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Franz Werfel Stamp Issued In Israel

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  • Franz Werfel Stamp Issued In Israel

    FRANZ WERFEL STAMP ISSUED IN ISRAEL

    asbarez
    Friday, February 17th, 2012

    The Franz Werfel commemorative stamp

    JERUSALEM-Between 1933 and 1945 tens of thousands of people went
    beyond the line of duty and violated laws and regulations strictly
    for the purpose of extending a hand to those in desperate need. Their
    names and actions deserve the permanent reminder.

    To honor these exceptional people the International Raoul Wallenberg
    Foundation conducts a program that aims at issuing commemorative
    stamps to promote exemplary behaviors during the Holocaust.

    Moreover, the Wallenberg Foundation pays tribute to people who have
    excelled for their spirit of solidarity, for their righteousness and
    their performance in their respective occupations.

    Therefore, the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation is proud to
    present a new commemorative stamp dedicated to the memory and literary
    legacy of Franz Werfel.

    Franz Werfel (1890-1945), Austrian poet, modernist playwright, and
    novelist, was born in Prague, the son of a Jewish merchant. During
    World War I, Werfel served for several years on the Russian front
    as a soldier in the Austrian army. A friend of authors Max Brod and
    Franz Kafka, Werfel later moved to Vienna and Berlin. He was forced
    to leave the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1933. His 1933 novel,
    Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh (The Forty Days of Musa Dagh), detailed
    the mass murder and expulsion of Armenians from eastern Anatolia in
    1915 and received much attention in the United States. It stood as
    a warning against future acts of mass murder and won lasting respect
    from Armenian communities throughout the world.

    Werfel's books were burned by the Nazis as those of a Jewish author
    who advocated pacifism, love for all mankind, and hostility to extreme
    nationalism and Nazism. Werfel had to flee Austria after the German
    annexation. He then escaped from France by hiding in the Catholic
    sanctuary of Lourdes, crossing the Pyrenees on foot to safety in Spain,
    and leaving from there for the United States. With gratitude for
    his sanctuary at Lourdes in mind, he wrote the best-selling novel,
    The Song of Bernadette. Though he remained a Jew all of his life,
    Werfel was attracted to many aspects of Catholicism.




    From: A. Papazian
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