Rural Cowra: Jewish deportees, Italian & Japanese POWs

Following Nazi Germany’s enactment of the infamous Nuremberg Laws in 1936, expatriate Jewish organisations sought to help as many pot­ent­ial victims out of Germany and Eastern Europe as poss­ible. The USA, Britain and Shanghai China became potential sanct­uaries. 

Japanese prisoners of war, 12th Prisoner of War Camp, Cowra 

July 1, 1944.

Australian War Memorial

Location of Cowra, Hay and Tatura camps

in S.E Australia

Museums Victoria

In Australia, Jewish leaders begged Canberra to take Jewish re­fug­ees. And in Dec 1938, after Nazi occupation of Austria and Czech­os­lovakia, Joe Lyons’ Federal Labour government agreed to take an un­pre­ced­ented 15,000 desperate Jews. Yes, it came with condit­ions: The usual £500 landing fee was reduced for those with rel­at­ives in Aust­ralia and less for those with sponsors, IF all Jewish immigrants were the responsibility of the local Jewish communities.

Early in WW2, the majority of internees in Australia were herded into old internment camps, the Germans and Italians being estab­l­ished at the old Holsworthy Barracks in NSW. As the num­bers grew, new camps for prisoners of war were needed. By Sept 1940, the gov­ernment had completed 4 com­pounds at Tatura (Victoria), 3 at Hay and 1 at Cowra (NSW), 3 at Loveday (S.A) and one at Harvey (W.A).

Since they were Ger­man and Austrian citizens, the Jewish refugees who'd arrived with swastikas on their pass­ports were initially regarded as Enemy Aliens and threatened with int­er­n­ment. But how could they be Nazi symp­ath­is­ers if they were fleeing Nazism? Soon they became Friendly Aliens.

Cowra (pop now 10,000) is a pleasant town in a farming dist­rict 314km west of Sydney; it has two important war tales to tell. The first was the story of a settlement that became a haven for Jew­ish refugees who had fled Europe early in WW2. These were German Jews who had initially fled to Britain to es­cape Nazi persecution and were imprisoned on the Isle of Man. In 1940 Australia reached an agreement with Britain to accept c3000 German, Austrian and Hungar­ian young male prisoners, mainly Jewish. They were sent from Britain aboard the ship HMT Dunera. On arrival in Melb­ourne in Sept 1940, 500 deportees were tran­s­ferred to Tat­ura internment camp while the remaining males went north to Sydney and thence to Hay’s camps.

What the refugees needed in these horrible wartime conditions was food: vegetables, poultry and sheep. So the Australian Jewish Wel­f­are Service est­ablished two companies: 1. Mutual Farm Ltd and 2. Mutual Enterprises Ltd, to set­tle the refugees into ag­ricultural enterprises. This would satisfy the gov­ern­ment’s requ­ire­ments and guarantee the newcomers would not weigh on Australia’s economy.

The ref­ug­ees were largely city-people and few had worked on the land. The main training initially took place at Chelsea Park in West Sydney where 200+ people lived. Meanwhile 25 families mov­ed to their own properties, while 28 couples and 63 young men went into rural employ­ment.

Mooringa, a 100-hectare property outside Cowra, was pur­ch­ased by Mutual Farms in Sept 1940. The Mooringa Set­tlement disapp­ear­ed but historian Graham Apthorpe has re­corded an amazing era of WW2 history in his book, A Town at War. Apth­orpe interviewed 4 key people: Harry Kramer-Crom­er, Claude Newcombe, Margit Scouller and George Bluth. 

4 Jewish deportees working in Cowra

Australian War Memorial

Italian Prisoners of War installing a new filtration trench 

for their POW Camp septic system.

Digger History

Austrian Kurt Pisk (b1937) and his parents Fred and Anna Pisk fled Vienna after the Mar 1938 Anschluss/an­n­exation by Hitler. During their time at Mooringa, the Pisks were allocated two It­al­ian POWs to help them with farm-work. In fact the refugees were all hel­p­ed by local families, as was seen in the collection of rare photos Apthorpe found in Cromer’s photo album. [NB Mooringa  re­f­ugees were for­bidden cameras, cars and guns, in case they used them to advantage Australia’s enemy].

The photos in the Cowra Shire Council showed the refugees learning how to create life on the land. They were shown building their huts, cutting gum trees into fence posts, working with horses and learn­ing to plough & harvest. Of all the German-speaking Jews seeking a safe life in WW2, these were lucky ones.

They were still under surveil­lance of course. Regulations insisted that the Mooringa Jews travel weekly by horse-drawn sulky to the lo­c­al policeman in Cow­ra. So the sensible serg­eant, realising the Jews weren’t a risk to Allied security, told them to report monthly. The community at Mooringa totally ensured safety once the Jewish men were all­owed to enlist in the Australian armed forces, in Feb 1944.

News of the Cowra Outbreak,

Aug 1944.

Cowra was also known for holding 1,104 Jap­an­ese POWs, guarded by the 22nd Garrison Battalion. In response to in­formation that the prisoners were planning a mass outbreak, not­ice was given that all Japanese prisoners of low rank would be trans­fer­red to Hay Prisoner Camp. In Aug 1944, a prisoner ran shout­ing to the camp gates. Soon a bugle was heard when pris­oners, armed with knives and improvised clubs, rushed from their huts in a suicidal mission. Sentries opened fire but hundreds of pris­oners hacked the wire fences and escaped into open country, while others set fire to the huts. This was the Cowra Breakout, a desperate event that resulted in 231 Japanese dying and 108 wounded; 3 Australian soldiers were killed and 3 wounded. It was the lar­gest, most tragic WW2 prison escape on Australian soil.

In 1964 Cowra became an official Japanese War Cemetery when the re­mains of all the Japanese who had died in Aust­ralia were raised, transported and buried together. A gathering was held at Cowra to memorialise these Japanese men, and to build the World Peace Bell. Cowra’s lovely 5 hec­tare Japanese Garden and Cultural Centre were opened in 1979, and expanded in 1986.

Japanese Memorial Gardens, Cowra

Japanese War Cemetery, Cowra

Traces of War

Australia's deadly floods, October 2022

Australia is a continent that is arid over 70% of the land. Even in the 30% with rivers and trees, it is mostly known for its constant, very dangerous bush fires. But now we have to examine the three main types of flooding Australia has had.

 Townsville, Qld

npr

Maryborough, Queensland

Floodlist

1.Riverine floods are the most common form. The two main contrib­ut­ors to riverine flooding are heavy rainfall and the land’s capacity to absorb water. When the land is satur­ated, the excess water flows into river systems and pushes the overflow onto the adjacent low-lying areas.

2.Flash floods occur from short intense bursts of rainfall, as during a thunderstorm. They can be particularly dangerous in ur­ban areas where drainage systems cannot cope with the amount of water. As the water rises quickly, the drainage system may have insuffic­ient capacity or time to cope with the downpour. Alth­ough flash floods are generally localised, they may pose a signif­icant threat because of their short duration and unpredictability.

3.Coastal floods happen when a low-pressure system or strong onshore winds force sea levels to rise above normal levels, creating a storm surge that floods low-lying areas. All type of floods can be class­if­ied as minor, moderate or major bas­ed on their impact on communit­ies and infrastructure.

Floods occur all over Australia, however different types of floods are common in different regions. Location determines what type of flooding is likely to experienced: river, flash or costal flooding or a combination. In the extensive flat inland regions, floods may spread over thousands of square ks and last sev­eral weeks.

The damage from floods can be varied, extensive and far reach­­ing. The immediate impacts of flooding include loss of human life, long term damage to property, crop destruction and loss of live­stock. The ongoing emotional impact is often terrible, as are the em­otional st­ress and physical illness from waterborne diseases. Floods also dam­age power transmission and sometimes power gener­at­ion, which then has knock-on effects caused by the loss of power.

The 2022 flooding was caused by a low pressure system over Queens­land's southern coast that dragged in moisture from the Coral Sea in the north, raising it over the Queensland coastline. The low press­ure trough delivered the rainfall but an area of colder air higher in the atmosphere was drifting in, making the atmosphere unstable and permitting moisture to be lifted up and dropped as heavy rain. 

Hawkesbury River, New South Wales

Desdemona Despair

Lismore, NSW

 

The 2022 eastern Australia floods were one of the nation's worst re­corded flood disasters that occurred in S.E Queensland and in­to coast­­al NSW. Brisbane suff­ered major flooding, as did the cities of Maryborough, Sunshine Coast, Gympie, Cab­oolture, Too­woomba, Ips­wich, Logan City, Gold Coast, Murwillumbah, Mullum­bim­by, Grafton, Byron Bay, Ball­ina, Lis­more, Central Coast and Sydney. Clearly as the system headed south, it turned into an East Coast Low near New South Wales/NSW’s Central Coast and Sydney. It will not surprise anyone that Sydney received more rainfall this October than any other October total in almost 170 years of record-keeping.

22 people so far have died in the 2022 floods. Across S.E Queens­l­and, 1000 schools were closed in response to the flood­ing, evac­uat­ions were urgent and the public had to avoid non-essential travel. Food shortages occurred across the region due to the ensuing supply chain crisis in outback Queensland. The flooding caused the ground across S.E Queensland and Northern NSW to become saturated and vul­nerable to even small amounts of rain.

While the amount of rain was less than the huge volumes seen in eastern states earlier in the year, the situation in the southern state of Victoria was made worse by the ground already being sat­ur­ated. Victoria had experienced its wettest Aug since 2010, and Sept rainfall was above average across most of northern Victoria. 

Residents in Echuca, Victoria

building sandbag levees to protect their properties

theguardian

Shepparton, Victoria

NYTimes

Shamrock Hotel, Rochester Vic

Watoday

A low pressure system travelled east over the nation, bringing the rain which hit southern Australia throughout Oct. As torrential rain swelled many of Victoria's major waterways to flood level, tran­­s­port routes were cut, homes were inundated and communit­ies were isolated. Victoria's floods were particularly severe along the Goulburn, Loddon and Campaspe Rivers, and on the Murray River. The third yearly La Niña event in a row was an important driver of rain in spring and summer. But the Indian Ocean electric dipole was really the main cause of the recent inland crisis.

La Trobe, Tasmania

weatherzone

South of the mainland in Northern Tasmania, some of the most signif­icant flooding that they’ve had for years have subsided. But the wea­th­er system that pushed through in October has again lifted some of the northern river levels. And many of the catchments that were affected weeks ago have already received warnings that more rain was coming. Tas­manian residents in regions hit by recent floods are now preparing again as storm fronts move over the island state. Moderate flood warnings are in place to northern towns near Launceston, places already flooded.

Flooded areas across Australia, 2022

phys.org

Kent UK camp that saved 4,000 German Jewish Men: 1939.

During WW1 Richborough Camp was built on the River Stour, the start­ing point of a ferry service across the Channel for troops and munitions to Fran­ce and Bel­g­ium. A railway was built from the main line to the banks of the Stour, so thou­s­ands of soldiers could be transported. But by late 1918, this British Army camp was left derelict.

Location of Richborough/Kitchener Camp, Kent

across the Channel from France and Belgium

Richborough Camp and Port, Kent, in late 1918. So why was this camp rebuilt pre-WW2? By the late 1930s, the Council of German Jewry had been trying to or­ganise a safe haven for citizens, especially once they were swamped with requ­ests for help. In Krist­all­nacht Nov 1938, 25,000-30,000 Jewish men acr­oss Germ­any, Aus­tria and Sudentenland were arr­est­ed & confined in Buchen­wald, Dachau & Sachsenhausen concentration camps. They suf­f­­ered starvation and tort­ure, and hund­reds died in the brutal conditions.

Ironically, release from the German camps dep­ended on prison­ers prom­is­ing to LEAVE Germany asap! Ot­her countries refused to take more ref­ugees, so Kitchener Res­cue be­gan. Per­m­is­sion was given for the old camp to be rent­ed by the Council of Ger­man Jewry, to prov­ide a transit-camp refuge for Jewish working men. It was run by the Jewish aid organisations that organised the Kinder­trans­port. 

Until they had a safe haven, the men had to report weekly to a German pol­ice st­ation; meanwhile they remained at risk of re-impris­on­ment and death. Thus the priority was to get these sons and husbands out of Germany urgently.

The first men to arrive in Kitchener in 1939 had to rebuild
the old, derelict Richborough Camp from WW1.

Most men hoped that they’d have been able to gain employ­ment somewhere and then bring their families from Germany to join them. Kitchener Camp never offered this opportunity because the ref­ug­ees were only al­lowed temporary British residence vi­s­as and were re­quired to move on elsewhere. To obtain a place at Kit­ch­ener, then, men had to show that they had a good chance of emigrat­ing and finding work.

The sleeping huts and other facilities in Kitchener Camp were made ready

for 4,000 German Jewish men arriving in 1939  

How did German Jewish men gain places at Kitchener? See the journal of the Association of Jewish Refugees/AJR which showed Werner Rosenstock had been emp­loyed at the Council of Ger­man Jewry in 1939, the only major Jew­ish German organis­at­ion still funct­ioning post-Kristall­nacht. He helped select as many men as poss­ible from those with likely successful appl­ic­­ations for tran­s­it visas. IF they were under 49 and had some kind of document­at­ion promising entry to a for­eign count­ry, they could be selected from the mass of applicants freshly rel­eas­ed from Nazi camps. NOT being selected could have been catastrophic.

Dormitory huts

Some men were selected for th­eir ability to help reb­uild Kitchener camp in Kent; sh­ow­ing their practical skills meant they had a good ch­ance of being able to find work else where­. Afterall taking Kitchener from a derelict site to hab­itable in a month, to house c4,000 people, was a huge task. The Ger­man men had to install doors, windows and panes, roofs and elec­t­ric lights. After these re­p­airs, each hut was divided into 2 sec­t­ions, and 36 men slept in each.   

Work was obligatory, and there was a lot to get through each day. Lo­c­al farmers trained some men in skills for growing their own food, ne­c­essary both for their immediate situation and as a useful skill for employment later. There were also roads to be built, ditches to dig, drains to clear, and ongoing hut re­pairs. There was some time off from the la­b­our­ing schedule, but it was stress­­ful for those Germans who’d been used to a professional life. Others worked in the kitchens, pre­paring, cooking and cleaning 3 times a day. Remember that 3,500+ men were fed here daily, achieved by 400 men work­ing in shifts.

Some men worked in the off­ic­es. And some taught classes since every man had to do Eng­l­ish lessons, supplemented by locals from Sandwich. Rabbi Dr Werner van der Zyl led read­ings, dis­cussions and services in Kitchener; he was aided by a cantor who’d been res­cued by Kitchener’s transit scheme. Holy day cel­­ebrations were held in the camp tent in 1939 when services were held under wartime blackout cond­it­ions for c3,000 of the men.     

Synagogue tent, Kitchener Camp
Used on high holy days

There was also a large contingent (c60) of dentists and doctors. So Kitchener camp had an isolation hospital unit, general hospital, First Aid unit and laboratory.

 First aid station, Kitchener Camp

Music became hugely significant and as more professional musicians arrived, a camp orchestra was formed. Such was the orchestra’s reputation that in August 1939, a live BBC broadcast of one of their concerts was planned.

Musical presentation by Kitchener men 

for camp residents and for visiting Sandwich families

For leisure activities, some men rode bikes along coastal paths or sw­am in the sea. On Saturdays they also had time alloc­at­ed to play foot­ball. At night they were allowed out of the camp with a pass, although there was a night time curfew. Sandwich is a pr­etty, historic port-town, and in 1939 the historic homes and buildings in town were still appealing. A local store, Golden Crust Bakery, had fur­n­iture in the back, where they ser­v­ed meat pies and drinks. The owner was soon persuaded to sell European coffee, giv­ing them somewhere hugely popular to go for Kaffee und Kuchen. Other men went to the Empire Cinema in Sandwich.

Despite the men being called Friendly Aliens, pub­lic opinion turned again­st German-speaking refugees after Dunkirk’s evacuation in May 1940 and the fall of Fran­ce. Refugees had three choices: 1. serve in the Brit­ish Army, 2. be in­terned or 3. be deported to Aust­ral­ia or Canada. Of the men on the infamous Dunera ship to Australia, 239 men had come from Kitchener.

Then Kitchener Camp was closed.

Thanks to Gerry Pearce, coordinator of the Berlin-Niederschoenhausen Project, for directing me to Kitchener Camp and for recommending Clare Ungerson’s book Four Thousand Lives (2014).

 

King Edward VII's funeral and every king in Europe - 1910.

coronation of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, 1901

Wiki

King Edward VII (ruled 1901-10) died on 6 May 1910. After a priv­ate ly­ing in state in Buckingham Palace’s Throne Room, the coffin was taken to Westminster Hall for a public lying in state; thousands of cit­izens queued in the rain to pay their respects. Kaiser Wil­helm II wanted the hall closed wh­ile he laid a wreath; but po­lice feared this may cause dis­ord­er, so the Kaiser was taken in via another entrance. In total half a million people visited the hall to pay respects.

The funeral was held two weeks after the king's death. Crowds of 3-5 million gathered to watch the procession, the route of which was lined by 35,000 soldiers. It went from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where a small cerem­ony was conducted by the Archbishop of Canter­bury be­fore a small group of official mourners: widow Queen Alexandra, son King George V, daught­er Princess Victoria, brother Duke of Conn­aug­ht and nep­h­ew the German Emperor. The remainder of the huge funer­al party wait­ed outside the Hall. Big Ben was rung 68 times, Edward's age. 

The 9 monarchs and the Duke of Cornwall in funeral procession,
High St Windsor. Bridgeman

The march saw a horse­back proc­es­sion plus 11 carriages, proceeding from Westminster Hall via Whitehall and the Mall, Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch. From there to Paddington Station. Then the Royal Funer­al Train, built for Queen Vic­toria, took mourners to Windsor Castle where a full funeral ceremony was held in St George's Chapel. This pub­l­ic funeral was notable for the important European royalty in attendance.

Edward’s funeral passed in the streets of London on 20th May 1910. See the moving casket, heads of state walking behind the casket, royal carriage and marching military units.

The reigning European monarchs were present during King Edward VII’s burial in 1910. This was a great opport­un­ity and coll­ect­ed the mon­ar­chs for this historical image, possibly the only photo of all 9 kings in existence. The funeral was the larg­est gathering of Euro­pean royalty ever to take place, with representatives of 70 states and the last before many royal families were deposed in and after WW1.

Back L->R: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferd­in­and of Bul­garia, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Ger­many, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium. 

Front L->R: Kings Alfonso XIII of Spain, George V of Britain, Frederick VIII of Denmark.

wikimedia

King George V was related by blood or marriage to most of Europe’s sov­ereigns; he was a grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Al­bert, and first cousin of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and Ger­man Emperor Wil­helm II. Here he was seen with two uncles (Kings of Den­mark), brother-in-law and first cousin (King of Norway), first cousin by marriage (King of Spain) and 3 distant cousins, all descended from branches of the Saxe-Coburg family (Kings of Bulgaria, Portugal and the Belgians). And note that Frederik VIII of Denmark was father of Haakon VII of Norway.

The funeral service largely followed the format used for Queen Victoria. The liturgy was based on the Order for The Burial of the Dead, Book of Common Prayer. And Queen Alexandra accepted His Body Is Bur­ied In Peace, from George Frideric Handel's Funeral Anthem. Edward was temporarily buried in Windsor’s Royal Vault un­d­er Albert Chap­el.

Edward’s funeral was the last time all of the great Europ­ean mon­ar­chs met before WW1.  In fact WW1 ended most of the mon­archical lines of Europe for good. Looking at this picture really makes one real­ise how much WW1 was the result of national egos embodied by mon­­archs, rather than a sense of duty to their states. Within 5 years, Britain & Belgium went war with Germany & Bulgaria, and 4 of the 9 monarchies in the photo did not sur­­vive (Bulgaria, Portugal, Germany and Greece). 4 kings were later deposed and 1 was assassinated.

cousins Kaiser Wilhelm, King George, Tsar Nicholas 

King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War is a biography of the formative lives of cousins George V, Wilhelm II and Nicholas II, who led their countries into WWI. The three leaders grew up knowing each other since early childhood in a vast extended family, overseen by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Queen Alexandra ordered a mon­um­ent designed and exec­uted by Bertram Mackennal in 1919. It featured tomb effig­ies of the king and queen in white marble mounted on a marb­le sarcophagus, where both bodies were buried after the queen's death in 1925.

Man Ray: the most expensive art photo at auction ever?

Violon d’Ingres 1924

starring Kiki de Montparnasse, Christie's

to be auctioned in New York in May 2022

The eldest of 4 children, Emmanuel Radnitzky, was born in Phil­ad­el­phia in 1890 to East European immigrants. When Emmanuel was 7, the family moved to Brooklyn, where both of his parents worked as tail­ors. In 1912 the family changed their last name to Ray due to incr­easing anti-Semitism in the US eg they faced quotas on en­rolment and teaching positions in universities. Emmanuel became Man Ray

While Ray’s parents expected him to go to university after Brooklyn Boy’s High School, he dreamed of being an artist. And so, much to their disappointment, he turned down an architecture sc­h­olar­ship. Nonetheless his parents helped Ray turn his bedroom into a studio.

While living in New York, Ray frequently visited Stieglitz’s 291 gallery and took classes at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. Then, in 1915, he met the artist Marcel Duchamp. The two forged a tight bond, discovered the New York Dada movement and collab­or­ated together. But if Ray’s friendships with male colleagues were mutually supportive and a source of positivity, his relationships with women were not.

Noire et Blanche 1926
auctioned in Paris in 2017

In 1921 at 30 Ray was drawn to Paris. There he met and made friends with Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Ernest Heming­way, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein. He also met and loved his assis­tant Lee Mil­l­er, a talented photographer. Theirs was a tumultuous affair that inspired Ray’s readymade works of art.

Ray was showing a provocative attitude toward women in some of his art. And yet, many of the women in Ray’s life, including Miller, loved him long after their romances ended. Such was the case with the nightclub singer, actress, painter and model Alice Prin/Kiki de Montparnasse. In the portrait Le Violon d’Ingres 1924, Montparnasse had a violin’s characteristic f-holes superimposed on her back.

The artist's natural affinity for the Surrealist style. Even before the movement had coalesced in the mid 1920s, his work was influenced by Marcel Duchamp with its Surrealist undertones. He would continue to draw on the movement's ideas throughout his life and was very im­portant in popularising Surrealism with others.

Back in the U.S in 1940, Man Ray stepped off a boat in New Jersey, safe from the Nazi occupation of France. Man Ray had been a signif­icant contrib­utor to Dada, Surrealist and avant-garde move­ments.

In 1948, Ray met Juliet Browner and fell in love, marrying in a double wedding with their close friends, artists Max Ernst and Dor­o­thea Tann­ing. The couple returned to France in 1951, where they re­mained toget­h­er until Ray died from a lung infection in 1976. He was buried in Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris.

Surrealist brotherhood

Top row: Paul Eluard, Jean Arp, Yves Tanguy, Rene Clevel.

bottom row: Tristan Tzara, Andre Breton, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Man Ray

Credit: theartstory

Now leap forward to May 2022. Man Ray’s Le Violon d’Ingres 1924, a famed photograph of a nude woman’s back that’s overlaid with a violin’s f-holes, will be auct­ioned and should fetch $5-7 million!! If it sells within that range, it will become the most expensive photograph ever sold at auction.

The famous photograph, depicting his muse Kiki de Mont­parnasse, was rare since it was made when its corresponding negative was first produced. This made it very valuable for photographic experts.

The current record for a photograph by Man Ray was set in 2017, when an original edition of Noire et Blanche 1926 sold for $3 million in Paris Christie’s (see photo above). The Violin photograph is now the top lot to be off­­ered from the holdings of New York collectors Melvin and Rosa­lind Gersten Jacobs, fashion retailers who had deep ties to Surreal­ist circles. The Jacobs bought Le Violon d’Ingres directly from Man Ray in 1962, and kept it. The live sale will be de­dicated to the Jacobs’ Surrealist art collection at Christie’s NY.

Rosalind, a long time Macy’s executive, died in 2019 at 94. The coup­­­­le’s daughter and executor, Peggy Jacobs Bader, said that the works being sold reflected her parents’ playfulness. Highlights from the collection, including works by René Magritte and William Cop­ley, will tour London, Paris and Hong Kong before finally returning to New York. There they’ll be on view at Christie’s Rockefeller centre space, before the May auction.

Man Ray works have sold well at recent auctions. In 2021 200+ objects by Man Ray and artists in his circle was sold from the es­tate of his late assist­ant, Lucien Triellard. Held at Christie’s in Paris, the sales total­led $7.1 million, despite claims from the Man Ray Trust that some art objects were obtained illegally. 

Man Ray, Glass Tears.
1932 photography. Paris. Wiki

There is an irony here. Although Ray worked with different media, he saw himself prim­arily a painter. His American legacy was his photograph­y, which annoy­ed him – even when he died, photography was still considered a 2nd-class art form. Still Arthur Lubow, in Man Ray: The Artist and His Shadows 2021, str­uct­ur­ed his book around those who were closest to Ray i.e photo­grapher-gallerist Alfred Stieglitz and lovers Kiki de Mont­par­nas­se and Meret Oppenheim.  What a talented, well connected man Man Ray was.

Sir Ernest Shackleton: finding the Endurance ship in 2022 in Antarctic ice

Ernest Shackleton (1874-1922) was educated at Dulwich College London in the1880, then joined the mercantile marine service in 1890 and became a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Reserve in 1901. He joined Capt Robert Scott’s Brit­ish National Antarctic Expedition (1901–4) as 3rd lie­ut­enant on the Dis­covery and took part, with Scott and Edward Wilson, in the sledge jour­ney over the Ross Ice Shelf when latitude 82°S was reached. His health suffered, so he was sent home on the supply ship Morning in March 1903.                    

                                   

Watching the Endurance go down from a safe distance

1915, Britannica

15th Dec 1915, Ocean Camp

Cool Antarctica

 

Frank Hurley (L) and Sir Ernest Shackleton (R)

shared tent at Patience Camp, Weddell Sea

Cool Antarctica

In Jan 1908 he returned to Antarctica as leader of the British Ant­arc­t­ic Expedition (1907–9) on the Nimrod. The expedition, prevented by ice from reaching the intended base site in Edward VII Peninsula, wintered on Ross Island in McMurdo Sound. Nonetheless Shackleton’s sledging party reached within 180 km of the South Pole. Victoria Land plateau was claimed for the British crown and the expedition was responsible for the first ascent of Mt Erebus. The sledging party returned to the base camp in late Feb 1909, discov­er­ing the Nimrod had set sail 2 days earlier. Shackleton and his party set fire to the camp to signal the ship, which received the signal and returned to the camp after a few days to retrieve them. At home, Shackleton was knighted.

In Aug 1914 the British Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition left Brit­ain under Shackleton’s leadership. He planned to cross Ant­arc­tica from a base on the Wed­dell Sea to McMurdo Sound, via the South Pole, but the expedition ship Endur­ance was trapped in coastal ice and drifted for 10 months before being crushed in the pack-ice. The expedit­ion men then drifted on ice floes for anoth­er 5 months and finally escaped in boats to Elephant Island in the Shetland Islands, living off seals, penguins and dogs.

Shackleton and 5 others sailed 1,300 km to South Georgia in a whale boat for 16-days across dangerous ocean, before landing safely; there they made the first crossing of the island to seek aid. Four mon­ths later, after leading separate relief expeditions, Shackle­ton succ­eeded in rescuing his crew from Elephant Island. Note that not one of Shack­leton’s crew of the Endurance died!

From the tip of South America to Antarctica 

BBC, 2019

Shackleton attempted a fourth Antarctic expedition aboard the Quest in 1921, intending to circum-navigate the continent, but he soon died from exhaustion. Appropriately Sir Ernest Shackleton was buried in the Grytviken cemetery on South Georgia Island.

**
The project to find Shackleton’s lost ship was run by the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust, using a South African icebreaker Agulhas II. The Endurance, that was crushed by sea-ice and sank in 1915, has been mir­ac­ulously found at the bottom of the Weddell Sea. The sinking forced Shackleton and his men to make a gutsy escape on foot and in small boats. Even though it has been sitting in 3km of Antarctic water for 106 years, Endurance still looks largely intact.

The Endurance was trapped in sea-ice for months before sinking in 1915 in the Weddell Sea. For a fortnight the subs investigated various tar­g­et areas until uncov­ering the wreck site, at a depth of 3,008m. The wreck itself, including its artefacts, is a designated monument under the Intern­ational Antarctic Treaty and must not be disturbed.

The Endurance found

all equipment seems intact

NBC News

The days since the discovery have been spent mak­ing a detailed photo­graphic record of the ship which looks much the same as when photo­gr­aphed by the film man Frank Hurley in 1915. The masts are down and the bow is damaged where the sinking ship hit the ground. But the anchors are present, some boots and crockery are intact, Shackle­ton's cabin has a perfectly shaped porthole and the ship's name is crystal clear directly below the stern’s hand rail.

Conclusion
Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition set out to make the first land crossing of Antarctica, but he abandoned the quest when the expedition ship, Endurance, was trapped and then holed by sea-ice. Survival was miraculous. And finding the ship in 2022, in Weddell Sea which is permanently covered in thick sea-ice, was even more miracul­ous. 

Post WW1 regeneration - a photographic exhibition in London

Roehampton, patients being taught to use new artificial limbs, IWM 

Making a New World consisted of commemorative exhibitions, instal­l­at­ions and experiences at the Imperial War Museum, London. Climaxing on 2018’s Remembrance Day with a series of events to mark war’s end, it explored how WW1 shaped the society we live in today. The best poster was an Evening Standard bill­board with the single word in red: Peace. But peace was only the start. The themes of the rooms were: 

Renewal: Life after WW1, 

Re­building Society, 

Rebuilding the Individual and 

Reshaping the World.

Renewal: Life after WW1 in Photographs, one part of Making a New World, was in just three rooms. It showed 130 black and photographs from the museum’s enormous archive, plus contemporary documents and the odd artefact thrown in eg a grotesque head from a cathedral in France, nicked by British soldiers as a souvenir.

Post-WW1 countries, cities and individuals had to regenerate and rebuild themselves on a huge scale as a new world emerged. Through a rich coll­ection of photographs, visitors dis­covered the innovation and resourcefulness that shaped the rebuilding and regeneration of the world post-war, revealing resilience and creativity in times of great change.

Reconstructive Plastic Surgery, IWM

Highlighting the ways in which individual lives, landscapes and national identities recovered, evolved and even flourished in the aftermath of war, this extensive collection of photographs, documents and objects examined renewal and the complex process of reconstructing a home, town or cont­in­ent. From images of refugees returning to ruined homes, through the re­construction of Ypres, to battlefields depicting the destroyed villages and were never rebuilt, these rarely seen photo­graphs from this little-explored time period revealed the extent of destruction and change in war-torn Europe and beyond.

Photographs told more than words: the Amiens couple with their little boy gazing at the devastation that was once their home; the exuberance of the swarm of soldiers piled up on a vehicle for the Armistice parade. Rebuilding was correct when it came to the devastation of the cathedral in Amiens, or the jolly cigarette shop that sprang up in the ruins of Ypres, but also model housing schemes built here. A sad note observed that residents often felt that their nice new dwellings had less community spirit than the old homes.

The photos charted the initial optimism that followed WW1, as well as the realities of displacement, demobilisation, soc­ial change and the fall of empires. Many individuals found them­sel­ves in new nat­ions as borders were re-drawn and empires ended, but while the devastating effects of war were felt all over, dev­elop­ments in materials and new technologies also led to innovat­ions. Reshaping the World had the ill-fated Treaty of Versailles with one photo of the sheer swarms of observers and press in the Hall of Mirrors.

Military equipment was repurposed for civilian use and advan­ces in medicine and plastic surgery enabled the reconstruction of bodies. So Rebuilding the Individual was optimistic but painfully literal. There were pictures of legless soldiers being trained to use pros­thetic limbs and a Captain Francis Derwent measuring a disfigured former soldier for facial reconstruction.

Of course photos couldn’t show the mental scars. But this Exhib­ition inspir­ingly revealed the stren­g­th, inventiveness and brill­iance of people after a horrific war, during times of unrivalled social and political change. The prosthetic limbs, for which there was great demand, increased the will of the medical profession to help the young men who gave so much to their country.

A refugee family returning to Amiens, 17 September 1918, IWM

First World War Propaganda Poster, IWM 

There were also fascinating photos of the conflicts that persisted or began after the war. Some derived from the Russian Revolution, between communist and anti-communist forces. Some were forgot­ten. One picture showed a British plane flying over the mountains of Iraq, and there was a finely structured photo of Ukrainian troops clambering up a hill in snow. Some soldiers were saved from unem­p­loyment by joining the permanent forces eg the optimistic poster called See the World and Get Paid For Doing It. More realistic photos showed soldiers in the Indian-Afghanistan mountains.

This exhibition, which ended in 2019, may have been small but it constantly promoted questions. In its documentation of the scale of the cost and consequences of the war, it showed WW1 to be as horrific as our grandparents said.

fun-filled Victorian & Edwardian seaside resorts

Clacton Pier

John Hannavy's book cover

Taking the waters, fresh air and exercise were so popular for the Georgian moneyed classes that Jane Austen featured spa towns in her novels. These trips were an excuse for high soc­iety to mingle, since they could stay at lovely hotels, attend the theatre and wear fashionable clothes. 

Coastal towns offered a welcome break from the cities’ choking poll­ution, a place to treat common ail­ments. Prince Albert (d1861), a keen advocate of science & healthy living, led by example, build­ing a new maritime palace in 1845. When cities were industrialising, a break from pollution seemed essential. 

The Industrial Revolution also brought railways. This new mode of transport opened new opportunities for people to spend their valuable leisure time. The burgeoning Victor­ian middle class could aff­ord rail fares and were keen to follow where the aristocrats led. Small commun­it­ies, sometimes fishing villages, be­came bustling resorts.

Ryde Pier on the Isle of Wight was close to Queen Victoria’s summer retreat, making it a popular site. Opened in 1814, its length expanded and a tramway was added along-side the pedestrian pier. Sou­thend was originally built in 1829 as an attract­ion for Londoners and extended out into the Thames est­uary. By 1848 was the longest pleasure pier in Europe. Work on the Southport Pier began in 1840 and opened in 1860. Then work began on North Pier, Black­pool, completed by 1863. The pier was damaged in 1867 by Lord Nelson’s former flag­ship. In the 1870s, the pierhead was enlarged, the Indian Pav­il­ion and band­stand were built and the tower went erected in 1894. Brigh­ton Pier was begun in 1891 and done by 1899. A 1,500-seat theatre was incor­por­at­ed into the pier­head in 1901, with other smaller pav­il­­ions in the plan. Llan­dudno was built in Wales in 1876-7. A band-stand at the pier head was added in 1877 and a pavilion in 1884. 

Eastbourne Pier

Promenading with hats and umbrellas

The larger piers developed live music halls and concerts. Unmarried young ladies were chaperoned at first, but it was later common for groups of both men and women on organised trips to stroll along the promenade, in lovely attire, to meet and socialise. 

The Bank Holidays Act (1871) saw 4 days set aside through the year as official holidays for all. These were not paid, but with ever-improving transport links and the cost of an excursion subsid­ised by organisations, the seaside holid­ay began to change in both its scale and its experien­ce. In the early C19th, everyone had Sunday off. In the 1870s some skilled workers began to have Saturday afternoon off. In the 1890s most workers gained a half day holiday on Saturday and the concept of a weekend arrived. Then some skilled workers began to have paid holidays, and could stay at flourishing sea­side resorts. 

It had not been unusual for men to bathe semi-naked in the sea. But in later Victorian times, when there were more women and children sharing the beach, pro­p­er Victorian etiquette was followed. Local councils had the power to set how far apart the sexes had to be when bathing. Women needed a dress large enough to prevent indecent exp­os­ure of the body. And another benefit! Until the 1920s, having a tan was considered vulgar and only for labour­ers. Parasols were also used on the beach for shade. And straw hats. 

Beach machines, pulled by the horse to the water's edge

Family enjoyment

Blackpool pier and tower

As modest as Victorian swimwear was, a woman having to walk down the beach to the sea was not acceptable. Instead they used a bathing mach­ine. Resembling a beach-hut with 4 wheels, it was pulled out to sea by a horse. Once deep enough in the surf, the bather then exited the cart using the door facing away from prying eyes. When the swimmer wanted the bathing machine ret­urn­ed, she signalled the operator by raising a small roof flag. Only thus could Victorian women exper­ien­ce sea-bathing firsthand.

Adults were used to listening to bands playing outside, once Victorian bandstands became the centre of parks and beach resorts around the UK. The first domed bandstand was made from iron in 1861!  Outdoor music was definitely adopted by beach resorts to provide high quality entert­ain­ment.  

Did Victorian children enjoy any activities? Since rising prosperity brought more dis­posable income and the ability to spend some time together as a family, access to the seaside increased. To entertain children, buckets and spades were mass-produced from thin sheet met­al and often brightly painted with beach scenes. Once bought, they were used for years. Puppet shows became a British seaside attract­ion in the C19th. This was partly thanks to new mobile booths that the op­er­ator could quickly disman­tle and move on. Donkey rides became very popular, or even carts pul­l­ed by goats.

Tasty, informal sea food (fish & chips, cockles, whelks) was much loved: but fattening, glutinous and eaten out of the bag while walking. And clearly in defiance of convent­ional table manners! Ice cream sellers pushed carts along the beach all day.

Folding deckchairs had been patented in the U.S in 1855. Origin­al­ly used on ocean liner decks, the transition to lightweight and port­able chairs in port towns must have been a natural one. And electric lighting lit the promenades, steam carousels and fairground rides.

John Hannavy’s The English Seaside in Victorian and Ed­wardian Times (2003) was a collection of holiday photos from major coastal towns. The timing was perfect since photo­graphy and beach holidays developed together. Just as holidays for working families be­come possible, photography was be­coming av­ailable to keen amateurs with their portable cam­eras. And postcards were easily purchased.

Thanks to History Revealed and 18 Victorian Seaside Pleasure Piers.

violent Red Summer in the U.S 1919-21: Tulsa and other cities

storming the Omaha courthouse

In the U.S, the Red Summer reign of racial terror arrived post-WWI. With an econ­om­ic re­ces­sion and the rising of the New Negro, det­ermined Bl­acks would no longer tolerate oppression. Ex-service­men who’d so re­c­ent­ly fought for democracy in Europe returned home ex­pect­ing U.S’s constitutional promise of equality. Yet during Red Sum­mer, White mobs attacked Black communities in 26 U.S cities.

In Sept 1919, 10,000 Whites stormed the Omaha NE court­house, de­mand­ing the sheriff release Will Brown, an older Black meat­packer. The mob raided the building and when their initial demands were refused, they burned the court­house down and invaded the gaol. They tor­t­ur­ed, mut­il­ated and tied Brown’s body to a car, dragging his corpse into Om­aha’s Black neighbour­hood. Hundreds of grinning White men crowded around.

White men burning Will Brown's corpse, Om­aha

Black writers & academics encouraged Black ex-servicemen to fight ag­ainst exclusion and injustice. In Longview Tx, community leader Prof Samuel Jones entered the gaol where local man Lemuel Walters was arrested, for loving a White woman. The in­mates said that Walters had been taken away by a gang of Whites; lat­er an unident­ified Black body was found near the rail­road.

Prof Jones was soon attacked, and the local sheriff promised Prof Jones would be lynched before mid­night, unless he left town. In July 1919, a gang drove to Jones’ house, mounted the porch and yelled for Jones. No Black men were killed in the viol­ence, but appar­ently White men did die. The surv­iv­ing Whites left but re-gathered at day­break, setting Prof Jones’ house alight.

New anti-Black accusations ?were sparked by the film Birth of a Nation 1915. This rac­ist block­buster by D.W Grif­f­iths, inspired by The Clans­man, gave a nasty rac­ist view of Black people; and it glorified the Ku Klux Klan as the protector for Southern White women in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. Sadly Pres Woodrow Wilson screened the filmed at the White House and loved it.

Red Summer clearly fuelled The Great Migration when 6 mill­ion southern Blacks escaped rac­ism by catching buses to Northern cities.

In 1919, Chicago Race Riots erupted that boiling hot July. Black teen Eug­ene Williams walked to the beach and put his raft into cool Lake Mich­ig­an. The raft crossed an invis­ib­le colour-line drawn in the lake when suddenly a White man began to stone Eugene. To death. His murder sp­ar­ked 7 days of violence when White men drove through the city’s Black Belt, shooting, burning and looting homes. 15 Whites and 23 Blacks died, and 537 more were injured, as noted in Chicago History Museum. Field secretary for NAACP and a det­er­­mined race in­vestigator, Walter White was sent to Chicago to report on the crisis.

 

Black home in Chicago taken over

Black families forced out of their destroyed homes in Chicago

Walter heard about a violent mas­s­acre in Arkansas, after Black share-croppers unionised to fight for better wages. The Red Sum­mer clim­axed in exp­loding viol­ence in Phillips County AR. White news­papers warned that Negroes were plotting to massacre Whites and to run state gov­ern­ments. They acknowledged the vicious Black consp­ir­acy was abort­ed, but it had been neces­sary to kill Black revol­utionists to restore peace.

In Sept 1919 Black men gathered to discuss the Prog­res­sive Farmers and Household Union, to address the debt spiral created by White land­owners who cheated Black cotton-farm­ers out of profits. As they left the church in Elaine AR, shooting op­ened up and WW1 ex-servicemen in­side the church returned fire. All hell broke loose. Rumours spread that the Blacks were rebelling, so thous­ands of Whites from Missis­sip­pi, Ten­nessee, Texas and Louis­iana descended on the rural Black com­m­unity, killing c800 Black peop­le. The massacre continued until U.S soldiers from Camp Pike were sent with guns; 285 Black people were arrested!

The men were taken to Helena AR’s court, chained and forbidden law­y­ers. 12+ of the Black men arrested were tortured: White gaolers soak­ed rags with formaldehyde and pushed them into prisoners’ noses, and used electrical shocks against Black genitals, to coerce confessions. After a six-minute trial, 12 Black men were sentenced to death and 75 were gaoled for 5-21 years.

Ida Wells-Barnett, the anti-lynching crusader journalist, interviewed the Black men who’d suffered ev­ery cruelty known. After NAACP took the case, the Elaine Twel­ve made national news. NAACP attorney Scipio Jones took their case to the Sup­reme Court and won their release from death row.

the Elaine Twelve, AR

The racial terror did not end in Arkansas, nor did Red Summer end in 1919. White mobs continued with their hatred/fear of Blacks, and in 1921 in Tulsa OK, the hat­red erup­t­ed into a tragic massacre. In May 1921, Black teenager Diamond Dick Row­land went to Tulsa’s Drexel Building, entered an elevator op­er­ated by a young White woman who screamed and Rowland fled; Rowland was later arr­es­ted for assault­ing a White woman. Whites killed 300 Blacks indisc­riminately. Occ­upied houses of Blacks in Tulsa were set on fire, and when the occupants ran out, mobsters shot them.

Then the Whites des­troy­ed 35+ square blocks of Greenwood, a comfort­able all-Black community, attacking the county court­house, Black churches, 1,200+ business­es, hospit­al, school, library, theatres and banks. At best, Tulsa Police did nothing to prevent the massacre; at worst some police actively part­icipated in rioting. Hundreds of White civ­ilians were deputised and given guns to shoot Blacks. Bodies of Black people were thrown into the Arkansas River or dumped into mass graves but no-one was pros­ecuted!

armed white men driving through a Tulsa neighbourhood, 

June 1921

Greenwood Tulsa devastated

City officials didn’t rebuild post-massacre and actually prep­ared Greenwood’s more restrictive building codes. And the courts intro­duced new statutes of limitation. Despite the Black WW1 ex-soldiers just wanting equality, on­going racial seg­re­gat­ion, discrimin­ation and structural rac­ism continued.

Read Red Summer: When Racist Mobs Ruled by D.L Brown and photo credits to Photographing the Tulsa Massacre of 1921 by Karlos K. Hill