Holocaust

  • Englandspiel Tragedy

    The Englandspiel was a counter-espionage operation set up by the Germans that lasted from March 1942 to April 1944. Secret agents of the SOE who had been dropped over the Netherlands were often arrested immediately upon landing and forced to maintain radio contact with England. Despite hidden warnings in their broadcast messages, British intelligence continued…

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  • Joseph is just one of the 6 million Jews who was murdered during the Holocaust. He was murdered today 80 years ago in Auschwitz. He was born in Amsterdam, 20 February 1921. Joseph Charles Rosenberg Polak (Jop) lived with his parents at 163 Pieter Cornelisz Hooftstraat in Amsterdam. He wanted to study medicine, following in…

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  • Anne Frank in Auschwitz

    On 3 September 1944, Anne Frank and her family were put on a transport from Westerbork to Auschwitz. It would be the last train to leave Westerbork. The train arrived three days later at Auschwitz. The women selected from this transport, including Anne, Edith, and Margot, were marked with numbers between A-25060–A-25271. Anne Frank’s final…

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  • Queen Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw both World War I, although the Netherlands was neutral during World War I and World War II, as well as the Dutch economic crisis of 1933.…

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  • Herta Bothe was a German concentration camp guard during World War II. She was imprisoned for war crimes after the defeat of Nazi Germany and was subsequently released from prison early on 22 December 1951 as an act of leniency by the British government. She was 6ft 3in, which must have been quite intimidating for…

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  • In August 1942, a group of refugees from the Netherlands was arrested in Belgium. The men were placed in Breendonk, and the women and children were placed in the Jewish orphanage. They were all very young children. In the end they were all deported to Auschwitz and murdered upon arrival on August 28, 1942. Below…

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  • In general, I have some level, albeit low, of sympathy for those who chose to collaborate with the Nazi regime in the Netherlands because maybe they felt it was the only way to survive. However, I have no sympathy for the Nederlandse Landwacht. They were in it for their own greed and hungered for power.…

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  • Joosje Asser is de dochter van Eli Asser, tekstschrijver en journalist en meer. Joosje’s moeder was Eefje Croiset. Met series als ‘Het schaep met de vijf pooten’ en ‘Citroentje met suiker’ hield Eli Asser jarenlang miljoenen Nederlanders aan de televisie gekluisterd. Ook was hij bekend van liedjes zoals,£Het zal je kind maar wezen£ op muziek…

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  • No one can deny that the Roman Catholic Church, and especially the Vatican have a lot to answer for when it comes to its part in the Holocaust. However, some Catholic clergymen did speak out to the Nazi regime and many of them paid the ultimate price. Antonius Hilfrich was a German priest and Roman…

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  • Millions were murdered during the Holocaust, and each of these victims represents a tragic and sad story. However, although very few, there were some positive Holocaust stories, but even with the positivity, there was an underlying negative story, because it tells of their disrupted lives. Hans Leo (Henry in later life) Abraham and his sister…

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