dirkdeklein
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These are just a few impressions of Christmas during World War II. The above photo is of a Christmas party in a German hospital (Lazarett) on 20 December 1941. Sisters of the Red Cross wanted to surprise the wounded German soldiers on Christmas Eve and diligently practice their Christmas Carol. Dutch soldiers during the mobilization…
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“Music has charms to soothe a savage breast,” is a famous line which was used by a character in William Congreve’s 1697 play The Mourning Bride. And sometimes music does soothe the savage beast, but during the Holocaust, some of these ‘beasts’ were so evil that nothing could soothe them. However, music did play an…
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I am a great believer in balance. It is good to have a balanced view of life. I have written quite a bit on how the Dutch failed their Jewish-fellow citizens, and the Dutch complacency might be considered a crime. However, as I mentioned earlier, sometimes you need to take a step back and take…
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On this day a deranged lunatic went into a elementary school and murdered 20 children and 6 staff members. I will not mention the killer because he doesn’t deserve our attention, He took the easy way out. These are the names of the Sandy Hook elementary school mass murder. Perpetrator’s mother:Nancy Lanza, 52 (shot at…
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The beautiful beast and the hyena of Auschwitz were just some names used for Irma Grese. She was born to Berta Grese and Alfred Grese, both dairy workers, on 7 October 1923. Irma was the third of five children (three girls and two boys). In 1936, her mother died by suicide after drinking hydrochloric acid…
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The letter above is dated 18 December 1943. However, it is in direct connection with a program that started eight years earlier. On 12 December 1935, the Lebensborn program began as a campaign to encourage so-called “racially valuable” Germans to have more children. Lebensborn initially focused on giving financial assistance to members of the SS…
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I find it increasingly difficult to write about the murdered children of the Holocaust. 1.5 million innocent souls who are now 1.5 million stars in the sky. This post will have the raw data of some children murdered on this day 80 years ago. But just the raw data should send shivers down your spine.…
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I wasn’t sure what to call this post. I had considered the title “Mission Impossible” but I did go with “Escape to Victory.” On 8 December 1944, the KP (Knok Ploeg-boxing crew) resistance group in Friesland managed to liberate 51 members of the resistance from the Blokhuispoort, the detention centre in Leeuwarden, without any escalation…
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On Saturday 3 December, I had the privilege to talk to author Dar van Horn about his new book “The Jokester-‘Watcher of the Whych’ “. We also talked about his time in Iran, and how his parents and he escaped in 1979. Below an excerpt of his book “The city of Aberystwyth, this little Welsh…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: It is just unfathomable how many of the most evil and vile war criminals escaped justice. It is something the German government and other European and American governments should be deeply,deeply ashamed off because they escaped under their watch. Gustav Franz Wagner (18 July 1911 – 3 October 1980) was…
History of Sorts 