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Mark R. Stoneman

Historian, editor, and translator for hire (German to English). Longtime resident of Washington, DC, now in Conway, NH, as a caregiver (he/him).

  War & Society

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    📽️ This evening I saw “Secret Agent,” dir. Alfred Hitchcock (UK, 1936). It was a box office hit in its time, but for me it’s less compelling than “The Thirty-Nine Steps” (1936) and “The Man Who Knew Too Much” (1934). The cinematography and moments of suspense were nonetheless entertaining and characteristically Hitchcock.

    Unlike the protagonists in the other two movies, who become involved in espionage by chance and are clearly the good guys, the protagonists in this film play morally ambiguous roles. Their mission is to locate an enemy agent in Switzerland and assassinate him before he can carry British military secrets to the Ottomans. Only the playful, but dark character played by Peter Lorre enjoys the necessary close-up work of killing.

    Silhouettes of hanged spies out a train window on the way through enemy territory underline the ultimate personal price during war, if caught. A Swiss hotel and casino serves as a glamorous counterpoint, with social banter, dress, and flirting more in line with the 1930s than 1916. That means viewers are treated to Madeleine Carroll’s bare shoulders while she is wrapped in a towel that covers the rest of her body in a scene with two men in full dress.

    Black and white illustration of a woman in an elegant dress pointing a pistol at someone. Background color of full page ad is magenta.

    Distributor advertisement targeting cinema owners in The Film Daily, June 23, 1936, p. 3, via Internet Archive.

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    📽️ Just watched “Berlin Correspondent,” dir. Eugene Forde (20th Century Fox, 1942). It’s not so much about a reporter as it is about the Gestapo’s efforts to uncover his spying and then beat his escapes. Interesting to me were the overt references to euthanasia or “mercy killings” in the film.

    Here, though, the commander of such a facility jokes about Germany soon being “100% insanity free”—nice irony for a wartime U.S. audience, but maybe less funny to 21st-century ears. In any case, the quick-thinking American journalist outwits the Gestapo. The tone doesn’t feel too far removed from the 1960s TV sitcom, “Hogan’s Heroes” (1965–71).

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    📽️ For thievery and spying escapades set in the Blitz, “Counter-Espionage” (aka “The Lone Wolf in Scotland Yard”) dir. Edward Dmytryk (Columbia Pictures, 1942), isn’t bad. If its light tone, despite its air raids and bombs, seems out of place, it was produced for a wartime public in need of good tales.

    By the way, the film has an odd science fiction component to it, though I have no idea how believable it would have been to the audience. First, there were plans for a lethal blue ray contraption (military figures in Berlin spoke of directional rays). Second, the spy ring transmitted information to Berlin with a large device that more or less functioned like a wireless fax. Finally, these people communicated between London and Berlin over the radio by voice.

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    📽️ I enjoyed “Diplomatic Courier,” dir. Henry Hathaway (20th Century Fox, 1952) this evening, available at archive.org… and youtu.be…. There were airplanes, trains, and cars from Washington to Salzburg to Trieste. One interesting twist for me: One of the leads was Hildegard Knef, who starred in the 1946 DEFA film “Die Mörder sind unter uns” (The Murderers Are Among Us).

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    📽️ After watching Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 “Rome Open City” (Roma città aperta) this weekend, I’ve started on his “Paisan” (1946). This is only the second time I’ve seen this remarkable collection of six stories about soldiers and civilians during the Allied liberation of Italy, and it feels raw.

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    Killing and Fueling Hatred

    We Germans refuse to believe that people want to be free.… All we’re good at is killing, killing, killing! We’ve strewn all of Europe with corpses, and from their graves rises up an unquenchable hatred. Hatred… hatred everywhere! That hatred will devour us.

    These words are the subtitle translations of lines spoken in the famous early postwar film, “Rome Open City,” dir. Roberto Rossellini (Italy, 1945). They issue from the mouth of a drunk German officer to his Gestapo commander, who was sure he could make a staunch Italian partisan talk that same night.

    The scene reminds me of assertions by Niccolo Machiavelli in The Prince (1532): It is better to be feared than loved because fear is something the ruler can control. But the ruler should avoid awaking the hatred of his subjects because that emotion could prove fatal to him (chaps. 17 and 19).

    For Machiavelli, hatred resulted from a ruler taking the property and women of his subjects. For the drunk officer in “Rome Open City,” the German masters' attacks on honor, dignity, and human life inspired deep hatred, but the Gestapo officer denied that emotion’s power.

    In our own time, Putin seems to appreciate the personal danger that he is in. He likely doesn’t blame himself for this circumstance, but he knows that his system of rule will continue to demand political assassinations, the ruthless suppression of free speech, and predatory corruption.

    His war against Ukraine helps him legitimize his tyranny inside Russia, but he seems incapable of grasping that he will never bend Ukraine itself to his will. No matter how much property he destroys, no matter how many bodies and lives he disfigures or ends, Ukrainians refuse to surrender their personhood, nationhood, and dignity. If anything, Putin has turned this European neighbor into a formidable enemy. The hatred he fuels as he robs Ukrainians of their children and other loved ones cannot be overstated.

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    I enjoy the short cartoons that @Freeonis makes about Russia’s war against Ukraine. The latest, “The Art of Ceasefire,” is no exception. youtu.be… 🇺🇦

    Animation screenshot shows Trump with arms out talking about his genius. He is wearing a Burger King crown.

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    It did not hurt my feelings to see reports of a Putin limo going up in flames. I also enjoyed seeing how scared the president is of his own honor guard. See commentary on Silicon Bites #119, March 29, 2025. youtu.be… (6 min.)

    #ПутінХуйло #RussiaIsATerroristState

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    Operator Starsky (@starskyua.bsky.social) talks with Ben Hodges about the current strategic situation in and around Ukraine. youtu.be… (19.5 min.) 🇺🇦

    #СлаваУкраїні #RussiaIsATerroristState #ПутінХуйло

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    Committing war crimes against Ukrainian POWs trains perpetrators to abuse their fellow citizens in custody back in the motherland. See “How Russian prison officers are ‘honing their cruelty’ on Ukrainian POWs,” meduza.io/en…. 🇷🇺

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    Yellow poster with blue and black text showing a young woman in white with a blue cap reaching out from a blue triangle, symbol of War Work Council relief efforts. The text reads 'REMEMBER THE GIRL BEHIND THE MAN BEHIND THE GUN' and 'Y.W.C.A.' At the very bottom in small letters: 'WAR WORK COUNCIL'.

    YWCA War Work Council poster, ca. 1917 (United States)

     

    Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002707403

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    Institute for the Study of War: “US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff uncritically amplified a number of Russian demands, claims, and justifications regarding the war in Ukraine during an interview on March 21.…” www.understandingwar.org…
    #RussiaIsATerroristState #Disinformation #СлаваУкраїні

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    Gaullism, loosely defined, long struck me as a French eccentricity that simply was. Now Trump’s and Vance’s posturing places France’s view of itself in the world and vis-à-vis U.S. defense structures in a new light. Instead of peculiar, not to mention expensive, it appears to have been prudent.

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    More animated satire by @Freeonis: “Oval Deception” (3 min.) at youtu.be…. Use the closed caption button (cc) for subtitles.🇺🇦

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    Putin Playing Trump for a Fool Again

    The 30-day partial cease fire that Putin and Trump agreed to is a one-sided joke.

    Russia probably needs relief from strikes on its energy infrastructure more than Ukraine does because the former depends on energy to finance its war. Ukraine, at least, has made it through another winter, when attacks on its energy infrastructure hurt the worst. Moreover, its air defenses seem to be more effective than Russia’s.

    The real kicker, though, are the accompanying demands and threats, which continue to assert Russia’s maximalist aim of destroying Ukrainian sovereignty by demanding it do nothing to improve its defense posture. Meanwhile, the White House and Kremlin “agreed to set up Russian and American expert groups to ‘resolve the war bilaterally,'” i.e., without Ukraine or the rest of Europe. Of course, the Kremlin issued yet another tired threat of “escalation.”

    Will the White House side with Russia again, despite the Kremlin playing Trump for a fool? It wouldn’t surprise me, given that Trump has no advisors who will tell him what he needs to hear. I hope I’m wrong.

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    “After Trump DEI Order, Navajo Code Talkers Disappear From Military Websites,” www.axios.com….

    From 1942 to 1945, the Navajo code talkers were instrumental in every major Marine Corps operation in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

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    A 1943 Photo of Welders for Women's History Month

    Four African American women welders employed to work on the Liberty ship SS George Washington Carver, kneeling and holding welding equipment. Bits of the port and shipyard are also visible, as are three men, two black and one white.

    “Skilled women workers helped build SS George Washington Carver.” Photo by E. F. Joseph for the Office of War Information, Kaiser Shipyards, Richmond, California, ca. 1943.

    With nearly 1,000 Negro women employed as burners, welders, scalers and in other capacities at the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, Calif., women war workers played an important part in the construction of the Liberty Ship, SS George Washington Carver, launched on May 7, 1943. Welders Alivia Scott, Hattie Carpenter and Flossie Burtos await an opportunity to weld their first piece of steel on the ship.

    Repository: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYPL Digital Collections, image id 1206635.

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    “JACL condemns Trump erasure of 442nd and 100th Infantry Battalion,” asnews.com….

    “The 100th and 442nd remain the most decorated military units in U.S. history for their size and length of service,” the Japanese American Citizens League said in a statement. “Their heroism, despite the racism and incarceration their families faced at home, is a testament to their loyalty and sacrifice, as is their unit motto, ‘Go For Broke.'”

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    Poster from an Antiwar, Lesbian, Feminist Fugitive, ca. 1970

    Black and white poster showing a drawing of Susan Saxe and the following message from her: 'First, a greeting to all my sisters. Courage, especially to all of my sisters underground in America, stay free, stay strong. I intend to fight on in every way as a lesbian, a feminist and an Amazon. The love I share with my sisters is a far more formidable weapon than the police state can bring against us. Keep growing, keep strong. I am a free woman, and I can keep strong. Pass the word. I am unafraid.'

    Poster with a message by Susan Saxe, depicted in the drawing.1 Based on the text, the poster is probably from around 1970, when its author, a Brandeis senior and antiwar activist, went on the lam after robbing a bank and a National Guard Armory. On the FBI’s most wanted list, she was captured in 1975 and did seven years in prison.2 Her roommate, Katherine Ann Power, surrendered in 1980.3

    1. Via Library of Congress, Yanker Poster Collection, https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2016648550/. ↩︎

    2. Susan Saxe has a sparse Wikipedia entry. She was Nancy Gertner’s first case, which the latter writes about in In Defense of Women: Memoirs of an Unrepentant Advocate Beacon Press, 2011), chap. 1 (sample with salient details). ↩︎

    3. Lucinda Franks, “Return of the Fugitive,” The New Yorker, June 5, 1994, https://archive.ph/5mJ5P. ↩︎

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    This change says a lot about the ambitions and delusions of the current Trumpy regime:

    Arlington National Cemetery has scrubbed information about prominent Black, Hispanic and female service members and topics such as the Civil War from its website, part of an effort across the Defense Department to remove all references to diversity, equity and inclusion from its online presence.

    –WaPo on Bluesky

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    Joe Stieb has posted some good history recommendations to help counter Hegseth’s bizarre scrubbing of Department of Defense webpages of race, gender, sexuality, and other content verboten by Trump. https://archive.ph/zLEcs

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    The pictures of Putin in Kursk wearing military garb instead of the suit we’ve been seeing him in lately were interesting. It’s almost as if he were taking his cue from Zelensky. Or putting on a show of manliness for his friend in the White House.🤣🇺🇦

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    Tata Kepler, a Ukrainian volunteer and activist, gave a powerful address to the European Parliament on International Women’s Day. She centered it on the stories of individual women and girls she’s worked with and can’t forget. youtu.be… (13 min.) 🇺🇦

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    Four women in a row with their backs to the camera dressed in indigenous Pueblo dress with a large United States Army seal in the middle of their backs and related service patches.

    Photo by Carol M. Highsmith, July 18, 2015:

    Members of the Native American Women Warriors, a Pueblo, Colorado-based association of active and retired American Indians in U.S. military service, at a Colorado Springs Native American Inter Tribal Powwow and festival in that central Colorado city.

    Credit: Gates Frontiers Fund Colorado Collection within the Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. Further details, including names and ranks, at https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2015633463/.

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