Auschwitz
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I recently read a scientific report about the revised Extinctions and Radii for 1.5 Million Stars, which was observed by APOGEE, GALAH, and RAVE surveys. I am not sure what those three terms mean. But I was intrigued by the number of 1.5 million. 1.5 million is the estimated number of children who were murdered…
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They say that music soothes the savage beast, But it can also bring joy and transport you back to a better time in your life. Benny Behr must have known this because he tried to keep up the spirits by playing music. Benny was Jewish and married to a non-Jewish woman, Wien Bouwina Sijtina Havinga.…
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I found it difficult to select a suitable title for this blog but, I think Mundane Evil probably describes it best. The photograph above is of a list of belongings of an inmate of Auschwitz. Unfortunately, I can’t decipher the first name, but the last name is Ludwig. However, it also could be the first name. In…
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On 19 February 1941, the German Grüne Polizei stormed into the Koco ice cream salon in the Van Woustraat. In the fight that ensued, several police officers were wounded. The Nazi authorities did not put up with the attack on their police officers. To end the unrest, they decided to hold a raid the weekend…
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Anne and Margot Frank’s final days were marked by extreme suffering, starvation, and disease in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp during the winter of 1944–1945. Their exact date of death is unknown; however, there is a wide belief that both sisters perished in February or March 1945, just weeks before British forces liberated the camp on…
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I could call this history on my doorstep. The Peschstraat in Geleen, the Netherlands, is a street that is well known to me. Although it is on the other side of town, I often went there to visit friends who lived on that street or nearby. Yet, despite my familiarity with the area, I knew…
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In Auschwitz’ shadow, where darkness lay deep,A mother once cradled her children to sleep.Her son, just ten, with bright, curious eyes,Her daughter, eleven, under grey, smokeless skies. They walked hand in hand on a road cold and grim,A path carved in silence, devoid of a hymn.The mother, so gentle, whispered soft prayers,But the heavens were…
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The Buna-Monowitz Concentration Camp, part of the Auschwitz complex, was established to support the labor demands of IG Farben, a German chemical company. Prisoners were forced into grueling labor, constructing and operating facilities for the production of synthetic rubber and fuel. Conditions were brutal: malnutrition, disease, and the constant threat of violence characterized daily life.…
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On 2 August 1942, 245 Jewish Catholics in the Netherlands were arrested. To the Nazis it didn’t matter if they had converted to Catholicism, in their eyes and according to their laws these people were still considered Jewish. Else, Michaelis was among them. Else Michaelis was born in Berlin on March 30, 1889. Her father…
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Someone looked at this beautiful smiley face and decided he had to die. In a land where shadows silently creep,A small boy’s dreams are laid to sleep.Four tender years, too soon erased,In Auschwitz’s grip, his spirit faced. Eyes of wonder, wide and bright,Shining stars in the darkest night.A heart so pure, a soul so new,Innocence…
History of Sorts 