It's all top sekret. The communist east german: vee have our vays. I think it is remarkable how except for that little blip about Katarina Witt being a Stasi informant, it all immediately disappeared. Thankfully Kati didn't disappear, but for a moment I was concerned and having my doubts.
I agree with your comment, tulosai, as far as it goes. In fact, I don't think it goes quite far enough.These claims are unsubstantiated. If you can substantiate them, by all means do so. Otherwise I consider this to be character assassination. It's not even that I necessarily think you're wrong (I have no godly idea, only Witt knows the truth), it's that I think it is fundamentally unfair to state something about someone as an absolute fact, then turn around and say well of course there's no proof, it's top secret. Saying something like 'of course, there are heavy rumors that she was an informant/spy, and it is likely, IMO that they are true' would suffice and IMO goes far enough.
This is especially true because Katerina herself has denied being a spy/informant: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...ls-East-German-secret-police-spied-age-8.html
In the ABC News article, Katarina Witt states flatly that she was never a spy for the Stasi:In 1992 Katarina Witt gained access to the files that Stasi had kept on her throughout her career. Stasi's main interest was in preventing Witt from defecting. Witt petitioned unsuccessfully to have the files sealed, since they revealed a lot of personal information about her that she did not want to become public. When the files did become open to the public it was revealed that Stasi gave Witt a lot of favors of one sort and another including money. Witt did not protest and seemed to be on friendly terms with the secret police throughout.
Here is Witt's side of the story, as reported in the United States.
Here is the thing, Mathman
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=132214
Here is a report from Great Braitain a few months later.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...eal-Katarina-Witt-was-willing-accomplice.html
Sorry, this is what is sometimes known as tectonic thread drift.I always come to read this thread expecting a discussion about Julia's LP, silly me... it seems like it's the "was Witt a spy" thread now.
Steur was an informant. Witt was the one spied on.
Both are interviewed in The Diplomat, an ESPN special on spying & skating in East Germany. So were the bureaucrats involved with the spying, some of whom did jail sentences for it.
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/au...tv-review-the-diplomat-katarina-witt-20130805
At no time did this documentary claim Witt herself did any spying.
I always come to read this thread expecting a discussion about Julia's LP, silly me... it seems like it's the "was Witt a spy" thread now.
lmao, really? You cannot be serious. You really think she knows everything that you just said?
She probably does know and understand the topic of holocaust and the tragedy thereof, but I highly doubt she's aware of any of the concepts you described. Nor does her choreography convey all that.
It's a nice intro, but man, talk about over-intepretation
Julia is not stupid like American girls. While they are reading Twilight or maybe Fifty Shades of Grey, Julia has read War and Peace. Don't short-change educational system like here in the States.
Julia is not stupid like American girls. While they are reading Twilight or maybe Fifty Shades of Grey, Julia has read War and Peace. Don't short-change educational system like here in the States.
I highly doubt she has read war and peace. In interviews its been revealed she is not part of the Russian educational system (which I decline to comment on for lack of knowledge). Last year she went back to school for like a week and found the kids to be sort of... petty to her. I am pretty sure she's now educated chiefly around her skating schedule, not skating around a normal school schedule.
Also, I'm from the states and my education was fine, but I didn't read war and peace till I was 17 or 18 and I'm a VORACIOUS reader. I reject your gender and national stereotype about American girls being stupid. I was and am smart, and have the credentials to prove it in real life. I know many smart American girls and women. That said, a 15 year old, IMO could not hope to understand it, not because of the language, but because the deep emotional relationships and themes cannot resonate with most people that young whatever their background or country of origin.
I can't help but be vague here: in these two programs of Julia, they just come off as sincere. (And when was the last time you can say that for anything, let alone a figure skating program?) The costumes; the music; the stoic and introspective little nymph, Julia-- it is right. "How can we know the dancer from the dance?" as Yeats would put it. I wonder if adults in figure skating can ever be as sensitive and insightful. Julia makes us look at subject with fresh eyes, which is what all true art ultimately comes down to.
Julia is not stupid like American girls. While they are reading Twilight or maybe Fifty Shades of Grey, Julia has read War and Peace. Don't short-change educational system like here in the States.