Sunday, 2 May 2010
Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people
Philippa Stroud Philippa Stroud, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam, has founded US-style evangelical churches in Bedford and in Birmingham. Photograph: Graeme Robertson
A high-flying prospective Conservative MP, credited with shaping many of the party's social policies, founded a church that tried to "cure" homosexuals by driving out their "demons" through prayer. Philippa Stroud, who is likely to win the Sutton and Cheam seat on Thursday and is head of the Centre for Social Justice, the thinktank set up by the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, has heavily influenced David Cameron's beliefs on subjects such as the family. A popular and energetic Tory, she is seen as one of the party's rising stars. The CSJ reportedly claims to have formulated as many as 70 of the party's policies. Stroud has spoken of how her Christian faith has motivated her to help the poor and of her time spent working with the destitute in Hong Kong. On her return to Britain, in 1989, she founded a church and night shelter in Bedford, the King's Arms Project, that helped drug addicts and alcoholics. It also counselled gay, lesbian and transsexual people. Abi, a teenage girl with transsexual issues, was sent to the church by her parents, who were evangelical Christians. "Convinced I was demonically possessed, my parents made the decision to move to Bedford, because of this woman [Stroud] who had come back from Hong Kong and had the power to set me free," Abi told the Observer. "She wanted me to know all my thinking was wrong, I was wrong and the so-called demons inside me were wrong. The session ended with her and others praying over me, calling out the demons. She really believed things like homosexuality, transsexualism and addiction could be fixed just by prayer, all in the name of Jesus." "T" said he moved to Bedford because he believed the church could help him stop having homosexual thoughts. "I was trying to convince myself that a change was possible but, at the same time, a part of me didn't believe it was possible," he said. "The church's approach was not that it was sinful to be homosexual but that it was sinful to act on it. The aim is to get a person to a position where they don't have these sinful emotions and thoughts." "T" said it was only after he "took a break" from the church that his depression lifted. "It was the church's attitude towards my sexuality that was the issue," he recalled. "My impression is that she genuinely cares about people," he said of Stroud. "Her personal beliefs may get in the way sometimes, but she is a positive person." Stroud and her husband, David, a minister in the New Frontiers church, allied to the US evangelical movement, left the project in the late 1990s to establish another church in Birmingham. Angela Paterson, who was an administrator at the Bedford church, said: "With hindsight, the thing that freaks me out was everybody praying that a demon would be cast out of me because I was gay. Anything – drugs, alcohol or homosexuality, they thought you had a demon in you." Kacey Jones, a hostel resident, said she was told to end her lesbian relationship or leave the church. "Philippa was still around when I first moved in," Jones said. "There was a 'discipleship house' for Christians struggling with issues, including their sexuality. They told me my feelings weren't normal. I didn't want to be gay, I wanted to be like everybody else, get married, have kids and please my parents." Stroud wrote a book, God's Heart for the Poor, in which she explains how to deal with people showing signs of "demonic activity". Stroud, who declined to talk to the Observer, writes: "I'd say the bottom line is to remember your spiritual authority as a child of God. He is so much more powerful than anything else!" In the book she discusses the daily struggle of running the hostel. "One girl lived in the hostel for some time, became a Christian, then choked to death on her own vomit after a drinking bout. Her life had changed to some extent, but we wondered whether God knew that she hadn't the will to stick with it and was calling her home." One resident featured in the book, Mary, was in an abusive relationship. "We discovered further layers of the tangle when she admitted to previous lesbian relationships and to being on the receiving end of abuse from her family," Stroud writes, adding: "No wonder she was in such a mess!" The Conservatives have tried to win over gay voters after a string of controversial comments by party members. The shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, said owners of B&B accommodation should have the right to turn away gay couples. Julian Lewis, the shadow defence minister, said he was against lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 for homosexuals. Revelations about Stroud's past are likely to make the party's task even more difficult. "This reinforces our long-held suspicions that those out of sight, but with their hands on the levers of power, have deeply reactionary ambitions," said Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the Stonewall group, said: "If Mrs Stroud has been praying to rid Britain of its homosexuality, she clearly hasn't been praying hard enough. It would be highly regrettable if someone who continued to hold these views held any significant office in government."
'Palingate'
Highly influential conservative thinker Sarah Palin took to Facebook to pontificate on the historical parallels in her password guesser's conviction.
"My family and I are thankful that the jury thoroughly and carefully weighed the evidence and issued a just verdict. Besides the obvious invasion of privacy and security concerns surrounding this issue, many of us are concerned about the integrity of our country's political elections. America's elections depend upon fair competition. Violating the law, or simply invading someone's privacy for political gain, has long been repugnant to Americans' sense of fair play. As Watergate taught us, we rightfully reject illegally breaking into candidates' private communications for political intrigue in an attempt to derail an election."
Spill Baby Spill!
A boat makes its way through crude oil that has leaked from the Deepwater Horizon wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico on April 28, 2010 near New Orleans, Louisiana. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
A satellite image taken on April 26, 2010, shows an airplane (upper left) flying over part of the oil slick resulting from the explosion of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon oil rig, in the Gulf of Mexico. (REUTERS/DigitalGlobe)
In this aerial photo taken in the Gulf of Mexico more than 50 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig is seen burning Wednesday, April 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Suspected Bomb Prompts Clearing of Times Square
Thousands of tourists and theatergoers were cleared from Times Square as the police investigated what they suspected was a car bomb there on Saturday evening.
Police officials said they received a report about 6:30 p.m. of smoke coming from a Nissan Pathfinder parked on 45th Street just west of Seventh Avenue. The authorities found a smoking package in the vehicle and now believe it was a bomb. A bomb squad was sent to the scene.
The package did not explode, and officials said they did not know whether it was related to terrorism...
Irony in Barcelona
(Thanx Fifi!)
Son #1 who ha managed to get an Orwell quote into every uni paper so far took the same photo a number of years ago!
Does Right, Always Works: Richard H Kirk And The Future Of Cabaret Voltaire
Just before Xmas in 2008 The Quietus received a promo that caused a bit of a stir in the office. The CD – which arrived with no press release, no covering letter and no sender information – was a tough collection of acid electro remixes of a New Zealand Maori dub outfit called Kora on Shiva. No disrespect to the blunted Antipodeans but our brains were scrambled and our pulses sent racing because of the name of the remix outfit: Cabaret Voltaire.
Was this the Cabaret Voltaire... who, along with Throbbing Gristle and Public Image Limited, were embarrassingly ahead of the field, during the post punk years – a time when groundbreaking bands were seemingly ten a penny? The Sheffield based avant gardists who moved from Dada-influenced tape loop/ home-made electronics through proto-industrial, post punk, EBM, electro, acid, machine funk, proto-house, ethno-techno and beyond until splitting up in 1994? The original trio of bloody-minded sods (Chris Watson, Richard H Kirk, Stephen Malinder) who released the still scabrous sounding treated guitar/electro punk racket of ‘Nag, Nag, Nag’ and decimated dub of ‘Sluggin’ Fer Jesus’? The slimmed down but no less oppressive and inventive duo (Kirk, Malinder) who released the singles ‘Sensoria’, ‘Crackdown’, ‘Thank You America’, ‘Yashar’ and ‘Here To Go’?
A year later when the Cabs’ name popped-up attached to another remix project on Shiva (National Service Rewind by The Tivoli), the answer it seemed was yes. By now, industrial message boards had cranked into over-time, coming up with all-sorts of theories. It seemed like Kirk alone was now using the Cabaret Voltaire name... as well as the immense amount of effort he’d already been throwing into Sandoz, Al Jabr, Biochemical Dread, Blacworld, Dark Magus, Destructive Impact, Dr. Xavier, Electronic Eye, Extended Family, Frightgod, Future Cop Movies, International Organisation, King Of Kings, Multiple Transmission, Nine Miles Dub, Outland Assassin, Papadoctrine, Port Au Prince, Reflexiv, The Revolutionary Army (Of The Infant Jesus) (Not sure that he had anything to do with them? - Mona)… well, you get the picture.
And why resurrect Cabaret Voltaire at all? Surely they were the last fucking band who should be dragged back for one last turn under the spotlights… The least nostalgic band there was.
[For some context, my review of the Kora remix album from December 19, 2008, read thus: “The only word from Kirk's press bod is that they 'have lined up select shows for 2009 – dates, content, format and locations tbc. It's going to be a bit special, that's guaranteed'. Well, I acted a bit 'special' on hearing this and nearly rendered the office to matchsticks with a cricket bat. Thinking 'For fuck's sake – if this is a Don't Look Back rendition of Microphonies at Koko, I'm literally going to kill someone.' There's simply nothing wrong doing retro/ nostalgia shows if you're a foot note in the history of indie like Teenage Fanclub or Stump but for the two decade career of one of the UK's most forward-looking and uncompromising bands to be sullied like this would be an exercise in seizing ignominy out of the jaws of sublimity.”]
However, a recent lengthy chat with Richard H Kirk put my mind at ease. These are exciting times indeed for fans of the industrial and the futuristic. Not only do we have violent young bucks Factory Floor to contend with but now we have the Cabs back as well. And, just as it should be, they are refusing to revisit old glories and instead plan new work in the field of electronic music, installation, film and art.
Continue reading
(An excellent interview)
(An excellent interview)
John Doran @'The Quietus'
PS: The Kora remix album is superb!
(Thanx Stan!)
A Muddy Bet
When Jim Cantore is in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, bet on a long shot cause it's anybody's race.
A muddy bet
When Jim Cantore is in Louisville for the Kentucky Derby, bet on a long shot cause it's anybody's race.
Saturday, 1 May 2010
Mark Pincus: The Facebook Desperado Making Off with Millions
Gaming mogul Mark Pincus trashed-talked his way to Wall Street's gutter, trafficked scammy Facebook ads, and is now targeted in a class-action lawsuit. The FarmVille creator's now reaping $450 million in annual revenue and may go public. Revenge is his.
You can see Pincus' swagger as he takes his victory lap in the press, a position arranged by a shiny new crew of PR handlers, believed to be trying to polish his disreputable image for the public markets. The founder and CEO of Zynga compared himself to a genius television producer (in BusinessWeek) and demanded to know why he hasn't been thanked for his contributions to humanity (in Details). He did some drinking with a reporter.
It's almost enough to make you forget Pincus was thrown out on his ass on Wall Street; left embittered and desperate in his earlier days in Silicon Valley; removed scammy commercial "offers" from his games like Mafia Wars and FarmVille amid great criticism, and is to this day fighting off a class-action lawsuit from aggrieved users.
If Pincus wants to put himself in everyone's face as the next internet titan, it's worth getting to know the Silicon Valley desperado outside of his little dog and pony show. So we've distilled a handy guide to the infamous entrepreneur, using our own coverage and recent clippings from BusinessWeek, which profiled Pincus last week, and Details, which for a profile in its May issue photographed Pincus with his bulldog Lola...
Continue reading
Ryan Tate @'Gawker'
Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of his TV audience since January
Will that Hindenburg performance soon be seen as the turning point for Glenn Beck: the pivotal moment when the Fox News show began to permanently leak viewers?
Who can forget the March day that will live in cable news infamy, when Beck invited embattled Democratic Congressman Eric Massa onto his show, for an entire hour, to blow the whistle on Democratic Party corruption? Or so Beck thought. Instead, Massa went on and on about tickle fights, and Beck became a laughing stock -- the butt of endless Geraldo-opens-Al-Capone's-vault jokes.
Prior to the Massa Moment, Glenn Beck was averaging 2.6 million viewers each week, and the show was still flying high. And in the short term, the wildly hyped Massa episode produced ratings gold, generating 3.4 million viewers that night, thank you very much. Long-term though, the effects have proven to be disastrous.
As I noted two weeks ago, Glenn Beck's ratings are down this spring. Now it's clear those declines are accelerating and there are no signs of a rebound. So what does that mean for Beck, Fox News, and the Tea Party movement?
First, the latest Nielsen low: Glenn Beck just posted another ratings low for this year. The new mark was set last Thursday when the show attracted 1.82 million viewers. The host's previous, non-vacation low for 2010 had been 1.97 million viewers. That low-ebb mark was set on April 9.
Based on the Nielsen numbers, here's a look at Beck's average daily viewership over the last five weeks. (Any weekend re-broadcasts, as well as weekday shows when Beck was on vacation, are not included in the tabulation.)
(The temporary spike shown above represents the day after health care reform passed in the Congress.)
Let's put Beck's ratings into context. Yes, in the world of cable news, his numbers are impressive, and virtually any host would be happy to have them. But look how far Glenn Beck has fallen recently. In late January and into February, the program was averaging 3 million viewers each week. And late last year, the show spent month after month flirting with that figure. Today, the viewership is trending around 2 million (Last week it was exactly 2.01 million viewers.) -- which means that in a span of just three months, Glenn Beck has lost nearly one-third of its television audience.
My take? Those missing one million aren't coming back. Not permanently anyway. Meaning, this is not a temporary hiccup for Glenn Beck, and the host is not likely to see a V-shaped recovery in terms of the show's ratings. Beck mania seems to have peaked. At least on TV. Will the show enjoy occasional audience spikes? Sure. But I doubt they will be sustainable.
And that has to be sending up all kinds of red flags inside Fox News, which already struggles to find any big-name advertisers to fill out the commercials on the controversial show. Keep in mind, there are more than 200 companies that have gone on the record as saying they will not buy ad time on Glenn Beck's show. Applebee's? No. AT&T? No. Bank of America? No. Best Buy, Campbell Soup, CVS, Ditech, Farmers Insurance Group, GEICO, General Mills, Johnson & Johnson, Lowe's, Nutrisystem, Procter & Gamble, Progressive Insurance, RadioShack, Sprint, State Farm Insurance, The UPS Store, Travelers Insurance, Verizon Wireless, Vonage, or Wal-Mart?
No.
Corporate America (aka the beloved free marketplace) wants nothing to do with Beck. (Sort of like the NFL wanted nothing to do with Rush Limbaugh last year.) Today, there are less than a handful of nationally recognized advertisers who appear willing to purchase air time on Glenn Beck. Think about the deep, deep discounts Fox News likely has to offer the remaining advertisers in order to get them to come aboard. (And the show is supposed to be a hit.) Now add to that equation the fact that Glenn Beck has lost 1/3 of its audience since January, and you can see where this is heading for Fox News.
How soft are Beck's current ratings? He's now posting the type of numbers that his show used to get when he was on vacation and somebody less famous stood in for him, like when he took a few days off in late March and his show averaged 1.9 million viewers. Beck's been back from his March vacation for weeks now, but his ratings are roughly the same as when he wasn't even there.
What's so amazing about the stampede away from Beck's show is that the political landscape has not changed during that time. In fact, according to press accounts, the Tea Party movement that Beck is so closely aligned with is supposedly in the midst of a surge in momentum and enthusiasm. So why is Glenn Beck losing viewers? It's odd because Beck's nemesis, President Barack Obama, is still in office and still doing his best, in the Beck worldview, to ruin America from within. Democrats are still in charge of Congress and still, in the Beck worldview, ripping up the Constitution. It's not like the evil Democratic threat is gone. Beck's bogeymen remain in place. It's just that one-third of his audience has lost interest and has checked out.
What's wrong with Glenn Beck? And why are viewers fleeing the show? Obviously, I'm not the target demo, but I will now admit that there were times last fall and in early winter when Beck's show did have a kind of demented, "Oh wow" factor to it, and I tuned in regularly just to see what he'd say and do next. The program did, at times, make for compelling television.
But today, making it through one of his insufferable, redundant shows feels like sitting through detention. The wow factor is long gone. Whatever originality the show once had has been replaced with a suffocating sense of sameness as Beck's expanding ego seems to have completely taken control of the operation.
Which brings us back to the Massa Moment, and the absurd broadcasting notion that Beck could generate interesting television for an entire hour while interviewing a congressman he barely even knew. i.e. recipe for disaster. And yes, Beck seems to know that the lecture-like shows he now produces, complete with unreadable chalkboards, don't make for good TV. Last week he jokingly conceded, "This is the worst television ever done. We're doing it every day, congratulations."
Beck appears to be trapped in something of a programming box. If he continues to just keep saying the same thing day after day, more viewers are likely to flee. If he goes long and risks his shows on ridiculous Massa-like interviews, more viewers are likely to be turned off.
But who knows, maybe it wasn't the Massa flame-out that drove viewers away. Instead, maybe it was Beck's hateful and irresponsible attack on Christianity, and specifically Catholicism, in which he urged parishioners to leave their church -- during the Easter season -- if their church mentioned "social justice," which Beck announced was akin to communism and Nazism. Maybe that's what opened the Fox News floodgates, as offended viewers forced their way out.
Or maybe it's been a combination of Beck's incessant whining, married with his delusional conspiracies and his hateful rhetoric that simply do not appeal to people outside of his most hardcore, fanatical, Obama-hating followers. And maybe in the end that group only numbers 1-1.5 million viewers.
Or maybe the sagging numbers represent the let-down that came after Beck's flock watched health care reform pass; the same reform that the GOP Noise Machine had pronounced dead all winter long and that had no chance of passing. (Oops!)
Oh, and did I mention Beck's runaway ego? As Media Matters' Ben Dimiero wrote last week:
Capping a week in which he attempted to explain the "plan" he "think[s]" God wants him to "articulate," Glenn Beck informed listeners of his radio show today that "an individual" at the Vatican purportedly told him that we are entering a "period of great darkness" and that Beck himself was "wildly important" to the upcoming struggle.
Okaaay.
Whatever the possible causes of the exodus, Nielsen numbers don't lie about the concrete effects.
Jed Lewison recently pointed out at DailyKos that Beck's April ratings this year are actually slightly lower than April 2009, when the whole Tea Party movement was just getting off the ground [emphasis original]:
From April 1 to April 14, 2009 (the two weeks immediately preceding tea party 2009) the Glenn Beck show averaged 2.23 million viewers.
Meanwhile, from April 1 to April 14, 2010 his show averaged 2.15 million viewers.
[...]
That's not a dramatic decline, and Beck clearly still has a loyal audience. But his audience is not growing.
That's right, year-to-date, Beck's audience is not growing. Despite all the media attention, the cover stories on Beck and the endless reporting of the Tea Party movement he supposedly leads, over the last 12 months, Beck has not grown his TV audience. Well, he grew it, and then lost it again, while managing to lose 200 advertisers as well.
In fact, if the precipitous Glenn Beck ratings trend continues, the show will soon be regularly attracting many, many fewer viewers than it did 12 months ago -- an astonishing turn of events for a signature show that's supposed to be at the forefront of a political revolution.
UPDATED: New April Nielsen numbers confirm Beck's rating decline.
Eric Boehlert@'Media Matters'
(After the shouting someone will be crying!)
Mexican Saints
Troubled Spirits
In Mexico, the harsh realities of daily life have elevated unholy saints, who now stand beside traditional icons.
REpost Request - 'Exile's' Global Mix No.1
A mix of musical styles though predominantly North African.After opening aptly on this Sunday morning with Baaba Maal's 'Call to Prayer' we find ourselves 'tranceported' by music from both the mountains and medinas of Maroc, by the psychedelic sounds coming from the Congo in the mid seventies and by the present-time desert blues of Tinariwen and Group Inerane.
From Algeria by way of Paris to the Ju-Ju lands of Nigeria.
From London to New York via Turkey.
Also featuring those bass-masters Jah Wobble & Bill (Have Bass Will Travel) Laswell.
(Left click on picture above for list of featured performers.)
Get it
Vij - Russian Horror film 1967
Thought I'd make this my first post
The Mosesman
(Welcome to the land of the Exile's Dray!!! - MonaXXX)
Friday, 30 April 2010
The man who translated Hitler's will
| By Mario Cacciottolo BBC News |
It's 65 years since Hitler drafted his will before committing suicide. The men who translated it were renegade Germans who fled to Britain to take up arms against their own country. Two new memoirs shed light on this little-known group.
The outbreak of World War II saw thousands of people across Europe volunteer for military service, in a bid to do their duty for their respective countries. But among those who stepped forward for Britain were 10,000 German and Austrian nationals, who had fled the Nazis and were willing to fight against their own countrymen. Known as "the King's most loyal enemy aliens" many, but not all, were Jewish.
 | FIND OUT MORE Mario Cacciottolo examines Mr Rothman and Mr Anson's stories in more detail on Breakfast on BBC One from 06:00 to 10:00 BST, Saturday 1 May. |
In October 1945, Mr Rothman and a handful of other German Jews were given a top-secret task - to translate the political and personal wills of Adolf Hitler. He had written them on 29 April earlier that year, then committed suicide, probably on 30 April - the exact date remains uncertain.
Now 85 and living in Ilford, Essex, Mr Rothman has written a book called Hitler's Will about his military service. He became a British citizen in 1947, meaning he fought for Britain while still a German.
"I wanted to do my very best for the British war effort," he says in a voice still enriched by a German accent.
Temper
"There was no question in my mind that the Hitler regime would exterminate people who were opposed to it, and I wanted to do my very best to see that regime finished as quickly as possible. All of those who escaped from Germany felt the same."
Allowed to enlist in May 1944, he ended up working in the 3rd Counter-Intelligence Section for the British army, his fluency in German proving a vital skill. As a soldier he was known as Harry Rothman.
It was while working in Fallingbostel internment camp in Germany that Mr Rothman was woken up early by his commanding officer, who urgently requested his presence. He was one of several renegade Germans.
The German who fought for Britain
These documents, typed in German on parchment, were quickly identified by Mr Rothman and his colleagues as Hitler's personal and political wills, along with Joseph Goebbels's addendum.
Three copies of the documents had been made by Hitler. Two of them were later acquired by the Imperial War Museum in London, these included the actual documents handled by Mr Rothman - who was given Goebbels's words to translate.
"Goebbels wrote in very long sentences that I had to punctuate in order to make sense of them," says Mr Rothman. "Hitler's wills weren't on ordinary paper, but on parchment. The letters were typed in capitals.
'Scum of the earth'
"The will had his signature on it in other ways. Nobody writes a letter on parchment. I got the feeling that, with this last act, he wanted to impress the German people."
Only on one occasion did Mr Rothman lose his temper with his countrymen, when some imprisoned Nazi officers complained to him about a lack of food.
|  Adolf Hitler made three copies of his personal and political wills  |
Enlarge ImageMr Rothman now says he should not have used that insult, and that it prompted a complaint against him from the prisoners. But he was cleared after a brief inquiry, although he suggests it perhaps "cost him a medal". Still, he says he doesn't regret saying it.
Another German who fought for Britain was Claus Leopold Octavio Ascher, born in Berlin in 1922, who later became Colin Edward Anson.
He fled Germany days before his 17th birthday, his family being fearful for his safety. His father Curt, an outspoken opponent of Hitler's, was arrested in September 1937 and taken to Dachau concentration camp. He died a month later.
Identity change
Although Curt was Jewish, Mr Anson's mother was Protestant and he was raised in the latter faith.
Arriving in Britain in February 1939 with little command of the English language, Mr Anson volunteered to fight for Britain after the outbreak of war, joining the Pioneer Corps.
"I felt, like many refugees, that it was very much my own business and that I couldn't stand by and let other people sort it out."
 Hitler made his wills and died some two months after this image was taken |
"I've never had any hostile or unpleasant reactions. Never. They were quite aware that refugees from Nazi Germany were opposed to the Nazis."
In 1942, when alien nationals were allowed to transfer to other units from the Pioneer Corps, Colin was accepted into 3 Troop Commando, consisting solely of German-speaking refugees who underwent intensive and specialist training.
These foreign soldiers were also advised on personal security issues, given their backgrounds. They were told to make up cover stories in case they were ever captured to account for their accents - that they had spent time in Germany as children, for example.
Brain exposed
They were also told to change their names to more English versions, with the same initials as their Germanic names, to help them remember these new identities.
Colin chose his new surname because, at the very moment he was asked to make one up, an Anson communications plane flew overhead.
 Herman Rothman fled to the UK when he was 14 |
But he did eventually recover, serving the British again on commando raids in Yugoslavia, Albania, and then in the liberation of Corfu. His language skills became invaluable as increasing numbers of German POWs were captured.
Did he have any qualms about fighting fellow Germans?
"I can't say I gave it much thought. When we were in action against enemy forces something in a grey uniform was a target to shoot at.
"It was only afterwards when you took prisoners - and I much preferred to take prisoners rather than killing people - that the whole question arose.
"Germans I then came into contact with would be perfectly amenable, except when I interrogated people and they would start asking me 'why do you speak such good German?'
"I had to remind them that it was I who was asking the questions."
He says he feels no animosity towards Germans who fought for Hitler.
"I can't find it in my heart to be critical of people for having been in the Nazi party at that time. What else should they do under the circumstances? What else should they have done? They were called up and did their duty, as they saw it, for their country. They had very few opportunities for acting otherwise."
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