Author Robert Watson discusses The Nazi Titanic at virtual book club event

WATCH: Virtual Book Gild on The Nazi Titanic

Lookout: Virtual Book Club on The Nazi Titanic

The Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation and The Philadelphia Citizen welcomed writer Robert Watson for an exploration of a shocking just little-known tragedy of Earth War II

Aug. 03, 2020

"Never forget."

Information technology's a sentiment that's deeply woven into post-Globe State of war II Jewish culture, a phrase as familiar to students in suburban Hebrew schools as information technology is to congregants in metropolis synagogues and retirees on the tennis courts in Boca.

Those two words are a reminder and a call to action, imploring Jewish people to recollect the tragedy of the Holocaust and the stories of the vi million Jews who died, and so that it may never be repeated again.

And yet 75 years after V-E Day, when Germany ultimately surrendered to end the war, we are witnessing an unprecedented spike in acts of anti-Semitism. Last year, according to Anti-Defamation League (ADL), there were 2,100 documented anti-Semitic incidents, the highest number since the arrangement began its tracking forty years ago.

In Philadelphia, we are watching history unfold this very week every bit the chorus of voices calling for the resignation of the head of our chapter of the NAACP grows louder, in the wake of that leader'south anti-Semitic online posts.

It is why the educational work of Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance Foundation (PHRF), and the Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza information technology adult and oversees at the corner of 16th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, continues to exist more imperative than always.

And it is with this lens that guests joined PHRF and The Citizen final week for a Zoom chat with Dr. Robert Watson and Citizen co-founder Larry Platt, with introductory remarks past PHRF Executive Director Eszter Kutas and David Adelman, who chairs PHRF's board and sits on The Citizen'south board, too.

Watson is Distinguished Professor of American History at Lynn University, and the author of more than 40 books. His latest, The Nazi Titanic, has done what Platt says all journalists dream of doing: unearthed something previously unknown to the masses. That something is the tragic fate of the German ocean liner SS Cap Arcona which, in the concluding days of the Third Reich, was packed with thousands of concentration camp survivors and mistakenly bombed past the British Regal Air Force.

"Y'all found a story that none of us knew existed, in an expanse where I thought in that location were no more new stories," Platt said to kick off the discussion.

Watson went on to explain his accidental discovery of a letter that set his research journey in motility.

"I think every paleontologist dreams of putting a shovel in the ground to start a garden, and pulling up a new dinosaur," he said, by way of analogy. "As an historian, I think I've constitute a couple of proficient stories in my career, only nothing like this. I've always said that quite simply there's more nosotros don't know about history than nosotros do know about history."

Watson had intended to write a book about the concluding week of Earth War II in Europe. "I'grand such a nerdy historian," he said with a laugh. His goal was to develop i story of beloved, and one story of loss. "That's what really humanizes such a momentous event," he explained.

But while he was doing his archival research, he came across a letter from a major in the British army, who wrote that "of all the horrors of Earth War II, nothing volition compare to watching thousands and thousands of Holocaust survivors all die at the end of the war when nosotros were signing a surrender."

Watson was flabbergasted.

"I got the letter and I went What is this? I've never heard of this." He called The U.s.a. Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C., The National WWII Museum in New Orleans; he emailed Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and Royal War Museum in London. Nobody knew anything of it. He spent days in athenaeum, and ultimately found another letter, this one from a British general who was the 1 on the embankment when everybody aboard this send, dubbed The Nazi Titanic, died.

Bolstered past his discoveries, Watson switched gears and pigeon headfirst into farther research, putting force per unit area on himself to bring the volume the life as speedily as possible, while the terminal Holocaust survivors are nevertheless alive. The resulting tome explores questions of politics and policy, heart and humanity.

As the event wound down and audience members shared their questions and comments for Watson, at least three revealed that they had relatives who'd survived the Nazi Titanic. Floored, Watson encouraged them to accomplish out, as it became readily apparent that history is ever being unearthed, that there is so much more to learn and to share, and that we must all do our part to keep history alive.

"For the words never forget […] to really have resonance, we take to re-teach every generation," Watson said. That's simply what he did.

To learn more than about PHRF, read our previous coverage here, and visit the Horwitz-Wasserman Memorial Plaza. And exist certain to stay tuned for information well-nigh The Citizen's upcoming events, which will resume with gusto in September.

Want more? Check out recaps of our other recent virtual book club events.

trosclairamurectime.blogspot.com

Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/the-nazi-titanic-robert-watson-interview/

Share this post