History

  •   The video below is an interview I conducted with Ferne Pearlstein, director, writer and producer of The Last Laugh. It is a documentary with world-famous comedians, including Mel Brooks, Sarah Silverman, and Gilbert Gottfried, pitch in with their own views on the boundaries of comedy.   source https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2102508/

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  • I don’t hate you..

    I don’t hate you. I don’t even understand what that word means. There are things I don’t like, like Spinach. I’d rather have an ice cream or a lolly pop. Hate is a concept made by grown ups, not by children like me. I only see the good in people. Why should I hate you?…

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  • Karl Schümers (17 October 1905 – 18 August 1944) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS and Ordnungspolizei (police) of Nazi Germany during World War II. He commanded the SS Polizei Division in July – August 1944. He was directly or indirectly involved in many of the major atrocities committed in Greece during 1944. Killed…

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  • Amid the unimaginable suffering endured by European Jewry under Nazi rule, music emerged as a profound means of resistance, remembrance, and resilience. In the ghettos and concentration camps, music gave expression to a humanity that could not be extinguished. It provided a spiritual escape, a voice for longing and defiance, and a source of collective…

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  • This is a point I have made before: the Holocaust was not perpetrated by Germans alone; there were many more who committed awful crimes. If we only blame the Germans, we allow others to get away with it. During World War II, one of the worst massacres of the war took place in Romania. In…

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  • Holocaust Diaries

    Bizarrely enough diaries were not always used or recognized as evidence or as study material for the Holocaust. researchers tended to dismiss Jewish diaries as subjective and unreliable. Only in the last few decades the value of diaries have been acknowledged. To me there is nothing more powerful of the words of those who lived…

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  • It’s funny how your opinions can change as you grow older. The title of this blog, “Turnip and Chicory, Salsify and Leek,” is the English translation of a Dutch song: “Knolraap en Lof, Schorseneren en Prei.” I absolutely hated that song when I was younger. I still don’t like it all that much—but I have…

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  • Nazi Science

    The above photograph is of Eugen Fischer, a German professor of medicine, anthropology, and eugenics and a member of the Nazi Party. He authored a 1913 study of the Mischlinge (racially mixed) children of Dutch men and Hottentot women in German Southwest Africa. Fischer opposed racial mixing, arguing that Negro blood was of lesser value…

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  • Overlord at 81-D-Day

    On Normandy’s shores ‘neath dawn’s pale light,Brave souls stormed forth to end the night.Steel met sand in thunder’s cry,While hopes and fears rode sea and sky. The tide of war began to turn,As freedom’s fire began to burn.Through blood and grit, the path was paved—By those who fought, the world was saved. Into the Jaws…

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  • Paul Touvier was a French Nazi collaborator during World War II, known for his involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. His actions during the war and subsequent legal proceedings have marked him as one of the most notorious figures associated with the Vichy regime’s collaboration with Nazi Germany. He was born on April…

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