Amsterdam
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On August 4,1944 Anne Frank, her family and all the others hiding in the annex in the office building in Amsterdam are arrested. Anne was 15 at the time, the same age my daughter is now. However my daughter is free to meet her friends, go to the shop, compete in rowing regattas and even…
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It is easy to blame the Germans for the Holocaust and of course for the most part they are to blame for it. However there were many in the occupied countries who were very happy to lend a helping hand. There were even more who did something worse then helping out. There were those who…
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Gesina Groen would have been 80 today. But she was murdered on her 1st birthday. She was born on July 26,1941 in Amsterdam and murdered in Auschwitz July 26,1942, together with her mother. There are no pictures of Gesina, just a picture of the house she lived in. The address is Nieuwe Keizersgracht 70, Amsterdam,…
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I could have done a piece on any of the millions of victims of the Holocaust. The reason why I picked Kurt Jozef Rudolf Rosenthal, is because he was murdered today 80 years ago. His story is still important today because he was a refugee, trying to find a better future but he found death…
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Dear Anne, today you would have turned 93, but we all know the history why that didn’t happen. Some of that history is written in the diary you received on your 13th birthday, June 12 1942.So many people have read that diary, your private thoughts laid bare for the world to see. But I am…
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Happy Birthday Willem Belinfante. You would have been 87 today. You were born on May 30 1934. in Amsterdam. Your parents were Esther Pais Belinfante, your mother, and Wolf Belinfante, your Father. Both born in Amsterdam. Your Father was a butcher, nowadays in this Covid 19 era he would have been considered an essential worker.…
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Dr. Maria Montessori once said “Children are human beings to whom respect is due, superior to us by reason of their innocence and of the greater possibilities of their future.” The picture above is of a Montessori school in Amsterdam, it was taken in 1937. Leonard Samuel van Esso was one if that school’s pupils.…
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Günther Ernst Aronade was born on March 19, 1918 Kattowitz, Germany, now Poland. I am not sure on the exact date but it looks liked Günther and his wife Alisa (Ilse) Heymann moved to Amsterdam in 1938, I can only imagine because of the Nazi regime in Germany. In September 1943 the couple ended up…
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A world without heroes, Is like a world without sun, you can’t look up to anyone, without heroes
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I need someone to explain to me the threat this nine-month-old child posed to the Nazi state? Annelise Julie van Voolen was born on 17 September 1942 in Amsterdam and was murdered on 1 July 1943 in Westerbork. She was cremated the following day July 2nd. I don’t know what caused her death but I…
History of Sorts 