SIXTY-seven years ago Soviet troops liberated the notorious Auschwitz concentration camp and revealed the horrors of the industrial scale of Nazi attempts to perpetrate "the final solution" on the Jewish people.
The United Nations has since designated January 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Across Europe the day is marked by poignant memorial ceremonies.
It is estimated that 6 million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis in World War Two.
The 67th anniversary was a doubly poignant occasion in the Polish town of Owicim where 91-year-old Kazimierz Smolen, an Auschwitz survivor who became director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau museum, died before ceremonies began. His death was marked by a minute’s silence in his honour.
I thought I’d write this week about anniversaries.
Aunty Beeb has just celebrated the 70th anniversary of its longest running radio programme, Desert Island Discs. The enduring show has a seemingly timeless appeal. Its founder, the late Roy Plomley, is said to have come up with the idea whilst typing in his freezing Hertfodshire digs back in 1941.
You’ll doubtless be familiar with the format. Imagine yourself cast away on a desert island. You’re asked to choose eight records, a favourite book and one luxury item. It’s been a winning formula ever since.
Listeners have tuned in these last 70 years to hear how politicians, celebrities, the great and the good explained their choices whilst revealing personal insights into their private lives.
It seems Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony has been their most favoured classical music choice whilst Edith Piaf’s "Je Ne Regrette Rien" has been the most frequently chosen popular tune.
In 1958, soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf chose seven of her own recordings out of her of eight record choices... Almost predictably, Michael Caine chose "My Way". Amazing what people reveal about themselves – whether intentionally or not!
Amongst the 2881 luxury items to be taken, according to the BBC’s website, were 183 pianos, five trombones, the Albert Memorial and a cheeseburger machine. The Bible and the Complete Works of William Shakespeare were amongst the preferred reading materials.
The show’s very first guest was Vic Oliver, "comedian, lightning club manipulator, violinist and comedy trick cyclist", according to surviving scripts. Recorded in the BBC’s bomb-damaged Maida Vale studio on January 27, 1942, it was aired on the Forces Programme two days later.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill loathed Oliver, who he dismissed as "a nobody". This was very personal. The men had a history. Oliver had married Churchill’s daughter, Sarah – despite the PM’s objections. Relationships, you might imagine, were strained with the in-laws... A desert island may well have been very appealing for the comedy trick cyclist!
American rock singer Debbie Harry, who founded the new wave band Blondie, told listeners she regretted not having children. Whilst Diana Mosley, one of the famous Mitford sisters and glamorous 1930’s socialite (she married Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of Britain’s fascist movement), created one of the show’s most jaw-dropping moments over her assertion that six million Jews did not die in the Holocaust – "I know it was much, much less" she claimed.
For whatever reasons the show’s producers have yet to invite me to appear. This may surprise some Caithness Courier readers who may just recall some of my previous scribblings about living the life of a castaway on an abandoned island – probably Stroma, but possibly in Hoy’s Rackwick Bay.
There I imagined a rigorous daily routine of study and contemplation. My chosen subject had me specialising in the deep meaningful analysis of the revelations exposed by the sun’s changing light intensities on seasonal landscapes and the seashore.
I saw it then – and still do – as a sort of spiritual quest to share those insights in a few reassuring daily words which I would e-mail subscribers across the globe. (My laptop would be powered by a solar panel in the simple croft I inhabited above the shore.) I counted the basking seals and cawing gulls amongst my few companions.
My only concession to the secular world was a simple request for female companionship in the evenings. Then a buxom maid would serve steak and chips and frothing ale... A sort of room service.
I’m just waiting for Kirsty Young, who was presented Desert Island Discs since 2006, to give me a call. Naturally I will keep you posted.
ALTHOUGH not an anniversary as such, more a reunion, it seems there is at least the possibility of a Monty Python get-together.
There’s certainly been lots of speculation the former Python cast will be shoulder to shoulder as they dub voice-overs for Terry Jones’s new animated film Absolutely Anything.
The sci-fi film, the Pythons’ first since 1983, follows a group of aliens "who bestow the powers to do ‘absolutely anything’ upon a clueless human being in the hopes that he’ll screw it all up".
Speaking on the BBC Breakfast show Jones said: "The Pythons have agreed to voice the aliens."
Yet though John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin have agreed it seems Eric Idle has not signed up. "Eric has not committed to the film yet," Jones admitted. "We’re putting pressure on him. I don’t think he thinks we’re grateful enough for the money we’ve made through Spamalot yet."
The legendary Pythons never shied from controversy. Their 1979 film The Life of Brian created an uproar from "the Dead Sea to Dagenham".
Set in first-century Judea it follows the hapless Brian Cohen who has been thrust into the role of reluctant Messiah. Jones, himself, played Brian’s mother in the film. How could you forget her denial: "He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy!"
A masterpiece of anarchic satire it was "puerile, silly but also very clever". Christian and Jewish organisations alike condemned it as "blasphemous", "grievously insulting" and "a crime against religion". Thirty-nine UK local authorities imposed an outright ban or certified it x-rated to restrict its viewing.
I know nothing of the storyline of Absolutely Anything. Who knows where Jones’s "stream-of-consciousness style of humour" will take us?
We do well to remind ourselves though how, on the one hand, religious freedoms have been paid for at great human cost. And how, on the other hand, religious oppressions have led to so much trouble in the world today.
AND now for something completely different (as the Pythons’ would say). Congratulations to Thurso musician John Newton who has just penned an endearing guitar instrumental to Andy Coghill, who died recently in Dunbar Hospital.
Andy had taught guitar in the town for years and latterly supported John at North Highland College UHI.
Andy’s Song can be heard on Facebook by visiting Newton’s New Originals. It’s a tender wistful, yearning piece. A truly beautiful tribute.
