Margot McMahon

Monday, June 8, 2020

The Great Escape, Hogan's Heros and liberation by Patton's Third Army, Who knew?

Recent online research and through the Stalag III Museum in Sagan, Poland, "From Interrogation to Liberation" by Marilyn Walton And Michael Eberhardt, I discovered more about Dad's WWII experience at Stalag III, Stalag XIIID, and Wermacht VIIA. "The Great Escape" movie tells about Stalag III and a massive escape the year before Dad became a POW. Twelve Tuskegee Airmen, The Lost Men of Buchenwald, and many artists and cartoonists. His second POW camp was at Stalag XIIID, reopened by necessity, with a fellow Lt, Robert Hogan. Robert Hogan told his kids there was an uncanny similarity of his experience to Hogan's Heros including a Kommadant who wore a monocle like Klink, a jolly oversized Seargent like Shultz and a covert radio that received more accurate BBC information than the German propaganda station so was allowed. They ate warm water with a few leaves of cabbage and shared with his barrack one sawdust filled loaf of brown bread filled daily.

Saturday, March 28, 2020

dad's POW 2 minute video with artwork

This 2 minute video is a quick summary of Dad's WWII POW experience:

WWII Cartoon at Lit lounge exhibition

Marilyn Walton, who with Mike Eberhardt, has published two books and a Stalag III research center in Sagen, Poland to tell about POWs in German camps.

Two books by Marilyn and Mike,

Commander to Captive and Interrogation to Liberation

Ordering from Mike directly funds the SLVII research center

Michael C. Eberhardt

6006 Club Oaks Drive

Dallas, Texas 75248

972-567-0029

These are overview photos of XIIID See POW “signs” to allied airforce

These are Gramma Mac’s postcards from her European tour including Bavaria where dad has been a POW. And a response postcard from friends who said she was on a European tour in 1956, a year before we moved to Spain:

Sunday, February 9, 2020

Franklin McMahon Chicago Eight Trial Paintings Exhibition

6:30 pm, Chicago Eight exhibition viewing

7:00 pm, Reading by Margot McMahon: “1968 Happened: A convergence at the family dinner table”

8:00 pm, Dinner nearby at Francesca's on Chestnut, 200 E Chestnut St., Chicago IL

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of one of the country’s most controversial cases, the Chicago Eight Conspiracy Trial.

In late August 1968, the city hosted the Democratic National Convention at the International Amphitheatre, which was located on the south side. This was a tumultuous time in America; Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert “Bobby” Kennedy had been assassinated that same year, and the country was in the middle of a very controversial war in Vietnam.

Activists saw the Democratic National Convention as an opportunity to protest the War and their leaders. They filed for permits to protest in the city’s parks, but most were denied; instead, they were granted one rally at Grant Park and an 11 o’clock nightly curfew. Because of these restrictions, riots erupted in the parks and the streets, leading to violence between the police and protestors.

Sixteen men were held responsible for this disaster: eight police officers and eight protestors. None of the police officers received any punishment—either their charges were dropped or they were cleared in court. The protestors, on the other hand, had became co-defendants in a long, messy trial.

This exhibit presents the chaos of the Chicago Eight Conspiracy Trial through the lens of three courtroom sketch artists: Andy Austin, Franklin McMahon, and Verna Sadock. Each has a unique artistic style that brings to life the characters and events that ensued