Kristallnacht
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Rolf Abrahamsohn was not only a witness to the Holocaust he was also witness to the remorselessness of some of his fellow country men. One day a few months after the war Rolf encountered a man who was hitchhiking. Rolf felt sorry for the man because he only had one leg, so he decided to…
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When the Nazis rose to power in Germany, many businesspeople recognized opportunities in the new political climate. Some capitalized on the environment fostered by the NSDAP, particularly regarding the “Jewish Question.” They actively supported the Nazi regime, driven by self-interest and personal gain. Others, however, used their positions and influence to do good, helping those…
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Cancel Culture seems to become more and more of a problem nowadays. Apparently, the only opinions that matter are those who get offended by literally everything. However, they don’t realize that what they are doing is a carbon copy of 1930s Nazi Germany, which eventually resulted in the murder of millions. On May 10, 1933,…
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Some people say that Kristallnacht marks the start of the Holocaust. I don’t really subscribe to that point of view. In my opinion, the Holocaust started on 19 August 1934. That was the date when 88.1% of the German population gave Hitler Carte blanche to do whatever he wanted via a referendum, merging the posts…
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Early Life and Marriage Rose Girone, born Rosa Raubvogel on January 13, 1912, in Janów, Poland, lived a life defined by resilience, adaptability, and an unyielding spirit. Growing up in a world on the brink of great change, Rosa’s early years were spent in Janów, a small village in southeastern Poland. Seeking greater opportunities, her…
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Shards of Night The night fell hard, thick with hate,A quiet flame at first, then fate—Windows shattering, stars refract,This broken sky: Kristallnacht. Shards of glass, like fallen stars,Glittered in streets, in shattered jarsOf silenced voices, splintered pleas,Cries caught in cold November’s freeze. How can silence carry sound?Echoes in the streets abound—The lives uprooted, torn apart,The…
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The Holocaust refers to the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and mass murder of six million Jews and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators in the years before and during World War II. I want to focus on one element of state-sponsored persecution in this blog, the Aryanization. The Aryanization of Jewish properties was…
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On the morning of 7 November, a young Jewish man, Herschel Grynszpan, wrote a farewell postcard to his parents and put it in his pocket. Grynszpan went to a gun shop in the Rue du Faubourg St Martin, where he bought a 6.35mm revolver and a box of 25 bullets for 235 francs. They went…
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On the night of 9/10 November 1938, the Nazis unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently occupied and annexed territories. It should have been clear to the rest of the world what the Nazis were really about. Telegram from Sir G Ogilvie Forbes regarding the damage dealt to Jewish…
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The girl in the playpen is Renee Sara Gottschalk, born in the Central Refugee Camp Westerbork on 21 June 1941. The two girls in the dark dresses are the daughters of chief physician F. Spanier. The lady on the right is Rosa Strauss; Renee Sara’s mother. Her father was Erich Gottschalk. Renee and her mother…
