Thank You
I have many reasons to be thankful. First, at 74 I’m still physically and mentally capable of accomplishing a lot. My parents’ hard work insured that my life would be so much easier than theirs. I’m fortunate that my family and friends tolerate the way I isolate myself. Social media has brought so many old friends and acquaintances back into my life, most of whom I would likely have never heard from again. Most days people buy goods from me on the street and/or stop to chat. Others donate stuff. I sense many of the purchases made by my Constant Benefactress are just to keep me going, from surrendering to the futility of the endeavor. Sam Friedman has done several positive reviews of books I’ve written. Sometimes someone buys a copy of one of my books on the street or the web. I am grateful to my muse, whose constant presence in my work makes it much better. I appreciate Amazon for making it easy to publish books and for hosting them. There is such a great variety of artists that provide great entertainment. The world is infinitely fascinating despite too often being maddening. Lastly I thank those who voted for Donald Trump.
These famous folks, all deceased, had something in common for which to be grateful. From Notable Figures Who Survived Against All Odds as POWs by Melissa Bauernfeind at msm.com, edited by yours truly, photos from Google Images:
Drafted at 17, German actor Klaus Kinski was captured by the British in the Netherlands. At the prison camp he did his first acting in morale-building variety shows.
Donald Pleasance, who portrayed a POW/forger in The Great Escape (1963), flew nearly 60 missions before being shot down in France. In the camp he too produced and acted in plays.
Desmond Llewelyn, so endearing for so long as the first Q in the 007 series, was captured in 1940 and spent the rest of the war in various Nazi POW camps.
Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein was highly decorated for valor during WWI. He was captured by Italians and began his groundbreaking work, the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus while a prisoner.
Working as a draftsman, Marcello Mastroianni was seized by Nazi troops and taken to a labor/prisoner-of-war camp in Northern Italy. He managed to escape to Venice, where he kept a low profile until the end of the war.
Ferdinand Porsche, member of the Nazi Party and important contributor to the war effort, was arrested by the French government as a war criminal. (I would be remiss to not mention that many French behaved disgracefully during WWII, collaborating with the enemy, and got away with it.) Porsche died in 1951. I was thinking of eliminating him from the list. Instead I’ll not post his picture.
Denholm Elliott and four other crew members were shot down over the North Sea. During his confinement he took part in amateur stage performances, so successfully that he toured various POW camps doing Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was captured in France and was imprisoned in various POW camps, where he first read the work of Martin Heidegger, a major influence on his own.
During the Battle of the Bulge, Kurt Vonnegut and 50 other soldiers were captured and transferred to a camp near Dresden, working in a slaughterhouse-turned-factory making malt syrup. He survived the allied bombing that leveled the city. His experiences would inform Slaughterhouse-Five.
Assigned to the Luftwaffe, actor Heinz Bennent spent considerable time in Allied POW camps. There are 120 titles under his name at IMDb. He worked in Europe.
