Holocaust
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(re-post from May 10 2025) Most of my life has been occupied with one question: “Why did my Grandfather die?” As far as I am aware and as far as I was told by my family, he was executed by the German occupiers during World War II. It has only been recently I actually found…
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The title, Where They Burn Books, They Will Ultimately Burn People As Well, is a quote from the Heinrich Heine play. Almansor, which he wrote in 1821. Heine was a Jewish German poet, writer and literary critic. His words would ring true just over a century after he wrote them. The Holocaust didn’t start with the mass…
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On the morning of May 10, 1940, the Netherlands awoke to the thunder of German bombers overhead and the sound of artillery fire along its borders. After months of tense neutrality, the small, strategically located country found itself swept into the maelstrom of World War II. The invasion of the Netherlands marked a critical moment…
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I often wonder how many really died during the Holocaust and where they did stop being considered a fatality of the Holocaust? I think the real numbers are much higher because I don’t think the numbers include victims who died after the war as a direct result of the Holocaust. Dr. Leonhard Levy was born…
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Two definitions of a Hero are: 1. A person admired for achievements and noble qualities. 2. one who shows great courage. Both definitions apply to Józef Cebula and Sophie Scholl. The reason why I am remembering these two people is because of today’s date May 9. Sophie Scholl was born on May 9, 1921, and…
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A picture tells a thousand words but never tells the full story. Following are the words of some of those who survived the worst crime ever committed, the Holocaust. Toby Biber“This one morning, orders – ‘get out, get out’ – and whatever. By then we only had a few bits belongings – you, we grabbed…
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Victory in Europe Day referred to as VE Day, was the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany’s unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945. It marks the official end of World War II in Europe. For many, that day came too late. Some died that day…
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The title of this blog is a quote by Groucho Marx—I chose it because I felt it best captured the absurdity of Rudolf Hess and his misguided attempt to convince the Allies to ally with the Nazis. Rudolf Hess’s dramatic solo flight to Scotland in May 1941 is one of the most bizarre and enigmatic…
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••••••••••WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES•••••••••• I have often argued that it would be unfair to brush all Germans with the same brush because some Germans did resist the Nazi regime. However, there is no denying that many were ignorant about what was happening to their neighbours who were either Jewish, Gay, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Disabled or Roma/Sinti,…
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The history of the Holocaust is often defined by the scale of its industrial slaughter, yet some of its most profound horrors lie in the specific, targeted decrees designed to extinguish the very concept of a Jewish future. On May 7, 1942, the Nazi administration in occupied Lithuania issued a mandate that transformed the Kovno…
History of Sorts 