New Zealand Conservative

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk (C) with his wife Malgorzata Tusk (2-R), Prince Harry (2-L), New Zealand Governor General Sir Jerry Mateparae (R) and Polish General Wieslaw Grudzinski (L) arrive for the official ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Monte Cassino Prince Harry stood shoulder to shoulder with Polish veterans as he commemorated their bravery and sacrifice capturing Monte Cassino in one of the Second World War's bloodiest battles. From the (UK) Telegraph : It was 70 years ago on today that troops from the Polish II Corps finally took the ruined Benedictine monastery near Rome - a symbol of Nazi resistance to the Allies' campaign to push Hitler's forces out of Italy. The victory had followed months of hard fighting that left an estimated 250,000 dead. The Prince joined more than 50 Polish veterans of the battle, their prime minister Donald Tusk and many dignitaries for an open-air mass at the Polish Military Ceremony...

Jan Karski, before a wall-map of the Warsaw Ghetto at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum , recalls his secret 1942 missions into the Nazi "prison-city-within-a-city" (From Wikipedia ) Cool. As many readers will know, I am of Polish descent and all things Polish from WWII interest me greatly. The Polish parliament has declared 2014 as “Karski Commemoration Year,” named after legendary anti-Nazi Resistance fighter Jan Karski, who brought the first updated reports about the extermination of European Jews to England, and later to the United States, in the fall of 1942. Karski was also one of the Righteous Gentiles and an honorary citizen of Israel. Last Friday’s decision by the Polish parliament was supported unanimously by all members of both the ruling party and the opposition. It was the result of an intiative by Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorsky, and was sponsored by Poland’s President, Bronislaw Komorowski. Throughout the year, Poland’s re...

This is wonderful news. Poland is putting the effort into finding her heroes. It could hardly have been a riskier mission: infiltrate Auschwitz to chronicle Nazi atrocities. Witold Pilecki survived nearly three years as an inmate in the death camp, managing to smuggle out word of executions before making a daring escape. But the Polish resistance hero was crushed by the post-war Communist regime – tried on trumped-up charges and executed. Six decades on, Poland hopes Pilecki's remains will be identified among the entangled skeletons and shattered skulls of resistance fighters being excavated from a mass grave on the edge of Warsaw's Powazki Military Cemetery. The exhumations are part of a movement in the resurgent, democratic nation to officially recognize its war-time heroes and 20th century tragedies. I've written about Witold Pilecki before , back in 2009. Poland hopes to identify remains of Auschwitz hero ~ Ynetnews

Awesome, the history of Jewish life in Poland needs to be told. The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, going up in the heart of the former Warsaw Ghetto, will narrate the 1,000-year history of Jews in Poland. It is a history that is unknown to many and that has been overshadowed by the tragedy of the Holocaust, which was carried out by Germany in occupied Poland. The highly anticipated museum is expected to open in the fall of 2013, in the 70th anniversary year of the doomed Warsaw ghetto uprising. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a doomed attempt to fight back against the Nazis, despite certain death. It was either die passively by being carted off the the concentration and death camps or go down fighting. Related link: Jewish history museum in Poland gains crucial donations ahead of 2013 opening ~ Washington Post Note: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising is not to be confused with the Warsaw Uprising a year later, which was inadequately supported by the allies and actively thwarte...

I visited the Holocaust Centre in Wellington the other day with my son's class, and I still feel emotional about it. When you spent time reading about WWII and the Holocaust, even though there is a distant personal connection , still there is this unreality to it. Yet the Holocaust Centre pierced through the unreality in some way. I think in a big part it was the garment that one of the girls wore, even in freezing cold snowy weather.  This wasn't the typical striped pyjama uniform that is commonly seen in pictures of inmates from concentration camps.  It just looked like a long shirt dress thing that might have passed mid-thigh, if the wearer was small with short sleeves, so barely any protection against the weather.  How she could have survived wearing something that looked not much more more than a sackcloth with a collar, I cannot imagine. The inhumanity of those who would do that to her, I cannot imagine, either, even thought I know it exists. What was wors...

The President of Canada, Barry Obama, made a slight gaffe when he accidentally read the exact contents of his teleprompter, and suggested the Nazi death camps located in Poland, were instead "Polish death camps". Ironically, it was during a time when he was awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the late Jan Karski, a hero of the Polish resistance in WWII. Similarily, in his 2008 election campaign, Obama said he would confer with “the President of Canada.” (true story) What an idiot - conferring with himself. And what was he going to confer over? That he could see Russia from the Yukon? Yes, the media got stuck into Sarah Palin but continues to give him a free ride. Surely, it's time he continue exercising his diplomatic skills and appeals to Cuban president, Raul Fidel Castro, and urge him to shut down the Cuban torture camp at Guantanamo Bay? Before history records otherwise? Story of a Secret State: My Report to the World ~ Amazon

Great image for today... The story - “In the Company of Heroes” is a painting based on more than just Matt Hall’s masterful creativity—this moment actually happened. In Dec. 2004, Valor Studios funded a charitable trip to bring six of the Band of Brothers veterans to Germany to meet and greet the troops of the 1st Armored Division, just back from Iraq. Buck Compton, Babe Heffron, Bill Guarnere, Don Malarkey, Earl McClung, and Shifty Powers participated. After two days in Germany, on the 60th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, our tour traveled to Bastogne to revisit the veterans’ old foxholes with today’s soldiers. But, on the way to Bastogne, our host, now-SGM Billy Maloney, arranged a special moment for the veterans . . . a visit to Luxembourg American Cemetery where their fallen comrades are buried. “In the Company of Heroes” depicts this moment. Wading through countless crosses and stars of David, Bill, Babe, Don, and Earl found the spot first, the headstones of ...

May 1945 and a lovely Red Army soldier directs traffic.

Part Two Part Three Part Four I really enjoyed watching the above dramatisation on Polish Squadron 303, the men of whom flew in defence of Britain during the Battle of Britain. Despite losing raw recruits left, right and centre, the British were most reticent in allowing the very experienced Polish pilots into the air, and they were only allowed up when one of the pilots broke off from a training run to engage with the enemy. Even then, it was only when their British commander flew with them did he believe they were actually devastatingly effective. So cool to see it, I highly recommend it.

The anwers for yesterdays challenge (as I see them) are below the fold What was interesting but not entirely surprising was the universal misidentification of Jean de Lattre de Tassigny as being Charles de Gaulle. They are pictured together on the left. A mistake no Frenchman would make I'd posit. The other interesting thing was the placement of Lake Ladoga in Finland rather than Russia. The Northern part of the lake is encompassed by Ladoga Karelia, a then disputed region of Karelia which was held by the Finns from 1920 to 1940 and again contested from 1941 to 1944 during the Continuation War after which it was ceded to the Soviet Union. Today it is included in the Republic of Karelia, a constituent part of the Russian Federation. Does this answer represent a cold war reading of age old European tribal and ethnic politics, I wonder? When it comes down to it the Finns found themselves fighting on the side of the Axis, not because of any ideological agreement with the Nazis bu...

So - World War 2 was a while ago now. For my kids the Battles of El Alamein and Kursk might just as well be the Battle of Thermopylae. So it goes, things get forgotten as newer events take priority - my youngest studied the 1981 Springbok tour last year - like that's important when compared to El Alamein in Kiwi national consciousness. Kiwis fought and died at El Alamein - what's a minor civil disorder compared with that? Got me thinking though - El Alamein is more on Kiwi's radar than Kursk despite Kursk being fought on a scale that dwarfed El Alamein. At Kursk German casualties alone well outnumbered the total number of men the Germans had on the field at El Alamein. They may have exceeded 500,000 according to some sources. Kursk was a super battle fought on a super scale. But since there were probably no New Zealanders on the field at Kursk and a great many at El Alamein it is only natural as well as right and proper that the latter battle has a higher profile he...

An old newsreel on Poles finding refuge in Persia (now Iran) during WWII. Just one minor error that I noticed in what the commentator was saying - the Poles were not pushed out of the Soviet Union by the Nazis - they were released by the Soviets, as they had been prisoners in the Soviet Union right up until the Soviets were attacked by their ally, Nazi Germany. This then necessitated agreements with their new allies, whom they'd been formerly attacking and imprisoning. It seems during WWII, any mention of this embarrassing fact was omitted. Anyway, I was quite excited to find this newsreel on YouTube. My Dad was one of those who made it to Persia as a 14 year old. Actually, he was probably a little younger, but saying he was 14 got him into the Cadets, which didn't make him old enough to fight in the war, but did mean he got vocational training as a welder. For more about my father's family's story, see my experiences of motherhood and conservatism , where I...

My goodness Town Councillors are good at spending public money, that would be other peoples money extracted from them for their own good apparently. The title is a quote from a Dunedin City Councillor, one Lee Vandervis who is out of step with the rest of the council over this monstrosity apparently. Probably not out of step with the ratepayers though would be my guess. Anyway I did a post on this the other day - here's the latest read it and weep . Thanks to Kowtow for the heads up

A Wellington family narrowly avoided a $400 fine for putting glass in their recycling bin on the wrong week because of an offensive note written by one of the men who collects recycling. It sounds to me like recycling in Wellington is becoming more trouble than it's worth. If I lived there, I'd probably just start throwing all my recycling into my weekly bin rather than risking being fined for putting the wrong items out each week. Related link: Dodged a fine but upset by note ~ Stuff

My isn't Dunedin urbane and sophisticated The artwork, in the shape of a deodorant can of a brand connected to the All Blacks, also considered the "sexualisation" of Maori, and artist Rachael Rakena yesterday said it did have a phallic reference. It gets better The Haka Peep Show, a "towering black pou (post or pillar)", houses 3D video art works featuring four haka performed by prominent Maori that the public could view like a peepshow. Rakena said the performers were chosen because they were Maori leaders in different fields, who did haka "as part of their everyday lives". "The artwork considers the sexualisation and commodification of Maori and indigenous sportsmen through the use and exploitation of their masculinity and their culture , in the media." So if you watch the All Blacks you are exploiting "their masculinity and culture"? Really? I think I know where the exploitation is really coming from here - it might ...

This address by Fulton Sheen in 1940 was referring to WW2, but it can just as easily be transferred to today's times. He refers to prayer, penance and reparation as the only way to defeat this spirit. He diagnoses the characteristics of it which are it's irrationality, it's violence and it's atheism. We know what it means to be rational; namely, to think before we act. We do not just suddenly find ourselves, for example, standing in a telephone [boo]th; a reason preceded and determined our presence there. As St. John expressed it: “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1) – first the Word, the Idea, the Thought, Reason; then the action: (hand the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). The irrational is just the contrary. It is the primacy of action over idea: First you act and then you think why you did it. As Goethe put it: "In the beginning was the Deed." Reason exists, according to this philosophy, merely to justify action, or to ration...

Sunday morning, the feast of Pentecost, after the recitation of the Regina Caeli from the window of his study overlooking St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict XVI entrusted the cause of world peace to the intercession of those who "gave their lives in the name of Christ in concentration camps. " He did so by recalling the testimony of the young priest and German martyr Alois Andritzki, who was killed by the Nazis in 1943 in the Dachau concentration camp, and who is to be declared Blessed tomorrow in Dresden. "May the Holy Spirit inspire courageous resolutions for peace," Prayed Pope Benedict, "and support the work to continue, so that dialogue may prevail over arms and respect for human dignity over partisan interests... In the last week or so, I've been having an argument over at Crusader Rabbit's* on the Church's role in WW2. Believe or not, there people that believe that the Church teamed up with the Nazis to exterminate the Jews. Nothing...

As reported in the New York Times in 1942, Mgr Fulton Sheen publicly predicted the death of Adolf Hitler by suicide, three years before the event. In 1942, Fulton Sheen Predicted the Suicide of Adolf Hitler Fulton Sheen eventually became an Archbishop, has since died and the cause for his recognition of sainthood was presented to the Vatican last month . Here's Fulton Sheen talking about the war between the flesh and the spirit, as he appeared on American TV in 1957. Awesome, awesome talk.

Wow. The deportations that my Dad experienced as a child are in this episode. And a whole lot of stuff on how the Soviets were directly helping the Nazis at the beginning of the war. The episode is in 4 parts, further parts should be obvious as you watch each one.