By Bradley R. Smith ∙ January 19, 2005
Even PBS's Linda Ellerbee seems a little sheepish about the question, “Why another Holocaust documentary?” She should be. Another mixing of “re-creations” with historical footage will provide American and British viewers with a step-by-step approach to the planning and execution of a “final solution,” that, in the event, didn't happen. Something happened, all right. But…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ January 21, 2005
Night before last I watched the first two installments of Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State (we get PBS in Baja). Three matters caught my attention. First, I was truly surprised by how utterly conventional the film is. I suppose I had expected something new. Foolish me. There are claims that new documents are referenced here…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ January 22, 2005
Laurence Rees, the producer of Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State, was interviewed on PBS, one of our State-sponsored media outlets. The first question he was asked was: “Why is this series important?” Rees's response: “Auschwitz is a physical place – the site of the single largest mass murder in the history of humanity.” Well, maybe….
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ January 26, 2005
Deputies of the German National Democratic Party (NPD) created a scandal when they walked out during the moment of silence at the Parliament of Saxony in Dresden, when they were supposed to hang around to memorialize the deaths of Jews and others at Auschwitz. This was the latest “publicity stunt” by Holger Apfel, who leads…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ January 28, 2005
The other night I discovered that The Snows of Kilimanjaro with Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner was going to show on the television. I had seen the movie when it first came out. I was pleased to the point of excitement at the prospect of seeing it again. I have read Hemmingway's Kilimanjaro itself two…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ February 2, 2005
Professor Ward Churchill, a product of the academic left, whose area of expertise is social activism on behalf of American Indian rights, committed a thought crime following the 9/11 Islamist attack on New York City and the Pentagon. He wrote that the victims (the victims!) of the World Trade Towers were “little Eichmanns.” That is…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ February 4, 2005
I agree with Ward Churchill when he observes that “we cannot allow the U.S. government, acting in our name, to engage in massive violations of international law and fundamental human rights and not expect to reap the consequences.” I agree with this statement, and with almost everything else Churchill says about 9/11. He is right…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ February 7, 2005
Last night I was at the local cultural center, a cigar store on the Boulevard downtown, and the question came up about the Pope's hospitalization. There is a rumor going about in Mexican intellectual circles that the Pope is not sick, but was hospitalized by his cardinals so that he does not have to receive…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ February 10, 2005
In a recent TV “Memo” on Ward Churchill, Bill O'Reilly quoted Churchill as writing that Jewish scholars stress the Jewish Holocaust story in order to “construct a conceptual screen behind which to hide the realities of Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinian population.” When I read that, I wonder: “Yes, Billy? And your point?” It…
By Bradley R. Smith ∙ March 9, 2005
I've been thinking (and no – that's not a straight line). The problem with the thinking is that I have been doing it alone. I don't have to do all the thinking here, but after close to three weeks of doing it alone, it has occurred to me that I should do that part of…
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