• H.G. Wells and his Predictions that Came True.

    Originally posted on THE OLD GUV LEGENDS: by Brian Handwerk, smithsonian.com Science fiction pioneer H.G. Wells conjured some futuristic visions that haven’t (yet) come true: a machine that travels back in time, a man who turns invisible, and a Martian invasion that destroys southern England. But for a man born 150 years ago, many of…

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  • Although the Japanese may have called it an Internment camp, make no mistake about it, Tjideng was nothing other then a concentration camp. Batavia came under Japanese control in 1942, and part of the city, called Camp Tjideng, was used for the internment of European (often Dutch) women and children. The men and older boys were…

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  • I wonder sometimes how WWII would have been broadcast if Social Media outlets like Facebook and Twitter would have been around then. Below are quotes from WWII which easily could have been Tweets or Facebook posts. We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we…

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  • Not all casualties during WWII were caused by battles or other war related events. Like any other era in history there were also other ‘regular’ disasters that occurred. However this disaster was indirectly linked to WWII actions. October 23 1942 – All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner were  killed when…

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  • Guy Môquet was executed on October 22, 1941., a 17 year young French Communist militant.and resistance fighter. During the German occupation of France during World War II, he was taken hostage by the Nazis and executed by firing squad in retaliation for attacks on Germans by the French Resistance. Môquet went down in history as…

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  •   One of my favourite WW2 movies is Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” Although the movie was mostly fictional it is based,albeit loosely, on Frederick Mayer and the operation he was to head up, “Operation Greenup” During World War II, the U.S. government’s newly formed Office of Strategic Services trained thousands of men and launched hundreds…

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  • Der Stürmer was an anti-Semitic “tabloid style” newspaper published by Julius Streicher from 1923 almost continuously through to the end of World War II. Der Stürmer was viewed by Hitler as playing a  significant role in the Nazi propaganda machinery and a useful tool in influencing the “common man on the street”. It was a…

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  • There were many attempts to assassinate Hitler; it is estimated that there have been around 35 attempts, some of which were quite bizarre. If any of them had been successful, the outcome of the war would have been drastically different. In fact, if the earlier ones in the 1920s and 1930s had succeeded, there may…

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  • Not an easy man to miss, Skorzeny stood 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighed 250lbs. And he was known as “Scarface” for a reason. He had a long, distinctive scar on his left cheek.   Skorzeny achieved ‘fame’ during the war for rescuing deposed Italian leader Benito Mussolini from an Italian hilltop fortress. Born…

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  • Music and the Holocaust

    One of my biggest passions is Music, I simply could not imagine a world without it.Music heightens the emotions. A good piece of music can make you feel happy, sad or even bitter and angry. For many victims of Nazi brutality, music was an important means of preserving and asserting their humanity. But as so…

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