USSR
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On November 17, 1917—just weeks after the Bolsheviks seized power—Vladimir Lenin delivered one of his most explicit defenses of suppressing opposition newspapers. In the document “Draft Decree on Freedom of the Press” and accompanying statements, Lenin justified what he called a temporary abolition of press freedom, framing it as a revolutionary necessity rather than a
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The massacre that took place in Slonim on November 14, 1941, stands as one of the many tragic and brutal episodes in the systematic annihilation of Jewish communities across Eastern Europe during the Holocaust. Located in what is now western Belarus, Slonim was home to a vibrant and historically significant Jewish population before the German
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No one can deny that the Nazis committed unspeakable atrocities against civilians during World War II. However, they were not the only ones responsible for such horrors The Nemmersdorf Massacre, which occurred on October 21, 1944, is one of the most controversial and horrific episodes of World War II. It took place in the East
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The role of Finland during World War 2 is a strange one. They were part of the axis powers, not so much because they were great fans of the Nazi regime, but because they saw a powerful ally in Germany to fight the soviets. There were about 2000 Jews in Finland during World War 2,
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Last year, when I visited Dachau, we had an Irish guide. He was knowledgeable about Dachau, but I disagreed with him on one thing he said. To my own surprise, I didn’t give him a history lesson. I decided to let it go because my primary purpose there was to gain some understanding of Dachau.
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One might be forgiven for thinking the photograph above is of a Nazi train deporting victims to the East. However, that is not the case—it is an image of deported Polish families to Siberia as part of the Soviet Union’s relocation plan in 1941. I believe that the USSR, particularly Russia) received too much credit
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When I say “the Jews who fought alongside the Nazis,” it really was a case of the enemy of my enemy—is my friend, or rather they had a common enemy. The photograph above is of Finnish Jewish soldiers on leave during Rosh Hashanah in front of the synagogue in Turku, Finland, in 1943. Finland’s involvement
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One aspect of the Holocaust, which often is overlooked, is the life in the ghettos. The Nazis created at least 1,143 ghettos in the occupied eastern territories. There were three kinds of ghettos. Closed ghettos were set apart by walls or fences with barbed wire. The Nazis compelled Jews living in the surrounding areas to
History of Sorts 