-Exiled

von am 19. Juni 2018 um 11:05
Veröffentlicht in: Text

Exiled

“Founded in 1993 by Dr. Rudolf Scholten, the Austrian Archive for Exile Studies is part of the Documentation Centre for modern Austrian literature. The Archive documents the life and work of Austrian writers and other cultural figures who have been living in exile and emigration since 1933 or 1938.”

My colleague Dr.Armin A.Wallas died on May 30th of 2003. Dr Wallas, the Austrian scholar, writer, editor and publisher who specialized on Austrian-Jewish literature. ( Dr. Wallas published my bilingual collections of poetry by Else Keren, Stella Rotenberg and Else Keren in his Mnemosyne imprint.) I wrote to Dr. Ursula Seeber, Mag. Zwerger’s predecessor as Director of the Exile Library, requesting a commemorative event for Dr. Wallas.

A reply was not forthcoming. I tried to contact Dr. Seeber by phone but she was unavailable. When I finally managed to reach her, she rendered me a verbal refusal and suggested I contact Dr. Heinz Lunzer, Director of the Literaturhaus.

Trying to reach Dr. Lunzer consisted of flawless repetition of attempting to contact Dr. Seeber.

My letter went unanswered. When I called, he was always unavailable. When I finals reached hon by phone, I received my second oral refusal.

 

Deliberate Tactic

Not providing a written reply is not due to a breach in etiquette, but rather a deliberate tactic. There should be no written record of the refusal.

 

Da Capo! 2018 at the Eightieth Anniversary of the Annexation

I have described Dr. Wallas’ scholastic achievements.

I experienced a SA-raid on my grandmother’s apartment in very young years. My family was decimated in the Holocaust: As a translator I have published numerous bilingual collections of Austrian poetry, Burgenland Croatian poetry, Carinthian Slovenian poetry and Austrian Jewish poetry.

Contrary to my letter concerning Dr. Wallas, I received a written reply.

– Herbert Kuhner

 

 

-The Golden Anniversary of the Annexation

von am 19. Juni 2018 um 10:49
Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics, Text

The Golden Anniversary of the Annexation
(Ditto for the 80th Anniversary)

At the unveiling of the monument commemorating the victims of the Holocaust, speeches of regret were read by political luminaries, Church dignitaries, public figures and high-ranking military men. Poets read epics about the slaughter of the victims and an oratorio was played and sung for the occasion. While those present vowed that what had happened must never happen again, a Jew was beaten by thugs in the midst of the ceremony. No one could hear the blows or his cries due to the chorus of raised voices. Nor could the beating be seen since the bystanders’ sight was blurry from the tears that were being shed.

 

Ein halbes Jahrhundert nach dem Anschluß
(Da Capo für den Achtigzsten)

Bei der Enthüllung des Denkmals für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus gab es Reden von Politikern, Kirchenfürsten und anderen distinguierten Bürgern. Dichter lasen Epen über die Opfer, und man führte
ein Oratorium zu ihren Ehren auf. Während alle schworen, daß das, was geschehen war, nie wieder geschehen dürfe, schlug man einen Juden neben der Bühne nieder. Niemand hörte die Schläge oder seine Schreie, weil der feierliche Schwur lauter war. Und niemand sah, was geschah, weil die Danebenstehenden feuchte Augen hatten, die ihre Blicke trübten.

– Herbert Kuhner

-Even-Handed Approach

von am 18. Juni 2018 um 13:06
Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics

At Nazi and Klu-Klux Rally on August 11 to 12, 2017at Charlottesville, Virginia Heather Heyer, an anti-fascist activist, was killed when a car driven by James Alex Fields Jr. rammed her.

. . . very fine people . . .

“I think there’s blame on both sides…But you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”
– Donald J. Trump, US President

 I guess Alex Fields was not one of the “fine” people.

– H.K.

 

Our Policy

Now here’s our policy: we can beat the anti-Semitic drum softly, but we don’t bang it. We declare ourselves to be the friends of the Jews and even help establish and finance organizations to combat anti-Semitism while we drum away. There’s no hate involved. We’re just critics. And as far as the past is concerned, the last thing we want to do is whitewash Nazi Germany. To be sure there were excesses in the Third Reich, but historians, especially the Jewish ones, have exaggerated what they call the Holocaust. First, the numbers are grossly exaggerated. And if there was any gassing, it was minimal. No one says that the camps were recreation centers. Things were tough for everyone during the war. There just wasn’t enough food to go around. Ditto for medicine. And there was also a shortage of doctors. Too many of those Jews attended medical school prior to World War II. (But let’s not allow ourselves to become emotional about that!) And what’s more, there was also a shortage of medicine and drugs. Isn’t it natural for people to die in such a situation? Our men in Siberian camps were in the same situation. And let’s not forget the expulsion of the Sudeten Germans! As far as any excesses are concerned, in a war they are bound to happen on all sides. However, Austrians bear no responsibility since there was no Austria at the time. Up to 1945 everyone in the Third Reich was a German.

The men who served on our side not only defended Europe during the war, they rebuilt our country after it. The Left claims that the Reich fought a war of conquest and extermination. The fact is that it was a preventive war. The Soviet Union, as we know, was preparing to conquer Western Europe and export Bolshevism, so we had to beat them to the punch. Thanks to us, Europe was saved from Communism. We fought for Christian values and Western Civilization. Isn’t that a good cause? Every member of the Wehrmacht and the SS was an honorable man. If anyone claims the contrary, we’ll accuse him of condemning the war generation. And we’ll remind him of Dresden, Katyn and Hiroshima. We weren’t the ones who started bombing civilian centers. It was the British. Just read your David Irving! The Lefties call him a revisionist and a Nazi; you can’t expect them to be objective. Imagine, they can’t even bring themselves to admit that Poland provoked Germany.

Don’t get me wrong! I’m not saying that everyone involved with the Third Reich was a saint, but just look at the others! We certainly weren’t any worse than they were. But I don’t want to end on a downbeat note. We’re the ones with a purpose! We, not the others, are the real idealists. Nationalism is not a dirty word. However, we must be subtle. Let them think that we can be integrated. In the end, we will integrate them.

We’re up to date, but our spirit is in keeping with our forerunners. We have to be palatable to our group, but we must to appeal to all. In addition to presenting history as it really was, we’ll support politicians who are kindred spirits. And as far as those with a pure and untainted approach are concerned, we won’t sanction what they say and do, but we’ll soft-peddle it and show that they have a human side, and if they engage in violence, we’ll blame it on the Lefties.

– Herbert Kuhner

 

 

-The Myth

von am 10. Juni 2018 um 13:50
Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics, Text

The Myth

Just as East Europe was freed from Nazism
but not freed,
Russia (or the Soviet Union, if you will)
was freed from Communism
but not freed.

There’s a myth circulating that President Reagan and Pope John Paul II
brought down Communism in the Soviet Union. That’s a half truth.
They helped prevent the liberalization of society
in a Union that had been a dictatorship.

When Mikhail Gorbachev took the reins of the Communist Party in 1985,
he set about introducing civil rights, a free press and all the trappings of a democracy,
in what had been a dictatorship.

Instead of supporting him in these undertakings, the two ant-Communist heroes
undermined him. A totalitarian system cannot be changed entirely overnight,
but Gorby certainly did his best.

Unfortunately, the economy didn’t pick up, so Gorby wasn’t as popular at home
as he was abroad.

He was trying to take it step by step with the goal of forming a Soviet Commonwealth.

The West egged him on, and his friend, Ronnie said:
“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,”
referring to the Berlin Wall.
The negotiator sent to make things happen fast was Condoleezza Rice.

What happened? Gorby cleared out of East Germany, let it go to NATO,
and got a pittance for doing so.

Now Gorby had more or less been brought to the edge.

The Russian generals said something to the effect of,
“This is madness. We have just lost World War II,
and we must put an end to having
a political Santa Claus in the saddle.”

A coup was staged in 1991.

Boris Yeltsin stepped onto the stage, put it down,
pushed Gorby over the edge and took over.
That signified the end of all the reforms.
Every republic wanted to go it alone, and some took a very bloody path.
And the blood is still flowing

Yeltsin was a drunk and a demagogue in that order.
He let things slide, and in 1999, when they got too far out of hand,
he turned the country over to Vladimir Putin, a former KGB man.

The Union is broken up; the reforms have gone down the drain.
Repression and terrorism reign supreme in Russia
and most of the former republics.

Russia is still equipped with a nuclear arsenal,
and Vladimir Putin is more erratic than his former comrades.

Since Gorby’s departure hundreds of journalists have been sent into the next world.[1]

Gorby has been relegated to speaking tours and doing TV commercials for Pizza Hut
and the Austrian National Railways, too humiliating to describe.

The world would have been a lot better off if Gorbachev had taken
the slow but certain road – minus the ads.
But what’s the sense of wishful thinking in hindsight?
We’ve got the world that we have.

Thank you Ron and John!

 

Putin’s Proof

Putin proved that a communist
can be the best capitalist.
It’s all about power and money.
Money and power are synonyms.

 

Whitey

If you’re black, brown, red, yellow or a non-Gentile,
you can’t be a WASP,
but you can be Whitey,
otherwise known as The Man.
(And of course gender
is no obstacle
to qualify for that appellation.)

All you have to do
is put your own kind
behind you
and join those who formerly
put you in your place.

They need you now.
There are ticklish situations
to be taken care of.
And nobody is as well-suited
as those who used to be excluded.
Their enthusiasm is unparalleled.

– Herbert Kuhner

-Bill and Monica

von am 9. Juni 2018 um 17:04
Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics, Text

The Mouth as Launcher

Helen went off to Troy with Paris,
leaving King Menelaus behind in Sparta.

Helen had the face “that launched a thousand ships,”
which carried Greek warriers to fight a war that lasted a decade.

Monica’s mouth was attached
to what may not be the wrong place
under certain circumstances,
but was the wrong place in this instance,
as far as the other participant was concerned
and as far as the location was concerned,
which happened to be the last venue
that should have served
as a doppelganger for the boudoir.

Monica has the mouth that launched a thousand ships,
planes, helicopters, tanks, military vehicles and
thousands of troops, male and female,
to fight in a war with no end in sight.

Bill’s Second Term

Bill blew it,
the same can be said for Monica.

If Bill had given the reins to Gore,
he would have beaten Bush,
and there would have been no Iraq War.

On the Subject of Rape

“To all the bastards who thought they had buried him, to the horde of masked or unmasked avengers who dreamed of seeing him buried alive behind an updated iron mask, to all those who wanted to forget him and wanted him forgotten by the entire world, this act recalls a basic truth: an artist is a rock; he is indestructible; at the end of the day, the artist, not the mob, always has the last word.
Cheers, Roman my friend. I am deeply moved.”
– Bernard-Henry Lévy, philosopher, huffpost

Roman Polanski expounds: “If I had killed somebody,
it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see?
But… fucking, you see, and the young girls.
Judges want to fuck young girls.
Juries want to fuck young girls.
Everyone wants to fuck young girls!”
– Martin Amis in Tatler and “Visiting Mrs Nabokov,” 1979.

Let’s get one thing straight, Bernard-Henri, if being opposed to pedophilia makes someone a “bastard” and a member of the “mob,” I am gladly both.

The great film director has explained it all. You see, folks, we all want to do what he did.
Only he had the audacity to do it – he and some other culprits we call pedophiles.
We want to have him – and them – placed behind bars, because they are living our fantasies.

Whoopi Goldberg chimes in:
„I know it wasn’t rape-rape.
It was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.“
– Whoopi on the View

Yes Whoopi, getting a thirteen-year old drunk, giving her drugs, and then penetrating and so domizing her is not “rape-rape” but “something else.”

 

Pray, Whoopi, what is this “something else”?

– Herbert Kuhner