Auschwitz
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On 16 November 1941, Betje Weijl-van Praag died from what appears to be suicide. The police report does not mention suicide, but the circumstances indicate that probably was what happened. “Notification is given by telephone that something has probably happened to the resident of plot Schuttersweg 88 because she has not been seen all day.…
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Albert Konrad Gemmeker (1907–1982) was a German SS officer who served as the commandant of the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands during World War II. Born on September 27, 1907, in Düsseldorf, Germany, Gemmeker pursued a career in law enforcement, joining the police force in Duisburg in 1933. By 1935, he held an administrative…
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When a nation destroys its own culture it does a lot more than destroy the cultural fabric, it also destroys the soul of the nation, especially when it comes to the musical and cultural heritage. When it murders the artist who performs this cultural legacy, a part of that soul will be lost forever. Magda…
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I probably could do a whole essay on how Guus van der Wijk and Mina de Vries met, and at some stage I probably will, but for now it suffices to say they were extremely brave people, in fact in my eyes they are heroes. Despite the knowledge that there was a great chance they…
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Anyone who ever had to go through a medical procedure will know how important the job of a nurse is. When you arrive at the medical facility it is usually a Nurse who sees you first, A nurse will care for you set you mind at ease, often they get to do the mots horrible…
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The murder of children during the Holocaust is what haunts me the most. Sometimes I try to be poetic and philosophical when I try to memorialize them, but often seeing the raw cold data is the most effective way to remember these young innocent lives. So many futures were destroyed. The picture above is from…
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Although its official name is Gurs Internment Camp, let’s call it what it really was, a concentration camp. It is also probably one, if not the only time, the Nazis sent Jews westward. At first, it served as a camp for Spanish Republicans and German refugees who fled from Nazism. The Gurs Camp was among…
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I planned to do this blog about Elisabeth Flesschedrager-Appelboom. She was born in Amsterdam, on 2 February 1921 . Murdered in Auschwitz, 18 January 1945. She reached the age of 23, and was a seamstress. She was married to Philip Flesschedrager, who was born in Amsterdam on 8 July 1920. Murdered in Auschwitz, 26 December…
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I could post thousands of photographs of victims every day or share disturbing and graphic images—some so horrific that we instinctively turn away. We avert our eyes because we cannot fathom the depth of the evil displayed before us. It seems impossible to comprehend how any human being could commit such atrocities against another. And…
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It is well known that the Nazis made no distinction in age when deporting Jews in the Netherlands. The result was that even venerable elderly people were murdered in Auschwitz and Sobibor, and other camps. Among the victims listed on the Joods Monument(Jewish Monument) site, Klara Borstel-Engelsman is the oldest, at the remarkable age of…
History of Sorts 
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