Hanko: The Potter's Mark

I put a new weblog up. It is a visual links page of pottery related
websites I recommend. You can visit it he

http://hankos.blogspot.com/

Here is an example of my latest find:


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lee Love wrote:


We forget... and worse, we fail
to remind those
who are coming after us. ..

(see even more information he
http://www.cornishceramics.com/pleach.htm )

Mirek Smisek


I was happily surprised to see this name in the long, long list.
This is the New Zealand potter who made the work for the Lord Of the
Rings movie. He escaped from forced labor and the Nazis in Austria
during WWII (and the Communist later.) Below is their story. If
you go to the link, you can read about the Lord Of the Rings Pottery
and see photos of Milos and Mirek:

http://potters.blogspot.com/2004/02/...ek-smisek.html

or (if the above is broken):

http://tinyurl.com/4tduf

Milos & Mirek arriving in Sydney, 1948 Milos & Mirek today

They sent us to a forced labour factory in Ternitz, Austria. That was
our great opportunity to escape into Switzerland and, hopefully, into
England. We planned to cross on foot and we spent a whole night in the
snow, at times knee-deep, trying to cross through the Alps. But just
before dawn, we were arrested by German border guards.

We were in prison for three months, being interrogated by the Gestapo.
Then we were transported to a prison camp called Kislau. Kislau was the
worst camp ever; we thought that if we survived this we could survive
anything. It was full of Germans - social democrats, communists,
anti-Nazis; some of them had been there for 10 years. We were issued
shoes with wooden soles that were impossible to bend and straps that
cut into your feet; we were sent out to weed the fields, walking like
robots.

For the evening meal we used to get five little potatoes in their
jackets - no butter, no nothing. One day, Mirek said to me: 'Isn't
it your birthday today?' I realised it was my 21st birthday, so later
on during the meal I took two of these potatoes and hid them in my
pockets. I thought, 'We will celebrate when we get back into the
dormitory, we will have a little party and eat one each.' That
evening Mirek came into the dormitory and announced, 'Well, it's
your birthday - we will have a party,' and he pulled out of his
pocket two potatoes.

Now, we were right on the line of survival - to save one potato, in a
situation where your life might depend on half a potato, you are really
sacrificing your life. That was an act of incredible friendship by
Mirek. So we swapped our potatoes, and ate them in celebration of a
wonderful 21st birthday."

After surviving his imprisonment in Nazi labour camps, Milos and his
friend Mirek returned home, only to flee communism and emigrate to
Australia in 1948. Today Milos is a retired hydrographer, living in
Sydney with his wife Judy. Mirek is a potter, living in New Zealand.

This is an excerpt from an article written by Richard Guilliat which
first appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend magazine
on November 6, 1999. Milos Stefanek's autobiography will be published
shortly. To read a expanded version of his story online, visit
www.kuringgai.net/peace.htm

http://potters.blogspot.com/2004/02/...ek-smisek.html

or (if the above is broken):

http://tinyurl.com/4tduf


--
Leein Mashiko, Japan
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