World War 2

  • The involvement of the Dutch railways (Nederlandse Spoorwegen, or NS) in the Holocaust is a deeply tragic chapter in Dutch history. During World War II, the NS played a significant role in the deportation of Jews and other persecuted groups to Nazi concentration and extermination camps. Context and Occupation The Netherlands was occupied by Nazi

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  • The Paralympic Games, a major international multi-sport event involving athletes with a range of disabilities, have a rich and inspiring history rooted in the aftermath of World War II. The origin of the Paralympics can be traced back to the efforts of Dr. Ludwig Guttmann, a neurologist at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England. Early

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  • Bariloche, officially known as San Carlos de Bariloche, is a city located in the Patagonia region of Argentina, within the province of Río Negro. Nestled in the foothills of the Andes and on the shores of the stunning Lake Nahuel Huapi, Bariloche is renowned for its breathtaking natural beauty, making it one of Argentina’s top

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  • Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact

    Last year, when I visited Dachau, we had an Irish guide. He was knowledgeable about Dachau, but I disagreed with him on one thing he said. To my own surprise, I didn’t give him a history lesson. I decided to let it go because my primary purpose there was to gain some understanding of Dachau.

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  • In the title, I say prelude basically, the Holocaust already started in 1933. Still, the T4 program was the start of the mass killings. The T4 Euthanasia Program, also known as Aktion T4, represents one of the most chilling manifestations of Nazi ideology and is often considered a precursor to the larger horrors of the

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  • “On the wet windy evening of January 22, a youthful band of idealists went to a lonely cabin in the Maryland woods.” these are the first few lines of one of the more stranger stories of LIFE magazine. “On the damp, windy night of January 22, a group of idealistic youths ventured into a remote

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  • During the Holocaust, several Nazi concentration camps had orchestras composed of prisoners. These orchestras were used for propaganda, forced to play during appalling situations such as executions, roll calls, and as prisoners were marched to forced labor or gas chambers. Below are some of the most notable orchestras formed in concentration camps. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Women’s

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  • The Murder of a Family

    In Auschwitz’ shadow, where darkness lay deep,A mother once cradled her children to sleep.Her son, just ten, with bright, curious eyes,Her daughter, eleven, under grey, smokeless skies. They walked hand in hand on a road cold and grim,A path carved in silence, devoid of a hymn.The mother, so gentle, whispered soft prayers,But the heavens were

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  • The photo above is the gate at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The phrase on the gate says “Jedem Das Seine” which is the literal German translation of the Latin phrase suum cuique, meaning “to each his own” or “to each what he deserves.” Buchenwald was a concentration camp established on Ettersberg Hill near Weimar, Germany, in

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  • The Holocaust refers to the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and mass murder of six million Jews and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators in the years before and during World War II. I want to focus on one element of state-sponsored persecution in this blog, the Aryanization. The Aryanization of Jewish properties was

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