History

General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2

  • Unity Valkyrie Freeman-Mitford (8 August 1914 – 28 May 1948) was an English socialite best known as a devotee of Adolf Hitler. Both in Britain and Germany, she was a prominent supporter of Nazism and fascism, and formed part of Hitler’s inner circle of friends.Following the declaration of World War II, Mitford attempted suicide in Munich, and was officially allowed safe

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  • The other side of Hugh Hefner

    Now before you all get exited expecting to see lots of pictures of naked women(not that there is anything wrong with that} This is not that type of blog. This is about the time that Hugh Heffner during the World War 2 years and just after the war. Years before founding what would become the

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  • Words can kill

    The Nazis not only imposed their will by military force, but also through the Dutch Civil Service. A typewriter could be just as deadly as a bullet. Until the end of 1944 this typewriter was used in the Scholtenhuis on the Grote Markt, the main square in Groningen, in the north east of Netherlands. In

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  • Jane Austen & Limerick,Ireland.

    I never got the whole Jane Austen hype. I find her stories boring and there is nothing I can identify with. However the fact that there is a Limerick connection to her I do find intriguing. And I believe if she had lived in Limerick her stories may have been a lot more exiting, but

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  • The one thing that always baffled me is the vehement hate the Nazis had for Jazz music. It was considered “Entartete Musik”—degenerate music, a label applied in the 1930s by the Nazis to Jazz and also other forms of music. I wrote a piece about Johnny & Jones before, this is not so much a

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  • Harry Dobkin-Blitz Murderer

    One can imaging that the Blitz must have been a terrifying time in Great Britain, but it also must have been a time where people ceased the opportunity amidst the chaos to do things they usually wouldn’t dare to do for the fear of being caught. Harry Dobkin was one of these folks. Harry Dobkin

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  • The defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 left the world not only devastated by years of total war but also confronted with the unparalleled crimes of the Holocaust. Among the many perpetrators brought before courts in the immediate aftermath was Amon Leopold Göth, the Austrian SS officer who had served as commandant of the Płaszów

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  • When the rain falls, my face gets wet. When the sun shines, it blinds my eyes. When the snow falls, I want to go out and feel the crunch of the fresh new snow beneath my feet. When it is muddy, I get dirty. When I am hungry, I eat. When I am thirsty, I

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  • A Failure as a Father

    If you did not know the man in the photograph, you would think he was a loving family man, doting on his daughter. However, since we know the man is Joseph Goebbels, the dynamic of this photo changes. Goebbels did portray himself as a good family man and a loving father. Clearly, he had no

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  • This is a historical blog however not  so much about a big historical event but more a personal historical tale, which I was reminded of today. In 1991 hardly anyone had heard about Andre Rieu, I know I didn’t. My Mother was getting remarried and I had told her that I would pay for the

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