1978-What a Year

1978 must have been one of the most significant years well at least in a pop culture way, the amount of classic movies that were released that year and classic songs is just phenomenal.

Lets start with some of the songs.

Wuthering Heights

Written by an 18 year old Kate Bush taken from the album which was partially produced by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour.

It was Kate Bush’s first single and reached Number 1 in January 1978 and stayed there for 4 weeks. It was the first song composed and written by a woman to reach number one in the UK.

 

The Gibb Brothers

I deliberately did not say the Bee Gees because in 1978 the Bee Gees and their younger sibling Andy Gibb all had several songs in the charts.

The Bee Gees had several hits from the soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever and Barry Gibb’s ‘Grease; sung by Frankie Valli also topped the charts.

Where Andy Gibb had success with songs like “Shadow Dancing” and “An Everlasting Love”

 

 

Dreadlock Holiday

A reggae song by 10CC. Although they had been around for a while and did have other hits like ‘The Wallstreet shuffle’ and ‘ Rubber Bullets’ this British Rock band did get their biggest hit in 1978 with a Reggae Tune.

But the list of massive hits goes on with artists like Michael Jackson,Eric Clapton,Kansas,The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and the Wings and ABBA.I could go on forever, therefore swiftly moving to movies

Grease

The most successful musical ever and although I am not a great musical fan, Grease did something to my psyche, I absolutely love the movie. I am not going to say too much about it, I will leave the music to the talking. This is my favourite song of Grease, it might surprise you that is not one of the countless hits.

Finishing up with one of the best movies ever made

The Deer Hunter

Co-written and directed by Michael Cimino about a trio of Russian American steelworkers whose lives are changed forever after they fought in the Vietnam War. The same Michael Cimino would cause the demise of United Artists less then 2 years later.

But the Deer Hunter is still in my Top 5 of all tine favourite movies.

 

By the way 1978 was also the year of 3 popes

Pope Paul VI dies at age of 80.
John Paul I Becomes Pope from August 26th , 1978 and dies just 33 days later on September 28, 1978
Cardinal Karol Wojtyla becomes Pope John Paul II

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Sonderaktion Krakau-the raid on Polish scholars.

On November 6, 1939, Obersturmbannführer SS Bruno Müller ordered the the faculty of the University of Krakow to assemble for a special lecture to present the Nazis’ vision for Poland.

Upon arrival the faculty found themselves among the first casualties of the systematic deconstruction of the country. Codenamed the Sonderaktion Krakau, the professors were all taken into custody and deported to the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen and Dachau.

A little over two months after the German Invasion of Poland, the Gestapo chief in Kraków SS-Obersturmbannführer Bruno Müller,

commanded Jagiellonian University rector Professor Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński to require all professors to attend his lecture about German plans for Polish education.

The rector agreed and sent an invitation throughout the university for a meeting scheduled at the administrative centre building in the Collegium Novum . On November 6, 1939 at the lecture room no. 56 (or 66, sources vary) at noon, all academics and their guests gathered; among them, 105 professors and 33 lecturers from Jagiellonian University (UJ), 34 professors and doctors from University of Technology (AGH) some of whom attended a meeting in a different room, 4 from University of Economics (AE) and 4 from Lublin and Wilno.

The academics filled the hall but no lecture on education was conducted. Instead, they were told by Müller that the university did not have permission to start a new academic year , and that Poles are hostile toward German science, and act in bad faith. They were arrested on the spot by armed police, frisked and escorted out. Some senior professors were kicked, slapped in the face and hit with rifle butts. Additional 13–15 university employees and students who were onsite were also arrested, as well as the President of Kraków, Dr Stanisław Klimecki who was apprehended at home that afternoon.

All of them, 184 persons in total, were transported first to prison at Montelupich street, then to barracks at Mazowiecka, and – three days later – to a detention center in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), where they spent 18 days split between two prison facilities: the detention centre (Untersuchungsgefängnis, at the Świebodzka 1 Street), and the Strafgefängnis penal complex at Kleczkowska 35. The Gestapo were unprepared for such a large transfer of prisoners, and awaited permission to send them to Buchenwald concentration camp which was filled to capacity. As a result, on November 27, 1939 at night, they were loaded onto a train to Sachsenhausen concentration camp located on the other side of Berlin, and in March 1940, sent further to Dachau concentration camp near Munich after a new batch of younger academics taken prisoner arrived.

Following loud international protest by prominent Italians including Benito Mussolini and the Vatican,101 professors who were older than 40 were released from Sachsenhausen on February 8, 1940. Additional academics were released later. Many elderly professors did not survive the roll-calls held twice a day in snow and rain, and the grim living conditions in the camp where dysentery was common and warm clothes were rare. Twelve died in the camp within three months, and another five within days of release. Among the notable professors who died in the camp were Ignacy Chrzanowski (UJ; Jan 19, 1940), Stanisław Estreicher (UJ; Dec 29, 1939), Kazimierz Kostanecki ( Jan 11, 1940), Antoni Meyer (AGH; Dec 24, 1939), and Michał Siedlecki (Jan 11, 1940, after roll-call). In March 1940 the able prisoners from Kraków who remained alive were sent to Dachau concentration camp and most of them, but not all, released in January 1941 on intervention.

Many of those who went through Sonderaktion Krakau and the internment, in 1942 formed an underground university in defiance of the German punitive edicts. Among the 800 students of their underground college was Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, taught by prof. Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński among others.

Today there is a plaque commemorating the events of Sonderaktion Krakau in front of Collegium Novum in Kraków. Every November 6, black flags are hung outside all Jagiellonian University buildings, and the Rector of the University lays wreaths to honor those who suffered.

 

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2, however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thank you. To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the PayPal link. Many thanks.

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