美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Like Getting My Father Back': WWII POW's Art Returned To His Family

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Tomorrow is Veterans Day. It's a time to remember those who have sacrificed to protect and serve our country, like Howard Weistling. Growing up, Weistling wanted to be a comic strip artist. But when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he felt compelled to enlist¹ in the Army. Reporter Laurel Morales of member station KJZZ picks up the story from there.

LAUREL MORALES, BYLINE²: Mike Weistling, Howard's grandson, loved to hear his grandfather's war stories.

MIKE WEISTLING: He probably told me a lot of stories that were not appropriate for a child to hear.

MORALES: Mike says after flight engineer training, Howard was shipped off to Europe. On his maiden³ flight, his plane was shot down over Austria. Mike has a memento⁴ of that event hung on his wall in Flagstaff.

WEISTLING: So this right here is the ripcord that my grandfather pulled when he bailed⁵ out over Austria in December of 1944.

MORALES: The entire crew of eight men landed safely, but a farmer found Howard hiding in his barn and turned him over to a prisoner of war camp in Bart, Germany. Howard's son Morgan Weistling says it was freezing and the men almost starved to death eating the guards' garbage.

MORGAN WEISTLING: German soldiers would open the door. And after they'd had their food, would throw their plates on the floor.

MORALES: Hungry and homesick, Weistling coped the only way he knew how - he drew a comic strip.

WEISTLING: The book made of cigarette wrappers, bound together with scrap⁶ metal, was sent around camp. Every couple days, he would add a new panel. One panel at a time would be passed around the whole camp. And they had something to look forward to.

MORALES: After an entire year of this, they woke one morning to find their guards gone. They fled before the Russians arrived to liberate⁷ the camp. Howard finally got to go home. Just lucky to get out alive, he left the book behind. Back home in California, Howard soon had a wife and kids to feed so he had to set aside his dream of becoming an artist. He took a job as a gardener instead.

Morgan also shared his father's artistic⁸ gifts. As a toddler, he would crawl upon his father's knee and learn to draw. At 15, his parents sent him to art school. At 19, Morgan landed his first job drawing movie posters. One night, Howard saw Morgan sketching⁹ ideas for a poster.

WEISTLING: And he just got tears in his eyes, like, you're doing what I always had hoped I would do. And he was literally¹⁰ - it could - just feel it living through the moment, like, that's his way of living that dream out.

MORALES: Morgan left illustration to paint. Howard got to see his son become a well-known painter before he died in 2002. That's how seven decades after the war when a stranger in New York Googled the name Weistling. He found Morgan online.

WEISTLING: I get an email from an older gentleman, and he says, I think I may have some drawings that your father did when he was a POW in World War II. Would you like them? (Laughter) And I just stared at that email and started crying.

MORALES: The man said his business partner bought a truckload of Nazi¹¹ artifacts.

WEISTLING: Amongst the things in this truck full of stuff were three of Hitler's watercolors, batons¹² from Auschwitz, uniforms. And this man explained to me, we're Jewish, we're Jewish. And he went and bought the worst thing he could have done. So we were disgusted. But there was this one thing.

MORALES: That one thing was Howard's comic book. Luckily, he had engraved¹³ his name on it, which is how the man from New York had connected with Morgan. A couple of days later when it arrived by FedEx in California, he couldn't believe it.

WEISTLING: It was like getting my father back. It was like him being able to tell me the story over again, only this time it was real in my hands.

MORALES: Today, Morgan shows the book to his two daughters who have also inherited their grandfather's artistic talents.

For NPR News, I'm Laurel Morales in Flagstaff.

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1 enlist   

vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍

参考例句：

• They come here to enlist men for the army.他们来这儿是为了召兵。
• The conference will make further efforts to enlist the support of the international community for their just struggle. 会议必将进一步动员国际社会，支持他们的正义斗争。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。

4 memento   

n.纪念品，令人回忆的东西

参考例句：

• The photos will be a permanent memento of your wedding.这些照片会成为你婚礼的永久纪念。
• My friend gave me his picture as a memento before going away.我的朋友在离别前给我一张照片留作纪念品。

5 bailed   

保释，帮助脱离困境( bail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Fortunately the pilot bailed out before the plane crashed. 飞机坠毁之前，驾驶员幸运地跳伞了。
• Some water had been shipped and the cook bailed it out. 船里进了些水，厨师把水舀了出去。

6 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

7 liberate   

v.解放，使获得自由，释出，放出；vt.解放，使获自由

参考例句：

• They did their best to liberate slaves.他们尽最大能力去解放奴隶。
• This will liberate him from economic worry.这将消除他经济上的忧虑。

8 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

9 sketching   

n.草图

参考例句：

• They are sketching out proposals for a new road. 他们正在草拟修建新路的计划。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• "Imagination is busy sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. “飞舞驰骋的想象描绘出一幅幅玫瑰色欢乐的场景。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

10 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

11 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

12 batons   

n.（警察武器）警棍( baton的名词复数 )；（乐队指挥用的）指挥棒；接力棒

参考例句：

• There were many riot policemen with batons. 有许多带警棍的防暴警察。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Chinese police fight? Number one is a person with batons to fight! 满街飘的中国国旗，是一个老华侨在事发时那出来分给大家的，很感动，真的，从来一向多一事不如少一事的中国人今天团结到一起站出来反抗。 来自互联网

13 engraved   

v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中）

参考例句：

• The silver cup was engraved with his name. 银杯上刻有他的名字。
• It was prettily engraved with flowers on the back. 此件雕刻精美，背面有花饰图案。 来自《简明英汉词典》