Sobibor

  • I probably could do a whole essay on how Guus van der Wijk and Mina de Vries met, and at some stage I probably will, but for now it suffices to say they were extremely brave people, in fact in my eyes they are heroes. Despite the knowledge that there was a great chance they

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  • The UN designated this day January 27 as the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It coincides with the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, although Auschwitz (which consisted out of about 40 camps) was the biggest death camp. There were other camps, though smaller in scale but equally as evil. I know it is hard for

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  • The murder of children during the Holocaust is what haunts me the most. Sometimes I try to be poetic and philosophical when I try to memorialize them, but often seeing the raw cold data is the most effective way to remember these young innocent lives. So many futures were destroyed. The picture above is from

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  • In The End Love Prevailed

    I planned to do this blog about Elisabeth Flesschedrager-Appelboom. She was born in Amsterdam, on 2 February 1921 . Murdered in Auschwitz, 18 January 1945. She reached the age of 23, and was a seamstress. She was married to Philip Flesschedrager, who was born in Amsterdam on 8 July 1920. Murdered in Auschwitz, 26 December

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  • It is well known that the Nazis made no distinction in age when deporting Jews in the Netherlands. The result was that even venerable elderly people were murdered in Auschwitz and Sobibor, and other camps. Among the victims listed on the Joods Monument(Jewish Monument) site, Klara Borstel-Engelsman is the oldest, at the remarkable age of

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  • It Is My Story To Tell!

    Time and time, I get told the history of the Holocaust it is not mine to tell. That I should leave the stories to others. I get told this from children and grandchildren of survivors and those who want to distort history alike. To those, I say, “It is my story to tell.” In fact,

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  • They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and while this may be true, it can never tell the entire story. That’s why I believe it is crucial to listen to or read the testimonies of survivors, liberators, and even perpetrators to understand the Holocaust from multiple perspectives. Let us begin with the words

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  • You hate me simply because I am a Jew. You hate me just because I am not a pure Aryan. Yet by your own definition I look more Aryan then your leader, the same man who has told you to hate me. You hate me because you lack the intellectual capacity to recognize that your

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  • Music in Westerbork.

    Compared to other concentration camps ,Westerbork was ‘reasonably’ safe and life was less harsh there, But that is also what made it a more sinister place. From 1942 to 1945, Westerbork was a transit camp (Durchgangslager) located in the Netherlands. As a transit camp, Westerbork served as a temporary collection point for Jews in the

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  • In all honesty, the title of this blog may be incorrect, but it is an intriguing title nonetheless. Ben Ali Libi was the stage name of the Dutch Jewish magician Michel Velleman  (5 January 1895 – 2 July 1943).  I believe it is an important story that needs to be kept alive. The reason the

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