History
General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2
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The Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in August 1941, codenamed Operation Countenance, was a decisive military intervention that fundamentally altered the geopolitical landscape of the Middle East and secured a vital logistical lifeline for the Allied war effort. Following Nazi Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Britain and the Soviet Union became uneasy…
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The Haavara Agreement, also known as the Transfer Agreement, was a controversial arrangement concluded on 25 August 1933 between Nazi Germany and representatives of German Zionism. Its purpose was to facilitate the emigration of German Jews to Mandatory Palestine while allowing some of their assets to be transferred out of Germany in the form of…
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When you think of popes, you wouldn’t believe that a small country like the Netherlands would ever produce a pope, but it did. Pope Adrian VI: The Dutch Reformer of the Papacy Pope Adrian VI, born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens, holds the unique distinction of being the only Dutchman to ascend to the papacy. His brief…
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Introduction John Morrison Birch (1918–1945) occupies an unusual place in American history. A Baptist missionary turned U.S. Army intelligence officer in China during World War II, his life bridged the spheres of religion, geopolitics, and war. Though he died at just 27 years old, Birch became a symbolic figure in early Cold War discourse when…
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Juan Pujol García Double agent Juan Pujol García (codenamed “Garbo”) alongside his wife, Araceli González Carballo (BBC) Juan Pujol García was a chicken farmer who became a Spanish spy and worked as a double agent loyal to the United Kingdom against Nazi Germany during World War II, by relocating to Britain to carry out fictitious…
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The Dutch word ‘Moffen’ is a slur or derogatory term for Germans, pretty much in the same way as Krauts in the English language. Where the word ‘moffen(or mof singular)’comes from is not clear but it had been around since the 16th century. It more or less disappeared from the Dutch vocabulary for about 100…
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No matter how you twist or turn it, when you are complicit to a crime, you are just as guilty as the perpetrator, and perhaps even more guilty because you were an enabler of that crime. Hermann Stieve was Director of the Berlin Institute of Anatomy from 1935 to 1952, which was from the early…
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Forgotten History-The Hardaga & the Kabiljo families:Holocaust and Bosnian Muslim Genocide survivors
(originally posted in April 2016) There really isn’t such a thing as a happy Holocaust story but I think this is probably could be seen as a ‘happy’ story. It doesn’t only portray extreme bravery but also that deep down, good people are the same, regardless of what religious differences they have. Especially in the…
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John Lennon and the UFO Over New York: The Strange Encounter of August 23, 1974 On the evening of August 23, 1974, John Lennon, the former Beatle and one of the most influential musicians of the twentieth century, claimed to have witnessed something extraordinary in the skies over New York City. What might have been…
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The Freckleton air disaster remains one of the most devastating aviation tragedies of the Second World War—not because it was the result of enemy action, but because a catastrophic accident brought the dangers of wartime aviation directly into the heart of a peaceful Lancashire village. On Wednesday, 23 August 1944, an American B-24 Liberator bomber…
History of Sorts 