• Originally posted on History of Sorts: Two years after the invasion of the Netherlands all Jews age six and older were required to wear a so-called yellow star visible on the left side of their clothing. It was yet another measure to isolate and exclude Jews from Dutch society. The word Jood  (Jew) appears in the middle of…

    Read more →

  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: You often hear the term ‘the coldest winter,or hottest summer on record etc’ but the oldest ongoing instrumental record of temperature in the world is the Central England Temperature record, started in 1659. Although I am not disputing the climate change, the fact is there have been climate changes  or…

    Read more →

  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: Some Jewish children gave away their toys when they had to report for transport or went into hiding. Marbles were a child’s prized possession. The night before they were transported, a few children in the South of Amsterdam were known to have said: ‘Let’s just toss them!’ They threw…

    Read more →

  • What a lot of people don’t realize is that Camp Westerbork was actually established as a refugee camp for Jews escaping the Nazi regime in Germany and Austria.and who had illegally entered the Netherlands. It was established by the Dutch government in the summer of 1939. In July 1942, the Nazis took over the camp…

    Read more →

  • The show must go on.

    Originally posted on History of Sorts: In the months following the bombing of Rotterdam in May 1940, the Germans wanted daily life to continue as normal as possible. So entertainment was of great importance. And who better to help with this than the popular twosome of Snip and Snap. For years the comedy reviews of…

    Read more →

  • Originally posted on History of Sorts: It was the commission of a lifetime—an invitation from the president himself to visit his vacation home for a long weekend to paint a life-sized portrait that would be displayed for all to see. It wasn’t the first time Elizabeth Shoumatoff had raised her brush to capture the likeness…

    Read more →

  • The death of FDR

    Originally posted on History of Sorts: On April 12, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt died of a cerebral hemorrhage in his cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia at 3:35 pm. The President was 63 and serving his fourth term. Vice President Harry Truman took the Presidential Oath of Office at 7:09 pm in the Cabinet Room in…

    Read more →

  • First human in Space

    Originally posted on History of Sorts: Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarinwas a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut. He was the first human to journey into outer space when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961. During the flight, the 27-year-old test pilot and industrial technician also became the first man to orbit…

    Read more →

  • The title is a line from a report by Edward R. Murrow, a CBS radio news reporter.He  reported largely from Europe during World War II, and was the first reporter on scene following the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp The report was broadcast on  Sunday, April 15, 1945, in Studio B-4 of the BBC,…

    Read more →

  • WWII Advertisements

    Originally posted on History of Sorts: Just because there was a war going on didn’t mean that companies abolished their marketing needs. The advertising trade was still booming. Nothing beats and old fashioned dose of patriotism to get your products sold(or sometimes not sold).Lets face it advertising is really a commercial form of propaganda. Below…

    Read more →