October 2024

  • Rachel Elisabeth Italiaander (Chelly) was the eldest daughter of Isidor Italiaander and Esther Stad. She was born on July 1, 1929 in Amsterdam. Still, it wasn’t until 1939 that she had a sister, Elisabeth Julia, and in 1941, a brother, Marcus Jozef, followed. The two youngest children survived the war by going into hiding. Rachel

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  • On October 30, 1944, Margot Frank and her younger sister Anne were put on a transport from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen. By November 1944, Bergen Belsen received approximately 9,000 women and young girls. Margot and Anne were murdered there in February 1945. I deliberately say murdered because they were ill and received no treatment—to me,

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  • Nowadays, it is easy to blame social media for the widespread distribution of fake news through memes and other formats. However, this phenomenon is far from new. About 100 years ago, propaganda postcards and cartoons served the same purpose (after all, a meme is essentially a digital version of a propaganda or satirical postcard or

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  • In the annals of history, specific names become etched with unique infamy, their legacies stained by actions that go beyond the brutality of war and enter the realm of sheer atrocity. Lieutenant General Hisao Tani of the Imperial Japanese Army is one such figure. While many factors shaped the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), Tani’s leadership

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  • In the heart of the Nazi-occupied Netherlands, a young woman named Geertruida van Lier, known as Truus, stood out as a symbol of courage and determination. With her fierce conviction and dedication to justice, she risked her life in the fight against the Nazi regime during World War II. Truus’s story is one of youthful

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  • Porsche and the Nazi Regime

    When people think of sports cars, Porsche often comes to mind. Its iconic design makes it instantly recognizable when spotted on the road. From 1962 to 1996, the Dutch police utilized Porsches for high-speed patrols, marking a significant chapter in the history of law enforcement vehicles. In the early 1960s, with no speed limits on

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  • The Edelweiss Pirates, or Edelweißpiraten, were a group of loosely organized German youth who stood in open defiance of the Nazi regime during the Third Reich. They played a unique if often overlooked, role in resisting Nazi authority, fighting against conformity, and supporting anti-fascist efforts. Although they were not as coordinated or ideologically unified as

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