world war II

Jim Thompson and the Burmese Kalaga

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Jim Thompson was an American expat living in Thailand.  During World War II he worked for Office of Strategic Services (OSS).  He was a spy.  He arrived in Bangkok shortly after the end of the war to organize and open the OSS office there.  In Bangkok he worked with Kenneth Landon who was first a missionary in Thailand and then was hired to work for the OSS.  Kenneth’s wife, Margaret, lived with him in Thailand and wrote the book “Anna and the King of Siam” which was also made into the musical, “The King and I”.

By 1948, Jim Thompson had left the OSS and become interested in Thai silk.  He formed the Thai Silk Company and his goal was to revitalize the industry.  In 1951 designer Irene Sheraff was designing costumes for the Rogers and Hammerstein musical “The King and I” and decided to use silk from Thompson’s Thai Silk Company.  That was what he needed.  He was a success!  Jim Thompson’s company and the Thai silk industry is thriving to this day.

At one point he thought it would be a good idea to go into Burma and try to revitalize their silk industry as well.  He did not have much luck but there he discovered the royal Kalagas.  These were heavily embroidered tapestries made for the royal palaces of Burma.  The last King of Burma, Thibaw Min, was persuaded to abdicate by the British when they took over the country in 1885.  Some of the tapestries have been around for 150 years.

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Jim Thompson had several of the Kalagas copied and sold them in his shop.  During this time, the late 1950’s, my family was living in Burma and knew all about of Mr Thompson and his silk shop.  They purchased one of these tapestries and it hangs in my parents’ living room to this day.  It is beautiful.

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In 1967 Thompson took a trip to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia on holiday and mysteriously disappeared.  There was an extensive search made but nothing was found.  Nobody knows what happened to him or why.  There is much speculation around him and his disappearance.

He left a house he had designed full of art and antiques from Southeast Asia.  It is now a museum open to the public.

Berlin: Soviet War Memorial

Entrance to Memorial from Treptower Park

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Battle of Berlin marked the end of World War II.  It took place April to May 1945 and claimed about 80,000 Soviet lives.  Stalin was in a hurry to take Berlin because he wanted to get to their Nuclear research facility before the Americans arrived in order to find out what the Germans had discovered.  The Soviet Nuclear program needed a boost.  Because Stalin was in such a hurry, mistakes were made and an enormous amount of Soviet lives were lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are three memorials to the Soviet Troops in Berlin.  One is the Tiergarten Memorial near the Brandenberg Gate.  It is relatively small and compact and was built in 1945.  Another is the Schonholzer Heide in the Pankow district.  It was finished in 1949 and covers 30,000 square meters (98,500 sq ft).  The third is in the Treptower Park.  It opened in 1949 as well and was the main war memorial for East Germany.  Five thousand Soviet soldiers are buried there.

We visited on a warm summer day arriving after walking for miles and miles not knowing how far it was.  The park was lovely and the memorial was impressive, built to a grand scale.

 

 

 

Mother Russia weeping over her dead children

 

 

 

Victory Day

Red Square, Moscow

May 9th is  Victory Day or VE Day, it marked the end of World War II in Europe.  The Russians celebrate this occasion in a big way.  They have military parades on Red Square, civilian parades down city streets, they run old war movies all day on TV, and they gather with family and friends to eat and make many toasts.

The USSR suffered the most casualties of any country during World War II, estimated at 27 million.  China comes in a distant second with 10 million.

Indeed they have reason to celebrate.

Any gathering in Russia starts with Zakuski.  These are the warm ups, the small plates, the appetizers.  They can include beet salads, potato salads, cabbage salads, pickled mushrooms, pickled herring, dried fish, caviar, or any other thing you can think of.  Just so there is lots of it.  For the toasts, vodka is the staple, followed by cognac for desert.  Sometimes champagne precedes the vodka.

Here are a couple of my favorite Zakuski (they are easy to make):

Julienne (Mushrooms in Sour Cream)

1 lb mushrooms

3 Tbsp butter

1 ½ Tbsp flour

1 cup sour cream

½ tsp lemon juice

salt and pepper

Slice the mushrooms.  Sauté in butter for 10 minutes.  Sprinkle in the flour and continue cooking for another 5 minutes, stirring.  Add sour cream and lemon juice.  Keep the heat low and cook for 15 minutes more.  If the sauce seems too thin, sprinkle in a little flour or if too thick add water.  The sauce should be like thick cream.  Season with salt and pepper.This can be served in individual cups or all together in a large dish.
 
Cucumbers in Smetana (Sour cream)

2 large cucumbers, peeled and thinly sliced

3 Tbsps chopped fresh parsley

2 Tbsps chopped fresh dill

1 ½ cups sour cream

2-3 Tbsps fresh lemon juice

1 Tbsp olive oil

3 large cloves garlic, pressed

½ tsp black pepper (or to taste)

¾ tsp salt (or to taste)

Toss and chill