Alderney camps-Nazi Concentration camps in Great Britain.

History of Sorts

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The Alderney camps were prison camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during its World War II occupation of the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands was the only part of the British Isles to be occupied.

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The Nazis built four camps on Alderney. The Nazi Organisation Todt (OT) operated each subcamp and used forced labour to build fortifications in Alderney including bunkers, gun emplacements, air-raid shelters, tunnels and concrete fortifications.

The camps commenced operating in January 1942. They were named after the Frisian Islands.

Four labour camps were built, which were named after the German islands of Sylt, Borkum, Norderney and Helgoland.

The camps on Alderney were run from the Neuengamme concentration camp in German Anton Yezhel is one of the few forced workers who was sent to Alderney to have been pictured. Sadly, whether his survived the conditions in unknown.2F743D0F00000578-3363742-image-a-58_1450870271396

Lager Sylt, whose gates still stand today, housed the Jewish…

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Dr Klaus Schilling

History of Sorts

Klaus_SCHILLING_arzt_KZ_dachauKlaus Karl Schilling (born 5 July 1871 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany; died 28 May 1946 in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, West Germany),  was a German tropical medicine specialist, particularly remembered for his infamous participation in the Nazi human experiments at the Dachau concentration camp during World War II.

Though never a member of the Nazi Party and a recognized researcher before the war, Schilling became notorious as a consequence of his enthusiastic participation in human research under both Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. From 1942 to 1945, Schilling’s research of malaria and attempts at fighting it using synthetic drugs resulted in over a thousand cases of human experimentation on camp prisoners.

He was appointed the first-ever director of the tropical medicine division of the Robert Koch Institute in 1905, where he would remain for the subsequent three decades.

Robert Koch-Institut, 1900

Upon retirement from the Robert Koch Institute in 1936, Schilling moved to…

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When you look for answers and you get more questions.

Most of my life has been occupied with one question ” Why did my Grandfather die?”

As far as I am aware and as far as I was told he was executed by the German occupiers during WWII. It has only been recently I actually found out the actual date he died, which was May 12 1942, he was 47 at the time.

I have come across some other information I had not been aware of until today/ I had an uncle who had the same name as my grandfather .Jan de Klein, . I found a picture of the grave of my Grandparents and my Uncle. The odd thing about it was the fact there was a little headstone on top of the grave of my Grandparents. Usually this is done when a young child has died with the parents, however my Uncle was 77 when he died in 1998.

This keft me with a few more questions, Firstly why was the grave in that [articular configuration, secondly since my Uncle was born October 24,1920 this would have put him age 19 at the start of the occupation of the Netherlands, was he therefore involved in any way in the armed forces or resistance?

None of that would have been the case. It turns out he was severely mentally and physically disabled since birth.

This then posed another question, “How or whey did he survive?” given the fact people with disabilities were send to the concentration camps.

The bizarre thing is I can tell you how the weather was on May 12 1942. The average temperature was 12,6 °C, and there was precipitation of about 0.3mm. But the reason why my Granddad died remains unanswered. It did bring up another theory though. On May 12 1942 there was a notification in the newspaper “Het dagblad van het Zuiden! the daily newspaper of the south that all men who served in the Dutch army on May 10,1940(this was the day the Germans invaded the Netherlands) and who were up to the age of 55, had to report to the occupying authorities by May 15th 1942. They had to bring a whole raft of ID with them.

Maybe my Granddad refused to do so and was killed for it. Either way my quest for the answers remains.

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I am passionate about my site and I know a you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2 ,however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thanks To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the paypal link. Many thanks

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Ankie Stork- The Stork who delivered 35 Jewish children.

Ankie Stork was a Dutch resistance fighter during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She saved thirty-five Jewish children from the Nazis by hiding them in several locations the town of Nijverdal during World War II. She acted as part of Utrechts Kindercomité,(Utrecht Children Committee) a Dutch resistance group based in Utrecht.

Ankie was a member of the Hengelo manufacturing family, the daughter of Johan Charles Stork, the director of the Koninklijke Stoombleekerij in Nijverdal.
She became a lecturer and spokesperson after the war. She continued to reside at two residences in Enschede and The Hague until shortly before her death. She died in Enschede on November 23, 2015, at the age of 93.
Her father and brother,Piet, had tried to escape to England at the start of the occupation of the Netherlands, but were arrested. After they were released ,they turned their home into centre of resistance and also a hiding place for Jews.
In 1942 Ankie started to study social geography. She had to end her studies quite soon after she started because she refused to sign the Loyalty declaration, which was a declaration pledging loyalty to the German occupier.

In 1943 her cousin Anne Maclaine Pont asked her to join the resistance by starting to sell copies of “Het lied der achttien dooden” (the song of the 18 dead) by Jan Campert in order to fund the resistance.
Later on with help from others like the Pastor Hendrikus Berkhof, who had warned about the dangers of Nazism during his sermons, to find hiding places for Jewish children, she found places for these children in the eastern rural parts of the Netherlands.
In May 1944 she was caught and arrested but was released after 6 weeks due to lack of evidence.
Because of her and her helpers 35 Jewish children survived the war.

Sources

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn44496

https://peoplepill.com/people/ankie-stork/

https://dirkdeklein.net/2018/01/12/jan-campert-the-song-of-the-eighteen-dead-a-ww2-hero/

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know a you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2 ,however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thanks To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the paypal link. Many thanks

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Jan Campert-“The Song of the Eighteen Dead” a WW2 Hero.

History of Sorts

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On January 12, 1942 at 13:30 Jan Campert died in the Neuengamme concentration camp of pleurisy.

Most people will never have heard of this man,  he was born on August 15 1902 in Spijkenisse a town near Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

He was a journalist, theater critic and writer who lived in Amsterdam.During the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II Campert was arrested for aiding Jews. He was held in the Neuengamme concentration camp, where he died.

Campert is best known for his poem “De achttien dooden ” (“The Eighteen Dead”), describing the execution of 18 resistance workers (15 resistance fighters and 3 communists) by the German occupier. Written in 1941 and based on an account published in Het Parool, the poem was clandestinely published in 1943 as a poetry card (“rijmprent”) by what would become publishing house De Bezige Bij to raise money to hide Jewish children.

Below is the English translation…

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I am just a boy on a rocking horse

History of Sorts

Arthur

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, not a man but a boy aged three.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, quite happy as you can see.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, I feel like a cowboy or a knight.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, each time I mount my horse my eyes shine bright.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse. I mean no one any harm.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, when I am older I want my horse  to live on a farm.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, love is all I can give.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, but some people don’t want me to live.

I am just a boy on a rocking horse, I am sent away…

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German and Austrian Suicides

History of Sorts

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April and May 1945 marked the final stages and the end of World War II in Europe. It also saw an increase of suicides by civilians in Germany and Austria.

Cyanide had been one of the most common ways how people killed themselves. Members of the Hitler Youth handed out cyanide pills to audience members during the last concert of the Berlin Philharmonic.

COrchestra

There were a variety of reasons why people guilt themselves.

Fear: They knew off the crimes committed by their leaders and were afraid a similar fate would await them, for the German propaganda machine had warned the population on what would happen to them saying they faced the threat of torture, rape, and death by the allies in defeat. Partially this was true because their had been atrocities committed against the Germans by the Red Army but also by other allied forces, but the reports…

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This is

History of Sorts

This is Margot Jany  she was 8 years old when she was  murdered at Auschwitz-Birenkau on March 8, 1943.

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This is Ernest Frydman age 9 from Paris, France was  deported and murdered in Auschwitz on August 1942.

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This is Joseph and Mina Kiszelewski  murdered in the gas chamber on August 26, 1942 at age 9 and 6 years.

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This is Bernard Gutman age 8 from Paris, France was arrested then deported and murdered in Auschwitz in 1942.

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This is Leia Aingorun murdered in Auschwitz in 1944. Age 7

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This is Rudolf Höss one of the evil ones responsible for their deaths.

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This is his appointment his permit to kill.

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This is my pledge NEVER FORGET how evil men can be, how innocence sometimes is seen as a threat.

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The Jazz Standard the Nazis could not destroy.

I was reminded of this song while I was watching “the Man in the Castle”. So many musicians were murdered during the Holocaust Musicians like the talented composer Gideon Klein

The youngest Jewish composer murdered during the Holocaust, Gideon Klein was only 26 when he was murdered in the Fürstengrube sub-camp near Auschwitz. His oeuvre fuses Jewish themes with modern composition techniques. In 1940, he was offered a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music in London. This could have saved his life, but he was not allowed to travel from Prague.

Sources

https://www.dw.com/en/jewish-composers-who-died-during-the-holocaust-but-whose-music-lives-on/g-43567006

https://dirkdeklein.net/2018/07/19/captain-macheath-the-story-behind-mack-the-knife/

Donation

I am passionate about my site and I know a you all like reading my blogs. I have been doing this at no cost and will continue to do so. All I ask is for a voluntary donation of $2 ,however if you are not in a position to do so I can fully understand, maybe next time then. Thanks To donate click on the credit/debit card icon of the card you will use. If you want to donate more then $2 just add a higher number in the box left from the paypal link. Many thanks

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The little girl with the red coat

History of Sorts

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We have all seen Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s list.One of the most powerful portrayals of the Holocaust.

A few years ago I decided to show the movie to my kids.Even though they were still young, I found it important for them to know what evil men were capable of , but that there are also heroes who defy evil even if this means risking their own life.

Although I have seen the movie many times, I hadn’t realized that the iconic image of  the girl in the red coat had actually been a portrayal of a real girl and not just a visual image for impact reasons.

The story of the girl had been told during the Adolf Eichmann trial.

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At the trial, Dr. Martin Foldi, related how he and his family arrived at Auschwitz in the winter of 1944. As the bewildered Jews stumbled out of the cattle cars, they…

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