History

General history issues, although a lot will be about WW2

  • The name Abraham is synonymous with the age of 50 in the Netherlands. When a man reaches the age of 50. Dutchmen who turn fifty are embarrassed by a life-sized puppet of Abraham in the front garden or outside an apartment. Abraham Barend did not reach the age of 50. Abraham Barend did not reach…

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  • I Dreamed That…

    I dreamed that I’d be a ballet dancer one day. I dreamed that I’d help people as a nurse. I dreamed that, one day I’d be a Doctor I dreamed that I would get married, and have a most lavish wedding day. I dreamed that people would come to see me act on stage. I…

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  • I might lose some street cred here, but I always liked Cliff Richard’s ‘Carrie’, In 1988. ForceField II , aproject of Cozy Powell released Carrie on their album ‘The Talisman’ , One of those few occasions where a cover is better then the original. “Carrie” was written by the songwriting partnership of Terry Britten and…

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  • Metropolis 97 years old

    It is hard to believe that Fritz Lang’s masterpiece is 97 years old, In those 97 years, that movie has lost none of its magic. I have done a post on Metropolis before, the link is at the bottom of this post, but this edition will focus on a re-imagined version of the movie which…

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  • Crazy Nights(aka Crazy Night) is the fourth single by Japanese heavy metal band Loudness, from their 1985 album Thunder in the East. Written by lead vocalist Minoru Niihara and guitarist Akira Takasaki and produced by Max Norman, the single was released by Nippon Columbia on December 1, 1984, in Japan and by Atco Records on…

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  • Petrus Antonius Aalders was just a young man who wanted to determine his future. Petrus was born on April 2, 1924, in Gennep, Limburg, the Netherlands and by trade, was a professional hairdresser. After being called up for the Arbeitseinsatz, forced labour in Germany, he went into hiding in Eindhoven. Now and then, he returned…

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  • Hiding in a Zoo

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  • Before I start the main story, I must tell you about the wider context. About 75% of all Jews in the Netherlands were murdered during the Holocaust. The Netherlands as a country, received understandably a lot of criticism for this and to a great extent, it was justified. However, it is not as a black-and-white…

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  • On December 17, I received an invitation and the privilege to attend a presentation organized by The Ghetto Fighters’ House Museum. The presentation was titled—Under Beslenei’s Sky: A Tale of Courage. This story is about good people doing what was right despite their differences. It was the rescue of the Leningrad Jewish children in Beslenei…

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