dirkdeklein

  • When I

    When I see a dog I want to play with it When I see a flower I want to pick it When I see a crayon I want to draw a picture When I cross the road I hold my Mother’s hand When I have a bad dream I call my Father When I smile,…

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  • The Republic of Ireland remained neutral throughout WWII. However Northern Ireland,which was and still is, part of the UK did not stay neutral. On  January 26 1942 the first US troops arrived in Belfast. It must have given the people of Northern Ireland mixed feelings, On one hand they must have had the realization that…

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  • Sports were important in Nazi ideology. Often athletes would be portrayed as warriors, and many drafted German athletes were placed into several branches of the Wehrmacht. The Nazis also understood the power of sports as propaganda, and, especially in a sports-loving country like the Netherlands, the Nazis saw merit in promoting sports. The poster below…

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  • They say that music soothes the savage beast. quite often this is true, but it can also have an equal opposite effect and sometimes it can be both. The song ‘Adolf Hitler’s Lieblingsblume ist die Schlichte Edelweiss'(Adolf Hitlers favorite flower is the simple Edelweiss) ,composed in 1933 by Otto Rathke, with lyrics by Emil Gustav Adolf Stadthagen…

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  • Desperation and Survival

    I have often wondered how the Sonderkommandos coped with their  work. Sonderkommandos were  forced labour units made up of  Nazi death camp prisoners. usually Jews.They were forced to help with the disposal of gas chamber victims among other duties. Sometimes even removing family members. It is not like they had a choice, it was either work…

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  • Vienna in 1913 was a vibrant cultural city. It was one of Europe’s power houses.Needless to say it attracted people from all over the continent and indeed the world. Not was it only known for its musical heritage it was also known for its many fine coffee houses. today Viennese coffee is still enjoyed by…

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  • The Fighting Girlfriend

    Your husband goes off to war and gets killed in battle. What do you do? Well like any other wife you would sell all your belongings and with the money earned from that sale, you go an acquire a tank, to take revenge. It sounds like a great plot for a revenge movie directed by…

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  • We all know the story “War of the Worlds” be it either the book, movies or the musical version. A tag line of the story is “The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, they say.” Turns out that we beat the Martians to it. On July 1976. only 7 years…

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  • Mack the Knife is one of my favourite Jazz songs,  I love the Bobby Darin and Louis Armstrong versions equally. It just doesn’t get cooler than that song, sung by these two performers, although Sammy Davis Jr, also did a pretty cool rendition. Even though I have admired this song for decades. it is only…

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  • Do you sleep at night?

    Do you sleep at night, knowing what you did to me? Does your conscience bother you? Do you have a soul? And if you do how could you do what you did? Do you have children of your own? Or do you have nieces or nephews? Would you kill them? We both know you wouldn’t…

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