August 2026
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In the late 1930s, many German Jews tried to flee persecution in Nazi Germany. The Netherlands allowed a few to enter their borders. Jews in the Netherlands were committed to helping these refugees cross the border and arranged shelter. One of them was the Karel Nihom from Winterswijk. Not only did Karel help Jewish refugees,…
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On this day in 1973, at a party in an apartment in the Bronx, New York, hip-hop AKA rap was born. Using two turntables and a microphone, Jamaican-born funk and soul DJ Kool Herc mixed two records together – isolating and extending the kick drum beats or “breaks” – while also making rhythmic announcements over…
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It is strange how things can turn sometimes. I was going to do some research on Eva Braun. When I typed in the name, another name first came up, The name of Eva Brandon. When I looked into her details, I discovered that Eva Brandon was born in Amsterdam, on 26 July 1929. She was…
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I know it is easy to call people like Rudolf Höss and others who worked in Auschwitz monsters, and to en extent I can understand that, I have done so in the past. However when you call them monsters you take the risk of given them an excuse for their acts, because we only expect…
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I am always amazed by the fact that there are still people who desperately want to deny the Holocaust. Although there is so much evident and a lot of it very graphic, they still say it never happened and that the photographic evidence are staged pictures, produced by the allies. The one thing they do…
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There are no photographs of the two babies—just death certificates. Elisabeth Jeanne Petzal was born with her twin brother Robert Harry on 10 August 1943 in Camp Westerbork. They were children of Werner Petzal and Fanny Betsy Oppenheim. Both were murdered in Auschwitz on 18 October 1944. They were just a year old when they…
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On 9 August 1945, a B-29 named Bock’s Car lifted off from Tinian and headed toward the primary target: Kokura Arsenal, a massive collection of war industries adjacent to the city of Kokura. The primary target was the city of Kokura, where the Kokura Arsenal was located, and the secondary target was Nagasaki, where two…
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A truly remarkable story of love and survival. In the late 1930s, Anka Bergman was a lively law student living in the Czechoslovakian capital, Prague. “I wanted company and boyfriends and to enjoy myself. I didn’t know that Hitler was coming, but I filled my time with only cinemas and theatres and concerts and parties,”…
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Coffee: it’s the drink we rely on for energy, the beverage that brings people together, and a ritual embedded in cultures worldwide. But coffee’s story is as rich and deep as the flavors we savor in each cup. Let’s take a journey through the history of coffee—from the ancient hills of Ethiopia to the bustling…
History of Sorts 