-
The photograph above is of a selection in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It looks horrendous enough when you look at it, but if you analyze it, the horrors become so real. Firstly, it is clear that the line on the left will not see the end of that day. They are doomed to go into the gas chambers.…
-
A Pinch Cat Flashlight I worked for Philips from 1987 to 1997. It was a company that took great pride in its history. In 1891, mechanical engineer Gerard Philips (1858–1942) and his father—manufacturer, banker and tobacco and coffee trader—Frederik Philips founded the light bulb factory of the same name in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In 1991,…
-
Before I delve into the main story, it is worth providing a brief synopsis of Limburg. Limburg is the southernmost of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands and stands apart from the rest of the country due to its distinctive geography, strong historical connections to Central Europe, and unique cultural identity. Unlike the famously flat,…
-
On May 20, 1940, the first group of prisoners arrived at Auschwitz: approximately 30 German inmates classified by the SS as “professional criminals.” They had been selected from the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin. Less than a month later, on June 14, 728 Polish prisoners were deported by German authorities from a prison in Tarnów,…
-
Catharina Brücker was the eldest child of Romanian tailor Mozes Brücker (1892–1944) and the Dutch Rossetta Eijl (1896–1944). Her father made women’s clothing for major fashion houses in Rotterdam and owned several shops in the city. From age six until she was twenty, Catharina attended a dance school where she learned ballet, tap dance, and…
-
Action 14f13 (also known as Aktion 14f13) was a chilling extension of the Nazi regime’s broader program of systematic murder under the guise of euthanasia. It followed the infamous T4 program, which aimed to eliminate people with physical and mental disabilities. Action 14f13 took this ideology further by targeting concentration camp prisoners deemed unfit to…
-
On 17 July 2014, all 298 passengers of flight MH17 were killed. 12 years on, and still no one is brought to justice. The contrary is true, some of those responsible, and this includes those who are complacent and are vetoing part of the investigation, and of course, the war in Ukraine. Each passing day…
-
The “Westerbork Film” refers to a film shot by Rudolf Breslauer at the Westerbork transit camp during World War II. This film is a significant historical document because it provides a rare visual record of life in a Nazi transit camp. The film was commissioned by Albert Gemmeker, the Westerbork Camp Commandant in 1944. He…
-
A diary is like a chronicle, a chronological summary of someone’s life, or at least part of it. Nowadays people use social media to document their daily life. Unlike social media, diaries are meant to be secret. That’s why the words from Holocaust diaries which were published after World War II, should be treated with…
-
In May 1944, one of the most tragic forced deportations of the twentieth century began when the government of the Soviet Union ordered the mass expulsion of more than 200,000 Crimean Tartars from their homeland in Crimea. The Soviet authorities, led by Joseph Stalin, accused the entire Tartar population of collaborating with the German army…
-
Subscribe
Subscribed
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
History of Sorts 