dirkdeklein

  • This blog provides a structured psychological overview of Mark David Chapman, the individual responsible for the 1980 murder of musician John Lennon. Drawing upon documented interviews, legal testimony, and secondary analyses from criminology and psychology scholars, the essay examines key psychological themes associated with Chapman, including identity instability, obsessive ideation, parasocial attachment, and the role

    Read more →

  • Christmas Through the Ages

    I don’t care if you’re Santa; a queue is a queue. In 1975, Santa Claus stood in line with other customers for a cup of coffee in New York City. We all live in Santa’s submarine Santa Claus at the North Pole. Circa 1987. Size does matter. A large Christmas tree practically consumed this family’s

    Read more →

  • Despite the dire circumstances she was living through, Anne Frank did not give up hope. It should be a lesson for all of us. The following are some (of her) words of hope—she was wise beyond her years. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”

    Read more →

  • It was a few weeks before Christmas 2011. We went to see “Arthur Christmas” in the cinema in 3D. Afterwards my family were saying how impressive the 3D had been, where I hadn’t noticed it at all. I had some problem with my eye though, but hadn’t thought anything of it. I thought it was

    Read more →

  • I know that some people will see the title of the post and will get the shivers. They will think it is going to be a story of indescribable horrors of cruelty. Perhaps a tale of experiments on women in Dachau. They might not even read the rest of this post because they might not

    Read more →

  • On December 7, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in the Hawaii Territory, killing more than 2,300 Americans. The U.S.S. Arizona was completely destroyed, and the U.S.S. Oklahoma capsized. In total, twelve ships were sunk or beached, and nine additional vessels were damaged. More than 160 aircraft were destroyed

    Read more →

  • One aspect of the Holocaust which is often forgotten is the other damage caused. What I am referring to is the fatalities caused by a lack of qualified medical staff. I am not sure if there is any data on that, but it stands to reason that aside of the 6 million or more Jews

    Read more →

  • Van der Klein

    My last name is a bit of a mystery. A distant cousin started a family tree several years ago and at some stage he got stuck, because our family name seems to have appeared out of nowhere. He could trace it back to somewhere in the late 19th century. There are plenty of Klein’s but

    Read more →

  • Strange Fruit

    I don’t think there is a more powerful song then ” Strange Fruit” which deals with racism. Especially the original version sung by Billie Holiday. The lynching of black men in the American South was an all-too-familiar occurrence in the 1930s, even though it rarely made news. So when Billie Holiday had a hit record

    Read more →

  • The phrase “our man in New York” most commonly refers to William Stephenson, the Canadian-born MI6 officer who led a covert British intelligence operation in the United States aimed at shaping public opinion and encouraging American entry into the Second World War. His remarkable work is the focus of Henry Hemming’s critically acclaimed 2019 non-fiction

    Read more →