Neuengamme Concentration camp

  • Friedrich “Fritz” Pfeffer was born on April 30, 1889, in Gießen, Germany, into a Jewish family that owned a bustling clothing store in the city’s center. Bright and ambitious, Fritz pursued dentistry in Berlin, eventually establishing a successful practice. After completing his education, Fritz trained as a dentist and jaw surgeon, obtained a license to

    Read more →

  • Johannes Berens, a young Dutch policeman from Rotterdam, stands out as an emblem of quiet resistance and sacrifice during World War II. Born on January 27, 1924, Johannes was raised in the Netherlands, soon to face brutal occupation by Nazi Germany. His life, like many of his countrymen’s, would be profoundly impacted by the events

    Read more →

  • Loulou Oderkerk was a Dutch resistance fighter who worked for the illegal newspaper Trouw. Through Trouw founder Gesina van der Molen, Oderkerk became involved in smuggling Jewish children to hiding places. Oderkerk also started doing courier work for Trouw, transporting copies, essays, newspapers and weapons. In October 1944, she was arrested and held prisoner in

    Read more →

  • Words of Evil Men

    “The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind.” —Ayn Rand Following are testimonies of some of the SS men who worked in the concentration camps. Willi Mentz: Willi Mentz was a member of the SS in World War II who worked at the

    Read more →

  • The Great Bank Robbery

    Although I have literally written hundreds of posts on World War II and the Holocaust, I hadn’t heard about the great bank robbery. The bank robbery at Almelo 1944, is a bank robbery was committed by the Dutch resistance on November 15, in which 46.1 million guilders (value in 2023: €354 million) was taken. It

    Read more →

  • I have been doing posts about World War II and the Holocaust since 2016. When I started, I reckoned I’d have enough material to last for a year, two years tops. Seven years on, I am still finding new stories daily. Stories like that of Waldemar Hugh Nods. Waldemar Hugh Nods was born on 1

    Read more →

  • When I say football heroes, I don’t mean heroes on the pitch, scoring goals and winning matches, even though they did that too. In this case I am referring to the conduct of the whole football club. Sunday, 22 June 1941, the same day that Germany broke the non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and

    Read more →

  • Holocaust and Art

    These drawings are from Ravensbrück, Fallersleben and Salzwedel concentration camps. The artists are unknown, but I don’t think that actually matters. The subtleties of the pictures say so much. The text on the above picture from Ravensbrück, says, “Herr Kommando Führer, I am report for the morning roll call.” Drawings from Fallersleben concentration camp. In

    Read more →

  • When you think of sports cars, one of the names you think of is Porsche. When you see a Porsche driving by, there is no second-guessing as to what car it is. The Dutch police used Porsches between 1962 and 1996. In the early 1960s the absence of speed limit indications on Dutch motorways saw

    Read more →

  • Eduard and Alexander Hornemann are two of the 20 Bullenhuser Damm children who were murdered on 20 April 1945. I have written about the Bullenhuser Damm children before, but I just want to focus on the two brothers now. The reason being, at another time it could have been my boys whose names would have

    Read more →