Few people know that on this day, 63 years ago, the Germans invaded Poland and tore the country from limb to limb. On that same day, September 1, 1939. the Wizard of Oz was released in American movie theaters.
I always found this confluence of imagery fascinating and horrendous, humbling and hellacious. While the Poles were watching their country being burned and bombed by tanks and trucks and armed soldiers, Americans everywhere were watching black and white characters become brightly colored, flying monkeys cascaded through the air, and the wonderful Wizard of Oz was pulling cords and pulleys and ropes in the hope of delivering a new nation. On this day, 63 years ago, the East fell and the North won. On this day, Dorothy Gale left Kansas and the Nazis left Berlin. This day marks a winfall of semi-precious cultural artifacts, a surfeit of meaning, as they say, and it’s hard to know what to do with it all.