World War 2
-
The story of Emanuel Arnold Maurice Speijer reminds me a lot of that of Nikolai Vavilov, a scientist who sacrificed his life to save the seeds in the Leningrad seed bank. Emmanuel Speijer was more fortunate though. Speijer was an entomologist. Entomology is the study of insects and their relationship to humans, the environment, and…
-
Adolf Hitler’s legacy is one of infamy and horror, with his name forever associated with the atrocities of the Holocaust and the devastation of World War II. His rise to power and the events of his regime serve as a stark reminder of the dangers of totalitarianism, xenophobia, and unchecked authoritarianism. He was born on…
-
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto established by the Nazis in Poland. Hundreds of thousands of Jews found themselves confined in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. The uprising began on April 19, 1943, when the Nazis attempted to liquidate the ghetto by deporting its remaining inhabitants to concentration camps. Instead of passively submitting to their…
-
David Olère was a Polish-French artist known primarily for his powerful and haunting artworks depicting the Holocaust. Born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1902, Olère survived internment in several concentration camps during World War II, including Auschwitz and Buchenwald. After the war, Olère settled in France and began creating art that bore witness to the atrocities…
-
Just two names of people who should have never been murdered. Micheal van West was a florist. There is no records of his wife, Saartje van West-Goldsmit’s profession, but I will presume she was a stay at home mother. They were no threat to anyone–just two people trying to get by. Michael van West was…
-
On April 15, 1945, British forces, including units of the British Second Army and the 11th Armoured Division, entered Bergen-Belsen and liberated the remaining prisoners. The sight that greeted the liberators was horrifying. They found tens of thousands of emaciated and diseased prisoners, along with thousands of unburied corpses strewn throughout the camp. The liberation…
-
At the beginning of April 1945, the Allies rapidly approached the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. The province’s liberation was in three regions: the border region between Musselkanaal and the Dollard, the city of Groningen, and the “bridgehead Delfzijl.” Local resistance members succeeded in preserving “The Iron Blow.” This was the only bridge over…
-
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…
-
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian, pastor, and anti-Nazi dissident who is widely recognized for his resistance against the policies of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime during World War II. Born on February 4, 1906, in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), Bonhoeffer grew up in a family of intellectuals and theologians. He was ordained…
History of Sorts 