Pre WWII

  • Dated 16 September 1919, the ‘Gemlich letter’ is the first known written statement of Hitler’s Antisemitism. It a letter written by Adolf Hitler at the behest of Karl Mayr to Adolf Gemlich, a German army soldier. The letter, written in 1919 in response to a request for clarification on the Jewish question. (Karl Mayr in uniform

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  • Israel

    I know that in the current political environment, there is a popular belief among some that the name Israel did not exist until 1948. Ironically, some of these same people will be celebrating the birth of a Jewish man, born in Bethlehem, a city in Israel, more than 2000 years ago. I can appreciate that

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  • Guernica

    The famous painting above is titled Guernica and was created by Pablo Picasso. He painted it in his Paris home in response to the bombing of Guernica, a town in the Basque Country of northern Spain, on April 26, 1937, by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Nazis committed atrocities long before the start of

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  • The Dark Side of Carnaval

    The date 11 November has a good number of special meanings. For example, the Armistice of World War I was signed on the 11th day of the 11th month on the 11th hour. Add 11 after the 11th hour, and you have a different meaning. I do not know the exact origin—however, the date 11/11

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  • Jews in the NSB

    Many European countries had an equivalent of the NSDAP(Nazi) party, the Dutch National Socialist party was the NSB. It may be hard to believe nowadays but not every National Socialist party started off as an anti-Semitic party, as was the case with the NSB. The NSB even had Jewish members, and the party leader ,Anton

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  • The 1930s were a period of profound upheaval in Europe. The rise of fascism and Nazism was altering the political landscape, and many countries were drawn into the vortex of ideologies that would define much of the 20th century. While much of the world’s attention was focused on the German threat under Adolf Hitler, the

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  • On the night of November 9–10, 1938, a wave of orchestrated violence swept across Germany and Austria. Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were burned and looted; families were beaten and humiliated; and tens of thousands were sent to concentration camps. The shattered glass that littered the streets the next morning gave the pogrom its haunting

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  • How did they not see it?

    The one thing that still baffles me is how did the governments around the globe not see what Hitler’s plans were? I know that Japan and Italy and to a lesser extend Finland,Romania and a few smaller countries were also axis nations but the fact is if Hitler’s Germany would not have become the power

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  • A question people often ask me is “Why did so many Germans believe Hitler and the NSDAP?” Hitler did not keep his hate for Jews and other groups he deemed unworthy a secret. In fact he wrote about it in Mein Kampf and other political publications.So why did so many Germans endorse him and his

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  • On August 16 ,1933 Hermann Göring announced he would put an end to the unbearable torture and suffering in animal experiments. He also threatened that he would commit to concentration camps those who still thought they could continue to treat animals as inanimate property. He decried the “cruel”experiments of unfeeling scientists whose animals were operated

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