Anne Frank
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Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929. As we all know her story through her diary, I will not go into Anne’s story, but instead, I will look at a few other children who were also born on that day and who, like Anne, were murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust. Levy Spanjer…
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A few years ago, I was asked to give a speech at my eldest son’s high school graduation as a representative of the Parents’ Council. I ended the speech with a quote from Margot Frank. “Times change, people change, thoughts about good and evil change, about true and false. But what always remains fast and…
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On may 15 1945 , Otto Frank wrote the following letter, while on board the Monowai steamship. This was exactly 5 years after the Dutch army had capitulated to the Germans. “The closer we get to home the greater our impatience to hear from our loved ones. Everything that’s happened the past few years! Until…
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The Nazis implemented a series of discriminatory laws and regulations aimed at isolating and persecuting Jews. In many cases, Jews were forced to relinquish their pets as part of broader property confiscation. Pets were considered part of personal property, and when Jewish people were displaced, arrested, or deported, they were often forced to leave their…
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Just a young girl standing outside her school in Amsterdam with a sign that reads, “Memory of my school time, 1936.” The whole future was still ahead of her. The possibilities were endless. Her dream was to become a midwife, a noble profession to help deliver new life and witness the joy of young mothers,…
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We all know the story of Anne Frank but unfortunately Anne wasn’t the only teenage who died in the camps. Helga Deen another teenage girl who lived in the Netherlands also died as result of the Nazi ideology and she also wrote a diary. Helga Deen (6 April 1925 – 16 July 1943) was the…
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We all know the story of Anne Frank, and there is no denying that her diary was essential to get an insight into how life was for those who had to hide from the evil Nazi regime. However, people do sometimes forget about the other women and men who hid in the annexe in Amsterdam.…
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The above photograph is of a plaque that hangs over a house in The Hague. It was the residence of Mies Wahlbeehm, where she hid a great number of Jews. The one thing that captured my attention was the words at the top of the plaque, “De herrinering aan de doden is voor hen een…
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If there is one thing that Anne Frank’s diary teaches us ,it’s the importance of context. If you take her diary out of context it probably is quite a boring book. But if you leave it in the context and the time it was written in it becomes a powerful story of daily life and…
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A few days ago, I had the privilege to interview Lisa Liss concerning The Bandage Project, an organization she started to remember the 1.5 million children murdered during the Holocaust and other children. Lisa Liss has taught her students about tolerance and how it affected millions of people, especially during the Holocaust. Many years later,…
History of Sorts 