History
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Originally posted on History of Sorts: How did become the first day of the 4th month, aka April 1, the day of trying to fool people or to play pranks on them. Since I come from a long line of pranksters and it appears it has transferred into the newest generations of the family, I…
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In the past I have been very critical of my fellow Dutch men and women, in relation to the role they played during World War 2. While most opposed the Nazi occupation, they did very little to resist. Of course it is very easy to be critical looking back. In all honesty if I would…
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Sonja would have been 80 today. But as the title suggests she was murdered when she was only 5 months old. She was the product of love between two people. Her parents were, Mother, Frederika van Amerongen-Veffer and her Father, Philip van Amerongen. Sonja’s Mother was a seamstress and her Father a butcher. Just regular…
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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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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: Nowadays boarding a plane is nearly as common as get on a train. Come to think of it I have been probably more on a plane then in a train. However in 1954 flying was quite expensive and was only affordable for a few or after saving money for…
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(Edited February 28,2023) On this day 46 years ago, 28 February 1977. Soul legend Ray Charles was attacked on stage. Ray Charles was performing at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles for a benefit concert for the community program Project Heavy when an audience member leapt onto the stage with a rope and attempted…
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One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest; Amadeus, Goya’s Ghosts; Man on he Moon, these are some of my favourite movies. They were all directed by MiloÅ¡ Forman. For two of them he received an academy award aka Oscar. That on its own is extraordinary, but it is nothing compared to MiloÅ¡’s story of his young…