History

General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2

  • Sophie is the girl on the left in the above picture. Today would have been her 90th birthday. She was born on 16 March 1932 in Amersfoort. She was transferred via Kamp Vught to Camp Westerbork on 23 May 1943. There were 1172 people on that transport. 1171 Jewish Dutch citizens and one other, possibly

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  • Although Westerbork wasn’t an extermination camp but transit camp, it didn’t mean that no one was murdered there. It is often referred to as a ‘humane’ camp, but there was nothing humane about it. Only 751 people were murdered there, now some will say that some died and were not murdered, but I don’t subscribe

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  • The journey itself is home…

    Originally posted on The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱: Home is the nicest word there is. –Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867 – 1957) The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned. –Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014) One never reaches home, but wherever friendly…

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  • I am a member of several history websites receiving daily notifications about events that happened in history this day. Today, I received a notification of the anniversary of the 1945 death of Anne Frank at Bergen Belsen. I don’t know how they came to that conclusion, because the exact date of Anne and Margot Frank’s

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: When you look at the picture above, you may just admire the men participating in physical exercise. You may even want to join them. But the picture is of concentration camp Mauthausen. The Mauthausen main camp operated from the time of the Anschluss, when Austria was united with Nazi…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: Gustav Mahler is one of the most famous classical music composers and conductors of all time. Yet, his music was considered as degenerate by the Nazi regime, and was therefore banned in Germany and all the occupies territories. It was not because Mahler was a bad composer but because…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: I always found it hard to understand why the Nazis kept the shoes of those they murdered. Of all clothing items, shoes are the most personal. Even today you don’t go to a shoe shop and just pick a pair of the shelves. You sit down and you fit…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: It is strange sometimes how one thing can draw your attention to another. I did a piece recently on the German national anthem, that led me to look at the Dutch national anthem. “Wilhelmus van Nassouwe”, usually known just as “Wilhelmus” is the national anthem of the Netherlands. It…

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