Germany
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It is easy to say that all Germans in the Third Reich were bad , but that would be a great mistake to make. The majority weren’t bad, and many were victims like so many others. Yes, many had become complacent and were seduced by the promises made by Hitler, However, not everyone subscribed to…
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I believe that the most effective way to keep the Holocaust in our memory is by remembering individuals—rather than talking about numbers, which are just so hard to comprehend. Ralph Blankenstein was born in Hamburg on September 29, 1922. His father, Isidor, lived in Hamburg, where he met his future wife Helene Blankenstein née Bluman,…
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The year 2024 will be a busy year sports-wise. We’ll have the UEFA Euro 2024 starting on June 14, and just over a month later on July 26—the Paris Olympic Games will start. That’s why I wanted to remember Jewish athletes murdered during the Holocaust. However, I have done several blogs on that already, and…
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••••••••••••••••••••WARNING: CONTAINS SOME GRAPHIC IMAGES•••••••••••••••••••• It always amazes me that there are still people who don’t believe that the Holocaust ever happened. The Nazis were meticulous in keeping records and kept a lot of data from the camps. Even Nazis like Oskar Gröning couldn’t believe Holocaust deniers. Starting the post with one of the opening…
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Maniacal dictators tend to develop a sense of paranoia throughout their reign, as was the case with Adolf Hitler. Hitler was a vegetarian (it is not precisely known when he became vegetarian), but certainly he was throughout World War II. Allegedly, he once commented that he didn’t like to eat lobster because he thought it…
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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…
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I have seen thousands of Holocaust pictures, but this one hit me right in the gut. It is not horrific. It is a little girl smiling, oblivious to the evil that is surrounding her. She is holding on to a signpost with a sign saying, Verboden voor Joden (Forbidden for Jews). The little girl is Hannelore…
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Most people will have heard of Sophie Scholl, but perhaps not so much about her brother Hans. Both Hans and Sophie were members of the resistance group, The White Rose. The reason I refer to Hans Scholl as a victim (in the title) rather than a resistance fighter is as follows:Except for the Jews, Roma,…
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The photographs in this post are categorized as artefacts. I don‘t really like that description because the definition of an artefact is—an object made by a human being, typically one of cultural or historical interest. These objects may have been made by a human being, but more than that—they were personal belongings. The narrative of…
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People sometimes ask me if I am Jewish and are surprised when I say I am not. There are even a few who complain to me for writing about the Holocaust as a non-Jewish person. Although the Jews were the largest sect of victims during the Holocaust, the Nazis also specifically targeted other groups. I…
History of Sorts 