Holocaust
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I know it is easy to call people like Rudolf Höss and others who worked in Auschwitz monsters, and to en extent I can understand that, I have done so in the past. However when you call them monsters you take the risk of given them an excuse for their acts, because we only expect…
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I am always amazed by the fact that there are still people who desperately want to deny the Holocaust. Although there is so much evident and a lot of it very graphic, they still say it never happened and that the photographic evidence are staged pictures, produced by the allies. The one thing they do…
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There are no photographs of the two babies—just death certificates. Elisabeth Jeanne Petzal was born with her twin brother Robert Harry on 10 August 1943 in Camp Westerbork. They were children of Werner Petzal and Fanny Betsy Oppenheim. Both were murdered in Auschwitz on 18 October 1944. They were just a year old when they…
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A truly remarkable story of love and survival. In the late 1930s, Anka Bergman was a lively law student living in the Czechoslovakian capital, Prague. “I wanted company and boyfriends and to enjoy myself. I didn’t know that Hitler was coming, but I filled my time with only cinemas and theatres and concerts and parties,”…
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The title of this blog could be from any fictitious novel. A children’s book or even a fairy tale, but it actually describes a bizarre reality which caused so much destruction. The story of Hitler’s naturalization process resembles something of a farce. On April 7 1925 he had given up his Austrian citizenship, it was…
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War brings out the best and the worst out of people, that is just a fact. It is easy to acknowledge the good but there is often a struggle acknowledging the bad, even to the extent of trying to completely erase it from history. When it comes to the Holocaust there is no question about…
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The Holocaust wasn’t something that happened overnight, it was a gradual process. In Germany, it started in 1933, and in the Netherlands, it started shortly after the German occupation n May 1940. Below is a brief timeline of what eventually led to the murder of 75% of all Dutch Jews. 1940 July 1stJews are forbidden…
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The After-School Youth Care (BJZ) was one of the many departments of the Jewish Council. For Jewish children, the BJZ provided a welcome distraction from the worries of everyday life. Despite the limited and barely usable premises, the BJZ aimed to create a relaxed atmosphere. Jewish youth leaders engaged the children in activities such as…
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++++++++++++WARNING: CONTAINS A GRAPHIC IMAGE++++++++++++ I am always surprised by why some well-educated people are capable of the most heinous acts. Otto Ohlendorf came from humble beginnings but showed academic aptitude. He attended the Gymnasium in Hildesheim, which meant an excellent opportunity in education, preparing him for university. Otto then studied law at two fine…
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The Wola massacre was the systematic slaughter of an estimated 40,000 to 50,000 Polish civilians and captured Home Army resistance fighters in Warsaw’s Wola district. Carried out by German troops and collaborationist forces from August 5 to 12, 1944, it occurred during the opening phase of the Warsaw Uprising. The uprising had begun on August…
History of Sorts 
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