World War 2
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Viewing the photograph above, you can see a few boys having fun. You might ask yourself, “Who are these boys?” or “What game are they playing? I don’t know who these boys are. I know they were cared for by the BjZ or Buitenschoolse Jeugdzorg, a part of the Jewish Council in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.…
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The shoe of a child, looking at the type of shoe, it probably belonged to a boy. The shoe of a child, I can see the front is faded maybe he kicked a ball, his favourite toy. The shoe of a child, what was his name? The shoe of a child, did he like to…
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A few days ago, I had the privilege to interview Lisa Liss concerning The Bandage Project, an organization she started to remember the 1.5 million children murdered during the Holocaust and other children. Lisa Liss has taught her students about tolerance and how it affected millions of people, especially during the Holocaust. Many years later,…
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On 16 November 1941, Betje Weijl-van Praag died from what appears to be suicide. The police report does not mention suicide, but the circumstances indicate that probably was what happened. “Notification is given by telephone that something has probably happened to the resident of plot Schuttersweg 88 because she has not been seen all day.…
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Paragraph 175 was a law which was introduced on May 15, 1871, in Germany, just after Otto von Bismarck unified Germany into a nation-state, forming the German Empire. Ironically the law remained in place until a few years after the other German re-unification. The law was abolished in 1994. It made sexual relations between males…
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These Dutchmen were the most despicable breed of men. They were not driven by any political ideology—but purely by greed. Wim Henneicke was part of a group of bounty hunters called Colonne Henneicke. He betrayed and robbed Jews; between 8,000 and 9,000 Jews were betrayed by the group in 1943. Towards the end of the…
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Not all heroes wear uniforms or capes. Not all resistance fighters use guns. In fact, the bravest ones don’t. Betsie ten Boom was a Hero and resistance fighter. She and her family saw what was happening with their Jewish neighbours and acted. I wish politicians nowadays would follow Betsie’s example and not do the easy…
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Albert Konrad Gemmeker (1907–1982) was a German SS officer who served as the commandant of the Westerbork transit camp in the Netherlands during World War II. Born on September 27, 1907, in Düsseldorf, Germany, Gemmeker pursued a career in law enforcement, joining the police force in Duisburg in 1933. By 1935, he held an administrative…
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Anne Frank and Peter van Pels’s first kiss is one of the most touching and human moments in Anne’s diary, The Diary of a Young Girl. This event unfolds during one of the most challenging periods of Anne’s life, and it provides a poignant glimpse into the emotional complexity of adolescence in the face of…
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The Holocaust wasn’t only the mass murder of the European Jews and other groups, it was also desecrating places of worships, especially synagogues,. It was showing total contempt and disrespect for holy places. The above picture was taken on September 16,1944. It shows American and Canadian Jewish soldiers clear the synagogue in Maastricht , which…
History of Sorts 