Pre WWII

  • Oskar Speck (1907–1995) was a German canoeist who paddled by folding kayak from Germany to Australia over the period 1932-1939. A Hamburg electrical contractor made unemployed during the Weimar-period Depression, he left Germany to seek work in the Cypriot copper mines, departing from Ulm and travelling south via the Danube. En route, he changed plans

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  • The title, Where They Burn Books, They Will Ultimately Burn People As Well, is a quote from the Heinrich Heine play. Almansor, which he wrote in 1821. Heine was a Jewish German poet, writer and literary critic. His words would ring true just over a century after he wrote them. The Holocaust didn’t start with the mass

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  • The Holocaust did not start at the start of World War II, although this is what many people believe. The foundation for the Holocaust, was laid out long before that. There had been Anti-Semitism in Europe and other parts of the world for centuries. However, during the Weimar Republic in Germany, the seeds were planted

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  • Action Comics #1, published o April, 18 1938, but with a cover date of June 1938, by National Allied Publications (now DC Comics), is widely regarded as the most important and influential comic book in the history of the medium. This issue marked the first appearance of Superman, a character created by writer Jerry Siegel

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  • Nazi Students

    This blog is not meant to accuse current students , but is aimed at them as a history lesson. The history they could easily repeat if they are not careful. Much of the text below is repetitive because I researched several sources. However, in this case, repeating the text is important, During the Nazi era

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  • Teaching hate

    I was going to put a lot of pictures in this blog, but then when I looked at this picture I thought that it would be enough. A class, class mates and a teacher, like any other class in any other school. Except it isn’t. Here the children are taught to hate. The kids standing

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  • It’s hard to believe that the only time the Olympics were held in the Netherlands, was nearly 100 years ago at the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics. One of the competing Dutch athletes was Ben Bril. Ben (Barend) Bril was born on 16 July 16 1912, in Amsterdam, the host city for the 1928 Summer Olympics. He

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  • It has become commonplace to blame social media for the rapid spread of misinformation, especially through memes, viral posts, and other digital content. However, the use of propaganda to manipulate public perception is not a new phenomenon. Over a century ago, similar tactics were employed through postcards, cartoons, and newspaper illustrations. In many ways, a

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  • Funding the Holocaust

    The photograph above is of an Opel Blitz troops transporter; Opel is one of the companies that provided the Nazi regime with equipment but also with funding. But Opel was not the only company. Funding for the Nazis had already started in the early 1930s. Nineteen representatives of industry, finance, and agriculture signed a petition

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  • Paragraph 175 was a provision of the German Criminal Code that criminalized male homosexual acts. Introduced in 1871 and remaining in some form until 1994, this law had a profound impact on the lives of LGBT individuals in Germany. It led to widespread persecution, particularly under the Nazi regime, and its effects persisted through much

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