist in any way it gives a good idea of the horror of those years. Malleczewen's Catholic faith peeks through at certain times. It is difficult to see how anyone can look at those years with any degree of composure without a theistic worldview. Always the remarkable thing for many of us is that it happened here in Europe and not so very long ago. How sobering.