May 2025
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The title of this blog is a quote by Groucho Marx—I chose it because I felt it best captured the absurdity of Rudolf Hess and his misguided attempt to convince the Allies to ally with the Nazis. Rudolf Hess’s dramatic solo flight to Scotland in May 1941 is one of the most bizarre and enigmatic…
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The title, Where They Burn Books, They Will Ultimately Burn People As Well, is a quote from the Heinrich Heine play. Almansor, which he wrote in 1821. Heine was a Jewish German poet, writer and literary critic. His words would ring true just over a century after he wrote them. The Holocaust didn’t start with the mass…
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Before Elvis Presley became the undisputed King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, he was just a shy teenager from Tupelo, Mississippi, with a guitar and a dream. One of the most fascinating and often overlooked moments in his early life was the time he came in fifth place in a talent contest—an experience that seems almost…
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Enduring Pain In the silent depths of night,Where shadows whisper, hushed and tight,There lies a heart that beats in vain,A silent witness to the pain. Beneath the surface, out of sight,A soul endures, fierce in its fight,For pain, though sharp, will not define,The strength within this heart of mine. Each tear that falls, a testament,To…
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This blog will not contain a lot of text, mainly photographs and art of soldiers who served during World War II, and will contain short descriptions. The photograph above was discovered by Levi Bettwieser, a passionate collector of old film rolls who was lucky enough to stumble upon 31 undeveloped rolls of film full of…
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(First published May 29, 2024) I had a draft for this piece ready in 2018 but deleted it at the time because I thought it would be too controversial and uncomfortable to read. Forward to 2025, I still think it will be deemed as controversial, and I still think it is uncomfortable to read, but…
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Robert Francis Prevost Elected Pope Leo XIV, Succeeding Pope Francis. Robert Francis Prevost, a Chicago native, was elected pope by the College of Cardinals on May 8, following a two-day papal conclave. He succeeds Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21 at the age of 88. At 69 years old, Prevost has chosen the…
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I love The Repair Shop, it is one of those feel-good shows. The people working there are so talented and skillful. Not only do they repair items that are valuable to the people who bring them in, but they also repair them in a way that seem the item was never broken. Many of the…
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Heinrich Bütefisch is not a well-known name in the context of World War II and the Holocaust, yet he was responsible for the deaths of thousands; in addition to that, he also worked for a company that had helped to develop Zyklon B, the gas used to kill millions. The company that produced Zyklon B…
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The photograph above is of a selection in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It looks horrendous enough when you look at it, but if you analyze it, the horrors become so real. Firstly, it is clear that the line on the left will not show the end of that day. They are doomed to go into the gas chambers.…
History of Sorts 
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