Holocaust
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Dear Catharina Vrouwtje de Groot, today there should have been 80 candles on a birthday cake. 80 candles for you to blow out and make a wish on your 80th birthday. But you never had any candles on any of your birthday cakes. You were born on September 20,1941 in Arnhem, in the Netherlands ,…
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On may 26,1992,Israel’s President Chaim Herzog unveiled a rock from Jerusalem, at Auschwitz. The rock serves as a permanent memorial to the 1.65 million Jews who were murdered there. Visibly anguished and tearful, President Herzog said the following words during the unveiling. “In this dread place, I stand here brokenhearted. This ground on which we…
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At their annual rally held in Nuremberg on September 15, 1935 Nazi party leaders announced, after the Reichstag had adopted them, new laws that institutionalized many of the racial theories underpinning Nazi ideology. The so-called Nuremberg Laws, signed by Hitler and several other Nazi officials, were the cornerstone of the legalized persecution of Jews in…
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Initially Italy was an ally of Germany and the other axis powers. during World War 2. By 1943, Italy’s military position had become untenable. Axis forces in North Africa were finally defeated in the Tunisia Campaign in early 1943. Italy suffered major setbacks on the Eastern Front as well. The Allied invasion of Sicily brought…
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Gino Bartali won the Giro d’Italia 3 times, in 1936,1937 and 1946. He also won de Tour de France twice, the first time in 1938 and again in 1948. This alone would make him a sporting hero. Especially his 2nd Giro d’Italia win, when his younger brother, Giulio, died in a racing accident on 14…
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The picture above is an arrest card of Meijer Barmhartigheid. He was one of the 389 young Jewish man who were arrested during raid in Amsterdam on February 22 and 23 ,1941. Of those 389 only 2 survived the Holocaust. 100 of them were murdered in the Hartheim clinic, which was also the clinic used…
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Aron would have been 81 today, but he didn’t even get to the age of 2. He was born in Amsterdam on September 8, 1941. He was murdered in Sobibor March 26,1943. The fact that he was murdered at such a young age is not even the saddest part of his story. There was actually…
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I wish I could say I am remembering Sjakie Degen for his breakthrough work in science. I wish I could say I am remembering Sjakie Degen for a great book he wrote. I wish I could say I am remembering Sjakie Degen for a great painting he painted. I wish I could say that Sjakie…
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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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I have written about Westerbork before, but today I want to address the paradox and the misconception of the camp. Camp Westerbork was a Nazi transit camp in Drenthe province, northeastern Netherlands, during World War II. It was used as a staging location for sending Jews to concentration camps elsewhere, mainly Auschwitz and Sobibor. The…
History of Sorts