Austria
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The saying goes, “Music can soothe the savage beast,” but what if it is the savage beast that is using the music as a cynical form of evil and torture? In July 1942, Hans Bonarewitz attempted to escape from the Mauthausen concentration camp by trying to hide himself inside a box and was captured on…
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On September 15, 1935, the Nazi regime announced the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor (‘Gesetz zum Schutze des deutschen Blutes und der deutschen Ehre’). The law forbade sexual relations and marriages between Germans classified as so-called ‘Aryans’ and Germans classified as Jews. “–Section 1 Section 2Sexual relations outside marriage between…
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One aspect of the Holocaust which is often forgotten is the other damage caused. What I am referring to is the fatalities caused by a lack of qualified medical staff. I am not sure if there is any data on that, but it stands to reason that aside of the 6 million or more Jews…
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Some people say that Kristallnacht marks the start of the Holocaust. I don’t really subscribe to that point of view. In my opinion, the Holocaust started on 19 August 1934. That was the date when 88.1% of the German population gave Hitler Carte blanche to do whatever he wanted via a referendum, merging the posts…
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On the night of November 9–10, 1938, a wave of orchestrated violence swept across Germany and Austria. Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues were burned and looted; families were beaten and humiliated; and tens of thousands were sent to concentration camps. The shattered glass that littered the streets the next morning gave the pogrom its haunting…
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It is difficult to determine which crimes committed during the Holocaust were the most horrific, but the Action T4 program and Action 14f13 stand out as particularly chilling. While not necessarily more appalling than other atrocities of that dark period, these programs are especially alarming because elements of their ideology and methods appear to be…
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Alois Brunner was one of the most feared and ruthless Nazi war criminals during the Holocaust. As a senior SS officer and a close associate of Adolf Eichmann, Brunner played a pivotal role in the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews to concentration and extermination camps. Known for his cold-blooded efficiency and unrelenting cruelty,…
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Hans Asperger, the Austrian pediatrician whose name became synonymous with a specific form of autism, is a figure both celebrated and condemned. His work in the 1940s led to the identification of what would later be called Asperger syndrome, a condition marked by difficulties in social interaction, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors, often accompanied by…
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On July 26, 1897, in the Austrian village of Wattens, Jakob Gapp was born into a modest working-class family. He grew up like many boys in Tyrol: ordinary, hardworking, with no hint of the extraordinary courage that would one day define him. Yet his life would unfold in ways that would test the limits of…
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No matter how you twist or turn it, when you are complicit to a crime, you are just as guilty as the perpetrator, and perhaps even more guilty because you were an enabler of that crime. Hermann Stieve was Director of the Berlin Institute of Anatomy from 1935 to 1952, which was from the early…
History of Sorts 