Courtesy of Tablet Mag:Joel Sollender, WWII veteran and POW, on what it means when he hears Trump insult our vets. pic.twitter.com/3ZIezeRTl9— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 18, 2016
On Friday, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign released an arresting new ad. In it, Joel Sollender, an American Jewish soldier who was taken prisoner by the Nazis, responds to Donald Trump’s infamous claim that he doesn’t consider John McCain a war hero because “I like people that weren’t captured.”
Sollender, who will soon turn 92, lives in California and has been speaking out against Trump and his candidacy for over a year, which is how the Clinton campaign found him. “I was very pleased that they contacted me and that I had a chance to voice my opinion,” he told me. Sollender worked for two hours with the film crew to produce the spot. The online ad runs for 90 seconds, while a 30-second version is now airing on TV. It has already gone viral and been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
Something that didn’t make it into the short clip, Sollender said, was his fear at the time that the Germans would discover that he was Jewish. “As a prisoner of war, and being Jewish, I had some concerns about my dog tags, which were obviously marked ‘H’ for Hebrew,” he recounted. “But they never looked at them. I had blond hair and blue eyes and spoke a little German, so it helped me along.”
I have to admit that this ad really got to me.
Especially when him tear up in memory of the war, and his time as a POW.
Very powerful, and as ad that I would think might speak directly to some of those folks who are typically conservative and having a hard time deciding who to vote for in this election.
How long before the Trump machine attacks this man??
ReplyDeleteTrump, his family, and his supporters are rabid mad dogs who rip into anyone who gets in their way.
Bully Donald Trump owes Joel Sollender an American Jewish EX-POW and all American POW'S that are with us and who passed away an apology
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention that apology to Joel Sollender and to all POW's better not take 5 years.
ReplyDeleteI do not now and never have agreed with John McCain's political views, but I honor him for his service to our country. Mr. Sollender is a hero and national treasure. Trump and his ilk are truly deplorable, worse than the slimy brown refuse on the bottom of your shoe. Much worse!
ReplyDeleteDebates, by their very nature, are biased towards those who are intelligent, articulate and well informed.
ReplyDeleteMr. Billionaire Trump
ReplyDeletePRISONERS OF WAR
LIVES MATTER
That ad should be shown prime time and during sports events so that as many men can see it. I often wonder how anyone, male or female, who has served in the US armed forces could even remotely consider voting for Trump or for any in today's GOP for that matter. Republicans in Congress have fought against any bill that was designed to help military personnel, their families or their wounded since George W. Bush became president and foisted his invented war on us.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
How much self-hatred and self-loathing does one have to harbor to vote for such a lying, hate-filled, criminal-minded piece of shit like Drumpf?
ReplyDeleteYou cannot be intelligent, well-informed, well-read, recollect history, evaluate situations, and still support such a de-humanizing crook as D Drumpf. It is IMPOSSIBLE!
Oh, and you have to be scared, angry, denigrate women and all OTHERS, if you mark a box for anyone except HRC. A vote for anyone else or a write in, is a vote for the crazy Palallilia stricken Drumpf.
I saw this one a week ago. It's not as effective as her other ones that use Trump against Trump.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a POW in Italy and Germany. Even after liberation, the POWs stayed in the camp for a few days until they could be evacuated. My dad ended up seeing Dachau and the people that were walking skeletons, the piles of bodies.
ReplyDeleteI would bet that his brave man has had nightmares for 60 years, the same as my dad. The price they paid is beyond measure.
What a powerful ad, and what an amazing hero and role model of humility and service Mr Joel Sollender is. Growing up, one of our neighbors survived the concentration camps and I asked him, out of curiosity, how he remains so resilient and engaged in life. He shrugged his shoulders and said "If I cave in, they won" and I remember him talking about a lot of subjects, but never once did he mention the war and camps. When he passed, his daughter gave him a eulogy fit for a king, to this day I don't know how she got through it without breaking down. Years later she asked me to see Schindler's List with her at the movies, somehow we made it through and she said, for the first time in her life, she felt the full impact of what her ancestors endured.
ReplyDeleteWhen Donald said he's sacrificed, it made my blood boil. What did he sacrifice? He raised a brood of rich idiots with golddiggers with accents, but what did he sacrifice? Doesn't look like he ever missed a meal or made a living with sweat and calloused hands. Heaven knows he's too stupid to cover his own poo in the litter box.