[harpygoddess]

On December 19, 1944, twenty-two year old Kurt Vonnegut was captured by Wehrmacht troops. Here's the letter he wrote to his family after the end of the war informing them of his capture and survival.

[Flick Lives]

The Russians are crazy about Americans. The Russians picked us up in Dresden. We rode from there to the American lines at Halle in Lend-Lease Ford trucks. We’ve since been flown to Le Havre.

I’m writing from a Red Cross Club in the Le Havre P.O.W. Repatriation Camp. I’m being wonderfully well feed and entertained. The state-bound ships are jammed, naturally, so I’ll have to be patient. I hope to be home in a month.

—

Mueller would want to interview Vonnegut about his Russian collusion, except for the inconvenient truth that he died back in 2007.

[Old Teufel Hunden]

He was a brilliant writer. My favorite book was Cat’s Cradle. I love in Slaughterhouse five how the main character Billy loves the fictional author Kilgore Trout paperback science fiction writer and his favorite book “Venus on the Half Shell”. Years later I came across the paperback! Vonnegut created this persona Kilgore Trout and even wrote a book as Kilgore Trout. Hilarious...

[Old Teufel Hunden]

Another great Vonnegut moment came in the movie “Back to School” where Rodney Dangerfield goes to college to be with his son. Instead of actually doing the work, Dangerfield hires all of these experts to do his homework including having Vonnegut do a book report on a Kurt Vonnegut book. He gets an ‘F’ on the report card and the teacher (Sally Kellerman) tells him whoever wrote this knows nothing of Vonnegut....

[Dr. Sivana]

I read “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater” in sixth grade. I found it nihilistic, though I don’t think I used the word at the time. Never found any reason to revisit him.

[Chainmail]

Thank you for publishing this.

[Yo-Yo]

"And another thing, Vonnegut, I'm stopping payment on the check!"

[GreyFriar]

He was a rifleman in the 106th Infantry Division that had two of its infantry regiments surrounded by the Germans during the opening days of the Battle of the Bulge. The two regimental commanders ordered the surrender of their soldiers because of being cut off.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/106th_Infantry_Division_(United_States)

http://www.indianamilitary.org/106ID/SoThinkMenu/106thSTART.htm

[Kommodor]

Friend of mine has the book he wrote of roughly the same title. Perhaps I should borrow it sometimes ... perhaps not. I’m not entirely sure I care for his writing style.

[kanawa]

bkmk