The Adolfas Diaries : Book 2 February 1947-October 1949

With the release of his first feature film "Hallelujah The Hills" in 1963, came international recognition. HTH was the surprise hit of the Cannes Film Festival of that year, followed by the award of the Silver Sail at the Locarno Festival, an invite to the first New York Film Festival and an 15-week engagement at the Fifth Avenue Cinema in New York City. Through his editorship with brother Jonas of the magazine "Film Culture" he proved himself an early encourager - of having people think about films as well as enjoy them. He was also, when you spent time with him day-to- day, a master, a twinkly-eyed magician at turning gray skies blue. He could always make a party when boredom or misery threatened. His own past gave him plenty of opportunity to outwit misery: having spent part of his teen years first in a Nazi labor camp and then, post-war, in a succession of displaced-persons camps. His diaries, now lovingly and carefully edited by his wife, singer and arts producer Pola Chapelle, are, page after page, testimony to what is often too facilely called, the triumph of the human spirit.