Nazism

Ukraine war: Pope Francis should learn from his WWII predecessor’s mistakes in appeasing fascism

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Pope Francis has provoked fury by suggesting in a television interview that Ukraine should find “the courage to raise the white flag”.

Key Points: 
  • Pope Francis has provoked fury by suggesting in a television interview that Ukraine should find “the courage to raise the white flag”.
  • As Pope Pius XII, Eugenio Pacelli led the Catholic Church throughout the second world war.
  • However, while Hitler’s determination to eliminate the Jewish people was brought to his attention, he did not publicly condemn it.
  • Though he admired the authoritarian regimes of Franco in Spain and Salazar in Portugal, Pius XII was not pro Nazi.

‘Catholics will be loyal’

  • He told the German chancellor:
    I am certain that if peace between Church and state is restored, everyone will be pleased.
  • The German people are united in their love for the Fatherland.
  • I am certain that if peace between Church and state is restored, everyone will be pleased.
  • He feared that criticism of Hitler’s regime would provoke harm to German Catholics.
  • In August 1942 Pius XII received a letter from Andrej Septyckj, a Ukrainian Cleric, bearing news of the massacre of 200,000 Jews in Ukraine.
  • Pius XII flirted with public criticism of Nazi inhumanity in his 1942 Christmas Eve broadcast.

Evil then and now

  • As I discovered while researching my book, Reporting the Second World War - The Press and the People 1939-1945, he could have learned as much by reading British newspapers.
  • In autumn 1942, titles including The Times and Daily Mail reported the World Jewish Congress’s belief that a million Jews had already died.
  • Today, his successor might contemplate the damage inflicted on his wartime predecessor’s reputation by his meek collusion with the wrong side.
  • Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba responded caustically to Pope Francis’s crass comments with: “Our flag is a yellow and blue one.


Tim Luckhurst has received funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Free Speech Union and the Society of Editors

Eisenhower Fellowships honors Steven Spielberg with 2024 Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Eisenhower Fellowships will award its highest honor, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service, to legendary film director Steven Spielberg for his extraordinary artistic achievements in presenting America's culture and history to the world and his enormous contributions to advancing global understanding.

Key Points: 
  • PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 21, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Eisenhower Fellowships will award its highest honor, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Medal for Leadership and Service, to legendary film director Steven Spielberg for his extraordinary artistic achievements in presenting America's culture and history to the world and his enormous contributions to advancing global understanding.
  • The Chairman of Eisenhower Fellowships (EF), former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dr. Robert M. Gates, will present the prestigious medal to Spielberg at the organization's 2024 Annual Awards Dinner on May 15 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
  • "Few people embody President Eisenhower's ideals in their life's work more than Steven Spielberg," Dr. Gates said.
  • "Few people embody President Eisenhower's ideals in their life's work more than Steven Spielberg," Dr. Gates said.

Vladimir Putin justifies his imperial aims in Tucker Carlson interview

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 15, 2024

During his much-publicized recent interview with American right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined his perception of Russian history as the second anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine approaches.

Key Points: 
  • During his much-publicized recent interview with American right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson, Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined his perception of Russian history as the second anniversary of his invasion of Ukraine approaches.
  • During his interview with Carlson, Putin traced Russian history to the ninth century.

Putin: Russia saved Europe from Nazis

  • Russia’s identity today is closely connected to the Second World War, or to use Russian parlance, the Great Patriotic War.
  • The fact that 4.5 million Ukrainians fought in the Red Army is largely ignored as Russia argues it alone saved Europe from the Nazis.

Neo-Nazi takeover?

  • News outlets link the war to the invasion of Ukraine, alleging the country was taken over by neo-Nazis in 2014.
  • At the behest of the West, so goes the allegation, Ukrainian protesters overthrew the elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, and installed a neo-Nazi regime.

‘Cleansing’ Ukraine

  • Lavrov recently claimed the Russian invasion of Ukraine has “cleansed” Ukrainian society of those “who do not feel they belong to Russia history and culture.” Medinsky, who authored the Grade 10 history textbook for Russian high school students, has advanced a new interpretation of the Second World War that focuses on the “genocide of the Soviet people.” New graves of Russian victims have suddenly been discovered and excavated, and Soviet losses continue to be counted.
  • As for the Holocaust in neighbouring Belarus — a subject several western scholars are studying — Jews and other minorities are now subsumed under the term “Soviet people.” Just as history is continually being rewritten and propagated in Russian schools, it’s happening in Belarus, too.
  • The two countries will soon produce a common textbook featuring new theories about the “genocide of the Belarusian people.” The memory of the Second World War is alive and well in both nations.

Justifying authoritarianism

  • If it did, why did Putin refrain from denouncing Sweden and Finland when they joined the alliance?
  • They lie in the past, in a narrow, distorted perception of Russian history and Russia’s claims to lands it once ruled.
  • Read more:
    The legacy of the Euromaidan Revolution lives on in the Ukrainian-Russian war

A return to colonialism?

  • Carlson provided Putin with a forum to outline his imperialist dreams.
  • Carlson failed to call out the facile nature of Putin’s claims during the interview.
  • We are a peaceful and free nation.” Mongolia may be.


David Roger Marples does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Ukraine recap: prospect of renewed US funding a boost for beleaguered Zelensky

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 15, 2024

We had just published a piece by two security analysts from the Paris-based research university Sciences Po, who had outlined three possible scenarios for the 12 months ahead.

Key Points: 
  • We had just published a piece by two security analysts from the Paris-based research university Sciences Po, who had outlined three possible scenarios for the 12 months ahead.
  • The first two options were major military setbacks for Russia or Ukraine, with major losses of troops and territory.
  • Months of bitter, attritional fighting resulted in few Ukrainian gains at a significant cost in terms of both manpower and precious materiel.
  • But, as Stefan Wolff and Tetyana Malyarenko point out, Syrskyi is also associated with the defence of Bakhmut, a battle that consumed so many lives on either side.
  • But fresh supplies of weapons and ammunition from the EU and the US began to dry up in 2023, seriously hamstringing the Ukraine army’s ability to gain the initiative on the battlefield.
  • You can also subscribe to our fortnightly recap of expert analysis of the conflict in Ukraine.
  • After months of bitter debate the bill finally passed the senate this week.
  • Read more:
    Ukraine war: what the US public thinks about giving military and other aid

Friends and enemies

  • One of Trump’s greatest allies in the media, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, sat down with Putin for a two-hour interview last week.
  • Inderjeet Parmar, an expert in US politics at City, University of London, watched the interview and gives us his verdict.
  • He concludes: “Putin’s early history of Ukraine is part of a Russian imperialist story that has been told for centuries.
  • He says more than 7,000 criminal cases have been opened accusing Ukrainians of giving aid to the enemy.
  • Others are less so: people who continued to do their jobs after their town was occupied: local government officials, garbage collectors and the like.

The New Look: Apple TV drama shows how Dior brought optimism to a war-weary world

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Dior’s haute couture collection remains a historical moment for post-war fashion, and lends its name to Apple’s new ten-part series.

Key Points: 
  • Dior’s haute couture collection remains a historical moment for post-war fashion, and lends its name to Apple’s new ten-part series.
  • The drama explores the state of Parisian couture in the final year of the second world war and the years that followed through the lives of important designers.
  • This includes Dior and his contemporaries Coco Chanel, Pierre Balmain, Cristóbal Balenciaga, Lucien Lelong, Hubert de Givenchy and Pierre Cardin.

French fashion during wartime

  • Once Nazi forces invaded, Paris and its international fashion markets were effectively cut off from the rest of the world.
  • As fashion designers were forced to limit the amount of material they used, unnecessary decorative additions such as ruffles and pockets became expendable.
  • Instead, wartime couturiers turned to embroidery and beading for decoration – trends that continue to characterise haute couture today.

The rival ‘American look’

  • Its biggest rival was the American ready-to-wear apparel industry, an aspect of the story this new series dramatises to great effect.
  • Though the American industry also faced fabric rationing during the second world war, it was not occupied, and the restrictions weren’t as debilitating.

Dior’s beacon of hope

  • Dior’s 1947 Carolle collection, was renamed the “new look” at first viewing by American fashion editor Carmel Snow.
  • Snow claimed it represented the creation of a new femininity – which Dior would later call “the golden age of couture”.
  • Rather, it celebrated the end of the grim years of wartime trauma, misery and lack.


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Elizabeth Kealy-Morris does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

As the war in Gaza continues, Germany’s unstinting defence of Israel has unleashed a culture war that has just reached Australia

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

His work led him to being offered a stint at Germany’s prestigious Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.

Key Points: 
  • His work led him to being offered a stint at Germany’s prestigious Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.
  • This came less than two months after the Max Planck Foundation, with war in Gaza raging, had announced “additional funding for German-Israeli collaborations”.
  • What to me is a fair, intellectual critique of Israel, for them is “antisemitism according to the law in Germany”.

A political ideal

  • As he succinctly writes:
    I have a political ideal that I have always struggled for regarding Israel/Palestine.
  • It is the ideal of a multi-religious society made from
    Christians, Muslims and Jews living together on that land.
  • I have a political ideal that I have always struggled for regarding Israel/Palestine.
  • It is the ideal of a multi-religious society made from
    Christians, Muslims and Jews living together on that land.
  • His criticism of current Israeli policy, he insists, stems from the Netanyahu government’s determination to “work against such a goal”.

Self-imposed red lines

  • It is worth pointing out that it is not just happening in Germany.
  • Universities in the United States are under siege from students and community groups variously accusing them of both antisemitism and Islamophobia.
  • Largely, however, what’s happening in Germany is a result of some self-imposed red lines the German press, the German courts and the German parliament have imposed on public debate.
  • Rather, it is a result of Germany’s current belief that its genocidal, antisemitic Nazi past implies future unwavering support for Israel.
  • It might equally be said that Germany has a special responsibility to stridently oppose ethnic cleansing, war crimes and genocide wherever they occur.

Enough?

  • Sharp words from German government officials about the renewed Israeli campaign in Rafah suggest this might be possible.
  • The German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned recently “the people of Gaza cannot vanish into thin air”.


Matt Fitzpatrick receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Ukraine war: why propaganda doesn’t work as well in Belarus as it does in Russia

Retrieved on: 
Friday, February 9, 2024

In contrast, Belarusian people are far more wary of being drawn into the conflict.

Key Points: 
  • In contrast, Belarusian people are far more wary of being drawn into the conflict.
  • Additionally, a surprisingly low number of Belarusians (26%) said they would feel negatively if Belarusian soldiers refused to fight or follow orders.
  • Meanwhile, the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, has allowed Russian troops to pass through his territory to invade Ukraine, and supported Putin’s invasion.

Why Belarus is different

  • For the most part, the majority of urban Belarusians surveyed want Belarus to distance itself from the war and express neutrality.
  • In contrast to Russians, Belarusian society considers the war senseless and harmful to Belarus.

Russian propaganda wins

  • In stark comparison to Belarus, Russia has developed a successful propaganda machine that is entertaining, confusing and overwhelming.
  • Flooding citizens with information that demonises its opponents is a key component to Russia’s propaganda strategy.
  • Russian propaganda uses a large number of channels and constantly disseminates falsehoods at high volume and speed.
  • This onslaught of propaganda makes it even harder for its citizens to discern what is false and what is the truth.
  • Research has suggested that Putin’s propaganda has elicited strong support for a military invasion among Russians, and that the Russian public’s preferences for using military force were easily manipulated.


Natasha Lindstaedt does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Zone of Interest’s striking depiction of Nazi banality – and other things you should see this week

Retrieved on: 
Friday, February 9, 2024

However, Rudolf Höss is not any man, he is the commandant of Auschwitz and these scenes of domesticity take place in a house bordering the camp.

Key Points: 
  • However, Rudolf Höss is not any man, he is the commandant of Auschwitz and these scenes of domesticity take place in a house bordering the camp.
  • Hannah Arendt’s notion of the “banality of evil” is wrought powerfully in this film that envisages the lives of these real people.
  • It’s not the Nazi uniforms that are the most affecting but the small details that represent the horror.
  • Read more:
    The Zone of Interest: new Holocaust film powerfully lays bare the mechanisms of genocide

Stateside stories

  • The book, his agent tells him, is just not “black enough”.
  • It’s a really funny film that makes some really serious points about structural racism and explores different ideas of authenticity and blackness.
  • Read more:
    Masters of the Air: Apple's Air Force drama is imperfect, but powerful

In your feelings

  • It’s a romantic fantasy drama about 40-something screenwriter Adam (Andrew Scott) and 20-something Harry (Paul Mescal).
  • Their burgeoning relationship opens something up for Adam who is driven to finally confront the loss of his parents.
  • Both our reviewers felt it depicted dating as a 40-year-old gay man today quite well.


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Origin: this outstanding portrayal of India’s caste system is hugely important to Dalit people like me

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 8, 2024

It is inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.

Key Points: 
  • It is inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
  • Caste is a system of classifying society in a hierarchical order in which some people are kept inferior and others superior.
  • In doing so, she highlights how inhuman, unethical and unjust discriminatory practices happen irrespective of geographical location, local cultures and social norms.

Dalit stories in Hollywood

  • I come from a Dalit background and I research Dalit representation in film.
  • In the film, Wilkerson visits the Dr Ambedkar National Memorial in Delhi to learn about the lawyer and social activist’s life and work.
  • This is the first time that Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s fight for the rights of India’s Dalits and other deprived classes has been portrayed in a Hollywood film.
  • Ambedkar was a Dalit born at the very bottom of this ladder, in a group called the “untouchables”.

Origin and caste

  • Using extreme close-ups, DuVernay shows Wilkerson’s inner turmoil as she learns more about India’s caste system.
  • Origin doesn’t shy away from topics like untouchability.
  • Another incident shows a father in the US who, in a bid to escape the trauma and humiliation of the caste system, named his firstborn daughter “Miss”.
  • Despite the darkness of its subject matter, Origin doesn’t only expose the problem of marginalisation, it also offers a glimpse of hope and possibility.


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Neeraj Bunkar does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Filmmaker Shawn Levy Receives 2024 Helen Keller Achievement Award

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, February 8, 2024

WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is pleased to announce filmmaker Shawn Levy will be among those to receive the prestigious Helen Keller Achievement Award, which will be presented during a special evening ceremony on April 18th in Los Angeles.

Key Points: 
  • WASHINGTON, Feb. 8, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is pleased to announce filmmaker Shawn Levy will be among those to receive the prestigious Helen Keller Achievement Award, which will be presented during a special evening ceremony on April 18th in Los Angeles.
  • The series was recently nominated for a Golden Globe, Directors Guild award, and Producers Guild award.
  • Since 1994, the Helen Keller Achievement Award has recognized the finest thought leaders, change-makers, and performing artists committed to carrying on Keller's mission to create a world of full and equal inclusion for people with disabilities.
  • For over 40 years, Helen Keller was AFB's leading ambassador, inspiring millions worldwide as she demonstrated all that can be accomplished through determination and perseverance.