1. A story from WWII you may not have known.
The Even Greater Titanic Tragedy
Twenty-five years ago, the blockbuster film “Titanic” premiered in the United States, kicking off a historic run that would bring in a record $1.85 billion worldwide and win 11 Oscars.
But 54 years earlier, in 1943, another film titled “Titanic” hit cinemas. It made history in a different way — by spreading Nazi propaganda, costing the director his life and using a ship for filming that would itself sink and kill far more people than the actual Titanic disaster. . . .
2. A story from the Vietnam War you may have forgotten.
“They’re going to be so god damned surprised,” US President Richard Nixon replied to Kissinger on December 17, the eve of the mission. . . .
3. A tragedy from 1948 we never heard of.
When Israeli graduate student Teddy Katz meticulously documented a massacre of Palestinian civilians surrounding Israel’s independence, he was initially celebrated for his groundbreaking work. But soon, he was stripped of his degrees and was publicly shamed as a fraudulent traitor. Decades later, incendiary new evidence emerges to corroborate Teddy’s initial findings, not just vindicating him, but raising profound questions about how Israelis — and we all — deal with the darker chapters of history.
Watch the trailer. And perhaps the whole film.
I promise to get into the Christmas spirit very soon.
For now, this is the song that comes to mind. Two senseless world wars, the second started by a megalomanic . . . just like today’s in Ukraine. The disastrous Vietnam and Iraq wars. The insane civil war in Rwanda. It’s important, I think, for kids around the world — be they German, Russian, or American; Japanese, African, or Israeli — to learn history, even when some of it gives pause.
