Berlin
-
Shortly after a war it would be quite unnerving to see a bomber flying over your city. However in West Berlin in 1948, this was a welcome sight. It probably was the equivalent of Santa delivering presents early. After World War 2, when Soviet Union leader Josef Stalin occupied West Berlin in 1948, Halvorsen participated…
-
Without a shadow of a doubt, the star of the 1936 Olympic Games was Jesse Owens. But there was another medal winner who became more infamous than famous. He came 3rd behind in the Men’s 100 metres sprint behind Jesse Owens and Ralph Metcalfe and third place in the Men’s 200 metres sprint behind Jesse…
-
On this day 81 years ago, the fate of 11 million European citizens, was decided in this beautiful and majestic building. These 11 million citizens had only one thing in common—they were Jewish. That was reason enough for the Nazi regime to murder every single one. What is so disturbing about this was the business-like…
-
Like all delusional leaders, Hitler would not have been able to carry out his plans without having people around him that encouraged his delusional ideas. Göbbels was without a shadow of a doubt Hitler’s most devoted henchman and enabler. On February 18,1943 he gave his most famous speech in the Sport Palast in Berlin. The…
-
I was reminded of this song while I was watching “the Man in the Castle”. So many musicians were murdered during the Holocaust Musicians like the talented composer Gideon Klein The youngest Jewish composer murdered during the Holocaust, Gideon Klein was only 26 when he was murdered in the Fürstengrube sub-camp near Auschwitz. His oeuvre…
-
The case of Hans Retzlaff is particularly sad, not only because he was killed in the concentration camp Sachsenhausen but also because he was disowned by his own Father. Hans had already been in court in 1927 in relation to homosexual activities, which was a criminal offence in Germany at the time, according to paragraph…
-
Dora Gerstein was a Jewish actress and singer born on 23 March 1899 in Berlin. She was murdered on February 14,1943 in Auschwitz. On one of the sites I used to do the research on Dora I noticed the line ‘Body lost or destroyed’. Not only her body was destroyed but also her talent and…
-
It is easy for me to be judgmental about Stella Goldschlag, but the fact is I don’t know what I would have done. However Stella did go beyond anything I would have done. Stella was boen in Berlin on July 10,1922 as the only child to a middle class Jewish family. Although the family did…
-
Tiergartenstraße 4, may look like an ordinary German address. But is an address which is synonymous to unspeakable evil. It was the address of a villa in the Tiergarten or Zoo district in central Berlin. But more then that it was the headquarters of the Nazi “euthanasia” program ,the mass murder of disabled people and…
-
Some people think that all Germans subscribed to the Nazi regime’s policies and that there was no resistance. But that is not the case, there were many who did resist the Nazi’s warped ideology. And they often paid dearly for it. Otto and Elise Hampel were 2 ordinary people. Otto Hampel was born 21 June…
History of Sorts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.