Europe
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The Lidice massacre was one of the most brutal reprisals carried out by Nazi forces during World War II. It took place on June 10, 1942, in the village of Lidice, which was then part of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, now the Czech Republic. The massacre was a direct retaliation for the assassination…
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There is this funny riddle, it goes like “What’s Rembrandt’s first name?” Rembrandt of course is his first name, his last name is van Rijn. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn born 15 July 1606 Unlike the riddle, his life wasn’t funny. He suffered many tragedies in his life. He got married on June 22 1634 to…
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What a sense of relief it must have been when the French people found out that the allied troops had finally arrived on June 6 1944. Unfortunately though D-Day wasn’t the end of the war it was only the start of the end and many innocent lives were still lost between that day and the…
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Josephine Baker is mainly remembered for her erotic and provocative dances, vaudeville routines, and appearances in films. However her efforts to fight the tyranny of Fascism have received very little attention. She was born as Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri. Her mother, Carrie, was adopted in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1886 by Richard…
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(First published in 2019) Ireland remained neutral throughout World War II, but that is not to say there was no contribution from the Irish during the war. Many young Irish men did join the British army and also partook in Operation Overlord, more commonly known as D-Day. However, this blog is not about any of…
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There are a few definitions of slavery, here are some of them, One is taken from Britannica the other from Mirriam-Webster. “slavery, condition in which one human being was owned by another. A slave was considered by law as property, or chattel, and was deprived of most of the rights ordinarily held by free persons.”…
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I appreciate that the speed of communication in 1945 was not as fast as it is now—but the Wehrmacht soldiers in Amsterdam on May 7, 1945, would definitely have heard that on May 4, 1945, Field Marshal Montgomery accepted the official surrender of the German army in Northwest Europe at his headquarters on Lüneburger Heath…
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The Viking Siege of Paris of 845, stands as one of the most dramatic and consequential incursions of the early medieval Viking Age. Occurring during a period of political fragmentation in the former Carolingian Empire, the siege exposed both the vulnerability of Frankish defenses and the growing sophistication of Viking raiding strategies. In the mid-9th…
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The modern monarchy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was formally established on 16 March 1815, when William I of the Netherlands proclaimed himself king, transforming the earlier principality into a kingdom. This event occurred during a critical moment in European history following the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire. The creation of the monarchy was…
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Tomorrow will mark the 83rd anniversary of the liquidation of the Krakow ghetto. Rather than posting photographs, I thought it would be better to read the testimonies of two who survived. On March 13-14, 1943, the SS and police carried out the operation, shooting some 2,000 Jews in the ghetto. The SS transferred another 2,000…
History of Sorts 