World War 2
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Happy Birthday Willem Belinfante. You would have been 87 today. You were born on May 30 1934. in Amsterdam. Your parents were Esther Pais Belinfante, your mother, and Wolf Belinfante, your Father. Both born in Amsterdam. Your Father was a butcher, nowadays in this Covid 19 era he would have been considered an essential worker.…
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It absolutely amazes me that in this day and age, there are still people who deny that the Holocaust ever happened. In fact, there appears to be an increase in Holocaust deniers. Some use the photograph above, of liberated women in Bergen-Belsen as their evidence that the Holocaust was a myth. They say, “If you…
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Friendly fire or amicicide is an attack by a military force on friendly or neutral troops while attempting to attack the enemy. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while engaging an enemy, long range ranging errors or inaccuracy. I hate the term ‘friendly’ fire because the end result is still death and destruction…
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It is strange sometimes how little you can find out of a person, yet you can still tell a story about him. Martin Sealtiel was born on May 19,1935. There are no pictures of him. The only indication that he was born was a newspaper announcement in a local newspaper, placed on May 20-1935 by…
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There are millions of Holocaust stories I could write, but none will be as powerful as the testimonies of those who survived the darkest era. Following are some of those testimonies. Written by Zdeněk and Jiří Steiner, born 20. 5. 1929 in Prague, residents of Prague, former prisoners in the concentration camps of Theresienstadt and…
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Although many German film makers left Germany in the 1930s, because of the rise of the Nazism, propaganda minister Göbbels still had quite a pool of film makers to help him produce a great number of propaganda movies. The most famous and probably prolific was Leni Riefenstahl. But a close second was Veit Harlan. After…
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The Netherlands had been occupied by the Nazis between May 15th 1940,after the Dutch forces surrendered, and May 1945. Although many parts had already been liberated by autumn 1944. The official liberation day was set on May 5,1945. The Netherlands had a population at the time of about 8.8 million. During the 5 years of…
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May 4th is the designated day in the Netherlands to remember all those who died in WWII and other conflicts. At 8pm, two minutes of silence will be observed across the country. A few years ago, I saw a picture that really touched me. It was of a pizza delivery boy getting off his bike…
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Martha Gellhorn was a pioneering female journalist who often reported from the front lines during World War II. Her father was Jewish, and her mother was a protestant. She was married to Ernest Hemingway from 1940–1945. She was the only woman to land in Normandy, France, on 6 June 1944—D-Day. She was also one of…
History of Sorts 