World War 2
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Before I go into the main story, I want to start with an extract of the testimony of Marcel Nadjari, who was a member of a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz. The Sonderkommandos were groups of Jewish prisoners forced to perform a variety of duties in the gas chambers and crematoria of the Nazi camp system. “The…
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I know that most people will know what the Holocaust is, but for some groups, it had a different name. In this blog, I try to explain some of the complexities. The Holocaust stands as one of the most horrific and systematic genocides in human history. Occurring during World War II, from 1933 to 1945,…
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For anyone who has studied or has some interest in the NSDAP or Nazi party. it will come as no big surprise that they had no original ideas. The Swastika originated in India. The concentration camps were first used by the British during the Boer wars in South Africa. The Eagle symbol came from the…
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I know the sight of a mouse might freak some people out, but I believe the best way to tell the story of the Holocaust is by simplicity and small portions. That’s why I chose the mouse to use in the narrative of this poem. It is something we can identify with. In shadows deep,…
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Loulou Oderkerk was a Dutch resistance fighter who worked for the illegal newspaper Trouw. Through Trouw founder Gesina van der Molen, Oderkerk became involved in smuggling Jewish children to hiding places. Oderkerk also started doing courier work for Trouw, transporting copies, essays, newspapers and weapons. In October 1944, she was arrested and held prisoner in…
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Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi Concentration Camp located near the town of Bergen in Lower Saxony, Germany. Initially established in 1940 as a prisoner-of-war camp, it was later converted into a concentration camp. Early Years (1940-1943): Initially served as a POW camp primarily for French and Belgian soldiers. Later, Soviet prisoners were also held here, many…
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Mauthausen was one of the most prominent and most notorious Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Located near the town of Mauthausen in Upper Austria, it was established shortly after Germany annexed Austria in 1938. The camp, originally intended for political prisoners and those considered enemies of the Nazi regime, eventually held a wide…
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On 2 August 1942, 245 Jewish Catholics in the Netherlands were arrested. To the Nazis it didn’t matter if they had converted to Catholicism, in their eyes and according to their laws these people were still considered Jewish. Else, Michaelis was among them. Else Michaelis was born in Berlin on March 30, 1889. Her father…
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The first television commercial aired in the United States on July 1, 1941. This 9-second spot was for Bulova watches and was broadcast on NBC’s WNBT station before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies. The commercial featured a simple visual of a Bulova clock superimposed on a map of the…
History of Sorts 