Few movies have been re-cycled as often as 'The Sound of
Music'. It is standard Christmas fare as a good-against-evil yarn with a
happy ending. Julie Andrews plays Maria Von Trapp and Christopher Plummer
takes the part of Baron Von Trapp. Peddled as a true story its songs are now
world famous. However, most of the story is a fanciful lie.
Maria Augusta Kutschera was the real name of Maria. She was the daughter of
Karl Kutschera who was something of a wanderer who loved to travel the
world. As a consequence the 'fatherless' Maria ended up in a foster home.
As she grew up she made a living by doing small jobs. She ended up in
Salzburg where the Benedictine nuns of Nonnberg Abbey took her in. Upon
reaching maturity Maria Kutschera was sent to the estate of Baron Von Trapp
to tutor his seven children, two boys and five girls.
It wasn't long before she became his wife, being married on November 27
1927. The Baron was 20 years older than Maria and soon she gave the likeable
authoritarian her own two children, two girls. One was born in 1929 and the
other in 1931. In 1932, well before the NSDAP were elected the Von Trapps
lost their fortune.
It was then that a priest heard them sing and asked them to perform in
churches around Salzburg. The Von Trapp choir was thus formed. In 1938, they
sang at the Salzburg Festival which was of course very much a National
Socialist event with Nazi regalia in abundance.
Not once did the Nazis harass the Von Trapps even though 'the red (communist)
Baron' refused to fly the Swastika. Nor did the Von Trapps ever flee the
National Socialists. Furthermore the family had no experience of hiking and
never crossed the Italian Alps. In fact, if the movie's account had been
correct the family would have ended up in the German leader's mountain
retreat Eagles Nest at Obersalzberg above the charming spa town of
Berchtesgaden.
The truth is that the Von Trapp family was strapped for money. But one of
their sons in the meantime had met a New York producer and they agreed to
take a tour through Europe and then to America. In 1938, now settled in
America, Frau Maria Von Trapp gave birth to another child, this time a boy.
The Von Trapps tried their religious music in America but never went down
well with American audiences.
Down to only $50 the Von Trapps started yodelling and performed American
folk songs and by 1941 they were quite popular. By the end of W.W.II the Von
Trapp family had become so wealthy that they were able to buy a 7,000-acre
ranch in Stowe, Vermont where the baron died in 1947. None of the family
ever saw their home country again.
So there you go. The Von Trapps never fled Austria, never hiked over a
mountain. They left because of an offer from a Jewish New York producer,
which they couldn't refuse because they were bankrupt. The only thing that
was true was – the happy ending. They stayed in America. Good news for
Germany and Austria. Still looking forward to the Christmas TV schedules?
RACISM IN THE U.S. FORCES
The Army and Navy had every opportunity to strike a clean blow for democracy
by setting an example in non-discrimination against Negroes. Instead, both
services insisted upon racial segregation wherever and whenever possible.
The Negro in "well-run" military installations was not allowed to sleep in
the same room with white men, eat at the same table, or attend the same
churches. This was especially true in Southern camps, where both services
supported the local programs to "keep niggers in their place" in
restaurants, theatres, buses, and railroad stations.
When men like Joe Louis raised an objection, they were immediately
transferred overseas or "up North." Except for a few "show units" of
all-Negro personnel, our colored soldiers of democracy were restricted to
the most menial tasks of stevedoring and cleaning the barracks of their
white superiors.
PRESIDENT TRUMAN OR ADOLF HITLER?
Guess who made the following comment? "The Jews, I find, are very, very
selfish. They care not how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs
or Greeks get murdered or mistreated as Displaced Persons as long as the
Jews get special treatment.
Yet when they have power, physical, financial or political neither Hitler
nor Stalin has anything on them for cruelty or mistreatment to the
underdog." Did you guess right? It was President Truman.