History

General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2

  • I have to apologize upfront because after reading this blog you will never listen to the songs again in the same way. It is not one of my usual blogs, but I was listening to the radio this morning and 2 songs were played in succession which basically had very disturbing lyrics. Most people who…

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  • Jehovah Witnesses were one of the groups of people hated by the Nazis and were killed by the hundreds, the numbers are unclear but are estimated to be between 1,000 and 2,500. Nazi authorities denounced Jehovah’s Witnesses for their ties to the United States and derided the apparent revolutionary millennialism of their preaching that a…

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  • A tear rolls down my face because you made me cry, not because you hurt me. A tear rolls down my face because you made me sad, not because you did me wrong A tear rolls down my face and I wonder why, because I don’t know you. A tear rolls down my face although…

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  • Lindbergh’s Loyalties

    The above photograph is from October 1938 of Lindbergh receiving a Silver Cross from Herman Göring, the then-second-highest Nazi official. Below is part of the timeline of the Holocaust up to that point. 1933January 30Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany March 22Dachau concentration camp opens April 1Boycott of Jewish shops and businesses April 7Laws…

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  • Many still believe that Nazi atrocities were carried out solely by the SS, SS-Totenkopfverbände, Einsatzgruppen, and Waffen-SS, and not by regular Wehrmacht or Luftwaffe personnel. However, in recent years, evidence has shown that members of das Heer were also responsible for war crimes—sometimes committing acts even more brutal than those of the SS. Below are…

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  • Rolf Abrahamsohn was not only a witness to the Holocaust he was also witness to the remorselessness of some of his fellow country men. One day a few months after the war Rolf encountered a man who was hitchhiking. Rolf felt sorry for the man because he only had one leg, so he decided to…

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  • The Japanese treatment of prisoners of war during World War II was brutally inhumane. The men shown in the above photograph belong to the Sikh Regiment of the British Indian Army. They are seated in the traditional cross-legged prayer position, likely reciting their final prayers at the moment this photo was taken—a chilling and morbid…

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  • 30 February

    I know what you all are thinking “He is Dutch, he must have been smoking some funny stuff” Rest assured nothing could be further from the truth. 30 February was actually a real date, well at least in Sweden. February 30 was a real date in Sweden in 1712. Instead of changing from the Julian…

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  • Westerbork—Sobibor

    On 2 March 1943, a train with 1105 people left camp Westerbork for the then-unknown Sobibor extermination camp. After a three-day journey, the train arrived on the 5th of March. It was the first transport from the Netherlands to this camp. The first transport, like the second, was carried out by passenger train. Then cattle…

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  • Primum non nocere is the Latin phrase for “First do no harm” It is part of the Hippocratic Oath including the promise “to abstain from doing harm” . The Hippocratic Oath is an oath historically taken by physicians. It is one of the most widely known of Greek medical texts. In its original form, it requires a new physician to…

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