World War 2
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As I’ve said before: a picture tells a thousand words, but never the full story. That’s one of the reasons I choose to limit the use of graphic images. Words can leave a deeper impact—they require time, attention, and reflection. A picture allows you to quickly decide whether or not to engage, but a story
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The photograph above might appear strange for a Holocaust story, but I posted it for a good reason. It is a chemical plant called DSM. At the edge on the top of the photo, you can see a few apartment blocks where I grew up, in the town of Geleen in the Netherlands. The DSM
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The Madagascar Plan represents a chilling chapter in the history of Nazi Germany’s antisemitic policies. Developed primarily between 1938 and 1940, the plan envisioned the forced resettlement of Europe’s Jewish population to the island of Madagascar, then a French colony. While it was never implemented, the Madagascar Plan reveals the trajectory of Nazi ideology and
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Charles Aznavour, widely recognized as one of France’s greatest singer-songwriters, led a life that extended far beyond the stage and spotlight. Born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian on May 22, 1924, in Paris to Armenian immigrant parents, Aznavour’s early life was marked by the struggle of displaced peoples and the complexities of identity. While his artistic legacy
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I have to start with an apology because after reading this blog, next time you watch the Disney classic Bambi, you will see that young little deer in a different light. Felix Salten was a Hungarian-born, Austrian Jewish author. When he was four weeks old, he moved from Pest in Hungary to Vienna in Austria.
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Catharina Brücker was the eldest child of Romanian tailor Mozes Brücker (1892–1944) and the Dutch Rossetta Eijl (1896–1944). Her father made women’s clothing for major fashion houses in Rotterdam and owned several shops in the city. From age six until she was twenty, Catharina attended a dance school where she learned ballet, tap dance, and
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Most of my life has been occupied with one question: “Why did my Grandfather die?” As far as I am aware and as far as I was told by my family, he was executed by the German occupiers during World War II. It has only been recently I actually found out the actual date he
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On the morning of May 10, 1940, the Netherlands awoke to the thunder of German bombers overhead and the sound of artillery fire along its borders. After months of tense neutrality, the small, strategically located country found itself swept into the maelstrom of World War II. The invasion of the Netherlands marked a critical moment
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The title of this blog is a quote by Groucho Marx—I chose it because I felt it best captured the absurdity of Rudolf Hess and his misguided attempt to convince the Allies to ally with the Nazis. Rudolf Hess’s dramatic solo flight to Scotland in May 1941 is one of the most bizarre and enigmatic
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The title, Where They Burn Books, They Will Ultimately Burn People As Well, is a quote from the Heinrich Heine play. Almansor, which he wrote in 1821. Heine was a Jewish German poet, writer and literary critic. His words would ring true just over a century after he wrote them. The Holocaust didn’t start with the mass
History of Sorts 
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