Listen to New Voices on Studs Terkel our partnership with 826CHI-here! Read the Story
Showing 1 - 7 of 7 results
Werner Burkhardt, German music journalist, critic, and translator, discusses his life and work with Studs. Mr Burkhardt speaks about his life during the time of Adolph Hitler, the Hitler Youth, and World War II. They end the interview talking about Jazz in Munich, a recording of "My Man" by Billie Holiday closes the interview.
Friedrich Luft, Chief Drama Critic for Die Welt discusses German theater and Bertolt Brecht as well as new playwrights such as Peter Weiss. Unlike American theaters, Germany has over 200 theaters that are subsidized and each town of 50,000 has a theater. Just like the days of The People's Stage (which still exists) the grocer and cobbler of Germany enjoy the theater. They are as devoted to the theater as going to a museum or church. They are treated to 12 to 16 new or old plays from Sophocles to Sartre or Pinter.
Erich Lüth's discussion with Studs Terkel is similar to part 3 but Luth offers a more in-depth conversation on the role of teachers in schools and how the time of Hitler is taught. There were those teachers that joined the party to continue their love of teaching and those teachers that were brought into the Nazi Party to follow their convictions. This lack of courage to resist influences pupils today because teachers are not saying they were cowards. The relationship is altered out of shame, and embarrassment.
Studs interview with Hildegard Knef, actress and writer. They discuss her life in Nazi Germany during the war and her experience as an actress when she came to America. Studs and Hildegard read together from her book, "The Gift Horse." Knef describes her family, Nazi Germany, survival, and her experience as a German in American post WWII. Her husband, David Anthony Palastanga, also reads an excerpt from her book.
One's conscience, morals and religion are all apart of Gordon Zahn's book, "In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter". Zahn talks about who Jagerstatter was and what made him decide to say "No" to Hitler's army. Jagerstatter chose to lay with the community of saints rather than kill Jewish people.
Gordon Zahn continues to talk about his book, "In Solitary Witness: The Life and Death of Franz Jagerstatter". When doing his research for the book, it puzzled Zahn to find out that very few young people in Jaggerstatt's home village knew who Franz Jaggerstatt was. Zahn explained Jaggerstatt knew he was doing the right thing by objecting to Hitler's army because a Catholic priest had done the same thing.
Studs interview with Dieter Lattman, German author and journalist. They discuss the powerful influence that German intellectuals have over the general public and how this led to the silent acceptance and ignorance of concentration camps and euphemism in Germany pre WWII. Littman praises William Shirer's book, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" but warns that he did not know about the average German family. Littman shares some of his memories as a German youth living during the Nazi reign. Interview takes place in Germany.