World War 2
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The first mass murder gassings by the Nazi regime did not happen in the concentration camps. The first gassing of human beings in Germany was in January 1940 at the Brandenburg Euthanasia Centre. However, the Hartheim Euthanasia Centre, the main centre, carried out the T4 Program—the mass murder of the physically and mentally disabled. It…
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This metal train sign ‘Westerbork-Auschwitz, Auschwitz-Westerbork’ indicated a return trip that nobody would ever make. On 15 and 16 July 1942, the first two cargo trains packed with more than 2,000 Jews left the Westerbork Transit Camp headed for the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland. Most of the people aboard these transports were killed the same day they…
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It wasn’t only death and destruction during WWII, sometimes there was time for a bit of romance and love. Whispering sweet nothings US Army Nurse kissing a Corporal. They were just married A daughter awaiting her father’s arrival home This “no, no, not yet” goodbye Welcome home, a family re-united. The kisses and tears…
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Operation PX was the codename for the Japanese plan for a biological terror attack on the U.S. west coast in World War 2. The planned operation was abandoned due to the strong opposition of Chief of General Staff Yoshijirō Umezu, as well as the Japan surrender following the atomic bombings and the Soviet declaration of…
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The everyday life of the Jewish Gold family, who lived in the village of Jutphaas near Utrecht, came to an abrupt end in April 1943: Father, Mother and their son Lothar were picked up from their home and eventually deported. They always had close contact with the neighbours across the street, the Steenaart family.…
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Returning from a bombing raid of Germany’s Ruhr Valley in 1944, American pilot James M. Hansen’s fighter plane ran into trouble and crashed. James was killed instantly. The Allies, who buried him in the temporary American military cemetery in the village of Molenhoek near the Dutch city of Nijmegen, placed this wooden cross on…
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The Henneike Column was a Group of more than 50 people, under the leadership of Willem Christiaan Heinrich Henneicke, which was specialised in hunting down Jews. Jewish people that were trying to hide or were violating one of the many anti-Jewish regulations could fall in the hands of one of the members of this Column.…
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Today marks the 76th Anniversary of the Second Great Fire of London. On 29 December 1940 around 100,000 bombs fell in just a few hours, causing a firestorm across most of the City’s square mile up to Islington. 14 fire fighters were to lose their lives that night, with over 250 injured. The largest continuous…
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On her birthday it is time to look back at Marlene Dietrich’s WWII efforts. Marie Magdalene “Marlene” Dietrich ( 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992)was a German actress and singer who held both German and American citizenship. Throughout her unusually long career, which spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s, she maintained popularity by continually reinventing…
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One of the Christmas presents I got from Santa ,a few years ago was a book by Robert Harris called “Fatherland” It is an alternate history detective story novel Set in a universe where Nazi Germany won World War II, the story’s lead protagonist is an SS officer investigating the murder of Joseph Bühler.…
History of Sorts 
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