cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/19924028

The odds were against Edgar Feuchtwanger reaching the age of 100. He was born on 28 September 1924 into a time of poverty and political turmoil in post-first world war Germany. He was also born into a Jewish family in a society that was about to turn to National Socialism, an ideology that would ultimately be responsible for the murder of 6 million Jews. In 1929, when Feuchtwanger was five, something happened that made his long life even more unlikely. He got a new neighbour: Adolf Hitler.

In October that year, Hitler moved into the grand second-floor flat at Prinzregentenplatz 16 in Munich. His previous flat, on the other side of the Isar, the river that divides Munich, had become too small. Munich to him was the “Capital of the Movement”, a title he awarded the city officially in 1935. From 1929 on he lived in nine rooms in this corner building, with its long balconies and baroque facade. His staff moved in with him,

From March 13 to May 7, 1954, the Viet Minh’s relentless fight at Dien Bien Phu delivered a crushing blow to French colonialism. This victory didn’t just end decades of imperial, colonial rule - it ignited hope for liberation struggles worldwide.

Just a year later, the Vietnamese people would continue their struggle for full liberation of their homeland from imperialist designs, and on April 30, 1975 defeated the US and its proxy force.