• Originally posted on History of Sorts: The middle ages are often referred to as the dark ages but I really think the Dark Ages were from 1933 to 1945. However with every darkness there is also light. This blog is dealing with those few bits of light that shone during those dark ages. The picture above…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Crucifix Hill.The Battle of Crucifix Hill was a World War II battle that took place on 8 October 1944, on Crucifix Hill (Haarberg, Hill 239), next to the village of Haaren in Germany and was a part of the U.S. 1st…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: The title of this blog is an address. It will mean very little to most people. It is not the address of someone famous or some well known shop or even museum. It is basically a very insignificant address in the greater scheme of things. But in a microcosm…

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  • Somewhere in Corsica

    Originally posted on History of Sorts: In order to understand the true horrors of WWII it is important to read the accounts of survivors, or listen to the stories of those who fought on the battlefields and saw the horrors first hand. Although they survived they would have been scarred forever either physically or mentally…

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  • I have already done a piece on the Milgram experiments, and this will be more of a follow up. The Milgram experiment,was designed to observe the extent to which individuals would perform acts that violated their personal conscience when under orders from an authority figure. Basically they wanted  to investigate whether Germans were particularly obedient…

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  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: On  6 October 1940 every civil servant working in the Netherlands was given two forms. Form A declared that you were not Jewish, and thus Aryan, and form B – which had to be filled in in duplicate – was a declaration that you were Jewish. You had to…

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  • Your smiley face makes me cry. It makes me cry because I know you were born on June 13,1942 in The Hague , the Netherlands and you were killed June 11,1943 in Sobibor. You were not even given the opportunity to blow one candle on your first birthday cake. I cry but I no longer…

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  • It is strange how you can come across some stories. I was actually doing some research on the fate of the pets of Jews during the Holocaust, when a picture came up of Leo Katzenberger. What drew my attention to the picture was the fact that Leo looked a lot like one of my Uncles…

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  • Today is World Animal Day and what better day to pick to remember some of the forgotten Heroes of WWII. The animals that often played a very important role. Pfc. Rez P. Hester of the Marine Corps Seventh War Dog Platoon on Iwo Jima takes a nap while Butch stands guard. February 1945.(courtesy National Archives)…

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  • Captain(Korvettenkapitän)Werner Lott was commander of U-35 from 15 August 1937 until 29 November 1939.He sank 4 ships and damaged one. You often hear about war crimes committed by the German armed forces, but there were also acts of decency. Around 15.40  on 3 Oct, 1939, the Greek freighter Diamantis, although the ship was neutral it…

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