History
General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2
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Last week I had the privilege to interview Ferne Pearlstein and Robert Edwards. Ferne Pearlstein is a prize-winning cinematographer, writer, director, and editor whose work has won numerous awards and been screened and broadcast around the world. Her most recent documentary, The Last Laugh-which she directed, produced, photographed, and edited-had its world premiere at the…
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German troops invaded the Netherlands in May 1940. The Nazi regime stayed in power in the Netherlands until May 1945. However, the Allies had already liberated the southern provinces in the autumn of 1944. Despite the occupation, life went ahead as usual for many, at least to some extent. The Nazi occupiers still allowed sporting…
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It may be a naive notion, but I believe there are only two types of people in this world: good and bad. Bad people will always do bad and evil things. They may, on occasion, be charitable and do something good, but in the end, they only serve their own interests. On the other hand,…
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War can bring out the worst in people, but also the best. The latter applies to Dr Eugene Lazowski, who saved thousands of Jews from inevitable extermination and did this in a very creative manner. Eugene Lazowski, born Eugeniusz Sławomir Łazowski (1913, Częstochowa, Poland – December 16, 2006, Eugene, Oregon, United States). In a time…
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(Repost from May 15 2016) Let it never be said that the Eurovision Song Contest can’t be an inspiration to write a historical piece. The lyrics for “1944” concern the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union at the hands of Joseph Stalin in 1944. Jamala was particularly inspired by the story of…
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Oskar Speck (1907–1995) was a German canoeist who paddled by folding kayak from Germany to Australia over the period 1932-1939. A Hamburg electrical contractor made unemployed during the Weimar-period Depression, he left Germany to seek work in the Cypriot copper mines, departing from Ulm and travelling south via the Danube. En route, he changed plans…
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I have to start with an apology because after reading this blog, next time you watch the Disney classic Bambi, you will see that young little deer in a different light. Felix Salten was a Hungarian-born, Austrian Jewish author. When he was four weeks old, he moved from Pest in Hungary to Vienna in Austria.…
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On 17 July 2014, all 298 passengers of flight MH17 were killed. Nine years on, and still no one is brought to justice. The contrary is true, some of those responsible, and this includes those who are complacent and are vetoing part of the investigation, and of course, the war in Ukraine. Each passing day…
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Heinrich Bütefisch is not a well-known name in the context of World War II and the Holocaust, yet he was responsible for the deaths of thousands; in addition to that, he also worked for a company that had helped to develop Zyklon B, the gas used to kill millions. The company that produced Zyklon B…
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