Originally posted on History of Sorts: “Let them eat cake” is the most famous quote credited to Marie-Antoinette, the queen of France during the French Revolution. Legend has it, it was the queen’s response after being told that her starving peasant subjects had no bread. “Let them eat cake” is the traditional translation of the…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Westerbork was liberated on April 12, 1945, by Canadian forces. At the time there were still 876 inmates there. Something which isn’t widely known is that this liberation nearly was a destruction. The Canadians thought the camp was a Germany military base. They had plans for shelling Weseterbork. This…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Mornidine advertisement, 1959.Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 81, No. 1, p. 59. Now she can cook breakfast again… when you prescribe new MORNIDINE (brand of pipamazine)A new drug with specific effectiveness in nausea and vomiting of pregnancy, Mornidine eliminates the ordeal of morning sickness.With its selective action on the…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Robert Bierman was murdered on July 18, 1942 in Auschwitz, he was 4 years old. I could have done a piece on his sister ,Francisca, who was also murdered on July 18, 1942. She was aged 6. The reason why I picked Robert because it is his birthday today.…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: US President Abraham Lincoln was the third American president to die in office , and the first of four presidents to be assassinated. The other three were James Garfield (1881), William McKinley (1901) and John F. Kennedy (1963). Lincoln’s death came in the closing days of the American Civil…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: I am always amazed and in awe of people, who despite awful conditions and a very uncertain and bleak future, were still determined to not let that destroy their love for each other. Although they knew the marriage probably wouldn’t last long they still decided to get married. The…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Each single murder committed during the Holocaust was truly awful, but there are some who even have a sadder element to the death. Vrouwtje Gosschalk-van Esso was born in Meppel, the Netherlands, on 11 June 1895.Her place and time of death are registered as Bergen-Belsen, 17 April 1945. Her…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Stairway to Heaven There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is goldAnd she’s buying a stairway to heavenWhen she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closedWith a word she can get what she came forOoh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to heavenThere’s a sign…

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Originally posted on History of Sorts: On April 15, the 63rd Anti-tank Regiment and the 11th Armoured Division of the British army liberated about 60,000 prisoners at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. One of the soldiers, 21 year old Corporal Ian Forsyth, called it “A place of darkness and death.” What the British troops encountered was…

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