World War 2
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The Budy Massacre of October 5–6, 1942, remains one of the lesser-known atrocities of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex. Within the women’s penal company (Frauenstrafkompanie) at the Budy subcamp, approximately ninety French-Jewish women were beaten to death by SS guards and prisoner functionaries. This essay reconstructs the event, examines its causes and aftermath, and situates…
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Most of us will have seen the picture of the Nazi rally where one ‘Nazi’ refused to salute. This man was August Landmesser and he defied the Nazi regime in one more than one way. Adopted by the Nazi Party in the 1930s, Hitler’s infamous ‘sieg heil’ (meaning ‘hail victory’) salute was mandatory for all German…
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On August 16 ,1933 Hermann Göring announced he would put an end to the unbearable torture and suffering in animal experiments. He also threatened that he would commit to concentration camps those who still thought they could continue to treat animals as inanimate property. He decried the “cruel”experiments of unfeeling scientists whose animals were operated…
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World War II was a global conflict that tested the limits of human resilience, innovation, and ingenuity. In addition to the millions of soldiers, civilians, and military machinery involved, a vast array of animals played indispensable roles throughout the war. From dogs and horses to pigeons and even reindeer, animals were employed for various purposes,…
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Just before Christmas 2011, I lost sight in my right eye. The retina had become detached, but after two operations, the sight could not be saved, in fact, my eye shrunk dramatically, and I now have a glass shell with an eye painted on it in front of the remainder of my eye. In November…
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Bridget Dowling was born on 3 July 1891 in Dublin. She grew up at Flemings Place, near Mespil Road. She was still in her teens when she attended the 1909 RDS Dublin Horse Show and met Adolf Hitler’s half-brother, Alois Hitler, Jr. Alois had pretended to be a wealthy hotelier who was touring Europe, but…
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Your killing me did not stop your hate. Hate is like a disease, a cancer—it eats at you bit by bit, and the more you hate, the sicker you get. Hate is like a tumour in your head. It drives you insane up to the point that you don’t even realize anymore that killing an…
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On October, 1 1944, the first of two sets of medical experiments involving castration were performed on homosexuals at the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany. Buchenwald was one of the first concentration camps established by the Nazi regime. Constructed in 1937, it was a complement to camps north (Sachsenhausen) and south (Dachau), and was…
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There is no denying that the Dutch should have done more to protect their Jewish neighbours during World War II. But I am looking at this from a retrospective point of view; hindsight always comes with 20/20 vision. That’s why I can’t judge; I really don’t know what I would or wouldn’t have done. However,…
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Philip Wallage was born in Groningen on 12 July 1927. He was murdered at Sobibor on 26 March 1943. He was 15 years old upon his death. Rosalien Wallage was born in Groningen on 15 May 1932. She was murdered at Sobibor on 26 March 1943. She reached 10 years of age. Elisabeth Wallage was…
History of Sorts 
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