Holocaust
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The birth of a baby is a joyous occasion, even in war time. I don’t know if it is a specific Jewish tradition, but I know it is a Dutch one, that the birth of a child is announced in the newspapers. As did Harry’s parents, Willy and Rose, when he was born on October…
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Approximately 25,000 Jews from Germany and Austria sought refuge in the Netherlands in the 1930s after the Nazis came to power. They were welcomed in the Netherlands because many Dutch were appalled by the treatment of the Jews in Germany. The photograph above shows a large protest meeting in the Amsterdam R.A.I. in 1938 against…
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To be honest, I was never a great fan of Charlie Chaplin. I was always more of a fan of the Laurel and Hardy-type of humour. I find that Charlie Chaplin’s movies are quite dated when compared to the aforementioned, Laurel and Hardy films. However, there is one notable exception. There has been one Chaplin…
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The number of victims of the Holocaust is just so difficult to fathom. When you talk about millions it just becomes a number it is just something that our human mind can’t comprehend. It is often better to remember those who were murdered, one by one. Today I am remembering Jesaia Swart. He was murdered…
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I once wrote a piece about Klara Borstel-Engelsman. Today is the 78th anniversary of her murder, and I felt compelled to do another one, just to show how utterly cruel, insane and absurd the Nazi regime was. Klara was murdered at age 102. She was the oldest Dutch person to be murdered by the Nazis.…
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Nathan was born in Arnhem, on 6 April 1931. Murdered in Auschwitz, on 12 October 1942. He reached the age of 11 years. In the last years of his short life, he had to witness some of the following “laws.” From July 1940, the freedom of Jews is curtailed by the introduction of anti-Jewish measures,…
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This will not be a post explaining what Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau was, We all know that by now. This is post with various eye witness reports. A former prisoner recalls the conditions inside the huts at Birkenau. “On rainy days, the packed-earth floor of the huts turned into a swamp as a result of the…
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Did nightingales sing in Auschwitz? Were they allowed to do so? Did their song bring any joy? Did nightingales know what was happening? Did they see the suffering? Did their eyes witness hell? Did nightingales sing in Auschwitz? Did wolves howl outside of Auschwitz? Or were they scared too? Did they feel alone? Did wolves…
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I could nearly do a whole blog on how inappropriate this evil man’s name Gottlieb—translates to God Love. I doubt that very much. Gottlieb Hering was involved in the T4 program and later on, was the second and last commandant of the Belzec Extermination Camp. After Action T4, Hering was posted briefly to the Sicherheitsdienst…
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I often hear people say ‘that teenagers never has it as hard as they do now’. In a time where my generation failed to equip these teenagers with the resilience to deal with adversity, it is the absolute wrong message to sent out. In this post there will be small bios of teenagers who were…
History of Sorts 