Famine
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Operation Market Garden was a failed operation by the Allied forces, which would have dire consequences for the Netherlands in the following winter. Irish journalist and author Cornelius Ryan wrote the book A Bridge Too Far about the operation. Market Garden was divided into two parts.Market: Airborne forces (of Lieutenant General Lewis H. Brereton’s First Allied Airborne…
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On 5 September 1944, exiled representatives of the three countries, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg signed the London Customs Convention, the treaty that established the Benelux. A politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of the three neighbouring nations. However, that is not why 5 September 1944 would become known as Dolle Dinsdag or Mad Tuesday. Many…
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Before you ask, I know absolutely nothing about fashion. Then why do a piece on fashion in World War II? I hear you say. There is no particular reason, but after all the heavy subjects I usually explore, I decided to go with a more lighthearted one for a change, while still staying on the…
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In September 1944, most of the southern part of the Netherlands had been liberated. Unfortunately, the rest of the country faced a very harsh winter. Extreme cold combined with a lack of food resulted in a famine, causing the death of about 20,000 citizens. Dutch railway workers had gone on strike with the hope of…
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The Dutch famine of 1944–45, known as the Hongerwinter (“Hunger winter”) in Dutch, was a famine that took place in the German-occupied part of the Netherlands, especially in the densely populated western provinces north of the great rivers, during the winter of 1944–45, near the end of World War II. A German blockade cut off food and fuel shipments from farm areas.…
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The above image is from the 10 October 1846 issue of the Pictorial Times. It has the title “Cahirciveen, the retreat of the Liberator.” It accompanies an article discussing the plight of the Irish people who are suffering from hunger after the failure of their potato crops. Words of the time—written by a British, not an…
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Today marks the 77th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden,mostly associated with the book of Cornelius Ryan ‘A Bridge too Far’ which was made into a star studded block buster movie in 1977 with the same title. It is a lengthy blog but it is an important story to be re-told because the effects of this…
History of Sorts 
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