Tuesday, May 31, 2022

The Slovenian novelist and concentration camp survivor Boris Pahor bore witness to the atrocities of the 20th century until the age of 108.

Holocaust chronicler Boris Pahor dies at 108

The Slovenian novelist and concentration camp survivor Boris Pahor bore witness to the atrocities of the 20th century until the age of 108.

    
0 seconds of 0 secondsVolume 90%
 
Watch video01:26

He knew three enemies: fascism, communist dictatorship and capitalism. Boris Pahor wrote in protest against dictatorship, whether that of money, Mussolini, Hitler or Stalin. In his long life, spanning almost the entire 20th century, the writer and concentration camp survivor had countless opportunities to do so.

Boris Pahor was born on August 26, 1913 in the city of Trieste, which at that time still belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a civil employee in the administration of the cosmopolitan city.

Being a citizen of the world was something that Pahor felt was "a matter of course" even in his old age, as he told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview in 2014.

Aerial view of Trieste, Italy.

Trieste is a cosmopolitan port city in northern Italy with a diverse history

His relatives were members of the Slovenian minority in Trieste, which was annexed by Italy in 1918 after the collapse of the Danubian Monarchy. In 1922, the fascist Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy. Trieste was "Italianized" by the fascists, minorities were suppressed, and Pahor's father had to eke out a living as a street vendor.

In his book "Flowers for a Leper" (2004), Pahor bears witness to the terror of the Italian fascists against the Slovenian minority in Trieste, whose story he devoted himself to once again in "Piazza Oberdan" (2006).

On a death march from Bergen-Belsen

In 1940, the Italian army recruited Boris Pahor and sent him to Libya. There he managed to complete a secondary education degree.

After the collapse of fascist Italy, Pahor returned to Trieste. Beginning in 1943, during World War II, he fought in the resistance against the German occupiers and the Italian fascists allied with them.

In January 1944, he was arrested by the Domobrancen militia, which collaborated with the SS, and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. He survived another four Nazi concentration camps, namely Natzweiler-Struthof, Dora-Mittelbau, Harzungen and Bergen-Belsen, from where he was sent on a death march. With him was the famous French writer Stephane Hessel.

Concentration camp doctor Fritz Klein, who performed experiments on prisoners at Bergen-Belsen, is standing in a large pit of corpses.

In this photo, concentration camp doctor Fritz Klein, who performed experiments on prisoners at Bergen-Belsen, is standing in a large pit of corpses

Pahor recorded his 15-month struggle for survival in the camps in the book "Necropolis" (1967), which secured his place among the great authors of his time, including: Imre KerteszPrimo Levi and Ruth Klüger.

Recalling history

After his release, Pahor traveled to Paris to recover from tuberculosis.

His second most important work, "A Difficult Spring" (1978), is based on his Paris experiences. In it, a Slovenian concentration camp survivor tries to find his way back to life. The affection of a French nurse aids him in this journey. The book centers around how it is possible to live, speak and remember with people who did not experience the camps.

After his time in Paris, Pahor returned to Trieste. His first post-war publications made him popular and famous in Slovenia, which was a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the end of World War II. As a critic of communism, he came into conflict with the Yugoslav authorities on several occasions, and for three years he was banned from entering Slovenia because of his anti-totalitarian statements.

His home remained the cosmopolitan city of Trieste. From 1953 until his early retirement in 1975, he taught literature at a Slovenian high school and wrote many of his most important books.

It was not until the 1990s that he was also translated into German, English and French, and then became known to audiences in the West and advanced to become one of the candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pahor also opposed the 'dictatorship of capital'

Until his old age, Boris Pahor campaigned tirelessly against dictatorships and totalitarianism. He denounced "the forgetting of history" in Europe, especially in Italy, and in the same 2014 interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he accused public authorities in Italy of doing next to nothing to keep alive the memory of the atrocities committed by the fascists. Almost no one knows about the six or seven concentration camps in and around Ljubljana under Italian fascist rule, Pahor said.

In the last years of his life, he was also increasingly concerned about the "dictatorship of capital" that had become apparent in the context of the banking and financial crises of 2007 and 2008 — but also about the passing of eyewitnesses from the 20th century.

"One can conveniently start rewriting history when there is no one left to contradict the authority of an eyewitness," Pahor likewise said to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "I have not forgotten what was done to the human spirit and human bodies in the 20th century."

Speaking on Slovenian television in one of his last public appearances, he also reiterated the importance of remembering: "I wanted to testify and explain what I experienced so that others can learn how and what can happen."

Boris Pahor passed away in Trieste on May 30, 2022, at the remarkable age of 108. He leaves behind a literary oeuvre as comprehensive as it is poetic, which will retain its testimony both in the Slovene language and in translation.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor, who shares his surname with the deceased, paid tribute to him as "the conscience of Slovenia, Europe and the world. A man who demanded for himself the freedom to think differently and demanded the same freedom for others." Italy's President Sergio Mattarella paid tribute to Pahor as a "witness and victim of war atrocities, excessive nationalism and totalitarian ideologies."


Oldest Nazi death camp survivor dies at He knew three enemies: fascism, communist dictatorship and capitalism. Boris Pahor wrote in protest against dictatorship, whether that of money, Mussolini, Hitler or Stalin. In his long life, spanning almost the entire 20th century, the writer and concentration camp survivor had countless opportunities to do so.

Boris Pahor was born on August 26, 1913 in the city of Trieste, which at that time still belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a civil employee in the administration of the cosmopolitan city.

Being a citizen of the world was something that Pahor felt was "a matter of course" even in his old age, as he told the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview in 2014.

Aerial view of Trieste, Italy.

Trieste is a cosmopolitan port city in northern Italy with a diverse history

His relatives were members of the Slovenian minority in Trieste, which was annexed by Italy in 1918 after the collapse of the Danubian Monarchy. In 1922, the fascist Benito Mussolini came to power in Italy. Trieste was "Italianized" by the fascists, minorities were suppressed, and Pahor's father had to eke out a living as a street vendor.

In his book "Flowers for a Leper" (2004), Pahor bears witness to the terror of the Italian fascists against the Slovenian minority in Trieste, whose story he devoted himself to once again in "Piazza Oberdan" (2006).

On a death march from Bergen-Belsen

In 1940, the Italian army recruited Boris Pahor and sent him to Libya. There he managed to complete a secondary education degree.

After the collapse of fascist Italy, Pahor returned to Trieste. Beginning in 1943, during World War II, he fought in the resistance against the German occupiers and the Italian fascists allied with them.

In January 1944, he was arrested by the Domobrancen militia, which collaborated with the SS, and deported to the Dachau concentration camp. He survived another four Nazi concentration camps, namely Natzweiler-Struthof, Dora-Mittelbau, Harzungen and Bergen-Belsen, from where he was sent on a death march. With him was the famous French writer Stephane Hessel.

Concentration camp doctor Fritz Klein, who performed experiments on prisoners at Bergen-Belsen, is standing in a large pit of corpses.

In this photo, concentration camp doctor Fritz Klein, who performed experiments on prisoners at Bergen-Belsen, is standing in a large pit of corpses

Pahor recorded his 15-month struggle for survival in the camps in the book "Necropolis" (1967), which secured his place among the great authors of his time, including: Imre KerteszPrimo Levi and Ruth Klüger.

Recalling history

After his release, Pahor traveled to Paris to recover from tuberculosis.

His second most important work, "A Difficult Spring" (1978), is based on his Paris experiences. In it, a Slovenian concentration camp survivor tries to find his way back to life. The affection of a French nurse aids him in this journey. The book centers around how it is possible to live, speak and remember with people who did not experience the camps.

After his time in Paris, Pahor returned to Trieste. His first post-war publications made him popular and famous in Slovenia, which was a constituent republic of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after the end of World War II. As a critic of communism, he came into conflict with the Yugoslav authorities on several occasions, and for three years he was banned from entering Slovenia because of his anti-totalitarian statements.

His home remained the cosmopolitan city of Trieste. From 1953 until his early retirement in 1975, he taught literature at a Slovenian high school and wrote many of his most important books.

It was not until the 1990s that he was also translated into German, English and French, and then became known to audiences in the West and advanced to become one of the candidates for the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Pahor also opposed the 'dictatorship of capital'

Until his old age, Boris Pahor campaigned tirelessly against dictatorships and totalitarianism. He denounced "the forgetting of history" in Europe, especially in Italy, and in the same 2014 interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he accused public authorities in Italy of doing next to nothing to keep alive the memory of the atrocities committed by the fascists. Almost no one knows about the six or seven concentration camps in and around Ljubljana under Italian fascist rule, Pahor said.

In the last years of his life, he was also increasingly concerned about the "dictatorship of capital" that had become apparent in the context of the banking and financial crises of 2007 and 2008 — but also about the passing of eyewitnesses from the 20th century.

"One can conveniently start rewriting history when there is no one left to contradict the authority of an eyewitness," Pahor likewise said to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "I have not forgotten what was done to the human spirit and human bodies in the 20th century."

Speaking on Slovenian television in one of his last public appearances, he also reiterated the importance of remembering: "I wanted to testify and explain what I experienced so that others can learn how and what can happen."

Boris Pahor passed away in Trieste on May 30, 2022, at the remarkable age of 108. He leaves behind a literary oeuvre as comprehensive as it is poetic, which will retain its testimony both in the Slovene language and in translation.

Slovenian President Borut Pahor, who shares his surname with the deceased, paid tribute to him as "the conscience of Slovenia, Europe and the world. A man who demanded for himself the freedom to think differently and demanded the same freedom for others." Italy's President Sergio Mattarella paid tribute to Pahor as a "witness and victim of war atrocities, excessive nationalism and totalitarian ideologies."

Amateur astrophotographer

Great balls of fire! Amateur astrophotographer captures swirling plasma on the surface of the SUN in amazing high-resolution image shot from his back yard

  • An astrophotographer has captured a high resolution image of the sun  
  • Andrew McCarthy used his telescope to get the 286-megapixel photo
  • Fireballs and solar chromosphere, a layer in the sun's atmosphere, are visible
  • The photographer took the photo from his garden in Florence, Arizona, USA

Monday, May 30, 2022

Globalism is a problem when you don't share similar values.

China: Volkswagen defends Xinjiang operations amid reports of human rights abuses

The German car giant has claimed its presence in Xinjiang has a positive impact despite reports of ongoing human rights abuses. VW is also facing accusations of using slave labor in Brazil under the former dictatorship.

Poor judgement is the hallmark of the woke

Va. middle school librarian justifies pro-prostitution book because many students ‘do sex work’: report

Uvalde shooter and the medias easy knee jerk reporting. The shooter was a bully not bullied. Media disinterest in fact is appalling.

Teen Who Knew Shooter Drops Bomb: 'I Don't See This Covered and I'm Going to Put This Out There"

A student at Uvalde High School in Texas who says he knew Salvador Ramos rejected the prevailing media narrative that the gunman was the victim of bullying, and this was the catalyst for his May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School.

Ivan Arellano, a senior at Uvalde High School, told WFAA-TV in Dallas that Ramos “was not a good person” and had been a bully himself.

“Salvador Ramos was a boy who was not bullied,” Arellano said on Wednesday. “He would try to pick on people but fail, and it would aggravate him.”Ramos was shot to death by a Border Patrol agent after his shooting rampage at Robb Elementary School, which left 19 children and two adults dead.

Shortly before the attack, the 18-year-old gunman shot his grandmother in her home. Celia Martinez Gonzales, 66, was reported to be in stable condition at a San Antonio hospital.

Arellano, who was friends with one of the victims, wanted to set the record straight because he had not seen any media coverage spotlighting Ramos’ cruel personality.“I don’t see this covered and I’m going to put this out there: He would hurt animals. He was not a good person,” he said.

Arellano’s statements belie the initial media coverage of Ramos as a victim who was subjected to gay slurs and bullied over his lisp.So do the observations of 17-year-old Crystal Foutz, who attended school with Ramos and worked with him at the fast-food restaurant Whataburger.

“He always seemed to take his anger out on the most innocent person in the room,” Foutz told KTBC-TV in Austin.

Our understanding of people and events generally morphs as the dust settles after a horrific crime like this shooting and research unearths more about the perpetrator’s backgroundHowever, one thing is already clear: The school system and his own family failed Ramos, who should have been red-flagged over his threatening, anti-social behavior, which included self-mutilation, animal abuse and shooting people with BB guns.

American culture is cratering at a chilling pace, fueled in large part by toxic left-wing policies that marginalize nuclear families, decimate the working class and demonize hard work and meritocracy.

Related:
Photos: Here's One of the Border Patrol Agents Who Stopped Uvalde Shooter -- And the Injuries He Received

Our schools have devolved into mindless incubators of destructive leftist propaganda that lionizes victimhood, socialism, transgenderism and mediocrity.

Is it any wonder that American children lag behind their international peers academically and report increasing depression and hopelessness?

continue

2A


Two men entered a residence in Carbon Hill, Alabama, on Thursday morning and shot and injured the homeowner. But the homeowner was also armed and fatally shot both suspects.

What are the details?

“When I arrived on scene I noticed there were two subjects dead inside the home,” Police Chief Antoine Cobb told WIAT-TV. “They had ski masks on."

The deceased suspects were identified as Clifton Embry and Dewayne Turner Jr., both 47 and both from Talladega County, AL.com reported.

The 27-year-old owner of the home near Fourth Avenue Northeast and Marlin Jordan Road was shot multiple times and remained Friday at UAB Hospital in Birmingham, AL.com said. The victim was recovering after surgery, WIAT added.

Cobb said another person in the home was shaken up by the incident but not hurt, the station added.

Woman who allegedly helped suspects charged with murder

Walker County Sheriff's officials said a woman who helped Embry and Turner plan and carry out the home invasion and robbery has been charged, AL.com reported.

Paula Charlene Painter, 54, of Carbon Hill was charged with two counts of felony murder, one count of attempted murder, and one county of first-degree robbery, officials told the outlet, adding the warrants against her were issued Friday.

'Horrific'

The deadly shooting rattled Councilwoman Cindy Killingsworth, WIAT reported.

Cut off all aid to Iraq. Just another Iran wannabe

Iraq makes it illegal to attempt normalising ties with Israel

BAGHDAD, May 26 (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament approved a law on Thursday that will ban normalizing relations with Israel, at a time when several Arab countries have established formal ties.

The Iraqi parliament has been unable to convene on any other issue including electing a new president and forming its own government, prolonging a political standoff.

Iraq has never recognised the state of Israel since its establishment in 1948 and Iraqi citizens and companies cannot visit Israel, but the new law goes further, specifically criminalising any attempts to normalise relations with Israel.


Sunday, May 29, 2022

A strapping young man perhaps on drugs is a serious challenge


Disturbing footage recently shared on social media shows a person menacing subway riders, kicking a car window and yanking on a woman’s hair as she tried to escape while other straphangers avoid the outburst.  

The roughly two-minute video posted Wednesday on Twitter by Joel Fischer shows a person who appears to be unwell screaming obscenities, before sitting down and grabbing a J Train rider’s hair as she attempts to move away.

“Somebody help me,” the trapped, anguished woman said softly. Meanwhile, fellow commuters either looked on, moved away from or ignored the pair without coming to her assistance.

About 30 seconds later, the emotionally disturbed straphanger shouted, “Get up!” prompting the unlucky woman targeted by the eruption to stand. The frightening rowdy — wearing an ill-fitting white sweatshirt, black pants and grey sneakers — then shoved her away before storming off in the opposite direction.

“Shut the f–k up!” the unruly rider then yelled while pacing up and down the train car.

“This is what I deal with,” the man who recorded the incident said to the camera.

“NYC, demons, you understand?” he added, before providing unintelligible commentary on the situation.

The video went on to show the unstable person continuing to yell, standing on the subway car seat while repeatedly kicking the window as the train approaches the Delancey Street/Essex Street station.

Person who assaulted woman on train
The unidentified person was not reported to police. 
Twitter/@realJoelFischer
Unknown person on subway seats.
An unknown straphanger recorded the incident. 
Twitter/@realJoelFischer

It’s unclear when the viral video was taken and who recorded the footage. A tweet sharing the video received more than 14,000 retweets and 24,000 likes as of Sunday morning.

An NYPD rep told The Post Sunday that the department was not aware of the incident.

 “There are no reports on file regarding the video,” said a spokesperson.

Commenters on the troubling video lamented that straphangers did not aid the woman who appeared to be randomly targeted by the mentally unwell subway rider. 

Unwell subway passenger walking down aisle.
The unwell passenger eventually got off the train. 
Twitter/@realJoelFischer
Unwell person holding woman's hair.
Police have yet to identify the two people involved in the incident. 
Twitter/@realJoelFischer

“I trust that if I was there, I would [have] done something,” tweeted Kenneth Adams. “I’ve lived in NYC my whole life, what the f–k is going on, real talk?!? NYC!!! We gotta be better!!!

“You mean to tell me several of yall guys couldn’t come together to help that lady????” replied another Twitter user.

“No one helped ? But this person that films just prayed to a god ? How’s that gonna work,” fumed another commenter. “Why is no one stepping in[?]”