Israeli leaders in meltdown mode as NAZA doc blasts audiences

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.14.2026

The scorching documentary NAZA is being hailed by audiences and critics while the Israeli government is beside itself. At the Venice, Italy film festival the audience gave it a record length 25 minute ovation.

‘NAZA’ Review: Israeli Military Accused Of Depraved Indifference To Palestinian Life, Using AI To Kill In Gaza – Venice Film Festival

The devastating documentary NAZA, an investigation into Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, was shot at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv, in part to avoid potential Israeli eavesdropping, presumably, and to facilitate shielding the identities of participants.

Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) map out targeting decisions for the destruction of Gaza

Those participants are 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers who reveal, in almost matter-of-fact tones, chilling details of a program that has caused catastrophic destruction of residential areas in Gaza, and massive loss of life among Palestinian civilians, including women and children. The sources – “whistleblowers” seems an appropriate term – come forward on condition of anonymity; they are filmed in silhouette, and their voices, as noted at the beginning of the film, have been digitally altered to conceal their identities.

‘NAZA’ Review: Doc Accuses Israel Of Using AI To Kill Gaza Civilians

NAZA is a 2026 British documentary film written and directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. It follows the ongoing mass killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli forces during the Gaza war, through 24 interviews with anonymised military and intelligence insiders.

The film premiered in the main competition of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival on 10 September 2026, where it won the Special Jury Prize.NAZA (film) – Wikipedia

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.14.2026

“NAZA” features interviews with Israeli military sources who describe using AI-powered systems to bomb Gaza, which killed thousands of civilians.

The documentary won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival.

“NAZA,” a documentary by the Israeli filmmakers Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, has drawn international attention after winning the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and receiving a record-breaking standing ovation.

The film features anonymous testimonies from Israeli soldiers and intelligence officers who detail the systematic killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

The filmmakers say the documentary is based on firsthand accounts and extensive investigative reporting. However, Israel‘s military rejects the accounts and disputes the film’s portrayal of its operations.

The documentary has also sparked a political backlash in Israel, highlighting deep divisions over the war and accountability.

https://www.dw.com/en/israeli-leaders-condemn-acclaimed-gaza-documentary-naza/video-79265321

NAZA is going to be a featured item at the 61st New York Film Festival

Shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, NAZA reveals the systems behind Israel’s bombing of Gaza and its mass killing of Palestinian civilians. The film is directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two of the four co-directors of the 2024 Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land (NYFF62), and produced by the Guardian and James Wilson (JW Films) and executive produced by Jonathan Glazer. Wilson and Glazer are the Oscar-winning team behind The Zone of Interest (NYFF61). NAZA is titled for a military acronym euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians that it expects will be killed in an airstrike. The film builds on revelations first published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, and the Guardian between 2023 and 2025.https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2026/films/naza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a statement to members of the press, in Jerusalem, September 8, 2026 in which he condemned the film NAZA. REUTERS/— Ammar Awad

Riotsville, USA. The Police State as it happened. An origin tale

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.13.2026

The New York Times published an article with its list of the best films on Amazon Prime.

Scrolling through the mostly anodyne selections the blogger search ground to a halt. On the list is the highly regarded “Riotsville USA”. A documentary about what can be categorized as the origins of the modern Police State America. On a Sunday afternoon I watched this riveting, educational and disturbing piece of documentary film making.

When I see the ongoing militarization of American law enforcement I will never again wonder about the origins of the American police state after watching this film.

The following review claims the Riotsville USA story is “in some sense, laughable”. It is not in the least funny.

Riotsville, U.S.A. – Wikipedia

Excerpted from The New York Times 9.13.2026

The mid-1960s saw a conspicuous rise in civil unrest in the United States. The war in Vietnam, substandard living conditions for people of color, and a larger shift in consciousness all contributed to people wielding violence as a tool of protest. The new documentary “Riotsville, USA.,” shows the federal government’s response to this tactic as both sinister and, in some sense, laughable.

The Riotsville of the title is the name of a fake town built as a training ground for law enforcement, in which riot story lines were enacted by soldiers. More than one of these towns were built by the U.S. government, with the events filmed for official review. The documentary’s director, Sierra Pettengill, uses a variety of archival footage here. There are government films of Riotsville exercises, clips from talk shows, and a mini-narrative of a public television station whose progressive politics led to its defunding by the Ford Foundation. And searing footage from riots near the 1968 Republican National Convention in Miami, which received scant media coverage at the time.

A staged demonstration in Riotsville USA
A blog for Riotsville USA needs some musical accompaniment. This piece, a cover of the Led Zeppelin “Immigrant Song” done by Karen O, Trent Reznor and Atticus Finch fits the bill. It was in the trailer for the American film version of ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’

Balboa Street sights and sounds on a day near the Pacific Ocean.

SAN FRANCISCO OUTER RICHMOND DISTRICT

Lee Heidhues – Text and Photos – 9.12.2026

It was a sunny warm Saturday in the outer Richmond District of San Francisco.

Perfect for this year’s Balboa Village Arts Walk SF.

The blogger walked the route between 38th and 35th Avenue and captured the sights and sounds of a day near the Pacific Ocean.

The omnipresent video camera. A fixture of the 21st century.
IT ALL STARTS HERE. The front window of Simple Pleasures Cafe announces community events.
Entrance to the Art Walk at 38th and Balboa
Out for a family stroll and enjoying the Arts Walk SF
Balboa Street is closed to cars for the event but bicycles can always find a place to park.
San Francisco is a bicycle 🚲  city
There was plenty of food for the Arts Walk SF crowd
Simple Pleasures Cafe a decades old Balboa Street gathering spot
Chino’s a go to spot for Mexican cuisine in the outer Richmond District
Lindo a recent Balboa Street addition to the restaurant fare
The Henry Arts Ensemble a Jazz techno fusion group livened up the proceedings
The crowd looking east on Balboa Street
A merchant offering an assortment of caps and shirts
Elise Nova belted out some marvelous vocals and was collecting a lot of cash
A diverse selection of musical instruments
Color the Street was available for people of all ages to decorate the city street
A VIETNAM 🇻🇳 VETERAN finds time to 📚 read
Balboa Village Arts Walk SF – September 12th 2026
The Save Sunset Dunes Park supporters showed their support near Arts Walk SF

Houthis in Yemen further entangle the Middle East mess

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.11.2026

It’s fair to say that Americans are ignorant about the geopolitics of the Middle East.

The blogger is belatedly following the Houthis though my attention was there when Trump launched his air campaign in 2025. Now the problem is more serious and the MSM is paying attention.

Bullying Nazi Trump wields his flatulent Big Stick in Yemen.

It should be evident that the average American news consumer is out to lunch when it comes to matters outside the USA. Trump’s war of choice against Iran only got attention because of prices at the pump. Perhaps now the Houthis taking over Bab-al Mandeb through which 11 percent of global oil passes will be another Strait of Hormuz in the American body politic.

Trump’s war of choice against Iran nearing the seven month mark has woken up the geopolitically clueless American public. If only because prices at the pump have skyrocketed since February 28th 2026.

In the past couple of days another Middle East hot spot has bubbled to the surface which is further inflaming the cauldron and will escalate energy prices as the following Al Jazeera report illustrates.

The group known as the Houthis, well known in the Middle East, have captured the country of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline. Giving them effective control of 11 percent of the World’s global oil trade. This comes on top of the Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz with control of 27 percent of the global oil trade. A combined 38 percent total. A lot of barrels of oil.

 The Houthis and the Iranians have a deep ideological bond, one that their soldiers willingly die for. And the Houthis do not need to win every battle. As long as they can sink an occasional oil tanker, they will hold a whip hand over their Saudi neighbors, and over the rest of the world too. The Atlantic – Robert Worth 9.11.2026

Excerpted from Al Jazeera 9.11.2026

Houthi forces Houthi-controlled Yemen – Wikipedia have captured the whole of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, reaching all the way to the critically important Bab al-Mandeb shipping gateway, as the group’s rapid offensive continued on Friday.

The Houthis flag

Since January 2010 during the Houthi insurgency,[1][2][3] the Houthis, a Zaydi Shia revivalist political and military organization, have maintained de facto governance over significant portions of northern and western Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa since 2014. Their administration, the Supreme Political Council, operates in opposition to the internationally recognized government of Yemen.[4][5][6] The Houthis aim to govern all of Yemen and support external movements against the United States, Israel, and Saudi Arabia.[7] Because of the Houthis’ ideological background, the conflict in Yemen is widely seen as a front of the Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy war.[8]

On Thursday, the Houthis seized the port city of Mocha, Mokha – Wikipedia dealing a heavy blow to the Yemeni government backed by neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Mokha (Arabic: المَخا, romanized: al-Maḵā), also spelled Mocha or Mukha,[1] is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until Aden and al Hudaydah eclipsed it in the 19th century, Mokha was the principal port for Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. Long known for its coffee trade, the city gave its name to Mocha coffee.[2]

Analysts are calling the Iran-backed Houthi group’s victories the most significant regional development since the US and Israel declared war on Iran in February.

The offensives could be particularly damaging for Saudi Arabia and its oil exports. The Houthis, who declared a blockade of Saudi-flagged ships in the Red Sea earlier in the year, now have a much firmer control of the Bab al-Mandeb waterway, which Riyadh increasingly relies on for oil exports following blockades of the the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, experts say.

But can the Houthis control the Red Sea?

Here’s what we know:

In July, amidst the US-Israel war on Iran, the Houthis announced a complete maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and began launching attacks on Saudi-linked ships passing through the important Bab al-Mandeb Strait.

The narrow strait is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes connecting the Suez Canal and Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Roughly 12 percent of global trade passes through daily.

Even more vessels have used it since Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s energy supplies used to transit annually before the war began in February.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/9/11/can-the-houthis-close-the-red-sea-after-seizing-the-yemen-coast

Shiite Houthi rebels chant slogans after taking over a government military compound in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September. The group forced the country’s president to resign on Thursday, plunging Yemen into uncertainty.
New York Times – 9.10.2026

The German ‘cell’. Three 9/11 hijackers lived in Hamburg

South Tower of The World Trade Center collapsed at 9:59AM on 9.11.2001. The North Tower collapsed 29 minutes later.
San Francisco Chronicle – 9.12.2001

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.10.2026

On September 11th 2001 the blogger heard the news on NPR Morning Edition. Not realizing the severity and impact he set off for work downtown. Midway there he received a call from Liz telling him the office had called and told him not to come to work that day. And as it turned out for several days thereafter.

25 years later the media is busy commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Deutsche Welle is reporting the now well known fact that several of the 9/11 hijackers lived in Hamburg prior to the assault on America.

Predictably this historic event has been compared to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor December 7th 1941.

Predictably, it was also inevitable that the film industry would offer its interpretation of 9/11. Two films illustrated the cinematic effort. “Zero Dark Thirty” recounted the years long effort to locate and kill Osama Bin Laden. “A Most Wanted Man”, a John Le Carre novel put to film, is the story of post 9/11 Germany’s anti-terrorist campaign. Scenes from these films are posted below.

New York City firefighters. 363 died that day. – 9.11.2001

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.9.2026

The 9/11 plot, including the twin tower attacks, was partly planned by the so-called Hamburg cell. A look at how Germany’s national security was reshaped.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder addressed parliament the following day. 

“Yesterday, September 11, 2001, will go down in history as a dark day for all of us,” the Social Democrat said.

He said he had expressed to the American president the deeply felt condolences of the entire German people.

“I also assured him of Germany’s unconditional — I emphasize: unconditional — solidarity,” Schröder said.

The Twin Towers in New York City – 9.11.2001

“This day has changed the world,” German President Johannes Rau said. He had watched in shock as the burning twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsed in New York.

Germany’s head of state struggled to find the right words: “We do not know what political or social consequences what happened today will have — what we have watched unfold on our television screens in shock, barely able to comprehend or even reflect on it.”

Germany, he added, would offer the US any assistance they requested, “of course, also by identifying and pursuing those responsible for and behind these despicable attacks.”

It soon emerged that the victims include people from 92 countries, among them 11 Germans.

Mohammed Atta and the Hamburg cell

The following day, a rapidly spreading rumor was confirmed: Three of the four suspected hijackers had recently lived in Hamburg. The Islamist terrorists were thought to have been led by Egyptian-born Mohammed Atta, who had come to the northern German city in the early 1990s to study.

The so-called Hamburg cell played a key role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the US: Zakariya Essabar, Abdullah Binalshibh, Said Bahaji, Mounir El Motassadeq, Mohammed Atta and Abdelghani Mzoudi (from top left to bottom right)
Image: dpa/picture alliance

At some point, the young man became radicalized, particularly at Hamburg’s Al-Quds Mosque, which was later closed by German security authorities. He spent the final three years of his life in an apartment shared with two other suspected attackers in the Harburg district.

Schröder’s remarks set the tone and opened the door for a series of tougher laws. Just weeks after the attacks, the governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens unveiled its first so-called security package, involving more funding, more personnel as well as greater powers for police and intelligence agencies.

Religious organizations that had previously been granted special protection could now be banned like other associations if their activities were directed against the Basic Law, Germany’s constitutional order based on freedom and democracy, or if they pursued other criminal aims. Less than four months after the terrorist attacks in the US, Germany’s Anti-Terrorism Act took effect.

Intelligence agencies were given access to personal data held by banks, airlines and telecommunications companies. Immigration laws were tightened.

Through data-mining searches, in which large amounts of data were cross-checked without any specific suspicion, authorities sought to identify so-called sleeper agents — people like Mohammed Atta from the Hamburg terrorist cell, who had not been identified by security agencies in time.

The Federal Constitutional Court brought an end to the legally questionable practice. Such searches were permissible only when there was a specific threat, the court said in a 2006 ruling. Seven years later, Germany’s highest court also ruled that parts of the country’s anti-terrorism database were unconstitutional.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed on September 11, 2001, when Islamist terrorists hijacked four passenger planes and turned them into deadly weapons.

Top photo: First responders at Ground Zero

Wall Street Journal – September 12th 2001
Jeffrey Goldberg and his four panelists talk about the memories of September 11, 2001

Did Netanyahu want Hamas October 7 attack to take place?

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.9.2026

It’s scary to think that Benjamin Netanyahu condoned and is criminally liable for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on his own people so he could unleash the Israeli Defense Forces fury on Gaza Palestinians. Something to consider, eh?

Trump and Netanyahu are kindred souls in at least one respect. When they don’t like the news, what do they do? Go out and make some of their own. Go to Court and try to beat down the individual, organization or media outlet which has exposed their lies and illegal activities.

The Haaretz report Trumps anything that the American President has gone to Court for seeking relief. Netanyahu is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people; his own Israeli citizens included.

What the Israeli newspaper Haaretz is claiming goes right to the gut of Benjamin Netanyahu’s three year assault on the Peoples of Gaza following the Hama attack on Israel October 7, 2023. Had Netanyahu been paying attention and taken the “threat seriously” the calamity of October 7 and the past three years may have been avoided.

On 21 November 2024, following an investigation of war crimes and crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for two senior Israeli officials, Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, and Yoav Gallant, the former Minister of Defense of Israel, alleging responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts during the Gaza war and genocide.[1][2] The warrant against Netanyahu is the first against the leader of a Western-backed democratic country for war crimes.[3][4][5]ICC arrest warrants for Israeli leaders – Wikipedia

Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs – published in Haaretz

Benjamin Netanyahu says he will sue over claims he ignored an advance warning about October 7 attack – published in The Daily Mail

Jerusalem Post 9.8.2026

In September ’23, UAE President bin Zayed called Netanyahu to deliver a harsh warning. Netanyahu did nothing. An extensive investigation, conducted for a new book, reveals the PM’s failures surrounding Oct. 7. Netanyahu: ‘This is an absolute lie’

UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel days before the October 7 massacre, a Haaretz investigation published Tuesday said.

Netanyahu reportedly dismissed the warning despite MBZ urging him to take the threat seriously, the report said, citing three senior foreign sources familiar with the contents of the conversation.

During a 45-minute conversation held 10 days before the massacre, MBZ reportedly warned Netanyahu that then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation against Israel. The United Arab Emirates leader expressed concern that an attack could lead to significant bloodshed, destabilize the region, and undermine the Abraham Accords, according to the report.

Excerpted from The New Yorker 9.8.2026

An Israeli news article on Tuesday morning managed to roil even a war-weary and jaded public. Published in Haaretz, its headline read: “Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs.”

No event has shaped recent Israeli history more than the October 7th attacks and their aftermath. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility or issue an apology for the failures in intelligence and policy that led to the worst attacks to ever take place on Israeli soil.

But his government, for all of its equivocating, cannot deny that it was in power when they occurred. Ynet, a popular news site, echoed the Haaretz report on its home page on Tuesday—an unusual tribute to a rival newspaper;

Channel 12 opened its evening-news edition with the story, calling it “jaw dropping.”

The article, drawn from a new book by the journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, reveals that, a week and a half before Hamas led the October 7th attacks on Israel, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the President of the United Arab Emirates, called Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, with a specific warning. During a forty-five-minute conversation, according to the report, bin Zayed cautioned that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, was “preparing a major event” in the near future. Sinwar was quoted in the article as telling an official from the rival Fatah faction that he was planning a “zilzal”—an “earthquake.”

Netanyahu seemed untroubled, a close adviser to the Emirati ruler told the journalists.

He didn’t update the heads of Israel’s security establishment about the conversation. Instead, he assured bin Zayed that Israel was “prepared for any scenario.” If anything, he said, the “volatile” area was not Gaza but the West Bank. Bin Zayed was so startled that Netanyahu was making light of the situation that he expressed concerns to the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns.When the article appeared, Netanyahu denied that such a conversation had ever taken place. But the U.A.E.’s foreign ministry appeared to confirm Eldar and Yuval’s reporting, saying in a statement reported by Haaretz that the two countries maintain “open and direct communication,” exchanging intelligence “when necessary.”

Eldar told Israel’s Channel 12 that he and Yuval had based their story on talks with three independent sources and on “a recording and documents” of the conversation between Netanyahu and bin Zayed.Newsbreaks in Haaretz, a liberal paper with strong investigative reporting, are often met with silence by much of the country, or brushed off as leftist propaganda by Netanyahu and his mouthpieces in the media. This story seemed to land differently.

Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post – 9.10.2026.  Did you expect anything else?😵‍💫

Britain et al are correct to embargo a murderous Israel

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.8.2026

The Wall Street Journal editorial writers have gone into rhetorical excess with its “Israel can do no wrong, ever” hot air bloviation.

The blogger performed some historical research and quickly learned that the Israelis have historically utilized one way to deal with their foes as the comment I posted on the WSJ editorial page shows.

At least in this instance the Israelis cannot resort to actual physical violence.

The WSJ editorial writers need to stop pandering to The State of Israel. It’s way past the time when Israel is allowed to act with impunity in its destruction of the Palestinian state. The Brits deserve praise for finally standing up to Israel and condemning its criminal behavior.

I think the fatal bombing of the King David Hotel bombing – Wikipedia in Jerusalem killing 91 people in July 1946 by The Irgun (arguably a Jewish terrorist group) led by future Prime Minister Menachem Begin had a lot to do with the British antipathy directed towards creation of the State of Israel. It’s safe to say that nearly 80 years after the creation of Israel the Israelis have only one way way to deal with their foes, real and imagined. Violence by any means necessary.

Aftermath of the Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem – 7.22.1946

Europe Joins the Boycott Israel Crowd

Europe has a talent for dressing up domestic political pandering as righteousness on the world stage. The latest is a British ban on imports of Israeli goods from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, plus sanctions on anyone facilitating new construction. France and Canada plan similar measures. “We will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/britain-sanctions-israel-west-bank-palestine-hamas-gaza-e8bab985?st=86Gv5T&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

European Nations Impose Trade Bans on Israel Over West Bank Settlements

The U.K., France, Canada and nine other countries said they would impose new trade restrictions on Israel, escalating a dispute over the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Tuesday’s announcement prompted a swift retaliation from Israel against the U.K., which was the first to announce it would halt trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel said it would close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, which deals largely with Palestinian affairs, and expel British representatives from the U.S.-led coordination center for postwar Gaza.

https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/european-nations-impose-trade-bans-on-israel-over-west-bank-settlements-3a5cdfdb?st=emmcJo&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
The video is a simplistic recitation of the July 1946 King David Hotel bombing – Wikipedia. It provides a back to basics look at the incident. The British administrative headquarters for Mandatory Palestine, housed in the southern wing[1] of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, were bombed in a terrorist attack[2][3] on 22 July 1946, by the militant right-wing[4] Zionist underground organization Irgun during the Jewish insurgency.[5][6][7] Ninety-one people of various nationalities were killed, including Arabs, Britons and Jews, and 46 were injured.[8]

History repeats itself. The Art of Catastrophe: Charlotte Salomon

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.7.2026

The blogger posted the results of the Sunday election in which the extreme right wing AfD harvested nearly 44 percent of the vote in the state election for Saxony-Anhalt.

A result which has created a political firestorm in Germany and beyond.

In the blog is included a piece of art by Charlotte Salomon “30.1.1933”. January 30, 1933. The day The Nazis swept into power. The blogger wanted to learn more about this ill-fated artist who came from a wealthy Jewish family and was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz in 1943. Her artwork lives on forever. Were she alive today Charlotte Salomon may have updated the painting with an AfD banner and the date 6.9.2026. (September 6th 2026).

Not since the Nazi Thousand Year Reich ended in Hitler’s bunker in May 1945 and Germany climbed out of the ashes has a far right, some would say Neo-Nazi party, gained such popularity.

Charlotte Salomon (16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play), the largest known artwork made by a Jewish person who died in the Holocaust,[1] consisting of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 in the south of France, while Salomon was in hiding from the Nazis. In October 1943 Salomon, 5 months pregnant at that time, was captured and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered by the Nazis soon after her arrival.[2][3][4][5] In 2015, a 35-page confession by Salomon to the fatal poisoning of her grandfather, kept secret for decades, was released by a Parisian publisher.[6] Charlotte Salomon – Wikipedia

Charlotte Salomon’s life was recounted in an animated feature film released in 2021. Appropriately titled CHARLOTTE. It is a beautiful piece of cinematic animation.

Charlotte is a 2021 animated biographical drama film about German painter Charlotte Salomon, directed by Éric Warin and Tahir Rana, from a screen story by Erik Rutherford and a screenplay by Rutherford and David Bezmozgis, inspired by Salomon’s autobiographical painting series, Life? or Theatre?. It stars the voices of Keira Knightley, Brenda Blethyn, Jim Broadbent, Sam Claflin, Henry Czerny, Eddie Marsan, Helen McCrory (in her final appearance),[5] Sophie Okonedo and Mark Strong. Knightley, Marion Cotillard, and Xavier Dolan serve as executive producers. Cotillard also voiced Salomon in the French version of the film. Charlotte is an international co-production between Canada, Belgium and France.[6] The film made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 13 September 2021. It was released in Canada on 22 April 2022 and in France on 9 November 2022. Charlotte (2021 film) – Wikipedia
Charlotte Salomon 16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943

The extremist German AfD has won a major political victory

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.9.2026 UPDATED

The Nation – 9.9.2026
Wall Street Journal – 9.9.2026
Financial Times – 9.8.2026
Incisive DW look at the folks who live in Saxony-Anholt

JOURNAL ENTRY

This is so depressing. All morning and now into the evening I have been following the election returns from Germany in the State of  Saxony-Anhalt – Wikipedia where the Alternative for Germany – Wikipedia has won a major victory. Gathering 44 percent of the vote. 2026 Saxony-Anhalt state election – Wikipedia

Not enough to take over political power of this state with 2.3M people in the former  East Germany – Wikipedia. But definitely sending a grim dispiriting message to the rest of the World. This extreme Right MAGA like surge is not going to end anytime soon. I remember visiting  Germany in 2017 and seeing a STOPPT AFD poster. I took a photo and have used it countless times in my blog.

STOPPT DIE AFD – Lubeck, Germany May 2017 – Photo Lee Heidhues

It’s incredible to know that 93 years after the Nazis took power in January 1933 this type of extreme reactionary, racist, anti-immigration party is now so powerful.

I watch the coverage on Deutsche Welle and the correspondents make only brief mention of the political transformation of the Saxony-Anhalt population. A now older generation raised in the totalitarian intolerant Russian governed East Germany. A subjugated population in a police state which was probably, actually, definitely not exposed to multi-culturalism and an influx of immigration and people from different countries. So, when the Wall fell in late 1989 and the open society of the West began to impact the now former East Germany there was a lot of resentment and fear.

That’s what our host Stefan, who owned the Tiergarten Hotel in Berlin, told us in 2017. He is from East Berlin and encouraged Liz and me to visit the former East Berlin and tour the Stasi Museum. Stasi – Wikipedia Stefan told us East Berlin in 2017 looked nearly the same as it did when it was part of East Germany. Old, boring architecture and quiet streets.

Stasi Museum, East Berlin

The Stasimuseum (also known in German as the Forschungs- und Gedenkstätte Normannenstraße)[2] is a research and memorial centre concerning the political system of the former East Germany. It is located in the Lichtenberg locality of Berlin, in the former headquarters of the Stasi (officially the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit), on Ruschestraße, near Frankfurter Allee and U-Bahn station Magdalenenstraße. Stasimuseum – Wikipedia

Liz walking to the Stasi Museum –Photo Lee Heidhues

I wonder what Marion thinks of all this. I’m sure she is shocked. After all Marion is definitely the leftist German native who was the reason we went to Germany in in 2017. Then returned in 2018 and 2023. I will always remember our night with Marion at the Women’s Center in Hamburg. The women were East German born. They told us the East German regime guaranteed education, housing, health care and jobs. But there was a price to pay.

Living in a totalitarian Stasi run state. When the Wall came down in 1989 and the West German ways took over the country the resentment surfaced. Here we are 37 years later and the AfD has been spawned and is now on the precipice of power. It is incredible. I am just totally transfixed and appalled by all of this. The surge of right wing populism continues to grow. I’m sure Trump loves all of it as his MAGA movement continues to steamroll its way forward!!!

https://www.dw.com/en/saxony-anhalt-far-right-afd-secures-huge-lead-in-key-vote/live-78754934

Art of Catastrophe – Charlotte Salomon (16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play), the largest known artwork made by a Jewish person who died in the Holocaust,[1] consisting of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 in the south of France, while Salomon was in hiding from the Nazis. In October 1943 Salomon, 5 months pregnant at that time, was captured and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered by the Nazis soon after her arrival.[2][3][4][5] In 2015, a 35-page confession by Salomon to the fatal poisoning of her grandfather, kept secret for decades, was released by a Parisian publisher.[6]Charlotte Salomon – Wikipedia
Breakdown of vote nationwide for German national election – February 2025

Trump’s toxic claims re mail-in voting roil German election

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.5.2026

Donald Trump’s six years long insane ranting that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and stolen from him unsupported by a shred of reality has now reached Germany.

In Sunday’s German election the ultra right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to win to close to a majority in at least one of three State elections.

The AfD’s Saxony-Anhalt branch, which has been classified by the domestic intelligence agency as a “confirmed right-wing extremist organization”, could become Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II.

It’s no secret that Trump is infatuated with the AfD. In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD which ended up winning 152 seats in the German Bundestag.

In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD’s lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has called for postal voting to be restricted to justified exceptional cases. 

During the 2020 US presidential election, President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that expanded mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud. Fact-checkers documented and debunked repeated false and exaggerated claims about the security of mail ballots.

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the Trump administration is again seeking to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots, measures that have faced repeated legal challenges.

In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.5.2026

As Germany heads into three elections in September, rumors are circulating on social media claiming that postal voting is not secure — claims that have also been made about other elections. Here’s why they’re wrong.

Stakes are high in Germany’s three September state elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, where voters go to the ballot boxes on Sunday, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could make history in by winning an outright majority.

Mail-in voting, or “Briefwahl,” has become an increasingly common feature of German elections. But the rise in mail-in ballots has been followed by a renewed wave of speculation and claims questioning the security and integrity of postal vote.

DW Fact check examined a sample of claims circulating online and assessed what the available evidence shows.

Does postal voting manipulate election results?

Claim: Cases of fraud involving postal ballots prove that postal voting is unreliable.

DW Fact check: Misleading. Individual cases of fraud, errors or violations do not demonstrate that the entire postal voting system is unreliable or that it has affected the outcome of an election.

Postal voting easy to manipulate?

Claim: Postal votes are easily manipulated during counting.

DW Fact check: False. Germany has detailed procedures governing the handling and counting of postal ballots. Postal votes are transported, stored and opened according to established rules, and their counting takes place publicly.

https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-germanys-postal-voting-system-isnt-rigged/a-78958438

Trumpism’s Shadow Looms Over German Election

September 5, 2026 at 7:25 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 16 Comments  

“Leaders of an extremist, far-right party in Germany have quietly borrowed pages from President Trump’s playbook to cast doubt on the integrity of absentee voting — alleging without evidence that residents of nursing homes have had their ballots manipulated and calling for an end to postal voting,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“The attack on mail ballots comes as Germany approaches a potentially historic state election that could shatter one of the taboos of its postwar political order by opening the door to a far-right government.”

“Politicians across the ideological spectrum, mindful that polls show Trump to be widely unpopular, don’t invoke his name. But the specter of the American president nevertheless hangs over the election that could have reverberations across Europe if the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party — tacitly echoing Trump’s attacks on migrants, the media and the integrity of elections — pulls off an unprecedented political shock in postwar Germany.”

Trumpism’s Shadow Looms Over German Election