Oliver Pollak

Oliver Polla

Oliver B. Pollak, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Nebraska Omaha, and a lawyer, is a correspondent now based in Richmond, California.

His books, available on Amazon, include:

*A State of Readers: Nebraska’s Carnegie Libraries
* A Year at the Sorbonne: A Proustian Life
*Conflict in Vietnam: An Historical Perspective
*Empires in Collision
*Jewish Life in Omaha and Lincoln: A Photographic History
*Nebraska Courthouses: Contention, Compromise and Community
*Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe
*Theses and Dissertations on Southern Africa
*To Educate and Serve: The Centennial History of Creighton University School of Law, 1904-2004
*University of Nebraska at Omaha  (With Les Valentine)
*Welcome to Omaha

He also contributed to
*Journal of Burma Studies Vol 3: Rise of a Mainland Trading State
*Western States Jewish History, Vol XXXIII, Number 2

‘A Hidden Life’ and ‘The Sound of Music’

Opposition to Nazi power is a theme of two stories set in the Austrian Alps. The musical The Sound of Music by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II featuring the von Trapp Family Singers appeared on Broadway in 1959. The 1965 film starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer broke Gone with the Wind box office records. It ran 174 minutes and won five Academy awards. The sound track sold over 20 million albums. It was loved. [Oliver B. Pollak]

‘A Hidden Life’ and ‘The Sound of Music’ Read More »

International, Oliver Pollak, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Posthumous Holocaust memoir a family affair

Mendek Rubin was born in 1924 in Jaworzno, Poland, a town with over 2,000 Jews, about 15 miles from Auschwitz. He died in Carmel in 2012. When his daughter Myra was putting his papers in order she came across a manuscript In Quest of the Eternal Sunshine. It was a surprise and not a surprise. It was a surprise to find it, but she had already helped her father edit it decades earlier. She worked on the manuscript for a few days but the task was incompatible with raising her two children. And, “in the intervening years” she had “completely forgotten it existed.” [Oliver B. Pollak]

Posthumous Holocaust memoir a family affair Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak

Book Review: ‘Jews in Medicine’

Jews in Medicine, Contributions to Health and Healing through the Age by Ronald L. Eisenberg Jerusalem and New York: Urim Publications, 2019, 464 pages, $34.95 By Oliver B. Pollak JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming — This 464-page encyclopedic reference book starts with the Talmud and comes into the present including still living practitioners. The author identifies Jewish

Book Review: ‘Jews in Medicine’ Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Science, Medicine, & Education

Feature story leads to an honor for his Opa’s patient

By Oliver B. Pollak JACKSON HOLE, Wyoming — My story “Hannover to Terezin, roundtrip please,” appeared on San Diego Jewish World on June 2, 2018. It has had remarkable unexpected consequences. My interest in Theresienstadt (the German name for the Czech Terezin) started in the 1980s when my mother gave me my grandfather’s papers.  They

Feature story leads to an honor for his Opa’s patient Read More »

International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak

New Mexico’s Holocaust and Intolerance Museum

Story an photos by Oliver B. Pollak ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – We’re in Albuquerque for the 75th birthday of Dr. Steve, the father of my daughter-in-law Erika. Steve’s wine cellar with red wines dating back to the early 1980s was an added pleasure. New Mexico’s Jewish history is more complicated than the rest of American

New Mexico’s Holocaust and Intolerance Museum Read More »

Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USA

Old books rivet attention at Oakland center

By Oliver B. Pollak OAKLAND, California – The 52nd California International Antiquarian Book Fair met at the Marriott City Center in Oakland.  About 160 booksellers from around the world had brought their high priced prizes; a 1632 Shakespeare volume for $450,000, a Gutenberg Bible leaf (ca 1455), $98,000, Sir Isaac Newton’s 1704 Opticks $120,000, and

Old books rivet attention at Oakland center Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Oliver Pollak, USA

Lawrence Halprin’s West Coast kibbutz: The Sea Ranch

By Oliver B. Pollak SAN FRANCISCO — In 2004 my law partner and I went to Washington DC for a conference. Our sightseeing included The Watergate, Jewish War Veterans Museum, and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial on the Mall. The Memorial first conceived in 1960, authorized in 1974 with Lawrence Halprin’s winning design went unfunded

Lawrence Halprin’s West Coast kibbutz: The Sea Ranch Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish History, Middle East, Music, Dance, and Visual Arts, Oliver Pollak, Travel and Food, USA

Obituaries and the Greatest Generation

By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Holocaust Survivors are our Greatest Generation. Their resilience and immigrant contribution to American life is formidable and compelling. The Bay Area is home to between 210,000, and 350,000 Jews. During 2018, the biweekly J of Northern California published 135 obituaries, 72 men and 63 women, ages 30 to

Obituaries and the Greatest Generation Read More »

International, Jewish History, Obituaries & memorials, Oliver Pollak, USA

Online dealers sell historic Judaic, Nazi artifacts

By Oliver B. Pollak RICHMOND, California — Combining the keyword “Hitler” and “Highest Price” on AbeBooks founded in 1995 and owned by Amazon since 2008 produces an amazing Judaica juxtaposition priced between $180,000 and $527,815. For less than $1.5 million you could own three unique 20th century works on Palestine, Mein Kampf and Einstein, and

Online dealers sell historic Judaic, Nazi artifacts Read More »

Books, Poetry & Short Stories, International, Jewish History, Oliver Pollak, Science, Medicine, & Education