Communists (OT)

"Hey couchmaster: Are you referring to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team? If so, the bad news is that, as you say, they were shot to pieces. The good news, if it can be called that under the circumstances, was that they indeed made contact with the "Lost Battalion" and led the survivors to safety. Hope that I'm correct about this, as I'm not especially familiar with the details.

The 442nd RCT was one hell of an outfit, and they should be remembered with honour, as should all of our veterans who put their lives on the line to rid the world of fascism.

History has been brutally indifferent to the Allied forces who fought in the Italian Campaign. Their massive contribution to victory in Europe has been pretty well ignored by later generations - as a matter of fact, an inbred English aristocrat at the time unspeakably insulted these brave servicemen by labelling them the "D-Day Dodgers", as if it was a crime to make the first permanent Allied foothold in Europe nearly a year before the Normandy landings."

We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing this minute.

In 1944, to honor the Allied victory in Italy, legendary counductor Arturo Toscanini--a refugee from Fascisim in his home country--decided to conduct a performance of Verdi's "Hymn of the Nations". "Hymn" is a composition that Verdi orginally built around the national anthems of Britain, France, and Italy. In order to honor all four of the major Allies, Toscanini decided to add "The Star Spangled Banner" for the U.S. and "The Internationale" for the Soviet Union. The music was performed by the NBC Symphony Orchestra, with the Westminister Choir and the great tenor Jan Peerce as soloist; conducted by Toscanini. It was filmed as a featurette to be shown in movie theaters, and was narrated by Burgess Meredith.

In the early 50's, at the height of the Red Scare and McCarthyism, U.S. censors excised the portion of this performance that featured the "Internationale".

For years the sequence containing The Internationale was considered forever lost. But recently a copy of this missing piece of film was rediscovered in Alaska. So now this rousing rendition of the Internationale--together with chorale and orchestra under the direction of a great conductor--can be enjoyed again.