• It is an old Dutch tradition that you send a little card to friends and neighbours to announce the birth of a baby. As did Izak Vredenburg and Ganna Vredenburg-Hirsch. They must have been delighted to announce the birth of their baby boy Samuel Juda Vredenburg. He was born in Amsterdam on 24 July 1942.…

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  • The first animals to reach space were fruit flies that the United States launched aboard captured German rockets in 1947. However the first mammal in space was Albert II, a rhesus monkey launched by NASA who reached an altitude of 83 miles (134 km) on 14 June 1949. Albert was anesthetized during flight and implanted…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: This is going to be a blog with only songs. Some of my favourite Eurovision song contest songs. Not all of them were winners. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg0ZCqP140E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWe8PRsW4T0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaO0kAI6LGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x_9JnCGXFY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBm1VEzrcGA

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  • Jeffrey Dahmer

    Originally posted on History of Sorts: I have always been intrigued by serial killers. I am just interested to know what makes them tick. Today is the birthday of one of the most notorious serial killers, Jeffrey Dahmer. He would have been 61 one today. However he was killed on the morning of November 28,…

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  • On 11 June 1941, a second raid took place in Amsterdam as a result of the attacks on buildings occupied by the German Wehrmacht. Jewish cafes and sports clubs were ransacked. 310 young Jewish men were arrested by the Amsterdam police and Ordnungspolizei. Some came from the Jewish working village of Wieringermeer. They were taken…

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  • Willem Jacob van Stockum was born on November 20,1910 in Hattem,the Netherlands. Willem moved to Ireland in the late 1920s, Where he studied mathematics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he earned a gold medal. He went on to earn an M.A. from the University of Toronto and his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. The…

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  • During World War II, Jewish citizens in the Netherlands were isolated and subjected to discrimination and persecution by the National Socialists and their associates. Most of them did not survive the war. More than 102,000 Jews from the Netherlands were deported and murdered during the Holocaust. One of the most compelling pieces of evidence to…

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  • The most beautiful announcement any parent can make, is the announcement of the birth of a child. Mary Louise van der Horst-Beerenborg and Abraham Arthur van der Horst. must have been so proud when they put a notification in the Jewish weeklu(Het Joodsche Weekblad) on September 4.1942 that their son Hartog was born on August…

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  • Although the tide had already turned for the Nazis , June 6-1944 was to become the final push for the allied troops to free Europe from the Nazi regime. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of former US President Theodore Roosevelt,was the only general on D-Day to land by sea with the first wave of troops. At…

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  • It is stories like Gideon’s that make me want to give up doing blogs on the Holocaust, but paradoxically, it also encourages me to continue with it. The reason why I want to stop is apparent. Every time when I see a picture of a beautiful innocent infant, knowing that child was murdered by an…

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