...(or 'gynecologist'; take your pick), a Dr. Dr. (twice no less!) Michael Martin, Gynäkologe, of Nikolausberger Weg 56, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, who wrote,
"I found your emailadress on a website on which a user searched the sheltering desert film and you answered that you have a film called "Flucht in die Wüste" (Flight into the Desert). I'm sending you an email, because I'm searching this movie. I'm the son of Henno Martin and I've never seen the film in which my father played a big role. I'm very sad about never seeing the movie and I can't even buy the film somewhere. Is it possible that you can send me a copy of the film or maybe you sell it to me?"
Well, what a relief! For a moment I thought some past peccadillo had come to haunt me! ☺
Michael is the son of Hanno Martin who in 1935 had left Germany together with his friend and colleague, Hermann Korn, to do geological research in South West Africa. At the outbreak of World War Two they fled into the Namib Desert, where they lived for two-and-a-half years to avoid internment by the British.
I'd written about them in my blog The Sheltering Desert and also mentioned the movie dramatisation of Hanno Martin's book on this webpage.
Now I have to go and search through my huge movie collection in the hope of finding it somewhere. It's been a long time since I watched it so this may also be a good time to do so again before sending it to Dr. Dr. Michael Martin.
There is also a second book, Zwiegespräch in der Wüste by Henno Martin's friend and colleague Hermann Korn, which is somewhat overshadowed by the more famous book "The Sheltering Desert" and perhaps for that reason was never translated into English. Maybe I should get a copy from Germany?
