MISSION STATEMENT ... To celebrate where it's deserved! ... To take the Michael out of institutions and individuals where it's deserved! ...
Recently I had occasion to prepare my gravestone epitaph:
GENE...
Educator, Novelist,
Humanitarian and Humorist
- TO KNOW HIM WAS TO LOVE HIM -
Rest in Peace
....... But while I am still walking the earth do not hesitate to contact me at:
bobbyslingshot8@gmail.com
Monday 15 April 2024
Heroic WWII film is almost unbelievable, but it’s true!
A World War II heroine finally gets her due attention with a new feature film, 'Irena’s Vow.' This never-before-told story sounds wild but is based on fact.
It seems that every day we hear about a new book, movie, or TV series about World War II. What is it about that time period that so captures our interest?
Many of us living today had ancestors who fought in it, and it took place recently enough that it’s still well-remembered and heavily documented.
But it’s more than mere proximity. The demarcation of good and evil feels so stark in World War II: Few wars had such a horrific evil hidden on one side. When the stakes are so high, no wonder storytellers return to this theme again and again.
And World War II changed history: It feels personal, as we are still living out the consequences that affected us all.
Whatever the reason, there is a seemingly endless demand for World War II stories, and we are quick to listen whenever a new one comes to light.
A powerful untold story
One previously untold story of World War II will finally get its due attention with a new feature film, Irena’s Vow. It is the incredible true story of a Polish Catholic nurse who risked her life to help hide Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during WWII.
Irena’s story is so wild that it would hardly seem believable if it hadn’t actually happened.
Courtesy of Irena’s Vow
Irena Gut was just 19 when she was promoted to housekeeper in the home of a highly respected Nazi officer, and found out that the Jewish ghetto was about to be liquidated.
Determined to help Jewish workers, she decided to shelter them in the safest place she could think of, which just happened to be the basement of the German major’s house!
Over the next two years, Irena used her wit, humor, and courage to hide her friends until the end of the German occupation, concealing them amid countless Nazi gatherings, a blackmail scheme, and even keeping secret the birth of a child.
You
The power of faith
The best part is that it’s not some concocted Hollywood drama but a true story.
Dan Gordon, screenwriter for Irena’s Vow, shared with Aleteia some of what led him to this amazing and unusual narrative:
Irena drew me to her story. Her story was neither something I read nor something I was told about. One evening I heard Irena speaking on a radio show [and] she had such a sense of pure faith… She was, after all, only 20 years old when it fell into her hands to save 12 Jews by hiding them in the basement of a German major without his knowledge. The idea was so outlandishly stupid that no one without perfect faith could have undertaken it.
Courtesy of Irena’s Vow
That faith became clearest when one of the married Jewish women became pregnant. They had discovered a hiding place under the gazebo and because there were three married couples they created a space called ” The Honeymoon Suite.” Even in hiding, life went on. Love went on. Intimacy between married couples went on. When the woman became pregnant the Jews collectively decided it would be too dangerous to bring a baby into the world they now inhabited. The major would be sure to hear the baby cry and that would mean death for all of them.
They asked Irena, who had been a student nurse, to go to the pharmacy to get what was needed for an abortion. Irene had seen a baby ripped out his mother’s arms and killed before the mother was killed as well. That is when she made her vow to God that if it ever came into her hands to save a life, she would. She didn’t so much oppose the abortion on religious grounds, though she was a devout Catholic. Her reasoning was somehow more innocent. Hitler was not going to get another Jewish baby.
She was utterly and completely convinced that God would let no harm befall them because of this baby. Ultimately she convinced not only the mother, but also the Jews hiding in the basement to have that same faith. They did. When we did the play of Irena’s Vow, on opening night on Broadway, to thunderous applause, the man who began his life as that baby conceived in the hiding place, walked out onto stage. So, oddly, what drew me to Irene’s story had almost nothing to do with the Holocaust and everything to do with faith, nothing to do with death and everything to do with life.
The lasting consequences of Irena’s courage
Bringing home the incredible consequences of Irena’s courage, each screening will be accompanied by exclusive video footage featuring Jeannie Smith, Irena’s real-life daughter, and Roman Haller, the baby who was conceived and born in captivity.
Lila Rose reacted to a powerful scene in the film when Irena chose to protect the unborn baby’s life, against terrible odds:
Among all the World War II stories coming out this year, Irena’s Vow is the one to make sure to watch. Irena’s heroic faith and courage under unimaginable pressure is a story with great hope for our time.
When did you become aware of the existence of the Paedophile Information Exchange? Were you aware that the Paedophile Information Exchange was affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties? If you were aware of the existence of the Paedophile Information Exchange and aware that the Paedophile Information Exchange was affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties what steps did you take to disassociate the Left from endorsing the PIE? GENE
[A] These are not "vital" questions for me, Gene. They are, rather, a desperate attempt to salvage from the wreck of your defeated attempts to smear me as a supporter of the Paedophile Information Exchange, of paedophilia and or paedophiles.
[B] I cannot remember when I became aware of the Paedophile Information Exchange, but it was probably at the same time as most newspaper readers did in the mid 1970s - around 1976.
[C] I honestly cannot remember if I knew that the PIE was affiliated to the NCCL until the controversy over this affiliation made headlines, so this was probably in about 1978.
[D] I took no steps whatsoever to dissociate "the Left" from endorsing the Paedophile Information Exchange, for the simple reason that "the Left" does not exist. Neither the Parliamentary Labour Party nor the Labour Party itself ever associated itself with the Paedophile Information Exchange, so no steps needed to be taken to sever a connection that had never existed.
Gene, do stop making a complete tit of yourself, there's a good lad. Your humiliating trouncing over Ratzinger, his failure to unfrock Stephen Keisle in 1985 "for the good of the Catholic Church", and his thereby enabling Keisle's subsequent freedom to rape small girls and bugger small boys at St Joseph's Church, Pinole, California for a further three years must have done a great deal of damage to even your ironclad self-esteem.
But this fatuous attempt at smearing me suggests encroaching derangement on your part, not least because I have already disposed of your previous attempts to do so, and because you yourself have said, on April 13th at 1241 BST:
"No one believes you support paedophilia."
If you said that then, why pursue this preposterous attempt to smear me now? How much have you had to drink today?
And just in case you have forgotten, in your drunken stupor, just how completely I refuted your ridiculous smears, have another look at this.
"You repeatedly tried to smear me, because I am left wing, as an apologist for paedophilia and a supporter of the Paedophile Information Exchange. I repudiated these smears and disproved their validity. I challenged you nine times to answer three simple questions as to my stance on paedophilia and you evaded answering them. Because you are too cowardly to put your money where your mouth is. You claimed that my “failure to condemn the NCCL motion on paedophile” “spoke volumes” - but challenged to spell out what this “failure” actually said, you were too gutless to answer. And finally you were forced to admit that I do not support paedophilia, in effect disowning the vile smears you had been trying and failing to make stick for three days. Even then then you tried to weasel out of your responsibility for those atrocious slurs by claiming that you were “giving me a taste of my own medicine”. Nonsense: you were trying to push the evidence of your defeat over Ratzinger and Stephen Kiesle off the front page.
And anent Ratzinger, it is time that you stopped telling the ridiculous lie that Dawkins et al had threatened to have Ratzinger arrested - a lie that Mr Dawkins eventually forced the Murdoch press to retract - look it up. Dawkins et al claimed that Ratzinger’s complaisance and failure to act over paedophile priests meant that he had a case to answer in the civil courts. The truth of this has been demonstrated several times using Ratzinger’s failures to deal condignly with paedophile priests, as Archbishop of Munich, head of the Congregation of the Faith and as Pope. The enthusiastic reception accorded to Ratzinger by the Catholic faithful cannot and does not mitigate these criminal failures on his part.
And you claim “victory”? if this is victory, what would defeat look like?"
Had Ratzinger unfrocked Kiesle in 1985, the abuse of children at St Joseph's would not have continued for a further three years. That is a FACT, no matter how often you try to deny it.
Ratzinger's apology in full reads as follows [my footnotes}:
“I can only express to all the victims [1] of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness. I have had great responsibilities [2] in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses [3] and the errors [4] hat occurred in those different places [5] during the time of my mandate."[6]
1 ALL THE VICTIMS, Gene: victimS, plural: you can tell this by the S on the end of the word. All the victims of sexual abuse that occurred during Ratzingers time as Archbishop of Munich [1977- 1982] and later head of the Congregation of the Faith and Pope - that is, 1985 - 2013. The phrase "ALL THE VICTIMS therefore must include the victims of Stephen Kiesle between the years 1985-1988, when Ratzinger failed to unfrock Kiesle. [2] I HAVE HAD GREAT RESPONSIBILITES [see 1 above]: and one of those was to detect, root out and expel priests and others in the Catholic Church whose favourite hobby was buggering small boys and raping little girls. These GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES obviously include those children abused by Stephen Kiesle after Ratzinger failed to unfrock him in 1985. [3] THE ABUSES - these must include the abuses committed by Stephen Kiesle after Ratzinger failed to unfrock him [unless you can prove differently, Gene?]. [4] THE ERRORS - these must include Ratzinger's failure to unfrock Kiesle in 1985 and probably his failure to alert Fr Thomas Ryan that he was allowing a convicted paedophile rapist to minister to the young people in his church. [5] THOSE DIFFERENT PLACES - except, of course at St Joseph's Church, Penole, CA, where Stephen Kiesle, still a priest, continued to abuse children during the years 1985-1988 - Ratzinger made it clear that his apology did not include this, didn't he, Gene, and you can prove that, can't you? What's that? oh, you can't? Dear me, and YOU call ME a lying tosser... [5] DURING MY MANDATE: that is, during the years 1985 - 2013.
It is clear to anyone whose mind has a greater ratiocinatory capacity than a pair of skid-marked underpants that Ratzinger was apologising for all the sexual abuse committed on his watch 1985-2013 by priests whom he failed either properly to oversee, accurately to diagnose and condignly to punish, as well as arranging for their being unable to access children and young people ever again.
"I can only express to ALL the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness." It's that word ALL that gives it away, Gene: I'm sorry if it's confusing. Stuff your pissy little opinions up your arse. I will not apologise for telling the truth, and I will go on telling it until you acknowledge that it is the truth. In the meantime, I continue to wait for your answer to this:
"Detters can we leave A.N. WILSON and ARIANNA HUFFINGTON behind?"
Not until you have dealt honestly with this example of your lying bastardy:
'Gene writes beautifully - something not always the case with authors of trail-blazing literary works.' [A.N. WILSON]
"The genius of James Joyce is alive and well and living amongst us. His name is Gene Vincent." [A.N. WILSON]
'I was enthralled. A new star has shot into the literary firmament. [ARIANNA HUFFINGTON]
When you are going to admit that you have made these reviews and their authors up? Make no mistake: I am going to keep on asking until you tell the truth, or I lose patience, inform Mr Wilson and Ms Huffington and let nature take its course.
Vital questions for Detterling:
ReplyDeleteWhen did you become aware of the existence of the Paedophile Information Exchange?
Were you aware that the Paedophile Information Exchange was affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties?
If you were aware of the existence of the Paedophile Information Exchange and aware that the Paedophile Information Exchange was affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties what steps did you take to disassociate the Left from endorsing the PIE? GENE
[A] These are not "vital" questions for me, Gene. They are, rather, a desperate attempt to salvage from the wreck of your defeated attempts to smear me as a supporter of the Paedophile Information Exchange, of paedophilia and or paedophiles.
[B] I cannot remember when I became aware of the Paedophile Information Exchange, but it was probably at the same time as most newspaper readers did in the mid 1970s - around 1976.
[C] I honestly cannot remember if I knew that the PIE was affiliated to the NCCL until the controversy over this affiliation made headlines, so this was probably in about 1978.
[D] I took no steps whatsoever to dissociate "the Left" from endorsing the Paedophile Information Exchange, for the simple reason that "the Left" does not exist. Neither the Parliamentary Labour Party nor the Labour Party itself ever associated itself with the Paedophile Information Exchange, so no steps needed to be taken to sever a connection that had never existed.
Gene, do stop making a complete tit of yourself, there's a good lad. Your humiliating trouncing over Ratzinger, his failure to unfrock Stephen Keisle in 1985 "for the good of the Catholic Church", and his thereby enabling Keisle's subsequent freedom to rape small girls and bugger small boys at St Joseph's Church, Pinole, California for a further three years must have done a great deal of damage to even your ironclad self-esteem.
But this fatuous attempt at smearing me suggests encroaching derangement on your part, not least because I have already disposed of your previous attempts to do so, and because you yourself have said, on April 13th at 1241 BST:
"No one believes you support paedophilia."
If you said that then, why pursue this preposterous attempt to smear me now? How much have you had to drink today?
And just in case you have forgotten, in your drunken stupor, just how completely I refuted your ridiculous smears, have another look at this.
ReplyDelete"You repeatedly tried to smear me, because I am left wing, as an apologist for paedophilia and a supporter of the Paedophile Information Exchange. I repudiated these smears and disproved their validity. I challenged you nine times to answer three simple questions as to my stance on paedophilia and you evaded answering them. Because you are too cowardly to put your money where your mouth is. You claimed that my “failure to condemn the NCCL motion on paedophile” “spoke volumes” - but challenged to spell out what this “failure” actually said, you were too gutless to answer. And finally you were forced to admit that I do not support paedophilia, in effect disowning the vile smears you had been trying and failing to make stick for three days. Even then then you tried to weasel out of your responsibility for those atrocious slurs by claiming that you were “giving me a taste of my own medicine”. Nonsense: you were trying to push the evidence of your defeat over Ratzinger and Stephen Kiesle off the front page.
And anent Ratzinger, it is time that you stopped telling the ridiculous lie that Dawkins et al had threatened to have Ratzinger arrested - a lie that Mr Dawkins eventually forced the Murdoch press to retract - look it up. Dawkins et al claimed that Ratzinger’s complaisance and failure to act over paedophile priests meant that he had a case to answer in the civil courts. The truth of this has been demonstrated several times using Ratzinger’s failures to deal condignly with paedophile priests, as Archbishop of Munich, head of the Congregation of the Faith and as Pope. The enthusiastic reception accorded to Ratzinger by the Catholic faithful cannot and does not mitigate these criminal failures on his part.
And you claim “victory”? if this is victory, what would defeat look like?"
And, lest we forget:
ReplyDeleteHad Ratzinger unfrocked Kiesle in 1985, the abuse of children at St Joseph's would not have continued for a further three years. That is a FACT, no matter how often you try to deny it.
Ratzinger's apology in full reads as follows [my footnotes}:
“I can only express to all the victims [1] of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness. I have had great responsibilities [2] in the Catholic Church. All the greater is my pain for the abuses [3] and the errors [4] hat occurred in those different places [5] during the time of my mandate."[6]
1 ALL THE VICTIMS, Gene: victimS, plural: you can tell this by the S on the end of the word. All the victims of sexual abuse that occurred during Ratzingers time as Archbishop of Munich [1977- 1982] and later head of the Congregation of the Faith and Pope - that is, 1985 - 2013. The phrase "ALL THE VICTIMS therefore must include the victims of Stephen Kiesle between the years 1985-1988, when Ratzinger failed to unfrock Kiesle. [2] I HAVE HAD GREAT RESPONSIBILITES [see 1 above]: and one of those was to detect, root out and expel priests and others in the Catholic Church whose favourite hobby was buggering small boys and raping little girls. These GREAT RESPONSIBILITIES obviously include those children abused by Stephen Kiesle after Ratzinger failed to unfrock him in 1985. [3] THE ABUSES - these must include the abuses committed by Stephen Kiesle after Ratzinger failed to unfrock him [unless you can prove differently, Gene?].
[4] THE ERRORS - these must include Ratzinger's failure to unfrock Kiesle in 1985 and probably his failure to alert Fr Thomas Ryan that he was allowing a convicted paedophile rapist to minister to the young people in his church.
[5] THOSE DIFFERENT PLACES - except, of course at St Joseph's Church, Penole, CA, where Stephen Kiesle, still a priest, continued to abuse children during the years 1985-1988 - Ratzinger made it clear that his apology did not include this, didn't he, Gene, and you can prove that, can't you? What's that? oh, you can't? Dear me, and YOU call ME a lying tosser... [5] DURING MY MANDATE: that is, during the years 1985 - 2013.
It is clear to anyone whose mind has a greater ratiocinatory capacity than a pair of skid-marked underpants that Ratzinger was apologising for all the sexual abuse committed on his watch 1985-2013 by priests whom he failed either properly to oversee, accurately to diagnose and condignly to punish, as well as arranging for their being unable to access children and young people ever again.
"I can only express to ALL the victims of sexual abuse my profound shame, my deep sorrow and my heartfelt request for forgiveness." It's that word ALL that gives it away, Gene: I'm sorry if it's confusing. Stuff your pissy little opinions up your arse. I will not apologise for telling the truth, and I will go on telling it until you acknowledge that it is the truth. In the meantime, I continue to wait for your answer to this:
"Detters can we leave A.N. WILSON and ARIANNA HUFFINGTON behind?"
Not until you have dealt honestly with this example of your lying bastardy:
'Gene writes beautifully - something not always the case with authors of trail-blazing literary works.' [A.N. WILSON]
"The genius of James Joyce is alive and well and living amongst us. His name is Gene Vincent." [A.N. WILSON]
'I was enthralled. A new star has shot into the literary firmament. [ARIANNA HUFFINGTON]
When you are going to admit that you have made these reviews and their authors up? Make no mistake: I am going to keep on asking until you tell the truth, or I lose patience, inform Mr Wilson and Ms Huffington and let nature take its course.