Judgment Day

Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls

As a companion to the last post (Isherwood on Berlin), this one from Hemingway completes the thought, as I land in Germany (Berlin) on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau by the Soviet army (before they became fascists themselves).

Back to Berlin

Berlin was in a state of civil war. Hate exploded suddenly, without warning, out of nowhere; at street corners, in restaurants, cinemas, dance halls, swimming-baths; at midnight, after breakfast, in the middle of the afternoon.

Christopher Isherwood, The Berlin Stories

published 1945

British writer Christopher Isherwood lived in Berlin from 1929 to 1933, a very volatile and dynamic era, as depicted in ‘Cabaret’ which is based on his writing (the novels ‘Mr Norris Changes Trains’ and ‘Goodbye to Berlin’). Reading about the hate on the streets is very sobering as we see what’s going on right now in Minneapolis. We know what happened next in Berlin and Germany. It is beyond belief to see similar in the USA.

Christopher Isherwood (R) and Don Bachardy
painted in 1968 by David Hockney in the USA (California)