In Reply to: Relevance (for John Marks)... posted by David Aiken on August 3, 2006 at 16:57:30:
Here is the distinction.An artist I greatly admire, K. F. Dahmen, served in the Wermacht. He was drafted, he had no choice, he suffered during his service. Having been in the army did his career no good. Indeed, Dahmen's generally dark and brooding works seem to suggest that he was haunted by that experience.
Von Karajan, Riefenstahl, Schwarzkopf and others all used their sucking up to Nazis to advance their personal career agendas, and then got bad cases of amnesia.
For the Good Lord's sake, von Karajan conducted an orchestral version of the Horst Wessel Lied, a song that contains the words "our knives will drip with Jewish blood."
So, that is the distinction I would draw. Someone who was very young, or passive, or under compulsion (such as the case with the young Benedict XVI's Hitler Youth membership) does not have in my book anything to apologize for, just things to regret.
I certainly never held it against Fischer-Dieskau that he was "discovered" when he was a Prisoner of War.
But someone who climbed over dead bodies to rise higher in their career, I think, has some public repenting to do. And until they do so, don't go to their concerts or tout their records.
Sincerely,
John Marks
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Follow Ups
- Not "out of hand." - John Marks 07:03:37 08/04/06 (9)
- I don't read German - pconr 12:33:05 08/06/06 (5)
- My source for that attribution is Norman Lebrecht's "The Maestro Myth," p.115 - John Marks 14:09:11 08/06/06 (1)
- You've made yourself clear - pconr 17:48:38 08/06/06 (0)
- Re: I don't read German - Brian Cheney 12:42:21 08/06/06 (2)
- Are you saying that there are additional stanzas? - pconr 12:54:32 08/06/06 (1)
- Re: Are you saying that there are additional stanzas? - Brian Cheney 13:49:04 08/06/06 (0)
- Re: Not "out of hand." - David Aiken 14:55:33 08/04/06 (1)
- Re: I do treat others as I think they deserve * - .Guy 15:55:23 08/04/06 (0)
- I agree--NT - lancelot 12:32:18 08/04/06 (0)