Execution
-
Below is a part of the testimony of Hans Friedrich a member of of the 1st SS Infantry Brigade. His words are shocking. “Try to imagine there is a ditch, with people on one side, and behind them soldiers. That was us and we were shooting. And those who were hit fell down into the…
-
Helmuth Hübner, was a young member of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), he lived in the St. Georg Branch in Hamburg. His short life was shaped by the rise of fascism in Germany. The Nazis changed nearly every aspect of everyday life for Germans, and Helmut was no exception. He…
-
When the guns of World War II finally fell silent in 1945, Europe faced not only the monumental task of rebuilding cities and economies, but also of seeking justice. Few names were as synonymous with betrayal as Vidkun Quisling, the Norwegian politician whose collaboration with Nazi Germany turned his surname into a byword for “traitor.”…
-
Masha Bruskina was a Russian teenage female partisan. She was a 17-year-old Jewish high school graduate and was the first teenage girl to be publicly hanged by the Nazis in Belarus, since the German invasion of the Soviet Union on the 22nd of June 1941. Masha Bruskina was born in Minsk, in the Soviet Union,…
-
Maastricht is one of my favourite cities. I grew up only about 10 miles away and visited it many times. It is the most south-eastern city in the Netherlands and is well known for its proximity to Belgium and Germany. It is also the home of violin virtuoso Andre Rieu and his Strauss Orchestra. In…
-
Sabotage: a destructive or obstructive action carried out by a civilian or enemy agent to hinder a nation’s war effort. The Dutch are often criticized for not having done enough to protect their fellow citizens during World War II, especially their Jewish neighbours. To an extent, it is a justified criticism. However, this doesn’t mean…
-
Josef Jakobs (30 June 1898 – 15 August 1941) was a German spy and the last person to be executed at the Tower of London. Captured shortly after parachuting into Britain during the Second World War, he was convicted of espionage under the Treachery Act 1940 and sentenced to death. Because he had broken his…
-
Despite her exotic name Mata Hari was a Dutch woman. Her real name was Margaretha (Gretha)Zelle and was born in Leeuwarden, in the province of Friesland in the North West of the Netherlands.. Today marks her 150th birthday. At 18, Zelle answered an advertisement in a Dutch newspaper placed by Dutch Colonial Army Captain Rudolf MacLeod (1 March 1856 – 9 January 1928),…
-
On 9th July 1942, nine members of the resistance group De Oranjewacht, [The Orange Guard], (Orange is the national colour of the Netherlands and the name of the Royal family) were shot in the Fort near Rijnauwen, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Two trials were conducted against the resistance group, and nine members were sentenced to death.…
-
On March 10, 1865, just weeks before the final collapse of the Confederacy, a slave named Amy Span was hanged on a sycamore tree before the courthouse of Darlingon, S.C., for anticipating her liberty a little too exuberantly. Amy Spain’s slave master was Major Albertus C. Spain, a Mexican-American War veteran who owned a large…
You must be logged in to post a comment.