September 2022
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On Tuesday September 5, 1944, after the liberation of Antwerp, Belgium, rumors arose about the imminent arrival of the Allies in the NetherlandThe population is preparing to welcome the liberators. Some illegal newspapers publish a liberation issue. The Germans do not intervene. Many German soldiers even fled. 60,000 NSB members leave for Germany on special
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: I am always intrigued in the history of how things come to be. Like who was the first to discover could be turned into a hot beverage. However, as the title suggest this is not a blog about coffee but about my other guilty pleasure, Chocolate. The history of…
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The best way to describe this story is a microcosm of the Holocaust history. But before I go into the story, I have to explain the wider background, to put it into context. Although I am fully Dutch, I was seen as a child of a mixed marriage, The Netherlands is a small country, however,
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: Just a picture of a soldier with his family. One could easily dismiss this photograph as just someone’s memory. A father who loved to smoke, a mother all dressed up and 2 well dressed children, a boy and a girl. This picture could have easily been a picture of…
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Joseph is just one of the 6 million Jews who was murdered during the Holocaust. He was murdered today 80 years ago in Auschwitz. He was born in Amsterdam, 20 February 1921. Joseph Charles Rosenberg Polak (Jop) lived with his parents at 163 Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat in Amsterdam. He wanted to study medicine, following in
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: I am amazed and equally appalled that so little is known about this awful event which took place only a few days before Hitler’s suicide, and less than a month before the end of WWII in Europe. Maybe that is why it is only a footnote in history. Prisoners,…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: It is not often that all versions of a song are great. However, Whitesnake’s -Here I go again certainly has 3 great versions of the song. “Hang on” I here you say” Are there not only 2 versions of that song> The 1987 album version and the radio edit…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: I had done two blogs about these children before, but because it is such an uplifting story I decided to revisit it once again, I also came across a few new pictures. Hoensbroek Castle, one of the largest castles in the Netherlands, was used from December 23, 1942 as…
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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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