Holocaust

  • My Letter to Anne Frank

    Dear Anne, You don’t know me, but I know you. In fact, nearly everyone knows you, and yet no one really knows you. We know you through the personal stories you wrote in your diary. We see each word, each letter and each paragraph, but we don’t see your hopes, your fears or your anxiety.…

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  • The Nazis in Auschwitz were determined to document all prisoners. They also kept records of their experiments and war crimes. That is how arrogant they were, they didn’t think that they would be held accountable and that all these records would be used against them. The Politische Abteilung Erkennungsdienst -“Political Department Identification Service”-in Auschwitz was…

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  • Cruel and Humiliating

    Himmler, Seyss-Inquart and Rauter decided to set an example: the first round-up against Jews became a fact. On Saturday afternoon, 22 February 1941, a column of German trucks appeared near Waterlooplein,Amsterdam. The area was completely cordoned off. Young Jewish men were ruthlessly herded together on Jonas Daniël Meijerplein, in Amsterdam. On the following day, many…

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  • It’s just a class of ordinary schoolchildren doing arts and crafts that doesn’t pose a threat to anyone. At first glance, it appears to be a regular photograph of school children, but if you look closely, you will see each one is wearing a star. The photograph from March 1943 was of the request of…

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  • A good while ago I read “The Librarian of Auschwitz “. I will not do a book review, although it is a very good and well written book, but I will go into some aspects of the book which brought the Holocaust quite near to me in a way I did not expect. However before…

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  • Karl May and Hitler

    The connection between Adolf Hitler and Karl May is an unusual but revealing example of how literature can shape ideology, identity, and even political imagination. Although the two men never met—May died in 1912, years before Hitler rose to prominence—May’s adventure novels played a significant role in influencing Hitler’s worldview, particularly in his youth and…

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  • Reached the age of….

    One thing that never should be said about children is “Reached the age of..” Yet this did apply to so many children who were murdered during the Holocaust. Everyone who was murdered during that time was innocent. 1.5 million children were killed. 1.5 million human being who never were allowed to blossom into you men…

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  • Paul Blobel was a senior officer in the SS and a key perpetrator of mass murder during the Holocaust. Born in 1894 in Germany, Blobel rose through the ranks of the Nazi security apparatus and became a commander within the Einsatzgruppen—special units tasked with carrying out mass executions, primarily in Eastern Europe following the German…

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  • Mary Weinrib was born on July 16, 1925, in Warsaw, Poland. She was born Mary Mania (Malka) Rubinstein. She grew up in Wierzbnik, a Jewish town that was part of Starachowice, Poland. Her mother was Rose Rubinstein, a dressmaker. Her father, Gershon Rubinstein, was a butcher. The family, which included a younger sister (Ida) and…

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  • Many often say that the German people were victims of the Nazi regime, and to a significant extent, this is true. However, the German people must also reflect on who is responsible for that suffering. If they are honest with themselves, they will come to the inescapable conclusion that the blame lies with them. There…

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