History
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The first of September 1939 is well-known for the German invasion of Poland, triggering World War II. However, it is less known as the date the official killing of disabled people was made law, albeit under the guise of euthanasia. It was only five lines which determined the fate of hundreds of thousands:Reichsleiter [Philipp] Bouhler…
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This is not the famous composer Joseph Strauss as a young man. This is actually another young man called Josef Strauss. Technically he never became a man because he was murdered in Auschwitz on August 17,1942. He was aged 17. Unlike his famous name bearer there is very little known about Josef, yet from the…
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Art competitions were held as part of the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. Medals were awarded in five categories (architecture, literature, music, painting, and sculpture), for works inspired by sport-related themes. The Irish artist Jack Butler Yeats(brother of W.B Yeats) won the silver medal for his painting the “Liffey swim”, as seen above. The…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: One afternoon a day before Thanksgiving in 1971, a guy calling himself Dan Cooper (the media mistakenly called him D.B. Cooper) boarded Northwest Airlines flight #305 in Portland bound for Seattle. He was wearing a dark suit and a black tie and was described as a business-executive type. While…
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Late in the morning of 4 August 1944, Dutch police entered the Secret Annexe and arrested the Frank family, the van Pels family, Fritz Pfeffer, Johannes Kleiman and Victor Kugler (who worked at Opetka). Otto Frank was the managing director of Opetka, and they had helped to hide the residents. On 8 August 1944, after several days…
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: The Nitimei Maru, a Japanese troop ship with around 1,000 Dutch prisoners of war and 1562 Japanese soldiers aboard, departed from Singapore on 29 December 1942. The prisoners of war were being taken to work on the Burma Railway. The Nitimei Maru was just one of many ‘hell ships’, given this…
