Buk's Arrest during WW2 (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter David
- Start date
bospress.net
www.bospress.net
true, Hosh. It sounds like Jory mis-remembers this story.
Interesting, because that may explain what follows: "He never gave any details about his father at this time, but there were oblique references to his father's outspoken defense of Hitler and Nazi Germany. The most startling aspect, to me, of his time in jail, and I believe it was in Atlanta, Georgia..." (p. 43). I wonder if indeed Sherman is mixing up the father with the mother, since I think the biographies mention his mother's support of Hitler...Also Sherman then mixes up Atlanta with Philadelphia in the next sentence. But perhaps there is then a grain of truth in the idea that his mother's German identity had something to do with his arrest? That might make sense, given the anti-German, anti-Japanese feeling in the US at the time...Of course it is unlikely Buk could be "mistaken for my mother and arrested because I was German"....
BTW, I just finished Sherman's book and it is pretty bad. Should be retitled ME and Bukowski instead of Bukowski and Me. It's full of mistakes, so this may just be another example.
BTW, I just finished Sherman's book and it is pretty bad. Should be retitled ME and Bukowski instead of Bukowski and Me. It's full of mistakes, so this may just be another example.
mjp
Founding member
There is no mystery around his arrest, so I'm not sure why you (or Sherman) are looking for one. He was arrested for "Violation of the Selective Service Act."
mjp
Founding member
I'm no scholar of WWII or of the Selective Service, but the idea that the Selective Service was tasked with rounding up Germans doesn't pass the common sense test. Especially considering Germans were never "rounded up" at all by any governmental agency before, during or after WWII. Now, those filthy Japs, that's another matter...
It also seems likely that if his German ancestry had anything to do with his arrest, that detail would be in the FBI files, and it is not. Think about what Selective Service did - they rounded up Americans to ship them off to wars. That's the only reason they would have any interest in Bukowski. He was 24 years old, left his home state and didn't keep up contact with the draft board during a major world war.
Bukowski talked and wrote about the episode quite a bit, yet only in Sherman's book does this "picked up for being German" detail come up. Rekrab has pointed out another Sherman "memory" that could not have possibly been accurate. Shit, man, I've had people repeat things back to me that they think I said in a conversation 10 minutes earlier and I wonder where the hell they got the idea I said anything like what they heard.
But it must be very liberating, I suppose, to write about these conversations 50 years later, when one of the conversants is long dead and you can put whatever words you'd like into their mouth. Spineless, shitlicking weasel cowards like Ben Pleasants have made tiny little careers out of that. Scribbling sensationalist little turds that can't be verified by anyone.
But I digress.
Reading more into the event is certainly an entertaining mental exercise, but I think that's all it is. Is it possible? Sure. Anything is possible. The question should be; is it probable?
It also seems likely that if his German ancestry had anything to do with his arrest, that detail would be in the FBI files, and it is not. Think about what Selective Service did - they rounded up Americans to ship them off to wars. That's the only reason they would have any interest in Bukowski. He was 24 years old, left his home state and didn't keep up contact with the draft board during a major world war.
Bukowski talked and wrote about the episode quite a bit, yet only in Sherman's book does this "picked up for being German" detail come up. Rekrab has pointed out another Sherman "memory" that could not have possibly been accurate. Shit, man, I've had people repeat things back to me that they think I said in a conversation 10 minutes earlier and I wonder where the hell they got the idea I said anything like what they heard.
But it must be very liberating, I suppose, to write about these conversations 50 years later, when one of the conversants is long dead and you can put whatever words you'd like into their mouth. Spineless, shitlicking weasel cowards like Ben Pleasants have made tiny little careers out of that. Scribbling sensationalist little turds that can't be verified by anyone.
But I digress.
Reading more into the event is certainly an entertaining mental exercise, but I think that's all it is. Is it possible? Sure. Anything is possible. The question should be; is it probable?
Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
Why on earth would they arrest his father? It does'nt ring true. I'm sure it would have been a big deal in the Buk bios if it was true. It's like Sherman is still riding his Buk-Nazi hobby horse.
(A small detail: The US did'nt declare war on Germany. It was the other way around, as I recall. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and The US and Japan were at war with one another, Germany then decided to declare war on the US in support of their ally, Japan.)
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mjp
Founding member
Yes, I realize that I'm beating a dead horse, but it should also be mentioned that Bukowski was arrested almost 3 years after the U.S. declared war on Germany, which doesn't really qualify for shortly after.
Just saying.
Thanks. No green for Jory and his publisher.
Bukfan
"The law is wrong; I am right"
Yes, that's about it. He failed to give them his new address, I believe, so they arrested him when they found him, and locked him up for 2-3 weeks in Myomensing prison, Philadelphia. The talk he had with the military psychologist, or psychiatrist, there, ended with Buk being discharged.
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Thanks for the update on the book, David. Will put this one on the back burner - face down, certainly.
Have you read Pamela Wood's Scarlet? If not, do so. It's a real treat. Doubt another book like that will come along anytime soon - if at all.
