The Writer's Life 4/19 - Battles

Last night a PBS station in NYC ran yet another fascinating documentary, Escape From a Nazi Death Camp. Sobibor was in the middle of Poland. 250,000 poor souls were murdered there. The more fortunate were forced into hard labor. When word that all the inmates were going to be killed on a certain date reached the informal leadership of the prisoners through an informant, a plan of escape was considered. There was a huge problem -- no one had any military experience. As fate would have it, a group of captured Jewish Russian soldiers was sent to the camp. The plan was to cut the wires of outside communication, eliminate as many SS officers as possible in a two-hour period in an effort to leave the rest leaderless, and storm away enmasse. 300 were involved. To maintain secrecy, only a few were told of the exact details. As expected, many were killed at the barb wire fence, others in the minefield beyond it. All but 50 were recaptured and executed. The remaining lived in the forest until the end of the war. The story is told through a handful of those still living at the time of production, and through re-creations, and runs about 50 minutes. It is riveting. The only disappointment is that the Kommandant was not killed, or hung post-war. He served a prison sentence, was released, and even reconciled with one of the survivors. I wouldn’t have been forgiving. I just checked Netflix to see if there is a movie based on the incident. Sure enough, Escape from Sobibor was released way back in 1987. I added it to my watch list.


The government invests no Social Security funds in the U.S. stock market. In an article in today’s NY Post, Jonathan Krugman cites that had a mere 25% been invested in 1980, it would have grown to 7.22 trillion today. The program now risks insolvency. Its funds have been spent, IOUs left in their place. Leaders are proposing solutions that will meet fierce resistance, which will manifest that greed is universal and not restricted solely to the rich. SS was designed to save citizens from abject poverty, which it accomplished admirably. I believe it should be means tested. When I applied at 62, I was not asked how much money I had saved. That seemed lunacy. I couldn’t help but wonder why I wasn’t denied and told to reapply once my funds sank to a certain level. Then again, fiscal common sense is not the government’s forte. In the first six months of the current fiscal year, which began July 1st, the feds, according to a blurb in the Post, have a run a deficit of 430 billion.


Although the temperature was 20 degrees cooler than yesterday, it was still pleasant enough so that the floating book shop wasn't a trial. My thanks to young Adam, who bought four thrillers, to BS Bob, who bought two books for his grandkids; to Bad News Billy, who scooped up all the VHS, DVDs and CDs I had; and to the mom who bought four kids' books her daughter picked out. One of Bob's selections has a great title: The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, a collection of stories with a political bent by Sherman Alexie, a Native American.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
Vic's Short Story Collection: http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tiny.cc/0iHLb Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/kx3d3uf
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tinyurl.com/pdxwsnt

Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

Vic's Blog: http://vicfortezza.blogspot.com/

Vic's Web Site: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/