Dec. 28

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Dec. 28, 1922: Stan Lee born.

Top Ten Posts of 2018: Number 5!

On with our countdown of the top 10 most-viewed posts of the year...here's a Q&A with Terence Winch about his poetry collection The Known Universe, first posted on April 27.

Terence Winch is the author of the new poetry collection The Known Universe. His other books include This Way Out and Falling Out of Bed in a Room with No Floor, and his work has appeared in a variety of publications, including The Paris Review and The New Republic. He is a founding member of the Irish band Celtic Thunder. 

Q: Over how long a period did you write the poems in your new collection, and do you see a common thread running through them?

A: Most of the poems were written between the publication of my last book in 2014 and this new book. But I did uncover a few old poems I'd forgotten about ("Saint Patrick's Day 1980" e.g.) and decided to include them as well.

I think it would be easier for someone else to see a common thread in these poems than for me. Sex and death are always primal ingredients in poetry, and my work is no exception. Mortality is increasingly difficult to evade and deny, and I think that reality comes through quite clearly in a lot of these poems. But mortality is also good for a laugh.

Q: How did you decide on the order in which the poems would appear?

A: That for me has always been an intuitive process, depending on my own feel for the flow of the work. 

Q: As a musician and writer, how do you see the two coexisting for you in your work? 

A: The most conspicuous intersection comes through my use of my music life as subject matter for some of my poems ("Dead Stop," e.g.). But I also think that the sense of rhythm and structure in my writing is affected by my being a musician and composer.

Q: Who are some of your favorite poets? 

A: As a student, I fell under the spell of Chaucer and Shakespeare, like multitudes before me. I also loved the Romantics, especially Coleridge. As a young poet, I found it hard to resist the New York School, especially Ashbery and O'Hara. From the so-called 2nd Generation NY School poets, Ted Berrigan's work had a real impact on me.

My best friend, Michael Lally, has been one of my favorite people and poets since we met in 1971. Doug Lang, another close friend, is an extraordinary poet whose work is not as well known as it should be.

Lately, I've been reading a lot of women writers---books by Amy Gerstler, Patricia Lockwood, Lucie Brock-Broido (who recently passed away), and two young Irish poets, Elaine Feeney and Sarah Clancy, are all right now piled on my desk. 

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: I’ve been writing poems pretty steadily since late last year, and I hope that continues.  I blog occasionally for the Best American Poetry site. I think about writing some new songs, but nothing has gotten off the ground.

Q: Anything else we should know? 

A: I'm very fortunate to be married to Susan Campbell, who is an amazing painter and designer. If you ever visit us, you will see, in our living room, the real-life version of the couch and piano on the cover of The Known Universe. 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb

Dec. 27

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Dec. 27, 1969: Sarah Vowell born.

Top Ten Posts of 2018: Number 6!

Continuing our countdown of the top ten most-viewed posts of 2018, here's #6, a Q&A with Dina Gold about her book Stolen Legacy, first posted on Feb. 22.

Dina Gold is the author of Stolen Legacy: Nazi Theft and the Quest for Justice at Krausenstrasse 17/18, Berlin. She is a senior editor at Moment magazine, and worked as a reporter and producer for the BBC. Born in London, she now lives in Washington, D.C. 

Q: You write that as a child you would hear stories from your grandmother about the building in Berlin your family had owned. What ultimately made you decide to search for that building?

 A: I really loved my grandmother Nellie Wolff. She would weave wonderful stories of her life in Berlin that were very tantalizing to a young girl. Nellie’s daughter, my mother, had also enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle up to the age of 11, when Hitler came to power and the family fled.

My mother always discounted Nellie’s stories. She said Nellie was a fantasist, her claims that the family had once owned a huge building were probably unfounded and that we should look to the future, not the past. I had a very different attitude. Yes, Nellie might have been mistaken but … it was also possible that perhaps she wasn’t. I absolutely had to find out!

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, my parents were totally set against my starting a restitution claim. Nellie had died 12 years earlier, leaving no documents or photographs relating to the building, not even its address.

My father would say, “You can't fight the German government, forget it.” The only person who supported me was my husband, Simon. 

Q: How did you feel when you started doing some research and realized your grandmother’s stories could be true? 

A: It was exciting and gratifying that my hunch seemed to be right.  As I started to uncover more and more evidence it started to look as if Nellie had not been telling fairy stories. I determined that I couldn’t give up!

I found the building in what had been the Soviet sector, just behind the Berlin Wall, two blocks from Checkpoint Charlie.

It might sound like an exaggeration to say that I was driven by “the burden of history…” but actually it is not.

Professor Walter Reich, former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, wrote in a testimonial for my book: “The Holocaust - the project of exterminating Europe's Jews - was an immense act of murder. But it was also an immense act of theft. The murder was, of course, the incomparably greater crime. The dead could never be brought back to life.”

He is, of course, absolutely right. 

Stolen Legacy is not directly about the genocide - which was unparalleled, unforgettable and totally unforgivable.  In a similar vein to that of the movie Woman in Gold, about the fight to reclaim a Klimt painting, Stolen Legacy is about the fight for restitution of a huge building in central Berlin. 

Q: How long did your effort take to obtain restitution? 

A: The case was concluded in January 1996. In round terms it took just over five years. 

Q: What are some of the things that surprised you as you learned more about your family? 

A: During my investigation to find enough evidence to present a legal claim, I discovered just how successful the international H. Wolff fur company had been.

The family had tried desperately hard to hold onto the building, which had been the company headquarters. The paperwork I found revealed exactly what had happened, the process of the forced sale to the Reichsbahn (German railways), how the property had been used during the war and what the Communists did with the building when it was inside the territory of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

I visited the New York Public Library and discovered some old editions of a publication called “Fur Trade Review.” I looked at three years’ worth – from 1908-1910. This magazine is no longer published, but these issues offer a vivid portrayal of the once vibrant fur trade that flourished across North America in the early part of the last century. European dealers would visit the United States and establish business links here.

To my amazement I found many H. Wolff advertisements and photos of the company’s latest designs …not only coats but also stoles, muffs, hats and assorted accessories – all made from fur. It was yet further evidence of what a prestigious fashion house it had been.

The librarians at the New York Public Library were perfectly happy for me to take photos. 

Q: In addition to the historical aspects of the story, this is a very personal book. How did you balance your roles as journalist and family member as you worked on the book?

A: It’s interesting you ask that because a colleague who read the draft said to me, “I would have written the story with much more emotion.” But I am not like that. Being gushing and sentimental is not my style. I’m trained as a journalist and to a large extent I have to put my feelings to one side.

I was haunted by the terrible discoveries I made while doing research into the fates of some of the people I wrote about. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the International Tracing Service (ITS), as well as many other archives I consulted, have a wealth of material for historians.

The Wolff family was comparatively fortunate. Not everyone in the family survived, but my grandparents, my mother and her two siblings did. I never forget that the theft of a building cannot be compared with losing family, friends and indeed entire communities.

Q: At what point did you decide to write a book about your family’s experiences? 

A: I kept talking about it all through the claim. But I had a full-time job at the BBC, and three young children. Simon was working for the Financial Times and traveling extensively. I was too busy, and I just couldn’t do it.

What prompted me was that, in 2008, I left the BBC and came to the USA on a green card because my husband had been offered a job in Washington, D.C.

I brought all the case papers over. Simon said, “The children need to know their family history, so sit down and write,” and that is what I did. A friend who is a literary agent kept asking me to show her my draft. She really liked the story. And that is how the American Bar Association came to publish Stolen Legacy. 

Q: You've published an updated version of your book. What new material did you research and report for the paperback? 

In the course of my research, I delved into the background of the Victoria Insurance company – and its Nazi-era chairman, Dr. Kurt Hamann – which had foreclosed on the Wolff family building in 1937 and handed it straight to the Reichsbahn.

I discovered that the Victoria Insurance, under Hamann’s leadership, was part of a consortium insuring SS slave labor workshops at Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Stutthof concentration camps. I managed to obtain the actual policy documents.

I also found out a lot more about Dr. Hamann’s career, his wartime role and how he was feted in the post war era.

I already knew that the University of Mannheim, a very prestigious German university, has a stiftung (foundation) named after Dr. Hamann! 

Q: What has the impact of this new material been so far? 

I asked Professor Dr. Ernst-Ludwig von Thadden, President of Mannheim University, if he considers Dr. Hamann a suitable person to be honored in such a manner. I have been in correspondence with him for the past two and a half years about what should be done.

The latest news is that a year ago, Prof. von Thadden told me that he had commissioned a renowned German historian, Prof. Johannes Baehr, to conduct an in-depth study into the life of Dr. Hamann. That report was initially due to be delivered by end August 2017.

Prof. Baehr apparently found “more than anticipated” and suggested he would be in a position to “produce a first report before Christmas.” A decision would then be taken about the future of the Dr. Kurt-Hamann Foundation.

However, I have very recently been contacted once more by Prof. von Thadden who tells me that the report by Prof. Baehr will take more time due to “unexpected difficulties in the access to new material and the extent of the new material itself.”  

Apparently, the latest date being proposed for submission by Prof. Baehr is end March. Prof. von Thadden says he accepts that a further delay is necessary because this is an important matter and “diligence takes precedence over speed.” 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

A: When you last interviewed me, I told you how I had been trying to get a plaque placed on the building, explaining it was forcibly taken by the Nazis from its Jewish owners. In December 2013, on behalf of then Transport Minister Dr. Peter Ramsauer, an official e-mailed me: “I’ll arrange for the plaque to be produced and affixed to the office building.”  But nothing happened.

In Spring 2016 the BBC, my former employer, asked me to fly to Berlin to make a short film about the story for broadcast across the UK on International Holocaust Remembrance Day the following January 27.

 I flew to Berlin in May 2016 and was met at the building by officials only too eager to help! The knowledge that a BBC film crew was coming had seemingly galvanized them into action! And that’s how, in July 2016, I managed to have a plaque put at the entrance to the building. 

I have spoken in cities across the USA about the story of Stolen Legacy and everywhere I go I meet audience members who long to reclaim their own families’ stolen property all over Europe. It is a tragedy, and a scandal, that more than 70 years after the end of the war, thousands of people are still waiting for some measure of restitution.  Next month I am off to speak at a conference in Munich.

And finally … in the not too distant future there is going to be a Chinese language edition of Stolen Legacy published by the Sichuan People's Publishing House. I look forward to showing you a copy!

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Dina Gold and I are cousins.

Dec. 26

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Dec. 26, 1956: David Sedaris born.

Top Ten Posts of 2018: Number 7!

Continuing our countdown of 2018's most-read posts, here's #7, a Q&A with Karin Esterhammer about her book So Happiness To Meet You, originally posted on Jan. 14.

Karin Esterhammer is the author of the new book So Happiness To Meet You: Foolishly, Blissfully Stranded in Vietnam, which focuses on her family's experiences living in Vietnam. She worked for the Los Angeles Times for 15 years, and currently resides in Los Angeles. 

Q: Did you know when you first arrived in Vietnam that you'd be writing a book about your experiences? 

A: I didn’t. I started writing emails to my friends and relatives. I was so excited about what I was experiencing, I wrote emails nearly every day. A few months later, more than one person said I need to write a book. Books are much harder to write than emails, so whoever recommended I do this…well, thanks. 

Q: What do you think are some of the most common perceptions and misperceptions about Vietnam in the United States? 

A: That the Vietnamese still hate us is a misconception. That’s definitely not the case. We were treated like family the whole 2½ years we were there. People might also think the country is still third-world. No entirely. Its GDP is consistently 6.5 percent. They are catching up with the world of technology, business and tourism. 

Q: Of all the experiences you had during your time in Vietnam, were there a couple that especially stood out? 

A: Simply watching people. The streets are amazing. So much activity, noise, smells—life going on. But my favorite experience was going to an orphanage twice a week to help hold and feed (and change diapers) the babies. It was pure heaven. They desperately needed the human touch and I wished I had more arms. At least I could share some love and kiss their little chubby cheeks. 

Q: How did your experience in Vietnam change you and your family? 

A: We lived in a fairly poor neighborhood. The people were so happy despite having very little. They were generous beyond measure, taught me how to get along with less, appreciate more, and pay more attention to family. I really came back changed. 

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: Mostly marketing my book. It takes as much time as the writing of it. But I also look forward to writing a book about our son, who is autistic. Vietnam really helped him come out of his shell, as well. 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

A: The title of the book, “So Happiness to Meet You,” came from a neighbor who said that. I thought it was so adorable and it makes a catchy title.

Top Ten Posts of 2018: Number 8!

We're getting toward the end of 2018, so I decided to do a countdown of the top 10 posts of the year. Today we have #8, a Q&A with Martha Freeman about Zap, her new novel for kids. This interview was originally posted on January 4.

Martha Freeman is the author of Zap, a new novel for kids. Her many other books include Effie Starr Zook Has One More Question and the Secret Cookie Club series. She lives in Philadelphia. 

Q: How did you come up with the idea for Zap? 

A: My engineer friend Anthony mentioned a friend of his who was fascinated with the power grid. This made me realize how little I knew about the subject myself. There happened to be a new book about the grid by Ted Koppel, so I read that – and was alarmed by the dangerous scenarios he described. I wanted to know more, and writing a book is a good excuse to do research. 

Q: You based your character Luis on a real-life person. What made you decide he would make a good fictional character? 

A: As with all my books, there was more than one inspiration. For Zap, my friend Luis’s life story was another. Luis’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua. They worked very hard when they came to New Jersey, and young Luis – born in the USA -- was left to his own devices at times.

He grew up in a tough town and had some harrowing experiences, stuff I had a hard time even imagining. He told me once it was a toss-up as to whether he’d end up on the streets or go to college and make something of himself.

Spoiler alert: He went to college.

Luis also told me he wished he’d had more role models in books when he was a kid. In a way, Zap is a book for the kid Luis (now 29) used to be.

As a novelist, I write about all kinds of people who aren’t me. I’ve even written from the point of view of a dog and a mouse. In every case, I use my imagination to get into the heads of my characters – and I do research as well. Because Luis is a real person with his own life story, I was extra scrupulous and asked him a whole lot of questions.

The book includes a letter from the real Luis and pictures of him in the appendix. 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from this story? 

A: My top priority is always that kids read the book from beginning to end and find living in someone else’s head compelling.

With Zap, I also hope they learn something about the science and engineering that underlies technology we all take for granted. After the effects of hurricanes on the electric grids of Puerto Rico and Texas this year, the story seems especially relevant.

Finally, I’m a big fan of a book called All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren, which is a fictionalized account of a 20th century politician named Huey Long. Young readers won’t know that reference, but I hope maybe Zap will make them think a little more about how government works, and about our responsibilities as citizens. 

Q: What kind of research did you need to do to write this? 

A: Oh my gosh – so much! I read extensively on the power grid and electricity in general. Ask me anything about Michael Faraday. I also needed to get up to speed (as best I could) on hacking, so I read a book and several articles about the Stuxnet worm and how it was used to take down an Iranian manufacturing operation.

The book takes place in a town similar to Camden, New Jersey, where the real Luis grew up. So I drove around Camden and researched its history, too.

As always, I leaned on my friends (like Anthony and Luis) to answer questions.

Because there is a big nonfiction component to the book, there’s a lot of information at the end – questions and answers, a glossary, a bibliography. I hope kids and teachers will take advantage of it. I enjoyed writing that part, too. 

Q: What are you working on now? 

A: Look for If You’re Going to a March, my nonfiction how-to picturebook about kids at political protests, coming from Sterling in the fall. It’s a lot of fun to see the illustrations (by Violet Kim) bring the book to life.

Do you know the tag line from Monty Python? “And now for something completely different….” Sometimes my work feels like that. I am revising a re-telling of The Three Bears in which Goldilocks’ stay is much extended, and Baby Bear feels resentful. It’s hilarious. At least, my editor and I think it is.

Also, I just finished the manuscript for what will be my first nonfiction book for young readers. I call it Curious Kids – 20 Stories of Girls Who Grew Up to Be Celebrated Scientists, but the publisher isn’t so sure about the title. It will be illustrated, so it’s not due till spring 2020. 

Q: Anything else we should know? 

A: I know both Anthony and Luis because we run together. Or, more accurately, I run along behind them. I am slow but tenacious, and running has been very important to me over the years. In fact, running and writing are similar – one foot in front of the other, one word and then the next. With either one, you sometimes have to slog it out.

Also, Luis now volunteers as a coach with Students Run, a program in Camden, New Jersey, where he grew up. That’s his team in the photo. He’s in the middle in the back.