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⚠️ WARNING: This article contains graphic descriptions of torture and murder. One of the most grotesque contradictions of the Nazi regime was its attitude toward cruelty. The same state that organised mass murder, genocide, and barbaric medical experiments could condemn acts of violence when they violated its own rules or threatened its authority. Within the…
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Karl August Wilhelm Frenzel was an SS non-commissioned officer at the Sobibór extermination camp. As commander of Camp I, he was responsible for a Sonderkommando—a unit made up of prisoners, predominantly Jews, who were forced to perform a range of tasks within the camp, including herding newly arrived victims towards the gas chambers. After the…
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I could write down the history of Bethrina Kooperberg but it is more poignant to use her own words to illustrate the person she was. The text is translated from Dutch and comes from a postcard and letter Bethrina sent from Camp Vught to her friends, the Van Beek family, dated 24 April 1943. “The…
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I wanted to change the title of the blog to evoke an emotion, but then I thought: if this picture doesn’t hit you in the gut, perhaps nothing will. The title is actually the title of the original photograph, which is in the public domain. I have only changed the names from their German forms…
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The Nazi concentration camp system evolved into a machine of mass murder, and Auschwitz became its deadliest cog. Located in Poland, Auschwitz initially served as a concentration and forced labor camp for Polish political prisoners. However, in 1941, it became the epicenter of Nazi extermination efforts. Among the most horrifying aspects of Auschwitz’s legacy was…
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In 1798, the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, one of the best-known poems in the English language. Among its most famous lines are: “Water, water, every where,Nor any drop to drink.” The words describe the terrible irony of being surrounded by water while being unable to drink it.…
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There are moments in football when the game changes without anyone in the stadium quite realizing it. On 21 September 2016, football history was made in the Netherlands. During the KNVB Cup match between Ajax and Willem II, it became clear almost immediately what Video Assistant Refereeing (VAR) could mean for the game. Referee Danny…
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As many of you will know by now, I was born and raised in a small mining town in the southeast of the Netherlands. The town is named Geleen, but like so many other towns, Geleen is divided into several neighbourhoods. The neighbourhood where I grew up is called Lindenheuvel. In 1926, the Dutch government…
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There is a common misconception that the Nazi regime’s campaign of murder and persecution began only after the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939. In reality, the persecution of Germany’s Jews and other targeted groups began almost immediately after Adolf Hitler came to power. By April 1933, barely ten weeks after Hitler…
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The world’s leading transport and logistics company, Kühne + Nagel, has been portrayed in historical research as one of the principal logistics companies involved in the Nazi regime’s systematic plundering of Jewish property during the Holocaust. Beginning in early 1942, the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) carried out what became known as the “Furniture Action”, or…
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