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When Peter Getzels and I were asked to make a documentary in the Czech Republic about a 90 year-old harpsichordist, I envisioned a barbed-wire dive into history, with the music of J.S. Bach to soften the blows. As with every new production, I had a steep learning curve. But I never imagined the film would morph from an inspirational, self-contained history piece, to a chilling, cautionary tale about our world today.

The most alluring part of the production was getting to know the musical virtuoso Zuzana Ruzickova, who survived three concentration camps and slave-labor as a teenager, and forty years of communism in Czechoslovakia after the war. Her American cousin Frank Vogl, built a career around fighting corruption. When Peter and I first met with him in 2013 to discuss a film about his work, the conversation turned to life under the communists in Czechoslovakia. He described how his cousin had become one of the worlds greatest interpreters of Bach despite the regime.

Can we meet her? Peter said, because we should really try to film with her. Immediately. As a Jewish American whose family has been in the US for nearly a hundred years, I often wondered what I would do if power were seized by an elected dictator; someone who defied laws and civil rights with impunity, and persecuted minorities. Would I join the resistance or hope for better times? Would I wait around, or flee?

You pronounce my name like rouge, Zuzana Ruzickova told me when we first met in Prague. She spoke with formidable precision and a smile. You have to soften your z; Its rouge-ITCH-kova. I nodded and repeated her inflection, happy that she came with a simpler first name. Her life however, was anything but simple.

During our four-day interview in Zuzanas vintage kitchen her home since the end of World War II we encountered a woman who knew no shortage of hardship; but also joy. Zuzanas dignity enabled her to tell a larger metaphysical story than the sum of the blows she suffered as a teenager in Terezin, Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen. Her caustic humor fueled outrage that modern Europe under the communists could be so bizarrely crazy and cruel. But with every new twist in her epoch story, Zuzana seemed to get inside the head of JS Bach.

What would the Baroque composer have made of her world, had he woken up beside her on the train to Auschwitz? How would he have responded if he were employed not by the church to compose his music, but by the town council of her Marxist Leninist state? With a warm, stony stare after every turn in her story, Zuzana speculated on Bach. Like her, he had little control over much of his life. For Zuzana his music captures a higher order, which has spoken to her since she was eight years old.

He starts with a fugue, she says, that transcends our worries and pains. Its above human suffering. As she describes the music of Bach, it feels as if his higher order embedded itself in her DNA as a child, to protect her from everything that conspired to annihilate her, while guiding her to the legendary acclaim she won in the music world.

Although she refused to join the communist party, the leaders promoted her talent for profit and status. After she won the top award at the Munich Festival in 1956, they dispatched her to hundreds of international concerts and competitions. While the communists confiscated much of her wages, they could never rob her of the power and dignity of her performances. In 1964 a Paris record producer from the Erato label flew to Prague, and offered her a contract to record all the keyboard works of Bach.

This was one of the happiest eras of my life, she says. Few people know that Bach composed his keyboard works only for the harpsichord, a 14th century instrument made of wood, string, feathers or quill; which explains why Zuzana committed herself to this instrument. Recently Warner Music digitized the entire opus, and released her recordings on a 20-CD box set.

Those sessions in Paris happened over a period of ten years, she says. But the minders were with me every minute. Her face darkens with disapproval as she refers to her communist chaperones. When I hear the recordings now, I want to make corrections. I was only allowed to stay in Paris for 3 or 4 days at a time; so I never had a chance to sit with the engineer, and tell him which recordings to keep.

As our production neared completion, I imagined the experience of watching the film: hearts would sink with the turmoil in young Zuzanas life; and leap with joy at the sheer majesty of her music. I envisioned all the horror and triumph in the face of Nazis and Communists, contained in a kind of cultured, Eastern European bell jar.

And then the bell jar shattered. First with the Brexit vote driven by xenophobes; then when Trump won the election, showing little respect for tolerance and democracy; as if Nazi and Communist genies had escaped from our bell jar. The genies took the form of Alt-Righters and Russian hackers, taunting what weve always taken for granted: that democracy is forever; that our constitution is infinitely wise; and that the office of the president exists to respect and sustain both.

What does Zuzana make of these never again events? Im turning 90 and Ive seen so much, she says. Things happen in cycles. She gives me her ironic, stony stare.

And what would Bach have made of all this, I ask. I dont think he would have changed what he was doing, she says. You know, he was a sort of mystic. He didnt adhere to any single church when he composed. He wrote his music in protest and passion. Those were the words I was looking for to describe the life of Zuzana Ruzickova: Protest and passion. But theyre no longer part of a story contained in a bell jar. Not history. Not anymore.

ZUZANA: MUSIC IS LIFE will have its world premier at the Full Frame Film Festival in Durham, North Carolina, on Saturday, April 8, at 10.30am.

Read more from the original source:
Where Fascism, Communism and Bach Meet - Huffington Post

When it comes to trademark law, it's worth repeating that its primary function is to prevent customer confusion and to act as a benefit for consumer trust. This mission has become skewed in many ways in many countries, but one of the lessons learned via the Washington Redskins fiasco is that even well-meaning attempts to have government play obscenity cop will result in confusing inconsistency at best and language-policing at worst. When government begins attempting to apply morality to trademark law in that way, it skews the purpose of trademark entirely.

To see that on display elsewhere, we need only look to Hungary, where the government is considering stripping the trademark protection for some of the branding for Heineken beer because it resembles the ever-scary demon that is communism.

The rightist government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbn, which faces an election in April 2018, says it is a moral obligation to ban the commercial use of symbols such as the swastika, arrow cross, hammer and sickle, and the red star. Heineken has had a star logo on its beer for most of the years since it was first brewed in the second half of the 19th century, changing to a red one in the 1930s. The star is thought to represent a brewers symbol or the various stages of the brewing process. But the red star was also a major symbol of Soviet communism and used to appear on the crest of communist-era Hungary.

Which, frankly, is entirely besides the point. It should be immediately clear how silly this sort of thing is. Stripping trademark rights for symbols tangentially related to causes a government doesn't like is bad enough, but outright banning their use in commerce is obviously a statist act by government. It does nothing to benefit the consuming public, one which will already be quite familiar with Heineken and its branding, and instead is a move designed to play on the strain of nationalism currently weaving its way through much of the West. But it accomplishes nothing concrete. Heineken isn't communism, no matter how many red stars it puts on its labels.

But dumb ideas like this necessarily come with even more extreme consequences.

Under the new law, businesses using these symbols could be fined up to 2 billion forints (6.48 million) and jail sentence.

The danger in allowing the government to play language police in this way should be clear. Fortunately for us, this particular case in Hungary eschews the slippery slope entirely and instead simply jumps off of the corruption cliff.

Last week Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjn, who jointly submitted the bill with Orbns chief of staff Janos Lazar, was quoted as saying that the red star in Heinekens logo was obvious political content. At the same time, Semjn did not deny that the ban was linked to Heinekens legal battle with a small, partly locally-owned beer maker in Romanias Transylvania home to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians over the use of a popular brand name there.

That's where this always will eventually lead, with government taking this sort of power and abusing it to favor one company over another. Hungary simply did us the favor of putting that on immediate display. If you're going to go full corruption, after all, why bother hiding it?

Excerpt from:
Trademark Censoring: Hungary Considering Banning Heineken Red Star Trademark Because Communism - Techdirt

Socialism: State owns and controls everything apartments/homes, wages, where you go, what you drive, kids education and etc. On national news every day, we have heard people on left or social reports. Question is, lefties protesters, called communist? No, these are people who are worked up like the lynching mob in western moves. They are tough socialists in classes. They believe teacher knows best and that state is God.

Retirement, yes, for only as long as you can do light work, then you are put in a state home and in a few weeks the family will get a letter you passed away. You want a baby? You must fill out a form, allowed (1), sex of baby. If you are wrong, baby is killed. If you have twins, of collect sex you want, one will be killed. If you cannot pick, both will be killed. Years to wait to try again.

(Food) A mother waits in line to get food for her family, knowing down the block is a store that has lots of everything she needs. Shes not allowed in that store, its for party leaders, visitors, state masters. You ask a woman how she likes this? Most will only look at you, maybe one would answer. You know how it is. A worker works overtime, let us say he makes $10 an hour, here he would get $80, in socialism he has to share this $80 with his co-workers equally. They have KGB, we have IRS. They have spies, we have traders or leakers or informers. Same thing.

May 1, 1921 Socialism took over Russia. Russian Independence Day. Ninety-seven percent of farmers were killed, more starved to death in 1921 than they lost in WW II, total losses. People looked at Germany as liberators, thats why when Russia retook lost land, they had a purged land policy. In other words they killed everyone, and everything. Its a holiday here in the county. Mayday.

The lucky few of us who will be killed at the beginning people like me (I was once asked, are you willing to give up everything I have worked for all my life) who try to inform you all about communism, police officers, military, government leaders, federal and local, newspaper people, and farmers, will be killed extremely soon. Farmers are the most reluctant to give up the farm. (small farmer has over a $100k invested in farm) not just a house. Its a way of life. Worth dieing for. They are part of the land, and the land is part of them. Rest of you will starve.

Communism is a monetary system not a government. In Russia they teach that the only good communist is a Russian communist. When they take over, they will kill the local communist, that is not married to a Russian spy.

What is a communist? A radical view as a subversive or revolutionary. Look it up in dictionary.

R.B. Morris

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Originally posted here:
Socialism vs. communism: Know the difference - Marietta Times

NEW YORKIldiko Triens charmed and pampered life in Romania was flipped on its head when she was 5 1/2 years old.

Her father, who spoke 16 languages, was a businessman; her mother, a lawyer. Her Hungarian-born family was rich and they owned land. Triens father also reared Lipizzaner horses.

One night in 1946, four or five men with leather coats and caps barged into their house and grabbed the whole family. The family was planning to escape to Palestine the very next day.

They put my brothers shoes on me, Trien remembered. He was four years older. They were so big.

Her father was snatched away to a gulag, and Trien, her mother, and her older brother, Csaba, were taken to live in a shack outside of Bucharest.

We were considered bourgeois, said Trien. Intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, and landowners were rounded up and placed in gulags. The gulags, or forced labor camps, dotted the route of a canal the prisoners were made to construct. It linked the Danube River to the Black Sea.

We got put in a house with dirt floors, kerosene lamps, and a haystack, Trien, now 75, recalled recently in Manhattan, where she lives. The shack was was a dramatic change for a girl who, until then, was used to being dressed in outfits to match her pony.

Trien didnt see her father for more than two years after that first night.

My childhood was taken away from me, she said.

Brayer Piry, Ildikos mother, was forced to stop practicing law when communism took over Romania. She died on Dec. 19, 1989, only days before the Ceausescu regime was overthrown. (Courtesy of Ildiko Trien)

Triens mother was given a job loading big sacks of potatoes and corn onto a train at night. She was able to bring some bread for me and my brother.

In 1945, communism had begun its slow but deathly grip on Romania. Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin imposed communism on Romaniahe held the master plans, he sent troops, and he installed the first communist leader, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.

After the abdication of King Michael I at the end of 1947, communist leaders spent the next decade or so establishing a totalitarian regime.

Numbers vary, but it is estimated that up to 1 million Romanians were imprisoned in the gulag system; many were forced to work on the canal.

As fate would have it, her fathers dealings with Lipizzaner horses presented her family with an opportunity. The owner of Krately Circus, who had done business with Triens father, found them a week after they were relocated and suggested they join the circus to help them stay under the radar.

Trien and her brother started out dancing, then became trapeze artists after training for several years. Eventually, they rose to the top of the profession, performing tricks that had never been done before. Their mother sold tickets.

It was a hard life. On a typical day, Trien would wake up early, do a full practice, go to school, then come home and do two shows. But because they traveled often, they were somewhat removed from society and they didnt suffer as much as her fellow Romanians, Trien said.

Ildiko Trien (nee Brayer), 5, and her brother Csaba Brayer, 9, did some Scottish dancing when they first joined the Krately Circus in Romania in 1948. (Courtesy of Ildiko Trien)

The Securitate, the secret police at the nucleus of a vast security network, had embedded itself in the society, and family members and neighbors were encouraged to spy on each other. For a marginally better life, people would report on neighbors, saying, for example, that theyd heard them listening to Voice of America, Trien said. Everyone learned to put pillows over the telephone before talking about anything sensitive.

[The communists] destroyed the moral structure of society so there was no society, she said. It used to be that as a human being, you had a higher power and it helps you behave in a certain way.

[Communism] is such a subversive thing.

For years, food was rationed using coupons. Trien said she and Csaba had red coupons, because they did what was considered heavy work. They got more bread and meat. Her mother had a yellow coupon for light work.

My mom never sat down to eat with me and my brother, Trien said. She would make sure her children were full first, then she ate whatever was left.

Trien would attend school wherever the circus was located, often for only a month in one place and a month in the next.

Because Trien was considered bourgeois, she was given a social grade of zero at school. Peasants got a plus-10. I had to get an A-plus at school just to pass, because the zero would bring my grades down.

About two years after their family was torn apart, when Trien was almost 8, the family received a postcard saying they could visit her father. On it was a list of items they could bring him: lard, cigarettes, two pairs of underwear, and socks. Trien still has the burlap bags they brought him.

Brayer Karoly, Ildikos father, was a wealthy businessman before being taken to Romanias gulag system in 1948. Brayer died in 1956 in a jail. (Courtesy of Ildiko Trien)

Trien remembers traveling to where her father wasthe area was arid and cold. Once they got to the gulag, called something like White Doorway, they waited for their name to be called after the prisoners finished their forced labor.

They waited. Their name wasnt called.

Her mother went to ask and was told he had been transferred to a worse gulag due to bad behavior.

The gulag, called Black Valley, was about 30 miles away, so Triens mother found a taxi and they headed there.

The driver would only go as far as the large tripods that were set up as lookouts, about half a mile from the camp, Trien recalled.

Her mother got out, put Trien right in front and Csaba right behind, grabbed their bags and said, March!

The soldiers started to fire, but Triens mother told them to keep going, saying, They wont shoot children.

They passed the bodies of two men who had been hanged. Around their necks were signs with the warning Escape is Death.

The gulag was encircled by a triple layer of barbed wire.

Somehow, among the thousands of prisoners, her father saw them.

He jumped into the barbed wire and yelled, Give me my kids!' Trien said. Thousands of the prisoners started stamping their feet and yelling, Give him his kids!'

Guards quickly came out and took the three of them into the camp. My mother was screaming to us: Dont cry.'

Father had blood on his hands from the barbed wire, and it got all over my hair and face. For years, I would wake up from nightmares about having blood on my face, Trien said.

She said her father was so skinny he looked like a skeleton.

The children were only allowed to see their father for a few minutes and the guards refused to allow their mother to see him at all. Trien remembers walking a lot once they left the gulag.

Three years later, when Trien was 11, Romania hosted the 1953 World Youth Festival, a communist expo with the motto No! Our generation will not serve death and destruction!

She was one of the big stars of the show, describing herself as being by then Romanias Shirley Temple. On stage, Party Secretary Gheorghiu-Dej picked her up and asked her what she wanted.

I want my father.

OK, sure, lets bring him up.

No, he is at the canal.

Three days later, men from the Securitate visited the circus. They asked me why my father was in a gulag, Trien recalled. I said, Youll have to ask the comrades why.'

By then, she had learned to censor herself. Whatever was on your mind, you dont say iteven as a child, you learn to keep your mouth shut, she said.

You had to believe strongly in something inside. You had to believe this is not the reality. But you dont talk about it.

The men returned a week later and told her they couldnt release her father because he had shown bad behavior by hunger striking and resisting his imprisonment. But they gave the family a rental house in Bucharest to live in instead, Trien said.

Ildiko Trien (nee Brayer) (bottom) completes one of the most difficult maneuvers on a trapeze, with her brother, Csaba, catching her with his feet. The duo were in Florida as part of a cultural exchange with the Ringling Bros. in 1971. (Courtesy of Ildiko Trien)

After Stalins death in March 1953, the gulag system weakened, but Triens father was only freed in 1956 for three weeks. He was placed in the hospital for high blood pressure before being imprisoned again and died three days later.

Trien was married at age 21 to an academic, but it ultimately didnt work and she was divorced seven years later.

In 1970, Trien and her brother got the opportunity to go to the United States to work at Ringling Bros. circus for three years on a cultural exchange.By then, Nicolae Ceausescu was in power in Romania and life was about to get a lot worse in the country.

Trien married an American man in 1973 and stayed in the United States, where she has lived ever since.

In the last 47 years, Trien has made the most of her freedom. For years, she exercised her First Amendment rights as executive editor of Fire Island News, which serves a community on Long Island. Now she runs her own company in Manhattan, Accent Funding, which provides bridging loans.

Despite leaving Romania so long ago, Triens memories of communism run deep. Even today, when exiting a shop, she still stops and looks both ways to see if there is anything dangerous around her.

My antennas are always up, always aware, she said. This is surviving communism.

Communism is estimated to have killed around 100 million people, yet its crimes have not been fully compiled and its ideology still persists. Epoch Times seeks to expose the history and beliefs of this movement, which has been a source of tyranny and destruction since it emerged. See entire article series here.

Read more here:
A Life Turned Upside Down by Communism - The Epoch Times

Film

In his historic biopic The Young Karl Marx, director Raoul Peck gives us a very different picture of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels by imagining the founders of communism as wild hipsters in 19th century England.

'The Young Karl Marx' is a historical period drama depicting the life the German father of communism. Marx vowed to change the world, theorizing about the causes of social revolution.

KINObrings you this year's nominees for the German Film Prize, And we check out Raoul Peck's new biopic The Young Karl Marx. Plus, we laugh out loud to the debut film from Austrian comedian Josef Hader.

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Lithuania doesn't have dark crime novels like Scandinavia or Nobel Prize-winners like the Belarusians. But it's a country full of bookworms and a diverse history that's reflected in its books, writes DW's Inga Janiulyt.

The new film "Rammstein: Paris" will hit movie theaters around the world on March 23. The footage was taken from two concerts in the French capital. Recently, the band turned out for the film's premiere in Berlin.

On the first day of spring, warm sunshine has yet to make its grand debut for the year here in Europe. As we wait, we can get out fill of flowers via a bit of art therapy in these classic artworks.

Insults, rape and death threats: Even though the internet was supposed to be the great equalizer, hate speech online has led women to take a more passive role. In Germany, the search for solutions is on.

Rents in Berlin are high, and it's very hard to find a place. Looking for accommodation was a very bad experience for DW columnist Gero Schliess.

Read the rest here:
Communism - the Salad Years: "The Young Karl Marx - Deutsche Welle