Scribal Terror

China's Schindler: Feng Shan Ho

 

Ho was named Consul General of the Chinese consulate in Vienna in 1938, the year when Austria was annexed into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime (Anschluss). After Kristallnacht (Nazi-coordinated attacks on the Jews) later in the year, the situation became increasing difficult for Austrian Jews who were required to show proof of emigration, normally a visa, in order to leave the country. Out of humanitarian concern and in direct violation of the orders of his superior, Ho freely granted visas to Shanghai and continued to do so until 1940 when he was relieved of his duty. Undeniably, thousands of Jewish individuals and families were able to leave for Shanghai, from where a majority would soon after leave for Australia and Hongkong. Ho was posthumously recognized with the title "Righteous among the Nations" in 2001 and came to be known as the "China's Schindler." -- Heroes of the Holocaust

My favorite demonstration sport

Too bad I wasn't around for the 1912 Olympics. Of course, I'd be dead by now, but it would have been worth it just to see how this was done. (Via Manolo's Food Blog)

Imre Nagy remembered

 

The BBC reports:

An audio recording of the 1958 secret trial of Hungary's executed prime minister Imre Nagy is being played in public for the first time.

It marks the 50th anniversary of Mr Nagy's trial for treason for his role in the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising. . . .

Mr Nagy was prime minister during the Hungarian revolution, which was crushed by Soviet tanks after only 12 days.

The Communist authorities then put Mr Nagy and his associates on trial in the Hungarian capital Budapest.

It started on 9 June 1958 and lasted for a week. Mr Nagy, 62, was sentenced to death by hanging on 16 June 1958. . . .

The BBC's Nick Thorpe in Budapest said the 1956 revolution against Soviet domination is held in the highest regard by most Hungarians.

He added that even though the revolution was defeated, it dealt a blow to Soviet Communism from which many historians say it never recovered. -- Via Cronaca

As David Pryce-Jones wrote on the fiftieth anniversary of the revolution:

Reflecting long after the event, Peter Kende, a prominent Hungarian journalist, considered that 1956 had been "the Waterloo of leftist thought." Hannah Arendt, an archetypal intellectual of the Left, thought that this revolution "illuminated the immense landscape of post-war totalitarianism." In shock at Soviet reality, the British Communist Party shriveled. In Italy, even as faithful a Stalinist as Palmiro Togliatti expressed doubt and dismay. Jean-Paul Sartre, probably the world's foremost Soviet apologist, wrote that the Soviets had won nothing and lost everything, merely "kindling hatred in people's hearts." In the Soviet Union itself, the courageous Andrei Amalrik spoke for fellow dissidents when he stated that "1956 was a turning-point in the history of the Communist bloc." So it was. Large numbers of people had proved ready to sacrifice themselves in order to be free.

High-watt bulbs

Recognize any of these folks? They're probably responsible for your Weltanschauung. How many of them do you know -- besides Einstein? (Click to enlarge so you can read the names.) From Ginasio Mental. Thanks, Peter.

Anne Frank card found

A card sent by Anne Frank in 1937 has been found in an antique store in Amsterdam. The caption translates as "Much Luck in the New Year." From the Anne Frank Foundation via Cronaca

Going ballistic in 1905

Curious Expeditions reports:

If you were walking along the shore of the east river on March 27th 1905, you would have seen an entirely singular spectacle. A geyser some forty feet tall shot from the east river, and atop that geyser, like a cowboy on a bucking bull, rode Dick Creedon.

Creedon was a sandhog or "caisson man," one of the workers who dug the Manhattan subway system. They worked in "compressed air far below the surface of land or water," and sometimes their work environments sprung a leak. Here's an excerpt from the New York Times account of Creedon's adventure, March 28, 1905:

. . .  occasionally the air would find a weak point in the soil. It would open a hole in the tunnel ceiling and suck dirt and muck up to the surface of the water in an upside down tornado. The standard operating procedure (which seems remarkably nonchalant) was to jam a sandbag in the hole and hope that the pressure would re-stabilize and the hole naturally close.

Creedon was jamming a bag against the upper rim of the shield when the air in the chamber overcame the pressure of the silt and water, and he was shot through the hole bored by the air through sand and river water, and found himself at the end of his marvelous trip struggling to keep from drowning in the slip a feet from the floating Bethel.

Long, detail-packed article. Read the whole thing and be glad you work in an office!

Cincinnati flood of 1945

"Powers Street"

Interested in beer? Here's what your Felsenbrau would have looked like when you ordered one at the No-Name Restaurant.

South Cumminsville 1945

Six years before I was born. This is the neighborhood I spent my early childhood in. We left when I was nine, but I still remember walking up Herron Avenue -- we lived at 3836 -- to Powers Street and across that bridge in the second photo every day on the way to school. I imagine my dad took these pictures from our third story window, so you can't see my house. We lived on the banks of the Mill Creek. In summer it stank like an open sewer, which is one of the reasons we moved. My parents and grandparents lobbied the city government constantly to have it cleaned up, but I thought it just smelled like home.

I also thought that the name of the creek was the Milk Rick. I believed that a "rick" was a type of stream. It was a land flowing with milk and sewage.

Wait, I've found it. Here's my house. Unfortunately, by the time I came along the clapboards had been replaced with asphalt siding, the salt-and-pepper kind Do you remember asphalt siding? It was a "shotgun" house -- one room wide, three rooms long, three stories high. My mother's parents lived on the first floor, we lived on the second, and my father's mother lived on the third.

Cincinnati Gas & Electric 1945

I wonder if this is the front side of the same building (photo taken by Derek Jensen in 2005, Wikipedia). The grille-work over the door looks the same.

Running water at the New Deal Cafe

This is one of my favorite photos from the Cincinnati flood of 1945. It was probably taken by my father. Click to enlarge and check out the old signs!