Michael’s answer to “Is Pino Lella still living? What a marvelous book.” > Likes and Comments
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I’m very glad you’ve decided not to engage any further with this person who is so hell bent on discrediting the book. I haven’t read all the comments but have seen enough to know it’s gone on a ridiculously long time & you have been more patient than I would have been. Life is too short to indulge such nonsense. I loved the book & wish you & your father well.
I appreciate your support Gwen. I tried to reason with her, like I do with everyone, but to no avail. I'm now convinced she's nuts.
Nice to see you here. I just finished listening to the audio book and sorry to see it end. So much still to be told. My grandparents are from Agrigento, Sicily. I grew up hearing many first hand accounts. Please thank your dad for me for fighting this monumentous fight.
Michael. Your dad is an extraordinarily elegant hero. I am so infatuated with his discipline, kindness and faith. As all the readers of this book I am still thinking about this book well after I finished it. I am having my 13year old son read it. After that we will visit Milan. I will also recommend it to his English class. May God continue to bless you & your family.
Thank you Herman (and Joanne) for reaching out to me with your comments about my father Pino. Herman, I hope you and your son enjoy traveling to Milano. And Joanne, I will pass on your regards to my father and I’m touched that you felt compelled to write. I have met so many Americans of Italian descent with whom my fathers story have touched a chord. All of them with great stories to tell. My Dad considers himself “the lucky one”, undeserving of all the attention.... please keep that thought and when you read my fathers story, know that there were others like your grandparents who lived and were very much part of that story. Sincerely, Michael Lella, Pino’s son.
Praying your father is still doing well during this awful pandemic.
I absolutely loved the book and Loved Pino I hope you all are well over there!! It is so great to hear he is alive and well! Did he ever write an autobiography? I want to meet him! Jules
to Mary and Jules...My father is doing well and so far unaffected by the virus. Although he is approaching 94 years old, his immune and respiratory system has been his strong point...I have never known him to have a cold or the flu, not once. I wish I can say the same for his mind...he does have the on-set of dementia and more and more is acting out with bipolar and manic symptoms.
Just finished reading your fathers story and I was moved to tears multiple times. I cannot get his story out of my mind. God bless your father and all he has been through!
Thank you Aquilina. Honored that my father's story touched your soul. Mark Sullivan deserves all the credit for that.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to everyone, my entire family has read it!! What an INCREDIBLE life story, what a hero! I laughed and I cried. It wrecked me in the best possible way.
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment on here. I'm so fascinated by your family's history and legacy. Thank you!
Michael wrote: "to Mary and Jules...My father is doing well and so far unaffected by the virus. Although he is approaching 94 years old, his immune and respiratory system has been his strong point...I have never k..."
Wow, I'm glad he's doing well physically. Thank you so much for updating. He's an amazing man and I'm so thankful you've shared with us. What a tribute to him. I can't stop thinking about this story, about your lives, I'd love to meet someday.
Hello Sally.
…..every family has a history and a legacy. Our is no better or more interesting than anyone else's. Honored that you were inspired by my father's experience during the War. The credit goes to Mark Sullivan who has the talent and the ability to make Dad's story resonate with the world through his novel. My father doesn't see himself as a hero....Complicated, different, charismatic, strong, witty...all those things yes, but hero?....sometimes, not always.
Thank you so much! I saw that you had a discussion group in CA, are you planning on holding any others when quarantine ends? I would love to attend.
Hi Sally. For sure...I was on a role before this virus pandemic shut me down. Hope to be back on the speaking tour when it ends. Had to cancel and postpone a bunch of talks and we'll have to wait and see when the offers come back. Sally, feel free to reach me directly through my email at michaellella@yahoo,com and we can talk. I'm always honored to speak with anyone personally interested in my father's story.
Michael wrote: "Dad was groomed by Don Luigi Re to learn the trails for his eventual job guiding Jews to the Swiss border (along with Giovanni Barbareschi whom my father did not like)."
Michael, why didn't your father like Giovanni Barbareschi?
Hello Giovanni.
I am not going to divulge why my father did not like Giovanni Barbareschi. It is very personal to him and frankly, it would be insulting to speak of my father's personal dislike towards another individual. Michael Lella
Michael wrote: "I am not going to divulge why my father did not like Giovanni Barbareschi."
Why then did you even mention that your father didn't like Barbareschi?
I shouldn't have mentioned it. I don't remember when the question of Barbareschi came up, but I must have responded to someone's comment. Personally, I don't have anything bad to say about Mr. Barbareschi. My father has made some off-the-wall comments to me about Barbareschi dating back to 1943 and I just can't make those comments public. With all due respect Giovanni, coming out publicly about my father's feelings toward Barbareschi would "stir up a can of worms".
Michael wrote: "I shouldn't have mentioned it. I don't remember when the question of Barbareschi came up, but I must have responded to someone's comment. Personally, I don't have anything bad to say about Mr. Barb..."
I'm trying to understand the details, to part fiction from reality, since in more than one publicly-available source Sullivan stated that the book is 90% truth; then at a later time he restated ...
I recently listened to an hour-long segment of an interview of Fr. Giovanni Barbareschi that is archived at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum along with your father's. The interview includes the general details of his role in rescuing Jews after Italy's surrender to the Allies (when the book starts). Keep in mind that Barbareschi received public awards in Italy for his meritorious activities during that phase of WW 2, and that there were other figures involved with him. If there was something that was not true, it's reasonable to expect this to have come out at some point given his prominence, and unlike your father, his interviews and writings about him are numerous over the decades. While, like your father, the people featured in his story weren't around to correct him, his stories benefit from authentic (including contemporaneous) evidence.
In his interview, Barbareschi never mentions once Pino, and makes clear that Fr. Re was a (relatively speaking) marginal figure when it came to his activities of smuggling Jews and others through the border. He also makes it clear that none of the routes used to cross the border into Switzerland was one detailed in the book (and he mentions many routes). Another Italian journalist who was there at the time corroborated Barbareschi’s version. This second person who was there is Franco Isman, a young Jewish refugee at the time, and who was at Casa Alpina in Motta for the whole time. We both know he was there because Sullivan showed the war-period pictures of him there.
I discussed the facts with Mr. Isman, and he corroborated the suspicions I had about the authenticity of several details depicted in the book. He did recall and described in one of his articles how Jews were smuggled to the other side of the border – and the details match Barbareschi’s own account. This journalist who also knows well the area around Madesimo, Motta and Casa Alpina, found it laughable that somebody who knew the area would try to cross the border to Switzerland through the Val di Lei as painted in the book.
And you Mike painted yourself in a corner when you insisted in this forum that the lake existed and that your uncle Mimmo confirmed that. You have since learned that the lake could not possibly have been there, at the time of the story, since it is a man-made reservoir built in 1959 for hydroelectric power. The fact that in some social-media posts and online articles you and Sullivan are shown with maps with the wrong route traced, lends credibility to the hypothesis that details were (un)-carefully put together and made up.
With all these facts coming from different sources, and coinciding with each other, one would conclude that the majority or a good number of episodes described in the book have to be attributed to other people; from that comes the suspicion that several other episodes, that cannot be fact checked, are made up to tie together or provide a rationale for other unexplainable portions of the book.
I hope this helps other readers who seek the truth.
Giovanni, you are an idiot and it is precisely for people like you that I won't divulge the reason my father did not like Barbareschi. It doesn't matter one bit if Val Di Lei was a lake, a creek or a pond at the time. The precise trails where my father escorted Jews over the Alps doesn't matter. I spent many years going to Madesimo and Motta with my uncle Mimmo and was introduced to Father Re as a child. I don't care one bit if this friend of yours Franco Isman did not know Mimmo or my father but for him to deny that they were never at Casa Alpina is preposterous. Now I believe that my father had good reason not to like Barbareschi and you of all people will never get that reason from me. It's none of your damned business.....
Posted: May 13, 2020 10:04PM
Michael wrote: "Giovanni, you are an idiot and it is precisely for people like you that I won't divulge the reason my father did not like Barbareschi. It doesn't matter one bit if Val Di Lei was a lake, a creek or a pond at the time. The precise trails where my father escorted Jews over the Alps doesn't matter. I spent many years going to Madesimo and Motta with my uncle Mimmo and was introduced to Father Re as a child. I don't care one bit if this friend of yours Franco Isman did not know Mimmo or my father but for him to deny that they were never at Casa Alpina is preposterous. Now I believe that my father had good reason not to like Barbareschi and you of all people will never get that reason from me. It's none of your damned business....."
I'm not surprised that Mike would engage in counterfactual, baseless name-calling.
It is true that the lake/non-lake issue doesn't matter. It didn't matter months ago, the last time this came up and you considered it a safe topic.
It's also true that hostile and immature attacks don't do any good; they only reveal you as a bully and broadcast fear. Repeated recitations about personal visit(s), meeting Fr. Re when a child are also (still) immaterial.
Also counterproductive is the insistence on answering assertions based on ample evidence that neither Lella lived at Casa Alpina during the period of Sep 1943 to end of war/April 1945** as though someone ever had declared that they'd never been there and had no acquaintance with the place or Fr. Re.
It has already established that your father apparently didn't convey to Sullivan any material info about the people who did live there, or the place itself. Some stuff Sullivan evidently cribbed from a not very well put together Italian book that happened to include falsities and inaccurate rumor-based info.
You may remain in a mode of willful disregard of any or everything you please, but just know your worst behavior reflects on who you are. This truism applies: esp. under adverse conditions, when someone repeatedly demonstrates through words and deeds who they are (including diversionary tactics to avoid and attack) and what they care about, believe them.
Whatever the truth is, your father forfeited right to "hero" status as of no later than when he agreed to go along with this damn book.
** This includes evidence from your father's own lips in July 1985 about living in Madesimo, staying at the hotel owned by Mr. Belloni when not at "my place" - referring to the family's holiday home, but it apparently being easier to stay at hotel because he was a student ski instructor for Lorenzo Scaramellini. Want to know more (or refresh your memory)? You may listen to the interview.
I don't expect you['ll] ask for access to the interview you declare didn't happen, but others may decide they want to hear what Pino had to say that bears scant resemblance to the book, incl. the unnamed "small, ordinary looking, no hair", Italian-speaking German 'general' for whom he says he drove and acted as bodyguard (muh-huh) two-three days a week [and withheld], spending the rest of the time in Madesimo skiing and, supposedly, guiding Jews. Oh, and going to retrieve body of a maid that worked for [withheld] family, but not getting caught in a battle, etc.
There is the claim about "not married" Uncle Alberto (whose parents lived with him) suggesting he hire on with Org Todt, but no chance meeting with the 'general' who, according to Pino, was sympathetic to resistance and somehow hooked up with Alberto.
There was a claim that Pino and the general were repeatedly stopped by partisans (here is where Pino tells his "put up against a wall" in fear of being shot but they were released story). No spying, no derring-do, dodging fire from airplanes, no (strongly insinuated off-screen) murder, no gold theft, no terrorizing farmers and stealing stuff, no forced labor selection, no meetings with Mussolini, no phone call to Hitler, no arguing about dough with plant manager.
No Rauff or oxen-herding and Jews hiding in trees, no track 21 and taking kids off train, no thirsty forced laborer, [edit: no appearance by Ascari,] no Schuster, no Barbareschi, no Dollman, no Mimmo (Garibaldi resistance association or guiding of Jews), no Anna Marta, no Dolly, no "Tito" and banditi (but there was theft by partisans at hotel of shoes and gold - yay!), no witnessing of kids blown up playing with grenade. ...
No witnessing events of April 29 at Esso station, no witnessing Aug 8 1944 bombing and Mr. Beltramini's death, no witnessing of Aug 10 1944 events, no witnessing of random execution of man on street (no witnessing of evil acts by Nazis at all), no witnessing of "cousin" Mario Alante (sp?) being shot - but there IS a story there about him being killed while being robbed.
... and no daring "suicide mission" to the Austrian border. The story was an uneventful trip by Carlo and him, dropping 'general' at 'American headquarters' in Bolzano - the 'general' who engaged in no wrongdoing. Indeed, quite the opposite, but you can hear it on your own if you choose, that is, assuming you aren't already familiar with the 1985 version. Finally, according to Pino, he was told in 1950 (?) that the 'general' was ... Jewish.
Does all or only some of this ring a bell? Treat as rhetorical.
Oh! Reminder: recommend use of this link-path for wider column view and not so tiny font:
https://www.goodreads.com/community_a...
You're welcome.
Michael wrote: "It doesn't matter one bit if Val Di Lei was a lake, a creek or a pond at the time. The precise trails where my father escorted Jews over the Alps doesn't matter."
Michael, if it doesn't matter, why did you insist in this forum that it did exist? And why did you come up with additional information to corroborate its existence, that your uncle had told you the same? Since that information turned out to be false, one can only conclude that:
(1) it did matter to you that people believe things described in the book that in fact are not true;
(2) either (a) your father and uncle engaged in a conspiracy to make up events that never took place, or (b) you made things up, or (c) a combination of both.
This is a tiny detail, but it fits a pattern of many other details of the story, that under scrutiny show they are invented, or that have instead to be attributed to people that are not Pino Lella.
Those other details seem to be confirmed by people like Franco Isman, like Mary F, and like me, who never knew each other before reading this book, and who live in different parts of the world. And those other details seem to be confirmed by historical evidence, and by historical figures who are not Pino Lella. And more importantly those other details are way more important from a historical point of view, than the botched fiction of a lake. Those facts overwhelm your claim that it is all true.
The only reason I asked you, why your father disliked Barbareschi, is that when somebody adds fictional details, soon or later a newly invented detail will contradict an already established fact. The fact that you refused to answer, and contorted yourself like a pretzel, further points to hypotheses (b) or (c) above. It already happened with the lake, it happened in many other instances pointed out by Mary F, and it will happen again.
I find it insulting that you and Mary F approach me on this public forum for the specific purpose to discredit and critic my father and his role in Beneath A Scarlet Sky.
Some of the events were fictionalized and embellished but very few. The dialogue was obviously created and Mark Sullivan has full license to do that...it is a novel, based on a true story. I've repeated over and over what I believe to be true based on my father's account, my Uncle Mimmo, Uncle Albert, my grandparent's, Carletto Beltramini. Tonino Ascari, his mother Mietta and many, many more. I am fed up and tired responding to Mary F and now you. It is a great story, believe or not believe what you want, I don't care. Oh....and for your information... Giovanni Barbareschi's assistant (and caretaker) prior to his death, was in contact with me during Barbareschi last days. He pleaded with me, asking if I could arrange to have my father meet with Giovanni while on his "death bed". He confirmed to me that Barbareschi remembered my father very well, AT CASA ALPINA and AS A YOUNG GUIDE. Because of my father's dislike for Barbareschi (and in his mind, he has good reasons), my father refused to meet with him....That is all I am going to say on this subject, to you and Mary F or K. Good Riddens Mr. Ciriani
Michael Lella, Pino's Son.
I don't care if you're insulted. You share a lot of responsibility for this book, and aren't entitled to bask in reflected glory without any accountability for what you say-do.
No one disputes your father was a ski instructor or that he acted as a mountain guide. As I said, if he helped ~20-25 people as claimed in his 1985 interview - and if he sometimes helped the 'general' by driving folks that he (Pino) speculated were Jewish based solely on their appearance (!) to meet with someone who, he claims, would guide-assist them the rest of the way to leave the country - he still forfeited right to expect to be lauded as a hero when he agreed to go along with this literary fraud that insults the authentic who-what-why-how and misuses and exploits most of the people depicted in it.
... from misuse of Ascari to the miscast and defamed Leyers [skipping many] to misused Peter Daloia - a man who sure as hell didn't deserve being exploited for his son's evident desire to bask in the reflected glory of an act of stolen valor by proxy, much less Sullivan's self-indulgent fixation on including the 10th Mountain Div.**
Never mind the insult to the Shoah/Holocaust and other historical events Sullivan saw fit to alter and exploit in the 90% untrue tale.
As I pointed out to Sullivan, were Barbareschi in command of his faculties in the last months of his life and with an awareness of how he was portrayed in the book - depicted as Schuster sidekick and injected into the events of Aug 10 1944 in the way he was, instead of how it was in reality - there long after the fact (with Bona Ucelli) to bless the bodies and collect personal effects - there is *NO* way he'd be caught dead holding a copy of that book and allow himself to be photographed doing so, for the later crass, despicable misuse by Sullivan when posting on FB after his death.
Hopefully, Sullivan won't do the same to Dehlendorf, but given the info in his obituary, I'd be very surprised indeed were he to be so bold.
**And yet, like most things, he STILL managed to screw that up when insinuating Daloia was 10th Mtn or received any SS for acts of bravery at Monte Cassino - bald, false claims by Sullivan outside the book. Not unlike his lies about being nominated for Pulitzers in investigative reporting.
Pino Lella was never at Casa Alpina in Motta, after September 8, 1943. I know it from personal knowledge, because I was there.
https://arengario.net/misc/misc261EN....
Mary wrote: "Hopefully, Sullivan won't do the same to Dehlendorf, but given the info in his obituary, I'd be very surprised indeed were he to be so bold."
https://www.facebook.com/304088752966...
I wrote too soon or, rather, a day too late. Sullivan posted about Dehlendorf on Facebook the day before my above post. In hindsight, I guess it makes sense that he'd count on most folks not to pay close attention to Dehlendorf's obituary. which helps make it more clear the "chance meeting" in Italy in the "late 1990s" was nonsense.[1]
Post-obituary, what had almost stared me in the face for quite a long time recently woke up and bit-hit me: Dehlendorf was almost certainly related to how Lella wound up interviewed in 1985 by TAPPBI (search term here).
Humboldt University is in Arcata, CA and Dehlendorf became president of one of the four largest timber operations, Arcata National Corp. in the latter 1960s. (I always understood that his owning ski areas was almost certainly relevant to how he and Lella met, because I don't believe in coincidences.)
The fact that Dehlendorf would be described in his obit as someone who helped "create and expand Redwood National Park" also makes it clear that Lella and Sullivan aren't the only ones interested in name-dropping and who revise their personal history to craft the notion that they're altruistic "angel[s]", among other things.[2]
The notion that Dehlendorf had a desire to bring what would be a fraud to reading and viewing audiences is also a topic I'd have made a point to avoid in the obituary were I a member of his family. I wonder how much more of the [Dehlendorf] family lore about the Lella story is true, in light of the fact that Dehlendorf had ample wealth and connections to make whatever the heck he wanted to happen happen.
Arcata National was the biggest second biggest printer in the country for quite a while, along with another recognized environmental killer: foam plastic food containers. It also had a publications group that manufactured Reader's Digest, TV Guide, Time and Sports Illustrated, the National Enquirer, and mass market paperbacks, including Warner Books, Pocket Books and Harlequin.
And yet Dehlendorf supposedly couldn't bankroll research, find a writer and/or get a film rolling had he wanted to see this "90% [un]true story" produced? Color me more than a bit skeptical.
[1] ... as well as one of the two supposed but not actual "deathbed" meetings/'confession'. One was with the not-dying-in-June-2015 Ingrid Brück (née Leyers), but I speak of the supposed meeting with Carlo Beltramini, who in reality died just after Christmas in 2003 (and the not-lifelong bachelor's wife Catterina in 1999).
[2] On the public record with regard to Dehlendorf's activities in relation to Redwood National Park were his dogged efforts on behalf of the timber/logging company of which he was president to make sure the relevant legislation creating the park had the most positive or least negative impact to Arcata National's redwood division operation and the company's bottom line.
In 1970, Arcata pursued $11,000 an acre or $121 million for the 11,000 acres surrendered - in lieu of being taken by eminent domain - for the park in the late 1960s, It went after $200 million (more, evidently) around ~1980 after the 1978 expansion of the park.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/ar...
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/30/bu...
The government assessed the original 11,000 acres' value at $46 million, so you can imagine its actual then-present day commercial value was somewhat higher but likely nowhere near $121 million as assessed by Arcata. By the time all was said and done with another expansion of the park, four timber companies wound up being paid ~$181 million in cash and land exchanges. This'd apparently be around ~$1.2 billion today if you were strictly accounting for inflation.
There is plenty of information about Dehlendorf's testimony before Congress on the topic and quite a lot more besides, though I understand the natural pull of a family to want to present someone in the best possible light, Dehlendorf's obituary was by most standards quite a bit over the top. I'd be willing to bet the archivists at Save The Redwoods would have a very different perspective of how much effort they had to ultimately put into watch-dogging the timber companies and checking their greed.
Geez. I understand wanting to find the truth behind this story, but Mary F, you legitimately come off as compulsively obsessive about it. Half of what you write about is mind-numbingly boring information that doesn’t even seem remotely related to Beneath a Scarlet Sky. For example, see your last comment. What the heck does a redwood forest timber company owner (Or whatever you went off about) have to do with anything? It’s so random and unclear that I couldn’t even finish reading it.
If you want people to 1) take you seriously, and 2) pay attention to your claims, learn to narrow down your arguments to the most important details. Otherwise you’re going to have people like me just roll my eyes because I don’t have the time or energy to sift through the plethora of ESSAYS you’ve posted to get to the proper meat of information we’re all desperate to find. At this point, I almost don’t even care if it’s all made up or not. You’ve been working this book over for more than 2 years (according to the dates on these comments). Write a stinking blog post about it and give it a rest.
Mary F, I also noticed that you have a habit of seeking out reviews of the book and sharing your own narrative over and over again. I can see why Michael Lella is sick of you and reacted so poorly to your comments. You really are seeking to destroy this book, huh? I’d like to think it’s in the spirit of spreading truth, but I seriously wonder if there’s a deeper issue here.
Dear Marla.
Discussing anything with Mary F is like talking to a wall. She is relentless in her negativity and rambling pursuit in an attempt to destroy Mark Sullivan, my father Pino and any credibility in the masterpiece novel Beneath A Scarlet Sky. You're right, there must be a "deeper issue" here and it's not in her pursuit of "the truth" as she claims... Mary F (and her small band of critics) are insinuating that my father's story is a complete fraud, a hoax to the reading public and a total fabrication. Her compulsive tirade is a classic case of character defamation against my father and Mark Sullivan. I am so pleased that you have reached out to defend me and speak your mind. Feel free to contact me personally. It would be an honor to speak with you! Michael Lella, Pino's son.
michaellella@yahoo.com
[typo correction edits]
Marla,
Please note the bracketed remarks within your comments copied below and, should you not want to continue, keep in mind very obvious solutions to your perceived or actual dilemma: you’re free block me as a user and avoid exercising any behavioral discipline in order to avoid any comment of mine. You can also do your own damn research. It isn’t difficult, but it does take time … and modest expenditures of dough to acquire records and research material. I’m willing to share if you ask, but you'd do well to ditch the attitude demonstrated in your comments.
Another option is to wait for the almost inevitable book some enterprising journalist(s) will write about Sullivan and this fraud down the road, but I suspect no sooner than Dear Leader Donald and other events related to the amoral lunatic and his ilk stop sucking up most of the bandwidth. Such a book may not be a “blockbuster”, but unless the journalists are as incompetent and immoral as Sullivan, it’ll be a “fine and noble [endeavor/]book.” Having spent well over 30 years in the legal sphere, I also wouldn’t be even a little surprised to see a(t minimum a) class action initiated, so you could always skip the rest and stay tuned for that alone. Chances are decent it’ll happen before any companion live action leisure-entertainment product, which as far as I’m aware was some time ago placed in Level 4 containment aka “in development” deep freeze. I’ve now come to see it as both a good and bad thing that someone is unlikely to do what will only end in tears, copious finger-pointing, recriminations and circular firing squads. :)
message 330: Jun 18, 2020 04:15PM
Marla wrote: "Geez. I understand wanting to find the truth behind this story, but Mary F, you legitimately come off as compulsively obsessive about it. [[Is there a point to this snooty dig aside from what you presumably planned to be insulting but isn’t? As someone with what may be classified as suffering from certain disabilities that you may consider critical defects, this would faze me only were my emotional IQ the same level as the average person’s or, say, Mike’s. There’s a reason you posted this message here when you could’ve sent it via the GR mail system or posted in my review space. It’s worth considering that I’m not even the primary intended audience.]]
Half of what you write about is mind-numbingly boring information that doesn’t even seem remotely related to Beneath a Scarlet Sky. [[Sorry, but “seem”? The use of “half” without being specific as to what you’ve read means it has to be dismissed as misapplied exaggeration to facilitate another dig, namely...]]
For example, see your last comment. What the heck does a redwood forest timber company owner (Or whatever you went off about) have to do with anything? It’s so random and unclear that I couldn’t even finish reading it. [[Marla, please share with me what the [expletive that I’m not obliged to omit here but do out of courtesy] personal mistreatment of you did I commit that you were determined to include so many mischaracterizations. You apparently either put my comment through a miscalibrated filtration system or redefined “went off”, which means “to explode” in this context. At any rate, it’s hardly my fault that you’re unfamiliar with or purged what you should know about the key role Bob Dehlendorf played in the eventual creation of this fraud. Sullivan dedicated the book to him (for added effect). New information came to light about the reasons why Sullivan would see fit to manufacture what he considers dramatic tales about how Dehlendorf and Lella Sr. met, and what took place later, etc. I don’t see how a reasonable, objective person would consider this information irrelevant.]]
If you want people to 1) take you seriously, and 2) pay attention to your claims, learn to narrow down your arguments to the most important details. Otherwise you’re going to have people like me just roll my eyes because I don’t have the time or energy to sift through the plethora of ESSAYS you’ve posted to get to the proper meat of information we’re all desperate to find. [[Italic emphasis is mine.]] At this point, I almost don’t even care if it’s all made up or not.
[[Nice try at burden-shifting. /s Grade: D-. Marla, you - and only you - are responsible for any decision to pretend you’re free to foist responsibility onto me for what you do or do not know or learn about this fraud, any decision to take nearest exit (with or without more lovely but unhelpful observations), as well as any choice not to apply any moral principles to a decision to give a rat’s ass about literary fraud and associated despicable, immoral acts by the people associated with this book. Some chutzpah you have bitching about spending time on culling through what you don’t want to read when you’re free to do your own [expletive that I’m not obliged to omit] research as I and others did - and this after choosing to spend however many hours reading the book and/or (up to) 17 hours listening to it, plus however much time on materials related to its promotion to include reviews by unwitting victims eager to expose others to the infection. Why you may’ve even read Mike’s fiction-filled “essay” that a super fan who (among other probable events) offered to publish it on fee.org, etc. in exchange for meeting Lella Sr. … but without knowing that Mike was only too happy to accommodate fans wanting to meet the “hero”.]]
You’ve been working this book over for more than 2 years (according to the dates on these comments). Write a stinking blog post about it and give it a rest.”
[[Please see below, or not. And, actually, three (3) years in my copious spare time but I wouldn’t characterize it as “working” when I enjoy research and writing, even if I’m deemed no good at the latter pursuit.]]
message 331: Jun 18, 2020 04:22PM
Marla wrote: “Mary F, I also noticed that you have a habit of seeking out reviews of the book and sharing your own narrative over and over again. I can see why Michael Lella is sick of you and reacted so poorly to your comments. [[What is your point? The only person who’d notice is … someone who sought out these comments. Precisely how do you think vaccine treatments can be spread within this 3rd party publisher/GR? I understand why you did this in order to gather what you’d use as [ ] ineffectual insult, but … it’s not a good look. As for Mike being sick of it, so what? This completely disregards the fact that there aren’t exactly a lot of options for someone who is a co-conspirator/collaborator in a fraud, much less someone of Mike's personality and emotional IQ. Mike deserves every bit of aggravation, and the fact that he's ill-equipped to process and purge it is not my damn problem. Obviously, Mike is forced to initially approach from a place of polite pretense, and when necessary present the situation as though he, Sullivan and Lella Sr. are the aggrieved victims who deserve sympathy, support and defense. I'm sure he wishes I were attacked and destroyed by a mob he's attempted to work into a frenzy but, sorry, it hasn't happened. In context, your emotion-driven derogatory observations are also perfectly understandable even if I’m not quite clear how they came to be.]]
You really are seeking to destroy this book, huh? [[This is an ill-conceived rhetorical because there’s no way to ‘destroy this book’ and I’m not a fan of book banning. I do want exposure of Sullivan for what he is, along with full disclosures and an end to [ ] what the publisher and its parent Amazon are on notice as mismarketing aka false advertising.]]
I’d like to think it’s in the spirit of spreading truth, but I seriously wonder if there’s a deeper issue here.” [[I’d have recommended marinating on what at this point is fair to assess as disingenuous but also an attempt to appear reasonable. I wouldn't have gone with the subtle suggestion that my motives are somehow corrupt or wrong but without any [evidence] in support of such an assertion. You do get credit for not succumbing to the temptation for the facile, counterfactual claims that [ ] a very few others have made, and that Mike has himself made without any evidence but instead only defensive emotional conjecture.]]
* * *
Thank you for taking the time to share your observations. I hope your posts served as a satisfactory release because I'd have advised it wasn't worth what Mike presents as compliment-reward-treat of his external contact info - readily available elsewhere, including in his profile. And his continual misuse of the word “honor” is just ... ugh ... and has been for three years. Now that IS aggravating, because either he has utterly redefined that word to suit himself or has no conception of its true meaning and when and where it should be applied. No one who isn’t engaging in self-deception or suffering from a massive delusion (and/or other malady) would be in a position to reject the ample evidence of Mike’s distinct lack of integrity, poor character and dishonorable behavior in relation to the development and promotion of this book. He's enjoying the benefits of basking in reflected glory, so he ought to bear the cost and consequences of what created that benefit.
YES Mary....
"It would be an HONOR to speak with Marla!" What an incredible misuse of that word.....
You area a SICK person MARY F and I actually feel sorry for you. Your rants are illogical and incoherent to me and do NOT warrant my time to respond anymore. GET A LIFE, MARY....
It’s really disappointing that there are people out there who do not know Pino Lella at all but go out of their way to say his story isn’t true. I listened to Beneath a Scarlet Sky on Audible and absolutely loved it. I found it SO incredibly sad and I find it so heartbreaking that Pino continues to live with the weight of Anna’s death even after doing so much to save others. It seems unfair but all I can believe is that only God knows why things happened the way they did for him and Anna. But it is still so sad! The people who want to discredit his story have probably never done anything remotely courageous or selfless and do not know what it is to take risk. Pino LIVED and he had many talents he used to help so many. I really admire that. And why would he admit to the events surrounding Anna’s death If they weren’t true. I think we are fortunate that he shared Anna with the author actually. Very sorry that there are people out there that don’t want to believe the story. This attitude is dangerous to history. I think the author did plenty of research and it is clear that his son Michael is very passionate about having his father’s story told. So let him. I’m just thankful Pino told us his story.
Originally posted: Jun 26, 2020 10:26AM
See reply to [the] duplicate [of Christine's] post over on the GTKP thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(The above is the link to the wider-view column format version of this discussion page. I recommend bookmarking it. I also recommend using 'desktop site' mode in your browser if using a mobile device.)
Wow, thank you for commenting. I loved your father's story! Hope they make a movie out of it. He is, indeed, an inspiration.
I so enjoyed the book and was really inspired by Pino's tenacity, strength and perseverance. I also really appreciate that Michael is active here to answer more questions and provide a real-time link to Pino.
Michael when is the movie coming out?! Is Pino still okay and doing well with Covid?
Pino is a real hero. I am so sad that as the war was ending, as he should have been celebrating, his horror only greatly intensified. I am so grateful for his account because I am filled with understanding. My father was an officer (drafted as a private) in the infantry on the front lines in North Africa and Italy. I am just now transcribing his beautiful letters home, full of hope and optimism to free the Italians and push back the Germans. He, too, like Pino, had some supernatural, miraculous experiences -- his was fighting the Germans, which had his life spared on more than one occasion. Sadly, he was badly wounded in Monte Cassino, but survived. Two weeks later his cook came to him in the hospital and told him his company of 100 were all dead but six. These men are our heroes. I am even now more grateful for this book so I can appreciate more of what my father, and so many others fought for. In 1977 my father wrote an amazing history of his experiences. Other that that, he never talked about the war. But his written word is gold. And this book helps bring the pieces together. Thank you!
Hi Michael, I really enjoyed reading your father’s story. It helped me through a low period (emotionally) this past month. I hope you, Mr. Pino Lella, and the rest of your failing are doing well. Please send him my love and my thanks for sharing his story. It is incredible what everyone went through during WWII. Thanks again to your father for his story.
Hi Michael!
I just finished the book and was absolutely intrigued and amazed by the story. My son is 18 now and I can’t imagine him going through such trials and being as brave as your father was. I want to thank your family for sharing such an important story. How is your father doing?
Eileen (and others who've posted on recent months), Mike hasn't posted since June, when last he objected to being called out on certain issues here and on his "Getting to know Pino" discussion section (bottom of main book page).
You may want to try him at michaellella@yahoo.com (email noted in his profile).
For what it's worth, whomever handles Lella Sr.'s Instagram account continues to routinely "tag" a location in relation to one post, and surely Sullivan would not squander the marketing opportunity to post about it on Facebook were Lella no longer with us, just as he did when Msgr. Barbareschi and more recently Bob Dehlendorf passed away.)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
"At long last, Franco Isman's official testimony has been submitted to/accepted by Yad Vashem on the topic of (Monsignor) don Luigi Re's assistance to him as a child (allowing him safe haven at Casa Alpina under an assumed name from Sept 1943 to April 1945).
As some may be aware or recall, there were cases opened on Re and Lella as a result of a request by a superfan of the book acting - at least indirectly - on behalf the despicable author, but YV was provided no useable information that warranted presentation to the committee charged with assessing whether or not a person should be recognized as Righteous Among Nations.
My considerable gratitude to fellow GR member and now friend Giovanni Ciriani for helping me see this through. Getting it done without him would've been a huge pain in the tuchus aka tushie aka rear end.
Among other things, recognition as RAN for don Luigi will be one of few silver linings of this literary fraud, along with Franco's peace of mind.
The work continues."
I don’t actually care whether it is true or not, this is a beautiful story, beautifully written and I have read it twice. For me it doesn’t matter whether Pino was ever at Casa Alpina. If some other young guide, other than Pino, using his mountaineering experience, saved some Jews by taking them through perilous tracks to safety, that’s good enough for me. This story has stayed with me like no other story ( and I have read tons of WW2 stories). after all it is meant to be a novel based on true events, and not a history text book. I understand why people want to find out the truth and yes it would be good to know, but taking this story to shreds will not achieve that. Why not enjoy the story as told ? After all if we were not told the book was based on a true story would we have enjoyed more ? -
Michael is very cagey about answering all the prodding questions and it is therefore quite possible that some of the events are not entirely based on the truth.
But why not enjoy the story as it is ? It is a beautiful story, beautifully told and, as a mountain lover, I will always associate it with the high peaks around Mount Groppera in this region of Italy. The cycle race il Giro d’Italia finished in Motta a few days ago and It was lovely to see the mountains all around this area and be reminded of Beneath a scarlet sky. Foxy red .
It's a personal choice not to care to examine or accept that the lion's share of enjoyment of the novel is based on the implanted false belief that the novel "hews closely to what happened to" Lella (his experiences and activities during the war, along with other characters and events).
Would it have been as enjoyable and successful had the author presented it as just another hist fic novel vs. "based on a true story" and without the Preface and Aftermath sections and the various companion false and misleading claims outside the novel in related promotional articles, interviews, presentations? I don't think so. I'm inclined to accept the views of those who've been misled to express the equivalent of "if I didn't know this was a true story, I'd say it was unbelievable fiction."
There are plenty of enjoyable, successful hist fic novels set amid the framework of actual vs. largely reimagined history where the writers don't go well out of their way to fool readers into believing they came away from it having learned a lot about authentic history, without misusing and exploiting (including miscasting) actual people and subject matter.
We may agree to disagree on the many negative impacts of folks accepting as true "history" what is fiction (even in the present day), and lauding those who are not heroes at the expense of actual heroes and victims whose stories will likely remain untold in commercial mass-market fiction ... what can be a useful vehicle to disseminate authentic history in a form that some find palatable. This book is dangerous in more ways than one inasmuch as it is a brava gente myth version of history.
This is the second time I read the story and also listened to it on my recent car trip via audiobook. Your father's story is amazing and so much of it brought me to tears. I hope to get back to Italy someday and maybe I will get a chance to meet him and visit some of the places noted in the story.
I appreciate Mary F and other's who have clarified the misinformation around this story. I did not enjoy being led to believe that the events in this novel were 90% truth. The complete and utter lack of any corroborating information regarding the events 'witnessed' by Pino makes this historical fiction, plain and simple.
Michael wrote: "Giovanni, you are an idiot. [...] I don't care one bit if this friend of yours Franco Isman did not know Mimmo or my father but for him to deny that they were never at Casa Alpina is preposterous. [...]."
Update:
I presume it will be a bitter pill to swallow, but...
Don Luigi is recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, based on Franco Isman's testimony.
You know (of) Franco - the person who actually lived there every day for over a year and a half during the war and never encountered or saw hide or hair of a Lella despite how very few people lived there on a daily basis (contrary to the book) ... the person you in effect called a liar in your customarily garbled way, with the response based on unilateral edit(s) in your head to the other person's message content.**
Franco ... the person whose photo taken while at Casa Alpina during the war was misappropriated and misused in book presentations until I made an issue of it here and Sullivan suddenly decided to write Franco, and later told to knock off misusing it.
** One of many examples quoted above, where your reply was based false notion that anyone said or wrote that no Lella ever visited or even spent days or nights at Casa Alpina in the history of its existence, whether when it was just a camp site or after construction and use as a religious retreat and summer camp open from, what, May-August ... or when it began being open all the time starting around (no later than) summer 1943.
I just finished this book early this morning. I read it slower than normal so I felt as though I was there with Pino walking with him, driving with him in the passenger seat. The incredible journey he went on the tragic story he tells after the 300 page mark. It really affected me I want to find more books in the genre of World War II. Yes it was a tragic time but the stories that are only found now in books the world needs to read this book. Even when it ended I wanted more. This was an incredible story.
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message 301:
by
Gwen
(new)
Jan 26, 2020 12:27PM
I’m very glad you’ve decided not to engage any further with this person who is so hell bent on discrediting the book. I haven’t read all the comments but have seen enough to know it’s gone on a ridiculously long time & you have been more patient than I would have been. Life is too short to indulge such nonsense. I loved the book & wish you & your father well.
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I appreciate your support Gwen. I tried to reason with her, like I do with everyone, but to no avail. I'm now convinced she's nuts.
Nice to see you here. I just finished listening to the audio book and sorry to see it end. So much still to be told. My grandparents are from Agrigento, Sicily. I grew up hearing many first hand accounts. Please thank your dad for me for fighting this monumentous fight.
Michael. Your dad is an extraordinarily elegant hero. I am so infatuated with his discipline, kindness and faith. As all the readers of this book I am still thinking about this book well after I finished it. I am having my 13year old son read it. After that we will visit Milan. I will also recommend it to his English class. May God continue to bless you & your family.
Thank you Herman (and Joanne) for reaching out to me with your comments about my father Pino. Herman, I hope you and your son enjoy traveling to Milano. And Joanne, I will pass on your regards to my father and I’m touched that you felt compelled to write. I have met so many Americans of Italian descent with whom my fathers story have touched a chord. All of them with great stories to tell. My Dad considers himself “the lucky one”, undeserving of all the attention.... please keep that thought and when you read my fathers story, know that there were others like your grandparents who lived and were very much part of that story. Sincerely, Michael Lella, Pino’s son.
Praying your father is still doing well during this awful pandemic.
I absolutely loved the book and Loved Pino I hope you all are well over there!! It is so great to hear he is alive and well! Did he ever write an autobiography? I want to meet him! Jules
to Mary and Jules...My father is doing well and so far unaffected by the virus. Although he is approaching 94 years old, his immune and respiratory system has been his strong point...I have never known him to have a cold or the flu, not once. I wish I can say the same for his mind...he does have the on-set of dementia and more and more is acting out with bipolar and manic symptoms.
Just finished reading your fathers story and I was moved to tears multiple times. I cannot get his story out of my mind. God bless your father and all he has been through!
Thank you Aquilina. Honored that my father's story touched your soul. Mark Sullivan deserves all the credit for that.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to everyone, my entire family has read it!! What an INCREDIBLE life story, what a hero! I laughed and I cried. It wrecked me in the best possible way. Thank you so much for taking the time to comment on here. I'm so fascinated by your family's history and legacy. Thank you!
Michael wrote: "to Mary and Jules...My father is doing well and so far unaffected by the virus. Although he is approaching 94 years old, his immune and respiratory system has been his strong point...I have never k..."Wow, I'm glad he's doing well physically. Thank you so much for updating. He's an amazing man and I'm so thankful you've shared with us. What a tribute to him. I can't stop thinking about this story, about your lives, I'd love to meet someday.
Hello Sally.…..every family has a history and a legacy. Our is no better or more interesting than anyone else's. Honored that you were inspired by my father's experience during the War. The credit goes to Mark Sullivan who has the talent and the ability to make Dad's story resonate with the world through his novel. My father doesn't see himself as a hero....Complicated, different, charismatic, strong, witty...all those things yes, but hero?....sometimes, not always.
Thank you so much! I saw that you had a discussion group in CA, are you planning on holding any others when quarantine ends? I would love to attend.
Hi Sally. For sure...I was on a role before this virus pandemic shut me down. Hope to be back on the speaking tour when it ends. Had to cancel and postpone a bunch of talks and we'll have to wait and see when the offers come back. Sally, feel free to reach me directly through my email at michaellella@yahoo,com and we can talk. I'm always honored to speak with anyone personally interested in my father's story.
Michael wrote: "Dad was groomed by Don Luigi Re to learn the trails for his eventual job guiding Jews to the Swiss border (along with Giovanni Barbareschi whom my father did not like)."Michael, why didn't your father like Giovanni Barbareschi?
Hello Giovanni.I am not going to divulge why my father did not like Giovanni Barbareschi. It is very personal to him and frankly, it would be insulting to speak of my father's personal dislike towards another individual. Michael Lella
Michael wrote: "I am not going to divulge why my father did not like Giovanni Barbareschi."Why then did you even mention that your father didn't like Barbareschi?
I shouldn't have mentioned it. I don't remember when the question of Barbareschi came up, but I must have responded to someone's comment. Personally, I don't have anything bad to say about Mr. Barbareschi. My father has made some off-the-wall comments to me about Barbareschi dating back to 1943 and I just can't make those comments public. With all due respect Giovanni, coming out publicly about my father's feelings toward Barbareschi would "stir up a can of worms".
Michael wrote: "I shouldn't have mentioned it. I don't remember when the question of Barbareschi came up, but I must have responded to someone's comment. Personally, I don't have anything bad to say about Mr. Barb..."I'm trying to understand the details, to part fiction from reality, since in more than one publicly-available source Sullivan stated that the book is 90% truth; then at a later time he restated ...
I recently listened to an hour-long segment of an interview of Fr. Giovanni Barbareschi that is archived at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum along with your father's. The interview includes the general details of his role in rescuing Jews after Italy's surrender to the Allies (when the book starts). Keep in mind that Barbareschi received public awards in Italy for his meritorious activities during that phase of WW 2, and that there were other figures involved with him. If there was something that was not true, it's reasonable to expect this to have come out at some point given his prominence, and unlike your father, his interviews and writings about him are numerous over the decades. While, like your father, the people featured in his story weren't around to correct him, his stories benefit from authentic (including contemporaneous) evidence.
In his interview, Barbareschi never mentions once Pino, and makes clear that Fr. Re was a (relatively speaking) marginal figure when it came to his activities of smuggling Jews and others through the border. He also makes it clear that none of the routes used to cross the border into Switzerland was one detailed in the book (and he mentions many routes). Another Italian journalist who was there at the time corroborated Barbareschi’s version. This second person who was there is Franco Isman, a young Jewish refugee at the time, and who was at Casa Alpina in Motta for the whole time. We both know he was there because Sullivan showed the war-period pictures of him there.
I discussed the facts with Mr. Isman, and he corroborated the suspicions I had about the authenticity of several details depicted in the book. He did recall and described in one of his articles how Jews were smuggled to the other side of the border – and the details match Barbareschi’s own account. This journalist who also knows well the area around Madesimo, Motta and Casa Alpina, found it laughable that somebody who knew the area would try to cross the border to Switzerland through the Val di Lei as painted in the book.
And you Mike painted yourself in a corner when you insisted in this forum that the lake existed and that your uncle Mimmo confirmed that. You have since learned that the lake could not possibly have been there, at the time of the story, since it is a man-made reservoir built in 1959 for hydroelectric power. The fact that in some social-media posts and online articles you and Sullivan are shown with maps with the wrong route traced, lends credibility to the hypothesis that details were (un)-carefully put together and made up.
With all these facts coming from different sources, and coinciding with each other, one would conclude that the majority or a good number of episodes described in the book have to be attributed to other people; from that comes the suspicion that several other episodes, that cannot be fact checked, are made up to tie together or provide a rationale for other unexplainable portions of the book.
I hope this helps other readers who seek the truth.
Giovanni, you are an idiot and it is precisely for people like you that I won't divulge the reason my father did not like Barbareschi. It doesn't matter one bit if Val Di Lei was a lake, a creek or a pond at the time. The precise trails where my father escorted Jews over the Alps doesn't matter. I spent many years going to Madesimo and Motta with my uncle Mimmo and was introduced to Father Re as a child. I don't care one bit if this friend of yours Franco Isman did not know Mimmo or my father but for him to deny that they were never at Casa Alpina is preposterous. Now I believe that my father had good reason not to like Barbareschi and you of all people will never get that reason from me. It's none of your damned business.....
Posted: May 13, 2020 10:04PMMichael wrote: "Giovanni, you are an idiot and it is precisely for people like you that I won't divulge the reason my father did not like Barbareschi. It doesn't matter one bit if Val Di Lei was a lake, a creek or a pond at the time. The precise trails where my father escorted Jews over the Alps doesn't matter. I spent many years going to Madesimo and Motta with my uncle Mimmo and was introduced to Father Re as a child. I don't care one bit if this friend of yours Franco Isman did not know Mimmo or my father but for him to deny that they were never at Casa Alpina is preposterous. Now I believe that my father had good reason not to like Barbareschi and you of all people will never get that reason from me. It's none of your damned business....."
I'm not surprised that Mike would engage in counterfactual, baseless name-calling.
It is true that the lake/non-lake issue doesn't matter. It didn't matter months ago, the last time this came up and you considered it a safe topic.
It's also true that hostile and immature attacks don't do any good; they only reveal you as a bully and broadcast fear. Repeated recitations about personal visit(s), meeting Fr. Re when a child are also (still) immaterial.
Also counterproductive is the insistence on answering assertions based on ample evidence that neither Lella lived at Casa Alpina during the period of Sep 1943 to end of war/April 1945** as though someone ever had declared that they'd never been there and had no acquaintance with the place or Fr. Re.
It has already established that your father apparently didn't convey to Sullivan any material info about the people who did live there, or the place itself. Some stuff Sullivan evidently cribbed from a not very well put together Italian book that happened to include falsities and inaccurate rumor-based info.
You may remain in a mode of willful disregard of any or everything you please, but just know your worst behavior reflects on who you are. This truism applies: esp. under adverse conditions, when someone repeatedly demonstrates through words and deeds who they are (including diversionary tactics to avoid and attack) and what they care about, believe them.
Whatever the truth is, your father forfeited right to "hero" status as of no later than when he agreed to go along with this damn book.
** This includes evidence from your father's own lips in July 1985 about living in Madesimo, staying at the hotel owned by Mr. Belloni when not at "my place" - referring to the family's holiday home, but it apparently being easier to stay at hotel because he was a student ski instructor for Lorenzo Scaramellini. Want to know more (or refresh your memory)? You may listen to the interview.
I don't expect you['ll] ask for access to the interview you declare didn't happen, but others may decide they want to hear what Pino had to say that bears scant resemblance to the book, incl. the unnamed "small, ordinary looking, no hair", Italian-speaking German 'general' for whom he says he drove and acted as bodyguard (muh-huh) two-three days a week [and withheld], spending the rest of the time in Madesimo skiing and, supposedly, guiding Jews. Oh, and going to retrieve body of a maid that worked for [withheld] family, but not getting caught in a battle, etc.
There is the claim about "not married" Uncle Alberto (whose parents lived with him) suggesting he hire on with Org Todt, but no chance meeting with the 'general' who, according to Pino, was sympathetic to resistance and somehow hooked up with Alberto.
There was a claim that Pino and the general were repeatedly stopped by partisans (here is where Pino tells his "put up against a wall" in fear of being shot but they were released story). No spying, no derring-do, dodging fire from airplanes, no (strongly insinuated off-screen) murder, no gold theft, no terrorizing farmers and stealing stuff, no forced labor selection, no meetings with Mussolini, no phone call to Hitler, no arguing about dough with plant manager.
No Rauff or oxen-herding and Jews hiding in trees, no track 21 and taking kids off train, no thirsty forced laborer, [edit: no appearance by Ascari,] no Schuster, no Barbareschi, no Dollman, no Mimmo (Garibaldi resistance association or guiding of Jews), no Anna Marta, no Dolly, no "Tito" and banditi (but there was theft by partisans at hotel of shoes and gold - yay!), no witnessing of kids blown up playing with grenade. ...
No witnessing events of April 29 at Esso station, no witnessing Aug 8 1944 bombing and Mr. Beltramini's death, no witnessing of Aug 10 1944 events, no witnessing of random execution of man on street (no witnessing of evil acts by Nazis at all), no witnessing of "cousin" Mario Alante (sp?) being shot - but there IS a story there about him being killed while being robbed.
... and no daring "suicide mission" to the Austrian border. The story was an uneventful trip by Carlo and him, dropping 'general' at 'American headquarters' in Bolzano - the 'general' who engaged in no wrongdoing. Indeed, quite the opposite, but you can hear it on your own if you choose, that is, assuming you aren't already familiar with the 1985 version. Finally, according to Pino, he was told in 1950 (?) that the 'general' was ... Jewish.
Does all or only some of this ring a bell? Treat as rhetorical.
Oh! Reminder: recommend use of this link-path for wider column view and not so tiny font:https://www.goodreads.com/community_a...
You're welcome.
Michael wrote: "It doesn't matter one bit if Val Di Lei was a lake, a creek or a pond at the time. The precise trails where my father escorted Jews over the Alps doesn't matter."Michael, if it doesn't matter, why did you insist in this forum that it did exist? And why did you come up with additional information to corroborate its existence, that your uncle had told you the same? Since that information turned out to be false, one can only conclude that:
(1) it did matter to you that people believe things described in the book that in fact are not true;
(2) either (a) your father and uncle engaged in a conspiracy to make up events that never took place, or (b) you made things up, or (c) a combination of both.
This is a tiny detail, but it fits a pattern of many other details of the story, that under scrutiny show they are invented, or that have instead to be attributed to people that are not Pino Lella.
Those other details seem to be confirmed by people like Franco Isman, like Mary F, and like me, who never knew each other before reading this book, and who live in different parts of the world. And those other details seem to be confirmed by historical evidence, and by historical figures who are not Pino Lella. And more importantly those other details are way more important from a historical point of view, than the botched fiction of a lake. Those facts overwhelm your claim that it is all true.
The only reason I asked you, why your father disliked Barbareschi, is that when somebody adds fictional details, soon or later a newly invented detail will contradict an already established fact. The fact that you refused to answer, and contorted yourself like a pretzel, further points to hypotheses (b) or (c) above. It already happened with the lake, it happened in many other instances pointed out by Mary F, and it will happen again.
I find it insulting that you and Mary F approach me on this public forum for the specific purpose to discredit and critic my father and his role in Beneath A Scarlet Sky. Some of the events were fictionalized and embellished but very few. The dialogue was obviously created and Mark Sullivan has full license to do that...it is a novel, based on a true story. I've repeated over and over what I believe to be true based on my father's account, my Uncle Mimmo, Uncle Albert, my grandparent's, Carletto Beltramini. Tonino Ascari, his mother Mietta and many, many more. I am fed up and tired responding to Mary F and now you. It is a great story, believe or not believe what you want, I don't care. Oh....and for your information... Giovanni Barbareschi's assistant (and caretaker) prior to his death, was in contact with me during Barbareschi last days. He pleaded with me, asking if I could arrange to have my father meet with Giovanni while on his "death bed". He confirmed to me that Barbareschi remembered my father very well, AT CASA ALPINA and AS A YOUNG GUIDE. Because of my father's dislike for Barbareschi (and in his mind, he has good reasons), my father refused to meet with him....That is all I am going to say on this subject, to you and Mary F or K. Good Riddens Mr. Ciriani
Michael Lella, Pino's Son.
I don't care if you're insulted. You share a lot of responsibility for this book, and aren't entitled to bask in reflected glory without any accountability for what you say-do.No one disputes your father was a ski instructor or that he acted as a mountain guide. As I said, if he helped ~20-25 people as claimed in his 1985 interview - and if he sometimes helped the 'general' by driving folks that he (Pino) speculated were Jewish based solely on their appearance (!) to meet with someone who, he claims, would guide-assist them the rest of the way to leave the country - he still forfeited right to expect to be lauded as a hero when he agreed to go along with this literary fraud that insults the authentic who-what-why-how and misuses and exploits most of the people depicted in it.
... from misuse of Ascari to the miscast and defamed Leyers [skipping many] to misused Peter Daloia - a man who sure as hell didn't deserve being exploited for his son's evident desire to bask in the reflected glory of an act of stolen valor by proxy, much less Sullivan's self-indulgent fixation on including the 10th Mountain Div.**
Never mind the insult to the Shoah/Holocaust and other historical events Sullivan saw fit to alter and exploit in the 90% untrue tale.
As I pointed out to Sullivan, were Barbareschi in command of his faculties in the last months of his life and with an awareness of how he was portrayed in the book - depicted as Schuster sidekick and injected into the events of Aug 10 1944 in the way he was, instead of how it was in reality - there long after the fact (with Bona Ucelli) to bless the bodies and collect personal effects - there is *NO* way he'd be caught dead holding a copy of that book and allow himself to be photographed doing so, for the later crass, despicable misuse by Sullivan when posting on FB after his death.
Hopefully, Sullivan won't do the same to Dehlendorf, but given the info in his obituary, I'd be very surprised indeed were he to be so bold.
**And yet, like most things, he STILL managed to screw that up when insinuating Daloia was 10th Mtn or received any SS for acts of bravery at Monte Cassino - bald, false claims by Sullivan outside the book. Not unlike his lies about being nominated for Pulitzers in investigative reporting.
Pino Lella was never at Casa Alpina in Motta, after September 8, 1943. I know it from personal knowledge, because I was there.https://arengario.net/misc/misc261EN....
Mary wrote: "Hopefully, Sullivan won't do the same to Dehlendorf, but given the info in his obituary, I'd be very surprised indeed were he to be so bold."https://www.facebook.com/304088752966...
I wrote too soon or, rather, a day too late. Sullivan posted about Dehlendorf on Facebook the day before my above post. In hindsight, I guess it makes sense that he'd count on most folks not to pay close attention to Dehlendorf's obituary. which helps make it more clear the "chance meeting" in Italy in the "late 1990s" was nonsense.[1]
Post-obituary, what had almost stared me in the face for quite a long time recently woke up and bit-hit me: Dehlendorf was almost certainly related to how Lella wound up interviewed in 1985 by TAPPBI (search term here).
Humboldt University is in Arcata, CA and Dehlendorf became president of one of the four largest timber operations, Arcata National Corp. in the latter 1960s. (I always understood that his owning ski areas was almost certainly relevant to how he and Lella met, because I don't believe in coincidences.)
The fact that Dehlendorf would be described in his obit as someone who helped "create and expand Redwood National Park" also makes it clear that Lella and Sullivan aren't the only ones interested in name-dropping and who revise their personal history to craft the notion that they're altruistic "angel[s]", among other things.[2]
The notion that Dehlendorf had a desire to bring what would be a fraud to reading and viewing audiences is also a topic I'd have made a point to avoid in the obituary were I a member of his family. I wonder how much more of the [Dehlendorf] family lore about the Lella story is true, in light of the fact that Dehlendorf had ample wealth and connections to make whatever the heck he wanted to happen happen.
Arcata National was the biggest second biggest printer in the country for quite a while, along with another recognized environmental killer: foam plastic food containers. It also had a publications group that manufactured Reader's Digest, TV Guide, Time and Sports Illustrated, the National Enquirer, and mass market paperbacks, including Warner Books, Pocket Books and Harlequin.
And yet Dehlendorf supposedly couldn't bankroll research, find a writer and/or get a film rolling had he wanted to see this "90% [un]true story" produced? Color me more than a bit skeptical.
[1] ... as well as one of the two supposed but not actual "deathbed" meetings/'confession'. One was with the not-dying-in-June-2015 Ingrid Brück (née Leyers), but I speak of the supposed meeting with Carlo Beltramini, who in reality died just after Christmas in 2003 (and the not-lifelong bachelor's wife Catterina in 1999).
[2] On the public record with regard to Dehlendorf's activities in relation to Redwood National Park were his dogged efforts on behalf of the timber/logging company of which he was president to make sure the relevant legislation creating the park had the most positive or least negative impact to Arcata National's redwood division operation and the company's bottom line.
In 1970, Arcata pursued $11,000 an acre or $121 million for the 11,000 acres surrendered - in lieu of being taken by eminent domain - for the park in the late 1960s, It went after $200 million (more, evidently) around ~1980 after the 1978 expansion of the park.
https://www.nytimes.com/1970/09/13/ar...
https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/30/bu...
The government assessed the original 11,000 acres' value at $46 million, so you can imagine its actual then-present day commercial value was somewhat higher but likely nowhere near $121 million as assessed by Arcata. By the time all was said and done with another expansion of the park, four timber companies wound up being paid ~$181 million in cash and land exchanges. This'd apparently be around ~$1.2 billion today if you were strictly accounting for inflation.
There is plenty of information about Dehlendorf's testimony before Congress on the topic and quite a lot more besides, though I understand the natural pull of a family to want to present someone in the best possible light, Dehlendorf's obituary was by most standards quite a bit over the top. I'd be willing to bet the archivists at Save The Redwoods would have a very different perspective of how much effort they had to ultimately put into watch-dogging the timber companies and checking their greed.
Geez. I understand wanting to find the truth behind this story, but Mary F, you legitimately come off as compulsively obsessive about it. Half of what you write about is mind-numbingly boring information that doesn’t even seem remotely related to Beneath a Scarlet Sky. For example, see your last comment. What the heck does a redwood forest timber company owner (Or whatever you went off about) have to do with anything? It’s so random and unclear that I couldn’t even finish reading it. If you want people to 1) take you seriously, and 2) pay attention to your claims, learn to narrow down your arguments to the most important details. Otherwise you’re going to have people like me just roll my eyes because I don’t have the time or energy to sift through the plethora of ESSAYS you’ve posted to get to the proper meat of information we’re all desperate to find. At this point, I almost don’t even care if it’s all made up or not. You’ve been working this book over for more than 2 years (according to the dates on these comments). Write a stinking blog post about it and give it a rest.
Mary F, I also noticed that you have a habit of seeking out reviews of the book and sharing your own narrative over and over again. I can see why Michael Lella is sick of you and reacted so poorly to your comments. You really are seeking to destroy this book, huh? I’d like to think it’s in the spirit of spreading truth, but I seriously wonder if there’s a deeper issue here.
Dear Marla. Discussing anything with Mary F is like talking to a wall. She is relentless in her negativity and rambling pursuit in an attempt to destroy Mark Sullivan, my father Pino and any credibility in the masterpiece novel Beneath A Scarlet Sky. You're right, there must be a "deeper issue" here and it's not in her pursuit of "the truth" as she claims... Mary F (and her small band of critics) are insinuating that my father's story is a complete fraud, a hoax to the reading public and a total fabrication. Her compulsive tirade is a classic case of character defamation against my father and Mark Sullivan. I am so pleased that you have reached out to defend me and speak your mind. Feel free to contact me personally. It would be an honor to speak with you! Michael Lella, Pino's son.
michaellella@yahoo.com
[typo correction edits]Marla,
Please note the bracketed remarks within your comments copied below and, should you not want to continue, keep in mind very obvious solutions to your perceived or actual dilemma: you’re free block me as a user and avoid exercising any behavioral discipline in order to avoid any comment of mine. You can also do your own damn research. It isn’t difficult, but it does take time … and modest expenditures of dough to acquire records and research material. I’m willing to share if you ask, but you'd do well to ditch the attitude demonstrated in your comments.
Another option is to wait for the almost inevitable book some enterprising journalist(s) will write about Sullivan and this fraud down the road, but I suspect no sooner than Dear Leader Donald and other events related to the amoral lunatic and his ilk stop sucking up most of the bandwidth. Such a book may not be a “blockbuster”, but unless the journalists are as incompetent and immoral as Sullivan, it’ll be a “fine and noble [endeavor/]book.” Having spent well over 30 years in the legal sphere, I also wouldn’t be even a little surprised to see a(t minimum a) class action initiated, so you could always skip the rest and stay tuned for that alone. Chances are decent it’ll happen before any companion live action leisure-entertainment product, which as far as I’m aware was some time ago placed in Level 4 containment aka “in development” deep freeze. I’ve now come to see it as both a good and bad thing that someone is unlikely to do what will only end in tears, copious finger-pointing, recriminations and circular firing squads. :)
message 330: Jun 18, 2020 04:15PM
Marla wrote: "Geez. I understand wanting to find the truth behind this story, but Mary F, you legitimately come off as compulsively obsessive about it. [[Is there a point to this snooty dig aside from what you presumably planned to be insulting but isn’t? As someone with what may be classified as suffering from certain disabilities that you may consider critical defects, this would faze me only were my emotional IQ the same level as the average person’s or, say, Mike’s. There’s a reason you posted this message here when you could’ve sent it via the GR mail system or posted in my review space. It’s worth considering that I’m not even the primary intended audience.]]
Half of what you write about is mind-numbingly boring information that doesn’t even seem remotely related to Beneath a Scarlet Sky. [[Sorry, but “seem”? The use of “half” without being specific as to what you’ve read means it has to be dismissed as misapplied exaggeration to facilitate another dig, namely...]]
For example, see your last comment. What the heck does a redwood forest timber company owner (Or whatever you went off about) have to do with anything? It’s so random and unclear that I couldn’t even finish reading it. [[Marla, please share with me what the [expletive that I’m not obliged to omit here but do out of courtesy] personal mistreatment of you did I commit that you were determined to include so many mischaracterizations. You apparently either put my comment through a miscalibrated filtration system or redefined “went off”, which means “to explode” in this context. At any rate, it’s hardly my fault that you’re unfamiliar with or purged what you should know about the key role Bob Dehlendorf played in the eventual creation of this fraud. Sullivan dedicated the book to him (for added effect). New information came to light about the reasons why Sullivan would see fit to manufacture what he considers dramatic tales about how Dehlendorf and Lella Sr. met, and what took place later, etc. I don’t see how a reasonable, objective person would consider this information irrelevant.]]
If you want people to 1) take you seriously, and 2) pay attention to your claims, learn to narrow down your arguments to the most important details. Otherwise you’re going to have people like me just roll my eyes because I don’t have the time or energy to sift through the plethora of ESSAYS you’ve posted to get to the proper meat of information we’re all desperate to find. [[Italic emphasis is mine.]] At this point, I almost don’t even care if it’s all made up or not.
[[Nice try at burden-shifting. /s Grade: D-. Marla, you - and only you - are responsible for any decision to pretend you’re free to foist responsibility onto me for what you do or do not know or learn about this fraud, any decision to take nearest exit (with or without more lovely but unhelpful observations), as well as any choice not to apply any moral principles to a decision to give a rat’s ass about literary fraud and associated despicable, immoral acts by the people associated with this book. Some chutzpah you have bitching about spending time on culling through what you don’t want to read when you’re free to do your own [expletive that I’m not obliged to omit] research as I and others did - and this after choosing to spend however many hours reading the book and/or (up to) 17 hours listening to it, plus however much time on materials related to its promotion to include reviews by unwitting victims eager to expose others to the infection. Why you may’ve even read Mike’s fiction-filled “essay” that a super fan who (among other probable events) offered to publish it on fee.org, etc. in exchange for meeting Lella Sr. … but without knowing that Mike was only too happy to accommodate fans wanting to meet the “hero”.]]
You’ve been working this book over for more than 2 years (according to the dates on these comments). Write a stinking blog post about it and give it a rest.”
[[Please see below, or not. And, actually, three (3) years in my copious spare time but I wouldn’t characterize it as “working” when I enjoy research and writing, even if I’m deemed no good at the latter pursuit.]]
message 331: Jun 18, 2020 04:22PM
Marla wrote: “Mary F, I also noticed that you have a habit of seeking out reviews of the book and sharing your own narrative over and over again. I can see why Michael Lella is sick of you and reacted so poorly to your comments. [[What is your point? The only person who’d notice is … someone who sought out these comments. Precisely how do you think vaccine treatments can be spread within this 3rd party publisher/GR? I understand why you did this in order to gather what you’d use as [ ] ineffectual insult, but … it’s not a good look. As for Mike being sick of it, so what? This completely disregards the fact that there aren’t exactly a lot of options for someone who is a co-conspirator/collaborator in a fraud, much less someone of Mike's personality and emotional IQ. Mike deserves every bit of aggravation, and the fact that he's ill-equipped to process and purge it is not my damn problem. Obviously, Mike is forced to initially approach from a place of polite pretense, and when necessary present the situation as though he, Sullivan and Lella Sr. are the aggrieved victims who deserve sympathy, support and defense. I'm sure he wishes I were attacked and destroyed by a mob he's attempted to work into a frenzy but, sorry, it hasn't happened. In context, your emotion-driven derogatory observations are also perfectly understandable even if I’m not quite clear how they came to be.]]
You really are seeking to destroy this book, huh? [[This is an ill-conceived rhetorical because there’s no way to ‘destroy this book’ and I’m not a fan of book banning. I do want exposure of Sullivan for what he is, along with full disclosures and an end to [ ] what the publisher and its parent Amazon are on notice as mismarketing aka false advertising.]]
I’d like to think it’s in the spirit of spreading truth, but I seriously wonder if there’s a deeper issue here.” [[I’d have recommended marinating on what at this point is fair to assess as disingenuous but also an attempt to appear reasonable. I wouldn't have gone with the subtle suggestion that my motives are somehow corrupt or wrong but without any [evidence] in support of such an assertion. You do get credit for not succumbing to the temptation for the facile, counterfactual claims that [ ] a very few others have made, and that Mike has himself made without any evidence but instead only defensive emotional conjecture.]]
* * *
Thank you for taking the time to share your observations. I hope your posts served as a satisfactory release because I'd have advised it wasn't worth what Mike presents as compliment-reward-treat of his external contact info - readily available elsewhere, including in his profile. And his continual misuse of the word “honor” is just ... ugh ... and has been for three years. Now that IS aggravating, because either he has utterly redefined that word to suit himself or has no conception of its true meaning and when and where it should be applied. No one who isn’t engaging in self-deception or suffering from a massive delusion (and/or other malady) would be in a position to reject the ample evidence of Mike’s distinct lack of integrity, poor character and dishonorable behavior in relation to the development and promotion of this book. He's enjoying the benefits of basking in reflected glory, so he ought to bear the cost and consequences of what created that benefit.
YES Mary...."It would be an HONOR to speak with Marla!" What an incredible misuse of that word.....
You area a SICK person MARY F and I actually feel sorry for you. Your rants are illogical and incoherent to me and do NOT warrant my time to respond anymore. GET A LIFE, MARY....
It’s really disappointing that there are people out there who do not know Pino Lella at all but go out of their way to say his story isn’t true. I listened to Beneath a Scarlet Sky on Audible and absolutely loved it. I found it SO incredibly sad and I find it so heartbreaking that Pino continues to live with the weight of Anna’s death even after doing so much to save others. It seems unfair but all I can believe is that only God knows why things happened the way they did for him and Anna. But it is still so sad! The people who want to discredit his story have probably never done anything remotely courageous or selfless and do not know what it is to take risk. Pino LIVED and he had many talents he used to help so many. I really admire that. And why would he admit to the events surrounding Anna’s death If they weren’t true. I think we are fortunate that he shared Anna with the author actually. Very sorry that there are people out there that don’t want to believe the story. This attitude is dangerous to history. I think the author did plenty of research and it is clear that his son Michael is very passionate about having his father’s story told. So let him. I’m just thankful Pino told us his story.
Originally posted: Jun 26, 2020 10:26AMSee reply to [the] duplicate [of Christine's] post over on the GTKP thread:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
(The above is the link to the wider-view column format version of this discussion page. I recommend bookmarking it. I also recommend using 'desktop site' mode in your browser if using a mobile device.)
Wow, thank you for commenting. I loved your father's story! Hope they make a movie out of it. He is, indeed, an inspiration.
I so enjoyed the book and was really inspired by Pino's tenacity, strength and perseverance. I also really appreciate that Michael is active here to answer more questions and provide a real-time link to Pino.
Michael when is the movie coming out?! Is Pino still okay and doing well with Covid?
Pino is a real hero. I am so sad that as the war was ending, as he should have been celebrating, his horror only greatly intensified. I am so grateful for his account because I am filled with understanding. My father was an officer (drafted as a private) in the infantry on the front lines in North Africa and Italy. I am just now transcribing his beautiful letters home, full of hope and optimism to free the Italians and push back the Germans. He, too, like Pino, had some supernatural, miraculous experiences -- his was fighting the Germans, which had his life spared on more than one occasion. Sadly, he was badly wounded in Monte Cassino, but survived. Two weeks later his cook came to him in the hospital and told him his company of 100 were all dead but six. These men are our heroes. I am even now more grateful for this book so I can appreciate more of what my father, and so many others fought for. In 1977 my father wrote an amazing history of his experiences. Other that that, he never talked about the war. But his written word is gold. And this book helps bring the pieces together. Thank you!
Hi Michael, I really enjoyed reading your father’s story. It helped me through a low period (emotionally) this past month. I hope you, Mr. Pino Lella, and the rest of your failing are doing well. Please send him my love and my thanks for sharing his story. It is incredible what everyone went through during WWII. Thanks again to your father for his story.
Hi Michael!I just finished the book and was absolutely intrigued and amazed by the story. My son is 18 now and I can’t imagine him going through such trials and being as brave as your father was. I want to thank your family for sharing such an important story. How is your father doing?
Eileen (and others who've posted on recent months), Mike hasn't posted since June, when last he objected to being called out on certain issues here and on his "Getting to know Pino" discussion section (bottom of main book page).You may want to try him at michaellella@yahoo.com (email noted in his profile).
For what it's worth, whomever handles Lella Sr.'s Instagram account continues to routinely "tag" a location in relation to one post, and surely Sullivan would not squander the marketing opportunity to post about it on Facebook were Lella no longer with us, just as he did when Msgr. Barbareschi and more recently Bob Dehlendorf passed away.)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... "At long last, Franco Isman's official testimony has been submitted to/accepted by Yad Vashem on the topic of (Monsignor) don Luigi Re's assistance to him as a child (allowing him safe haven at Casa Alpina under an assumed name from Sept 1943 to April 1945).
As some may be aware or recall, there were cases opened on Re and Lella as a result of a request by a superfan of the book acting - at least indirectly - on behalf the despicable author, but YV was provided no useable information that warranted presentation to the committee charged with assessing whether or not a person should be recognized as Righteous Among Nations.
My considerable gratitude to fellow GR member and now friend Giovanni Ciriani for helping me see this through. Getting it done without him would've been a huge pain in the tuchus aka tushie aka rear end.
Among other things, recognition as RAN for don Luigi will be one of few silver linings of this literary fraud, along with Franco's peace of mind.
The work continues."
I don’t actually care whether it is true or not, this is a beautiful story, beautifully written and I have read it twice. For me it doesn’t matter whether Pino was ever at Casa Alpina. If some other young guide, other than Pino, using his mountaineering experience, saved some Jews by taking them through perilous tracks to safety, that’s good enough for me. This story has stayed with me like no other story ( and I have read tons of WW2 stories). after all it is meant to be a novel based on true events, and not a history text book. I understand why people want to find out the truth and yes it would be good to know, but taking this story to shreds will not achieve that. Why not enjoy the story as told ? After all if we were not told the book was based on a true story would we have enjoyed more ? -Michael is very cagey about answering all the prodding questions and it is therefore quite possible that some of the events are not entirely based on the truth.
But why not enjoy the story as it is ? It is a beautiful story, beautifully told and, as a mountain lover, I will always associate it with the high peaks around Mount Groppera in this region of Italy. The cycle race il Giro d’Italia finished in Motta a few days ago and It was lovely to see the mountains all around this area and be reminded of Beneath a scarlet sky. Foxy red .
It's a personal choice not to care to examine or accept that the lion's share of enjoyment of the novel is based on the implanted false belief that the novel "hews closely to what happened to" Lella (his experiences and activities during the war, along with other characters and events). Would it have been as enjoyable and successful had the author presented it as just another hist fic novel vs. "based on a true story" and without the Preface and Aftermath sections and the various companion false and misleading claims outside the novel in related promotional articles, interviews, presentations? I don't think so. I'm inclined to accept the views of those who've been misled to express the equivalent of "if I didn't know this was a true story, I'd say it was unbelievable fiction."
There are plenty of enjoyable, successful hist fic novels set amid the framework of actual vs. largely reimagined history where the writers don't go well out of their way to fool readers into believing they came away from it having learned a lot about authentic history, without misusing and exploiting (including miscasting) actual people and subject matter.
We may agree to disagree on the many negative impacts of folks accepting as true "history" what is fiction (even in the present day), and lauding those who are not heroes at the expense of actual heroes and victims whose stories will likely remain untold in commercial mass-market fiction ... what can be a useful vehicle to disseminate authentic history in a form that some find palatable. This book is dangerous in more ways than one inasmuch as it is a brava gente myth version of history.
This is the second time I read the story and also listened to it on my recent car trip via audiobook. Your father's story is amazing and so much of it brought me to tears. I hope to get back to Italy someday and maybe I will get a chance to meet him and visit some of the places noted in the story.
I appreciate Mary F and other's who have clarified the misinformation around this story. I did not enjoy being led to believe that the events in this novel were 90% truth. The complete and utter lack of any corroborating information regarding the events 'witnessed' by Pino makes this historical fiction, plain and simple.
Michael wrote: "Giovanni, you are an idiot. [...] I don't care one bit if this friend of yours Franco Isman did not know Mimmo or my father but for him to deny that they were never at Casa Alpina is preposterous. [...]."Update:
I presume it will be a bitter pill to swallow, but...
Don Luigi is recognized as a Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, based on Franco Isman's testimony.
You know (of) Franco - the person who actually lived there every day for over a year and a half during the war and never encountered or saw hide or hair of a Lella despite how very few people lived there on a daily basis (contrary to the book) ... the person you in effect called a liar in your customarily garbled way, with the response based on unilateral edit(s) in your head to the other person's message content.**
Franco ... the person whose photo taken while at Casa Alpina during the war was misappropriated and misused in book presentations until I made an issue of it here and Sullivan suddenly decided to write Franco, and later told to knock off misusing it.
** One of many examples quoted above, where your reply was based false notion that anyone said or wrote that no Lella ever visited or even spent days or nights at Casa Alpina in the history of its existence, whether when it was just a camp site or after construction and use as a religious retreat and summer camp open from, what, May-August ... or when it began being open all the time starting around (no later than) summer 1943.
I just finished this book early this morning. I read it slower than normal so I felt as though I was there with Pino walking with him, driving with him in the passenger seat. The incredible journey he went on the tragic story he tells after the 300 page mark. It really affected me I want to find more books in the genre of World War II. Yes it was a tragic time but the stories that are only found now in books the world needs to read this book. Even when it ended I wanted more. This was an incredible story.
