dirkdeklein
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Neuengamme concentration camp was a significant and harrowing part of the Nazi concentration camp system during World War II. Located near Hamburg, Germany, Neuengamme was established December 13, 1938, and initially served as a satellite camp of Sachsenhausen. By 1940, it became an independent main camp (Hauptlager), and it was the largest concentration camp in…
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In the quiet fields of northern Belgium, where red poppies bloom between rows of white crosses, a poem was born from the grief and valor of World War I. In Flanders Fields, written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, has become one of the most enduring war poems in the English language—a testament to loss, duty,…
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You will never know how it feels to fall in love and wake up every morning next to the love of your life. You will never know the anxiety of school exams. You will never know that nervousness of a first working day. You will never know how it feels like to have your teenage…
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s Allied forces closed in on Germany in early 1945, the SS began evacuating inmates from camps like Dachau in a series of forced marches, hoping to hide evidence of atrocities and prevent liberation by the Allies. Prisoners, already debilitated by starvation and disease, were forced to march dozens of miles in the brutal cold…
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(Update from the November 2016 blog) One aspect of history I find particularly difficult to grasp is the collaboration of some Jews with the Nazis. On the one hand, I understand that self-preservation is a powerful human instinct—survival at any cost can drive people to make unimaginable choices. Yet, conversely, it’s hard to reconcile how…
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(Originally posted on 1 May 2016) On 1 May 1945, hundreds of people committed mass suicide in the town of Demmin, in the Province of Pomerania (now in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern), Germany. The suicides occurred during a mass panic provoked by atrocities committed by soldiers of the Soviet Red Army, who had sacked the town the day…
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In the final days of World War II, as the Third Reich collapsed and Allied forces closed in on Berlin, one of the most chilling episodes of the Nazi regime’s downfall unfolded in the Führerbunker beneath the ruins of the German capital. It was there that Magda and Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s closest propagandist and loyal…
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In the bunker’s depths, darkness crept,Where shadows danced and silence wept.In April’s final, fateful breath,History marked a momentous death. The tyrant’s reign, a brutal sway,Had led the world astray.But as the war’s end drew near,His downfall echoed clearly. In Berlin’s heart, besieged and torn,The dictator faced fate’s scorn.As allies closed their tightening grip,And desperation began…
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I always get frustrated when people try to excuse the actions of thugs and criminals by blaming their difficult childhoods or lack of places to play. These photos are from a petrochemical plant in Geleen, the Netherlands. When I was growing up, it was known as DSM (Dutch State Mines), even after the actual mines…
History of Sorts 
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