Belgium

  • I was going to write a post about the 100th Anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. The Beer Hall Putsch, also known as the Munich Putsch, was an initially failed coup d’état by the Nazi Party. We all know that eventually, they did seize control of Germany. Instead of writing about Hitler and

    Read more →

  • Execution of German Spies

    A U.S. military policeman prepares the firing squad for German spies: Corporal Wilhelm Schmidt, 24, Officer-Cadet Guenther Billing, 21, and Sergeant Manfred Pernass, 23, after a court-martial by American authorities in Belgium during the Ardennes offensives. Three Germans were captured wearing American uniforms, armed with American weapons and driving an American jeep during the ill-fated

    Read more →

  • In August 1942, a group of refugees from the Netherlands was arrested in Belgium. The men were placed in Breendonk, and the women and children were placed in the Jewish orphanage. They were all very young children. In the end they were all deported to Auschwitz and murdered upon arrival on August 28, 1942. Below

    Read more →

  • Before I go into the story of the men, who were put on slave labour by the Nazi regime, I will have to explain what ‘Limburg’ is .Limburg is a province in the southeast of the Netherlands and the northeast of Belgium. I was born and grew up in the Dutch side of Limburg. The

    Read more →

  • Sonja would have been 80 today. But as the title suggests she was murdered when she was only 5 months old. She was the product of love between two people. Her parents were, Mother, Frederika van Amerongen-Veffer and her Father, Philip van Amerongen. Sonja’s Mother was a seamstress and her Father a butcher. Just regular

    Read more →

  • My weapon- A plastic doll.

    This doll belonged to a 7 year old Belgian girl her name was Aline Klajn. I could say 2 things about Aline. I could say she was from Polish parents and I could also say she was Jewish. But none of that warranted her death, but yet it did. She was killed because she was

    Read more →

  • I have to confess that the the title is somewhat misleading because Hugo Gutmann was not a typewriter salesman as of yet when he recommended Hitler’s award of the Iron Cross First Class. Hugo Gutmann was one of the 12,000 Jewish military who fought for Germany during WWI. from 29 January to 31 August, 1918

    Read more →

  • War often brings out the worst in people. they commit crimes they would usually never even contemplate, but equally war also brings out the best in people performing heroic acts they know can cost their lives. Early 1943 Jews throughout Belgium were rounded up and arrested.People like three members of the Gronowski family(Mother,son and daughter),

    Read more →

  • Germany and Italy weren’t the only countries with Fascists parties. Several European countries had National Socialist Fascists partyies, for example  The Netherlands had the NSB. In Belgium the Rexist Party(aka Rex), led by Léon Degrelle, won about 10 percent of the seats in the parliament in 1936. After failing 3 times to pass his final

    Read more →

  • The Vinkt Massacre

    One of the first crimes committed by the German army, in western Europe, took place in Belgium villages of Vinkt and Meighem, near Ghent, between 26–28 May 1940 during the Battle of the Lys.. The atrocity was perpetrated by the Wehrmacht, not the SS. The Vinkt bridge crossing the Schipdonk Canal was being guarded by

    Read more →