History
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October 5th,1942, was one of the darkest if not the darkest days of WWII for my hometown of Geleen, at the time it was a small mining town in the south east of the Netherlands, in the province of Limburg. Shortly after 21.30 the alarms sounded,warning the population of an imminent attack. The bombing did…
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Reached the age of 3 it says in some places. Reached the age of 3, that is me .Reached the age of 3, but that is not only me. For I am so much more them just the age of 3. I am a child whose only ambition it was to become 4. If I…
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I could not call myself a genuine Music buff without looking back at the life of the subject of one of Rock N Roll’s most iconic songs, Peggy Sue. The very title of the song could have been different altogether, the song was originally called “Cindy Lou”, after Holly’s niece. But it was changed to…
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This must be one of the most amazing events I came across, but amidst all the killing, torture, deportations and other horrors in Camp Westerbork, they actually found time to set up a football competition. Initiated in the Spring of 1943, the competition had several teams of Jewish inmates and was a welcome distraction. It…
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Like lambs to the slaughter they were led.But with one significant difference, lambs were treated more humanely. They were not tortured before death. I recently saw the movie “The Resistance Banker” it has one subtle but yet powerful scene, no words were spoken. A regular passenger train is stopped to facilitate a transport train to…
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One might be forgiven that the title implies a current school trip to Dachau, but the title refers to another kind of trip to the notorious death camp. The Dutch Nazis, the NSB. did not have the same level of hatred against, Jews,Roma and disabled people as their German counterpart. Himmler was aware of this…
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I had planned to do a blog on the horrors of Babi Yar, but I decided against it. Firstly because there is not one word I could write which best describes the depravities committed by the Nazis,both German and Ukrainian. (Notice dated September 28, 1941 in Russian, Ukrainian with German translation ordering all Kievan Jews…
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War often brings out the worst in people. they commit crimes they would usually never even contemplate, but equally war also brings out the best in people performing heroic acts they know can cost their lives. Early 1943 Jews throughout Belgium were rounded up and arrested.People like three members of the Gronowski family(Mother,son and daughter),…
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September 17,1944 saw the start of “Operation Market Garden” a failed allied operation during WWII, which had dire consequences for the Dutch population. However this blog is not about that but about the movie made about ‘Operation Market Garden@ a star studded movie made in 1977 directed by Richard Attenborough, with the title ‘A Bridge too…
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On September 14, 1901, President William McKinley,the 25th President of the USA, died, as a result of a shot in the stomach, which happened eight days earlier at the World’s Fair in Buffalo, New York. He was the third U.S. President to be assassinated. President, McKinley became known as a protector of big businesses, which enjoyed…
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