Holocaust Remembrance Day - January 27 - where you can learn more about the liberation of Auschwitz and survivors

 This January day commemorates the liberation of Auschwitz in the south of German-occupied Poland, near Krakow, by the Russians.

The motto over the entrance to the camp was Arbeit macht frei. Work makes you free. Those who could not work, children, the elderly, the disabled, were selected and sent straight to their deaths. 

I remember reading about a survivor who learned that her parents were sent straight to be killed. I was horrified. I thought she would be upset. On the contrary. She was relieved that her parents did not have to witness the horror of the roll calls, watching people being executed.

Pictures of those who did not survive.

In the early days, those who arrived were photographed on arrival for identity. However, those adults selected for survival, after three months their faces and bodies were so thin, so haggard from the horrors, so changed that they were unrecognizable and could not be identified from the photos. So, instead, their arms were stamped with numbers.

Survivors. After six months, children had survived, now well-fed, were brought back to the camp for a photo to show who the Russians had liberated. Whilst they might have been relieved to see each other, I cannot imagine that the children were happy to be back. 

National representatives are invited or volunteer to go to Auschwitz each year for a commemoration. In 2023 the Russians, at war with Ukraine, were not invited.  

If you go to Krakow, as I did, you will find a pretty, small city. It was small enough to be quickly captured and preserved by the invading Germans during WW2 as their HQ in the area. Auschwitz is just outside and one of the main places visited in the area. I knew it would be grim, but if you are taking guided tours you can hardly avoid it, because many full day tours include a half day there, and if you are in the area for two days, you have done most other places on the first day. 

On a slightly lighter note, the museum in the city in Schindler's former factory site, provides much less about those who lose their lives and much more about the survivors. I was glad to visit that afterwards. 

Israel honours those who saved Jews at Yad Vashem. You can visit holocaust memorials and museums all around the world. See below.

Anne Frank was in Auschwitz in Poland and was transported to Bergen Belsen in Germany where she died. 

Useful Websites

HISTORY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz_concentration_camp

2023 NEWS

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11683361/Putin-blasts-neo-Nazis-Ukraine-Holocaust-Remembrance-Day.html

MUSEUMS TO VISIT IN POLAND

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auschwitz-Birkenau_State_Museum

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Majdanek_State_Museum

Photos

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Konzentrationslager_Majdanek

UKRAINE - Memorial in Ukraine, Babi Yar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babi_Yar_Holocaust_Memorial_Center#:~:text=On%20September%2029%2C%202016%2C%20President,Ukraine%2C%20in%202025%2F26.&text=Memorial%20to%20the%20victims%20of%20the%20Holocaust.

UK Holocaust Museum

https://www.visit-nottinghamshire.co.uk/things-to-do/the-national-holocaust-centre-and-museum-p586711

USA Holocaust museum

https://www.ushmm.org/online/ihrd/2023/

ISRAEL

https://www.yadvashem.org/

VENEZUELA

Star of David shape Shoah memorial in Jewish cemetery in Caracus, Venezuela

Holocaust memorials and museums worldwide

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Holocaust_memorials_and_museums

A happy story of a survivor and the rescuing family in Belgium

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11671459/Man-revisits-home-mother-hid-Nazis-80-years-ago.html

Please share links to your favourite posts.

What is the difference between the Italian Christmas cakes Panettone and Pandoro?

Panettone

 Panettone I have known for years in London. The Italian restaurants serve it. The Italian caffes and delis sell it. The supermarkets stock it before, during and after Christmas in all sizes. 

It comes from Italy. But also Spain. Our Venezuelan member brought it to our self-catered potluck party one Xmas at Harrovian Toastmasters in NW London, England.

The name means little bread, or modified bread. The best is like a roll or cake.

Panettone looks like a smoothed out pyramid or cone with an undulating edge. The simplest is plain, but you can also get it with raisins and increasingly other flavours. One year Tesco was selling tiny ones in three flavours, plain cake, plain cake with added currants, and chocolate flavour cake. 

If you are expecting a cake, it's at first disappointing to find it is more like a bread. On the other hand, it is extremely more-ish. And it keeps. I had one in a tin for well over six months, high up in the kitchen. It was still edible. Maybe slightly drier. 

If you don't feel it is eating quality, but still too good to waste, you can always turn into into toast. Or make a bread and butter pudding.

Next, what is Pandoro?

Pandoro

Pandoro

Pandoro

Over in Singapore I see pandoro for sale in Fairprice supermarket. What is the difference between painting and Pandora. As you might have guessed, pan d'oro means bread of gold. Gold in colour and flavour, and quality. 

I was shocked to read that only three or four centuries ago, in Italy, the same as probably most of Europe, including the UK, the poor people, the majority, ate black or brown bread. Only the rich could afford white bread. Nowadays, even the poorest person can eat white bread. The supermarket choices would be unimaginable to our grandparents or great grandparents and ancestors. 

As for panettone and pandoro, these were not available when I was a child in the UK. What a choice we have nowadays. 

Pandoro is supposedly from Milan.

Tesco, this year, as before, offers a chocolate panettone, but I prefer the original.

One pound fifty pence, for a 100 g  version, from Tesco, GB.

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panettone

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandoro

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/310661699

I have several posts on panettone from pervious years. My previous posts with the most interesting text and pictures include

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2014/12/xmas-cakes-round-world.html

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/04/easter-cakes-from-england-europe-and.html

About the author

(About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury)

BIOGRAPHY

Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5 
The Author of several books, including  Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.

Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

translateforfun.blogspot.com

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President

Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time 

Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;

Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;

Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.

More details from Toastmasters International find a club.

Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.

Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.

Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.

Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.

Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.

Language and speech workshops in Singapore.

Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.

Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.

Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.

Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.

I  also have a blog on comic poems.

 Please share links to your favourite posts.

Christmas Customs, Food and Drink Around The World - turkey, carp, midnight mass, Christmas cake, Christmas pudding, stollen and panettone

Turkey lunch.

Christmas dinner in London consists of turkey with red cranberry sauce, green Brussels sprouts and roast potatoes. Other options include a bread or bread and chestnut stuffing; and small sausages wrapped in bacon, called pigs in blankets.

Why turkey? To make a change. Because a turkey is larger therefore more convenient when you have extra visitors to entertain to a Christmas meal. After that, what's next?

Christmas Pudding

This hearty, filling dish is followed by dark, dried fruit Christmas pudding. Accompanied by cream.

I find this too rich. I prefer the contrasting colour of yellow custard. 

Christmas Pudding in Dona Theresa Restaurant, Hatch End. The restaurant used to find customers were ringing another Dona Theresa Restaurant elsewhere in London, so the restaurant name was change to Zia Theresa, meaning Aunt Theresa.

You can see on the right of the picture the words Dona Theresa, which is hte name of a restaurant in Hatch End.

An individual Xmas pudding with a single portion of cream at a Christmas dinner in an Italian restaurant in Hatch End, London, England. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

We used to make a Christmas pudding weeks in advance. As it dries out, the flavour improves. An alcoholic drink can be added to the mixture as a preservative.

Another year, we bought three small size Christmas puddings from different supermarkets and compared them. When we made our choice, we bought a large one for Christmas Day.

This went on for years. Until the revolution. Heston Blumenthal introduced a citrus fruit in the middle of a Xmas pudding. The novelty sold out.

Now it has become a Xmas staple. Not cheap. Sixteen pounds sterling when I looked on Dec 17 2020.

In England Xmas pudding is sold for Xmas. The price comes down in January. 

When we went America we found that Xmas pudding was available all year. But it was known by its old name, plum pudding. A pudding made, no longer with plums, but with dried fruit such as currants.

As a child growing up in in London, England, I assumed that turkey, Christmas pudding, and Christmas cake were all the standard all over the world. To a limited extent this is true, Many countries, those still in the Commonwealth, continue to enjoy the old traditions. Europe does things differently.

However, the English speaking Americans also don't eat turkey at Christmas. Why? Because they have already had turkey for Thanksgiving dinner in November. 

When we spent Christmas in Prague, Czech Republic, we had Christmas dinner there at our hotel. The main dish was fish. 

Afterwards we went to midnight mass at the nearby church. The service was in the Czech language. No translation into German, Russian nor English. Luckily, we could copy the others standing up and sitting down when instructed to do so by the priest. I could see the page numbers of the hymn book of the lady standing next to me. I recognized some of the famous music. If I remember rightly, we recognized Silent Night, Ave Maria and a classical piece of music.

In England, after Christmas Day dinner (lunch), when we Brits are in England, we watch the Queen's Speech. (Actually it is called the Queen's Christmas message. The  Queen's speech is what she give to Parliament when she opens it after their recession.)

It's a treat to hear the Queen speaking the Queen's English. Here I am at Heathrow airport, London, England, beside a cut out model of the queen.

Tea time is the time when we produce the Christmas Cake. A heavy fruit cake. With white icing on top. Reminding you of snow. Most supermarkets can supply miniature cake topping such as red hat Santas, green plastic Christmas trees, reindeer.

Or you can buy a complete cake. Marks and Spencer usually stock one in a round, square or oblong shape. It must have marzipan under the icing. Make sure the expiry date is after Xmas day!

One year we left for Singapore before Xmas. I bought a Xmas cake. When I got it home, I discovered that the expiry date was before Xmas day.

Again, I had always assumed Xmas cake was universal. Until the foods of Europe reached the UK supermarkets.

Another British favourite is mince pies. Found everywhere in supermarkets. Cheap.

Mince pie.

Yule Log

If you visit Prague for Xmas, as we did, you can see the statue of composer Smetana, and a star commemorating him in the walk of fame.

France offers the world what the Americans call the Yule log. The English call it a log cake. The French call it buche noel. (Not to be confused with the French word bouche which means mouth.) This alternative cake can be a a Swiss roll, or spiral of sponge, with a chocolate covering, You scrape the chocolate icing with the tines of a fork to make it look like a log. Reminders of a log fire to warm you at Christmas time, in the snowy winter.

Stollen - Germany

Stollens are a solid roll shape cake with a scattering of dried fruit inside, white icing sugar covering the outside and, ideally, a marzipan centre. Stollens vary wildly in size and marzipan content. You can buy a traditional large roll, or cheaper individual miniature portions, which is more calorie controlling. 

Stollens could have a large marzipan centre, a thin one like a pencil, or, disappointingly, no marzipan at all. If you are a marzipan addict, check the ingredients and/or photo on the packaging before buying. 

Small individual stollen.

Large stollen.

Stollen with individual filling.

One year I bought a stollen ingredients kit. I wanted to know how it is made. Simple, really. Soak dried fruit overnight. Next day, mix up a batter. Add the fruit, well distributed. Roll out your soft marzipan into the length of the intended cake. Roll the marzipan in the cake mixture. Bake. Dust with icing sugar. However, the results were not as good as the top quality ones. Timing is critical to get it done but soft, with enough marzipan but not too much. 

Marzipan is basically ground almonds mixed with fine sugar. When my late father was diagnosed with late-onet diabetes, which is diet related, I started checking sugar content of everything I bought. I found that marzipan content varied from 75% almonds for the dearer brands, to fifty percent sugar for the cheaper supermarkets own brand. 

Panettone - Italy, Spain and Venezuela

More photos and text and websites will be added later.

See Statues of Smetana in Prague.

To sum up, you can enjoy the best of every country now in supermarkets around the world. My top three countries for Christmas are the UK, Singapore and America. The UK has Christmas decoration and crackers in window displays and restaurants. Singapore has street lights and decorated malls. American has giant displays on home lawns and rooftops and office blocks and skyscrapers.

Useful Websites

https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/products/heston-from-waitrose-hidden-orange-christmas-pudding/700239-99398-99399

About the Author

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

How learning Spanish Helps Everyday Life

Problem
I started learning Spanish because it was an easy language. The easiest language is the made up language, Esperanto. If you already speak French or learned Latin in school, Spanish vocabulary is easy which is a good start. but if you don't plan to visit Spain or a Spanish speaking country, why waste times?

Answers
Eventually you will probably visit a Spanish-speaking country. You need to start practising now. It only costs a little time because Duolingo and Duolingo' Tinycards online or on your phone apps make learning language easy and can be done when you are just sitting waiting for a bus or train or passenger or driver.

Pronunciation
I went to a Toastmasters International speakers club in London, England and the
Toastmaster of the Evening Jesús P, from Venezuela. I knew that Jesús was pronounced 'hay-zoo-ss' with emphasis on the second syllable.

Pronuuncing the man's name the Spanish way has several advantages. He feels more at home and at ease. You feel more in control. In an English speaking coutnry, where the Jesus in the bible is pronounced Jee-sus, with emphasis on the first syllable, you can make a distinction between when you are talking about the biblical Jesus and when you are talking about the perosn int he room or member of your club.

I have had one or two odd moments where I heard somebody say sentences such as, "I am going to call on Jesus." "Please be silent for Jesus." "I am going to ask Jesus for the money". For a moment or two, I was not sure whether the speaker was going to pray, or ask a member of the committee. For a visitor to the club, or a stranger, it can be equally confusing.

How do I know about the correct Spanish pronunciation? Because whilst I had been discussing Spanish with my husband Trevor earlier, Trevor had pointed out that in Spanish the accent is not about pronunciation but tells you on which syllable to lay the emphasis.

I was delighted that learning Spanish had helped me immediately, at Toastmasters International Clubs, long before a trip to Spain or any Spanish-speaking country, such as South America and Mediterranean islands.

Trevor had learned Spanish pronunciation so he could pronounce Spanish words and names correctly when buying Spanish wine such as Rioja and meeting sellers of wine or managers and owners of wine cellars and vineyards.

So there you have three reasons for learning Spanish:
Spanish is an easy language.
You will learn how to pronounce the names of people you meet in your home country
You will be able to pronounce the names of wines, and recognise the pronunciation of street names and landmarks on maps, and in news stories.
You will feel more in control and at ease when meeting Spanish speaking people in Spain, Latin America or island such as Majorca and Minorca.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please see my other posts on learning Spanish, Esperanto, and Spanish-speaking destinations. Share links with your friends and family and colleagues.

South American Countries - How To Learn And Remember Them

Problem
How do I remember them? I started testing myself on Duolingo's Tinycards, but this was tedious as I did not yet know the countries. I thought, first I need a map.

Answers
I looked in Wikipedia for a map, and found one but it was just geographical contours.
However, Wikitravel provided the perfect map with good colours separating each country from the next.

Most of the countries speak Spanish as a first or second language, including Venezuela, a favourite for Americans from the USA, probably because it is nearest, being the furthest north (apart from a finger from Columbia on the left of Venezuela).

The two I could remember most easily were, Venezuela, on the Northern coast near American, and Brazil, the big one, on the right, which unlike the others, has Portuguese as a first language.

The countries, listed alphabetically, are :
Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, (British) Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay. The mainland countries are fourteen, plus the islands: Eastern Island; Falkland Islands, sixteen.

I memorised some of them alphabetically going anti-clockwise.

B - Brazil
Brazil is the biggest. B for Brazil and b for biggest. If you need another reminder, the second letter or Brazil, is r for right.

A - Argentina
Also large is Argentina. Don't cry for me Argentina, as the song says, because I am also pretty big.

A-B-C - Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia
Swinging north from A to B, we have a conveniently alphabetical progression of Bolivia next to big Brazil, then anti-clockwise, the letter C for Colombia.

CO - O
 I keep typing the letter U but Colombia has the letter O twice.

ABC-E - Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador
No country starts with letter D. However, but the next letter is E, for Ecuador. The country's name, Eduador, means equator, which sounds similar to The Equator. You can see Eduador is bulging out to the west (apart from a finger coming up from larger Peru).

PC - Peru, Chile
Next down the coast is big Peru and long legs Chile. Think of PC, politically correct.

A-B-C Argentina, Bolivia, Chile
Or go anticlockwise from Argentina via Bolivia

P - O
P and O, like the P and O shipping company, Paraguay and Uruguay rhyme. Poor Paraguay is landlocked and doesn't have a beach. You and I will go to Uruguay (rhyme) first, because it has a beach, a coast, on the East.

Map of South America from Wikitravel.

Paddington Bear statue on Paddington station, London, England.

Useful Websites

Duolingo For learning Portuguese and Spanish.

www.duolingo.com

www.tinycards.duolingo.com

Language learning books and CDs from 

http://Amazon.com or 

http://Amazon.co.uk

Paddington Bear toy from

http://www.harrods (About £53)

http://www.johnlewis.com/clearance (About £13)

www.selfridges.com

Paddington Bear books such as A Bear Called Paddington by Michael Bond from

http://www.amazon.com

http://www.foyles.co.uk

http://www.waterstones.com

Film / Movie

Paddington bear trailer on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nicz3pS-CQs

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Next post will cover what to see in South America. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts. See my other posts on languages and destination on this blog and my other blog:

www.luxurytravelforless.co.uk

A to Z of countries at the World Travel Market in 2016

Problem

What did I learn at last year's World Travel Market? The simplest way to recall is to take one picture from each country alphabetically and list what I learned, ideally alliteratively.

The photo serve as visual aids, memory aids.


Australia

Australian Flag

Belgium

Bulgarian Flag, white, green red

Bulgarian Woodcarving, a traditional Bulgarian craft

Bulgaria, South of Romania

Bulgaria has a coast on the Black Sea

France
French flag, blue, white and red

Greek restaurant Arena

Incredible India pavilion

Italy

Italian flag, green, white, red

Kenya 

Malaysia

Russia
Russia is huge, with Moscow nearest to Europe, 

Spain

Thailand: Bangkok

Turkey, the home of turquoise.

Venezuela

All photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright.

Useful website:

https://www.skyscanner.net/flights-to/bg/airlines-that-fly-to-bulgaria.html

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Good and Bad Encounters on Buses

Problem
I was rather nervous about my bus journey. Lots of bad things happen on buses. All sorts or odd people. Even if no danger, the person on the bus beside you is smelly, nutty, too close for comfort.

Solutions
If you travel off-peak, you have a chance to move to another seat. I don't think it's offensive to move.

I often move to get a whole seat to myself. I am doing the person I leave a favour, because I leave more room for the person I was sitting beside.

Is it a personality thing? Some people like to claim a seat and stay in it. Some always sit in the same place on a bus or train every day, the one at the front with the view ahead. Schoolchildren run to the seat higher up at the back, where they can sit together on the longer back seat, be together in a group. That does a favour to the older people who don't want to risk walking up the short flight of stairs when the bus is moving, nor down them again to get off.

Also schoolchildren know the route. So they can sit at the back and rush off quickly at their stop. Strangers need to sit near the doors, watching for signs, or listening to the announcements.

I move to sit against the window and enjoy the view. If somebody large sits beside me, they have to spill into the aisle. I am firmly supported by the seat. I do not have my pockets exposed to people passing. I can put my bag against the window. I can tuck my clothes around any pockets.

But seeing the stop before mine I go into panic mode. I move to be near the door ready to get off without delaying the whole bus. I might move to the front to ask the driver if this is the nearest stop to my destination, such as a railway station. It's not always obvious. In a big station, (as happened to me in Singapore) the driver told me to wait until he pulled into the terminal, to save the delay and danger of crossing a busy road.

On my last trip, I moved to stand up in the wheelchair space to take photos. A woman with a buggy got on. I immediately offered to move to make way for her. She said she was fine. She sat down with the buggy next to her, leaving the space the other side of the pole for me to stand.

later, having taken a specific photo of a landmark, I sat down. As I sat in a single inward facing seat by the door, the bus stopped. A man who was unshaven, with missing teeth, said something I could not understand. it sounded like 'ez well ah'. He pointed at my hat. My hat said Venezuela. I was given it at the Venezuela stand at the World Travel Market in London. My hat gets lots of comments. I am a walking advertisement for Venezuela.

The old, unshaven man gave me a big smile. I gave him a big smile in return.

A moment later he was gone. No harm or danger to me. A smile and comment from him to cheer me.

An encounter to brighten his day. If I had been in the street I might have tired to evade a character I didn't know trying to make conversation. But because it was a bus, and I was surrounded by people, and he was getting off, and I could choose to get off at another stop (which I was doing anyway) I was safe and happy to brighten his day with my smile.

Thousands of bus journeys in every city every day. A few end in tragedy. Most end in comedy, if that's what you want.

I had met people who were unsmiling, smelly, mentally challenged, but also conversational people, young people, old people, smiling people, polite people, people to take me way from problems. Better than mediation or sitting at home alone. For a change of scene, take a bus.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Christmas in Venezuela, according to Jesus

Venezuela is a Spanish speaking country and they have some of our English carols and hymns and Christmas songs but sung in Spanish. For example, jingle bells. Same tune, but Spanish words.

Christmas is celebrated with the usual symbols, in a country which is warm at Christmas time. If they are dreaming of a white Christmas they are probably planning to go to New York or somewhere further north. Such as Canada. Of course, many Americans and Canadians are dreaming of a warm Christmas somewhere such as Venezuela.

Christmas Day is celebrated with gifts to children, but the gifts are not delivered by Santa Claus but by the baby Jesus.

So I am informed by a Venezuelan friend called Jesus.

Not many people in London, England, are called Jesus.  Except those born in Venezuela.


Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.