the Netherlands

  • Jewish neighbours

    It is easy to blame the Germans for the Holocaust and of course for the most part they are to blame for it. However there were many in the occupied countries who were very happy to lend a helping hand. There were even more who did something worse then helping out. There were those who…

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  • Karl Berg was originally the third man in the chain of command at Camp Amersfoort and in 1943 he was appointed camp commandant. He had a reputation for being cruel and merciless. Berg was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of prisoners. A group of 101 Russian prisoners who had arrived at the camp in…

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  • I don’t want to tell your story, but I have to. It is my duty as a father and as a human being to ensure that no child will ever get treated, they way you were. My heart breaks each time when I see a photograph of innocence—knowing the war destroyed that innocence. What makes…

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  • Alleen maar een meisje, geen soldaat of politicus Alleen maar een meisje, haar enige bedreiging dat haar glmlachend gezicht een hart zou kunnen laten smelten. Alleen maar een meisje, geen haat waar te nemen in haar ogen. Alleen maar een meisje, haar enige wens was om op te groeien. Alleen maar een meisje, Alleen maar…

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  • Graphic photos of the Holocaust often tell such harrowing stories, but sometimes it takes just an inventory list of everyday items that are more shocking because it tells the story of people like you and me. They ate the same food, wore the same clothes, and used identical cups and plates. It was only because…

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  • A picture tells a thousand words, and in this case, they truly do. The drawings and cartoons are made by Emile Franken. I am not sure what happened to Emile. I do know he was born on 15 April 1921 somewhere in the Netherlands and he survived the war. I also know he spent time…

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  • The Netherlands is the country with the relatively highest number of Jewish victims in Western Europe. Of the 140,000 Jews, 107,000 were deported. Five thousand people returned from the camps, and approximately 20,000 survived in other ways, most of them in hiding. The persecution and murder of the Jews during the Second World War is…

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  • Anne Frank and Peter van Pels’s first kiss is one of the most touching and human moments in Anne’s diary, The Diary of a Young Girl. This event unfolds during one of the most challenging periods of Anne’s life, and it provides a poignant glimpse into the emotional complexity of adolescence in the face of…

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  • Whispers in the Dunes

    Beneath the whispering coastal pine,Where sand and sorrow softly twine,They stood with courage, hearts held high,Though freedom’s cost was to defy. No trumpet sounded, no fanfare played,Just silent steps through dune and glade,Where tyrants feared the truth they bore,And stilled their voices evermore. But wind remembers, trees still weep,The dunes their vigil gently keep—And in…

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  • There is one myth about Audrey Hepburn I have to dispel: she was not British-Belgian. In Belgium, as in many other European countries, you don’t automatically obtain citizenship just because you’re born there. You typically inherit the nationality of your parents, usually that of the father or, in some cases, the mother. Audrey was born…

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