With the long flights I was able to finish my latest book. It is a historical fiction that focuses on the US Ambassador in Germany during the first several years of Hitler’s term as Chancellor in the early 1930’s. Larson is so good at making history come alive and I couldn’t put the book down. He did so much research and weaved so many facts and actual diary/memoir entries into the narrative that makes it almost read as a non-fiction.

It made me re-think the rise of Hitler and the ordinary German citizen’s role in the rise of the Nazi party and the eventual start of WW II. In hindsight it is easy to criticize how American officials acted, knowing that Hitler eventually would want to wipe out all Jews and take over the world. There were many people that realized this, especially those living in Germany at the time. I loved the book also because it is a book about expat life, and I could easily empathize with Ambassador Dodd having his family overseas. His daughter was quite an item back then, and she dated many of the Nazi officials and even a Soviet spy (all true).

I didn’t realize how much fighting there was within the Nazi party. This was especially true while Hitler was establishing himself and re-arming Germany. Hitler and his inner circle were all a bunch of young (my age) psychopaths leading the country to war. I don’t understand how his view point could be adapted by so many people. The “brown shirts” with their marches, strict laws against the Jews, and his speeches full of rage… There was something obviously off about the guy and I don’t understand how the conditions Germany after World War I, could allow the opportunity for someone like that to come to power.

Many in the government were critical of the US Ambassador, William Dodd. But in hindsight, a policy of appeasement or more neutrality would not have given us any influence on the Nazis. To tie it in with Serbia, this would eventually lead to the April 6, 1941 bombing of the city.

The book is moving up the NY Times Best Seller list and I highly recommend it.

It is one of the things I most appreciate about life in Belgrade are the boundless opportunities to enjoy the fine arts and cultural and intellectual stimulation. Belgrade is a city with high percentage of “cultural elite.” There are loads of book stores, lectures, art exhibitions, music concerts, theater, etc. that one can experience.

Last weekend we attended a performance of the Belgrade Philharmonic. Nadia and I are season ticket holders and I’ve blogged on them before. The video above is a snippet of the Russian composer, Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” It was originally a piano piece, but Ravel expanded it to an orchestral work. While listening, I couldn’t remember where I heard it before. Nadia reminded me of the “Baby Einstein” video series. Yes! Mussorgsky wrote it shortly after the death of a good artistic friend. He went to an exhibition of his works and was inspired to write this piece1874.

Last night I convinced Nadia to go see a film in the International Documentary Film Festival, “Bel Docs 2011.” The documentary film festival features international and Serbian films showing in various locations in the city for the next week. I would love to see many of them as I love documentary films, more so than regular movies. However, with three young children and a busy job, I have to pick and choose my spots. We got a babysitter last night and headed down to the Dom Omladine, one of the venues of the festival. The Dom Omladine, which means “youth center” in Serbian, is a government-owned building in downtown Belgrade that is a “center hat promotes programs for youth in the sphere of contemporary art and culture.” The building has been refurbished and we were impressed with the theater and lobby. I’ve made a link to the website on the blog because they hold many events.

We watched “An African Election” a film by Jarreth Merz. It is about the 2008 presidential elections in Ghana. We have family living there so it was interested to see the life there in Accra. I loved the character of Jerry Rawlings, who was the long-time dictator and president of Ghana. He ruled 12 years as a military dictator (’81-’92) and  another 8 years (’93-’01) as the elected president. His party lost power peacefully in ’01 and it was nice to hear of a change in power in Africa without violence. I won’t spoil the film’s ending, but his party ran again in 2008 and he played a big part in the campaign again.

I’ve always been interested in the lives of dictators. In the countries I’ve lived in or visited, there always seems to be a historical figure who ruled the country for a long time. It would make a great book – comparing the lives of various strongmen in different countries. I would have a section for how many people they killed, jailed, exiled, along with subjective biographies looking at things that are not usually covered in standard histories.

I was truly inspired after watching this short video by Ric Elias. He was in the front row of the plane that crash landed in the Hudson River, New York a few years ago.

The three points he makes in this talk were as follows:

• Have a sense of urgency on what you want to do in life. “It can all change in an instant.”
• Eliminate negativity from your life. Your main mission should be to be happy and spread that to others.
• Be the best father you can be!

Yesterday I also listened to a podcast interview on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) with Paul Cox, an Australian filmmaker. He survived cancer with a literally last-minute liver transplant. Both Paul and Ric’s near death experiences brought out much of the same feelings. The possible ending of their lives, brought to the forefront, the beauty of life and instead of religious feelings, feelings of sadness at the loss of being able to experience life. It is the daily small things that we have to appreciate. I agree with Paul – believe in the clouds,  family, friends, trees, etc. How wonderful life is!