The State We're In, 10 December. A Norwegian filmmaker on joining anarchists in their fight against neo-Nazism, and the betrayal she regrets to this day. A Dutch football fan and his comic odyssey in becoming part-owner of one of the most expensive soccer clubs in the world. And a 97-year-old veteran on the Warsaw Uprising who was jailed by the country he put his life on the line for. Comment on the show.
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Karen Winther wanted nothing more than to be a somebody when she was growing up in Oslo. She felt elated when a group of anarchists took her on board, and had her live with them in their squat .
At the time, there was a violent rivalry between the anarchists and neo-Nazis (more photos below).
It was then that Karen made a decision that she’s regretted ever since.
Karen made a documentary about her experiences with anarchists and neo-Nazis called The Betrayal.
John van Zweden owns a home decoration business in the Netherlands. He’s also a die-hard soccer fan, whose favourite team happens to be in Wales: Swansea City (more photos below).
When the team was facing bankruptcy, a friend asked John to chip in £50,000 to buy the club.
And he did - without telling his wife. Swansea City is now one of the most prestigious teams in the world.
John tells host Jonathan Groubert about his unlikely odyssey from football fan to football executive.
More on John van Zweden and Swansea City FC - Dutch football fan: how I helped save Swansea City FC.
John van Zweden’s Swansea City Museum
When the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939, Stefan Bałuk joined the underground resistance. He carried out extremely dangerous missions, at times crawling kilometres through filthy sewers to stay undetected.
But he was later jailed by Communist officials for his activities and it took decades for his home city to recognize him as a hero.
Now 97, he reflects on what "hero" means, and doesn’t mean, to him (more photos below).
Stefan Bałuk's book is 'Silent and Unseen: I was a Polish WWII special ops commando', published by Askon (Polish language). For more information, .
More on Stefan Bałuk and the Warsaw Uprising: Warsaw Uprising rebel fought Nazis, betrayed by Communists.
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The blitz house is a government sponsered youthclub for the kids of the upperclass politicians and they are free to attack people which the norwegian government dislike whitout fear of the police stopping them. Sevral old norwegian war veterans who fought the nazis during ww2 and later demonstrated against mass immigrations of africans and asians and against muslim sharia zomes developing in the city og Oslo has been physically attacked by prople from Blitz who acts as the norwegian governments stormtroopers.
Correction to the John van Zweden story: on the show we stated that Swansea City football club entered the Premier League in 2010. It did so in 2011.
Dear Tor Woo: Thanks so much for taking the time to respond to our piece on Karen. But I'm not sure she actually found the people at Blitz frightening or that she placed any emotional burden on them. In fact, she says she found them cool, and wanted to be like them. And she identifies the fact that she felt isolated, angry and full of self-hatred as her problems -- problems that manifested themselves in an overpowering need to belong to something bigger than herself and to experience excitement in the process. She blames herself, not Blitz.
This Program caught my attention because I hadn't heard a word about the Blitz House since visiting it in 1988 while I was a student at the University of Oslo. I listened with interest and was very surprised to hear Ms. Winther describe the denizens of Blitz House as people who were frightening to her. I had a very different experience; I found then to be incredibly welcoming, friendly, polite, and interested in each other and the world in general. I wonder what, if any, background research was done to verify Ms. Winther's experience; she is no doubt troubled by her personal choices, but it seems unfair to place any of that emotional burden on Blitz House.
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