Amsterdam
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(For Gretha Frank, born in Amsterdam on December 4, 1939– murdered at Sobibor on July 16, 1943) Born beneath the Dutch grey skies,A baby’s laugh, a child’s bright eyes.Winter’s chill could not confine,The warmth of life, a spark divine. Amsterdam streets cradled her feet,A city’s hum, her heartbeat’s beat.Innocence spun in golden threads,Dreams that danced…
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(November 22, 1934 – November 13, 1942) In Amsterdam’s streets, a child once played,Laughter as bright as the morning’s arrayed.Judic, a girl with dreams untold,It’s a story cut short in a world gone cold. Born to life on a November morn,In a city where beauty and strife were sworn.The cobbled paths knew her tiny feet,Her…
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Eve Simons was born on November 16, 1939, in Amsterdam; the picture above is of the announcement of her birth in a local newspaper by her parents. Less than three years later, Eve was murdered in Auschwitz. For Eve and the light that could not stay In Amsterdam, on a chilly morn,A fragile star, young…
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I will never forget the moment my wife told me we were expecting our first child. It was pure magic. Bringing new life into the world is a sacred, joyful moment that every expecting parent should be able to cherish—free from fear, focused only on the health and future of their baby. My thoughts drift…
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Rachel Elisabeth Italiaander (Chelly) was the eldest daughter of Isidor Italiaander and Esther Stad. She was born on July 1, 1929 in Amsterdam. Still, it wasn’t until 1939 that she had a sister, Elisabeth Julia, and in 1941, a brother, Marcus Jozef, followed. The two youngest children survived the war by going into hiding. Rachel…
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On October 30, 1944, Margot Frank and her younger sister Anne were put on a transport from Auschwitz to Bergen Belsen. By November 1944, Bergen Belsen received approximately 9,000 women and young girls. Margot and Anne were murdered there in February 1945. I deliberately say murdered because they were ill and received no treatment—to me,…
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Dear Mr. Otto Frank, I write this letter with the humility and deep respect that one father extends to another. However, though no words can ever truly capture the weight of what you have endured. As a father of three children myself, I can only begin to imagine the depth of love, worry, and hope…
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Auguste van Pels, born September 29, 1900, in Buer, Germany, lived through one of the most tragic periods in history, ultimately losing her life during the Holocaust. Though she might have remained unknown to the world, she is now remembered as one of the residents of the Secret Annex, a small group of Jewish individuals…
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Anne Frank has become an enduring symbol of the atrocities of the Holocaust through her poignant and insightful diary, “The Diary of a Young Girl.” During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, Anne and her family were forced into hiding, and their eventual arrest marks one of the many tragic moments of World War II.…
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The last entry Anne Frank wrote in her diary was on August 1, 1944. In this entry, she reflects on her complex personality, feeling that she often shows a different side of herself to others compared to her true inner self. She writes about her struggle to reconcile these two sides of her character and…
History of Sorts 