Westerbork
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The Roma Holocaust, also known as the Porajmos (meaning “the Devouring” in Romani) or the Samudaripen (“Mass Killing”), refers to the systematic persecution and extermination of Roma people by Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. This genocide, part of the broader Holocaust, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Roma…
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The one thing I can’t come to terms with, and even refuse to come to terms with, is the murder of babies during the Holocaust. I know one of the reasons behind it was the purification of the Aryan race. But, how pure are you as a race when you murder babies? Another reason was…
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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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Football in the Netherlands did not come to a complete halt during World War II, despite the Nazi occupation and the hardships of wartime. Instead, it became both a form of escape and subtle resistance for many Dutch people. When the Germans invaded in May 1940, football matches continued under occupation. The Dutch football association…
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I was reluctant to use the title, From Zero to 102 as the title, I didn’t want it to look like a review for a car. However, I couldn’t think of a more suitable title either. The 0 and the 102 are the ages of two victims of the Holocaust. This is how evil the…
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Geleen is a small former mining town in the province of Limburg, in the southeast of the Netherlands. It is not a particularly famous place, although it is where the first professional football was played in the Netherlands, and it used to host one of the world’s biggest rock festivals, “PinkPop.” It is also where…
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Westerbork may not have been an extermination camp, but that didn’t mean it was less evil. In a way, it may have been eviler because it created an illusion that life wasn’t that bad and gave the people a false hope that their endurance of camp life would be temporary. The 261 couples married at…
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Many people may have heard of David Koker or at least know about the remarkable diary he kept during his imprisonment in Camp Vught, a concentration camp in the Netherlands. His writings offer a rare and invaluable insight into daily life in the camp, the resilience of the human spirit, and the looming horror of…
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Judith Kinsbergen, known as Jetty, was the daughter of Salomon Kinsbergen and Marianne van der Kar. She married Max Eugen Groszkopf in 1934 but divorced in 1938. She was born in Amsterdam on February 6, 1908, and was murdered in Bergen-Belsen on February 13, 1945, at the age of 37. She was a talented pianist.…
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There is no way to rank the sadness of Holocaust stories. Each death is a tragedy, a haunting reminder of humanity’s capacity for cruelty. Yet, some stories resonate with an indescribable poignancy, striking us deeply. One such story is that of Friedel Levie, the daughter of Jozef Levie and Else Metzger. Friedel was born in…
History of Sorts 