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On 30 September 1938, the leaders of Great Britain, France, Italy and Nazi Germany signed the Munich Agreement, handing the Sudetenland—the predominantly German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia—to Adolf Hitler’s Germany. The Czechoslovaks themselves were not parties to the agreement. It was presented as a settlement intended to prevent another European war. British Prime Minister Neville…
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When you look at the picture above, you may just admire the men participating in physical exercise. You may even want to join them. But the picture is of concentration camp Mauthausen. The Mauthausen main camp operated from the time of the Anschluss, when Austria was united with Nazi Germany on 8 August 1938, to…
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Life is only a sequence of events and accidents, often determined when and where you are born. When I was 15, as a young man in the 1980s in the Netherlands, my main interest was girls and trying to get beer. When Elie Wiesel was 15 and a young man in Romania (or then Hungary)…
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On 29 April 29, 1942, the Nazis announced a new law to further humiliate the Dutch Jews. From 3 May, they had to wear an identification mark—a six-pointed yellow Star of David with the word Jood [Jew] in its centre. The star made it possible to recognize people as Jews on the street. The Nazis…
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I had a dream last night. Why I had the dream, I don’t know, and I am not sure what it means, but it was a sad and beautiful dream, and that’s why I am sharing it. The dream was probably triggered by an article I read recently. The article said that the corpses of…
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This blog only contains 2 pictures. A picture of a broken doll and a picture of some children’s shoes. Both were called pictures of Auschwitz artifacts, now I know the description is not meant disrespectful and was meant with the best intention and perhaps it is the only way to describe them. But the word…
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Dina Pronicheva (born Dina Mironovna Wasserman) was a Jewish actress at the Kyiv Puppet Theatre and one of the very few people—fewer than 30—who survived the mass executions at the Babi Yar ravine. Her detailed testimony remains one of the most significant eyewitness accounts of the atrocity carried out by the Nazi Einsatzgruppen and local…
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This is a fictional letter, but it is a letter I envisage I may have written to Margot, if I had been a friend or schoolmate. Dear Margot, I hope this letter finds you well, though I understand the circumstances surrounding us are far from what any of us could call “well.” It is strange…
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On June 23, 1944, a delegation comprising two representatives from the International Red Cross and one from the Danish Red Cross conducted an inspection of Theresienstadt, accompanied by SS First Lieutenant Karl Rahm, the camp commandant, and one of his deputies. During the visit, the delegations were treated to an opera by Jewish composer Hans…
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When I hear that wind blowAll across the Wicklow mountainsIs it you, I hear a calling?Johnny boy, oh Johnny boy When I look to the westAll across the river ShannonI can still see you smilingJohnny boy, oh Johnny boy When the leaves have turned to brownAnd winter is dueAs I watch the sun go downI’ll…
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