Sobibor
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I never met Lia, in fact today is the first time I came across her picture. It would have been her 93rd birthday two days ago. She was born in Amsterdam, 20 September 1932 . And murdered in Sobibor, 2 July 1943. Reached the age of 10 years. When I was born she would have…
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41 Months and 6 Days was all I was allowed to live. After 41 Months and 6 Days I was given a death sentence. No, I was not a criminal. No, I harmed no one. In fact I wasn’t even of a school going age as of yet. What did I do in those 41…
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When you look at the picture you might think that it is an innocent portrayal , of a street somewhere in the Netherlands. A typical Dutch scene. Someone cycling, two bikes parked against a sign. What could be hateful here? It is actually the sign itself that has a message of hate. It says “Jews…
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The one thing I can’t come to terms with, and even refuse to come to terms with, is the murder of babies during the Holocaust. I know one of the reasons behind it was the purification of the Aryan race. But, how pure are you as a race when you murder babies? Another reason was…
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Graphic photos of the Holocaust often tell such harrowing stories, but sometimes it takes just an inventory list of everyday items that are more shocking because it tells the story of people like you and me. They ate the same food, wore the same clothes, and used identical cups and plates. It was only because…
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One of the most disturbing aspects of the Holocaust is the “wholesale murder” approach the Nazis took, the industrialization of death. The gassing already started in 1939 as part of the T4 program, the murder of the disabled. What is really sickening is the fact that the first of such killings was at the request…
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“As long as a name is mentioned, someone is not forgotten,” meaning if you mention the name of one person, that person is remembered. I know it sounds quite obvious, but when you think about it for a minute, it is the essential first step to ensure that the Holocaust will not happen again. I…
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Olympic gymnast Judikje Simons, together with her husband Bernard Themans, cared for Jewish orphans in Utrecht. The Jewish couple ran the Central Israelite Orphanage on Nieuwegracht in Utrecht. In March 1943, Judikje and Bernard, along with their daughter and son, the Dutch orphans, and the orphanage staff, were deported to Sobibor. RefugeesAs “father and mother”…
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The term ‘work extension’ was a euphemistic term for the actual goal of the deportations: to work to death those who were healthy enough to work and to murder all others. At least 102,000 Jewish Dutch people were murdered or died from exhaustion and diseases. Auschwitz-BirkenauIt is not exactly known when the Nazis decided to…
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Jewish Soldiers in the Dutch Military During World War II When discussing Jewish war victims, fallen soldiers may not be the first to come to mind. However, hundreds of Jewish men attempted to resist the advancing Nazi regime with weapons in hand. Several dozen of them perished during the German invasion in May 1940. The…
History of Sorts 
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