May 2021

  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: The above image is from the 10 October 1846 issue of the Pictorial Times. It has the title  “Cahirciveen, the retreat of the Liberator.”  It accompanies an article discussing the plight of the Irish people who are suffering from hunger after the failure of their potato crops. Words of the…

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  • Anne Frank

    Originally posted on History of Sorts: Anne Frank would have turned 88 today so on her birthday what better time to reflect on her life. I will focus more on her younger years prior to her diary. So much has already been written about Anne, I doubt there will be anything new in this blog,…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: We all know the story of Anne Frank and there is no denying that her diary was very important to get an insight to how life was for those who had to hide for the evil Nazi regime. However people do sometimes forget about the other women and men…

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  • The Netherlands had been occupied by the Nazis between May 15th 1940,after the Dutch forces surrendered, and May 1945. Although many parts had already been liberated by autumn 1944. The official liberation day was set on May 5,1945. The Netherlands had a population at the time of about 8.8 million. During the 5 years of

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: The camp of Drancy was a transit camp located not far from Paris. Like many other detention centres throughout France, Drancy was created by the Vichy government of Philippe Pétain in 1941 and was under the control of the French police until July 3, 1943 when Nazi Germany took day-to-day control as part of the major stepping…

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  • John Miles once sang “Music was my first love and it will be my last”. The beauty with music is that you don’t need words to understand what it says. It evokes emotions so strong that you cannot really describe the effects they have on you. Music has its own language, it is universal and

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  • May 4th is the designated day in the Netherlands to remember all those who died in WWII and other conflicts. At 8pm, two minutes of silence will be observed across the country. A few years ago, I saw a picture that really touched me. It was of a pizza delivery boy getting off his bike

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: If you wouldn’t know the wider context of the picture, you would smile at it and think” a lovely picture of young people in the military enjoying themselves”. And that is exactly what they did , they did enjoy themselves. However this weren’t just some random service men and…

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  • Who doesn’t know David Bowie? I don’t think there is anyone on the planet who hasn’t heard of David Bowie. Even the younger generations know his music. However there are very few who know about David Bowie’s earliest works. Some might think that ‘Space Oddity may have been his first venture in to the world

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