the Netherlands

  • Queen Wilhelmina was Queen of the Netherlands from 1890 until her abdication in 1948. She reigned for nearly 58 years, longer than any other Dutch monarch. Her reign saw both World War I, although the Netherlands was neutral during World War I and World War II, as well as the Dutch economic crisis of 1933.…

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  • An increasing amount of people say that stories of the Holocaust are no longer relevant and should be left in the past. I don’t subscribe to that point of view, remembering the Holocaust is now more important then it ever has been.In a time where some politicians are making policies based on hate, it is…

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  • The history of Sittard-Geleen is a bit of a complicated one. The city used to be 2 towns, but in 2001 the towns of Sittard and Geleen merged and are now known as Sittard-Geleen. On September 18, 1944 both towns were liberated. With the liberation of Sittard on 18 and 19 September 1944, the war…

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  • On 24 August 1942, six hundred Jews from Limburg received a summons from the Dutch police, municipal police, or a local constable. They were all under the age of sixty and were ordered to report the following day at the assembly point near the public school on Professor Pieter Willemsstraat in Maastricht. Only half of…

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  • It is funny sometimes how you are researching one thing and it leads you to something completely different.I was looking at the origin of a Dutch TV show called ‘Ter land.ter zee en in de lucht” which translates to on the land, in the sea and in the air. It was a light-hearted entertainment show…

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  • Limburg is the southernmost province of the Netherlands, sharing its name with the neighbouring Belgian province of Limburg. During the Second World War, it became one of the first parts of the Netherlands to be liberated by Allied forces. By the end of September 1944, the entire province had been liberated, although the fighting continued…

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  • In general, I have some level, albeit low, of sympathy for those who chose to collaborate with the Nazi regime in the Netherlands because maybe they felt it was the only way to survive. However, I have no sympathy for the Nederlandse Landwacht. They were in it for their own greed and hungered for power.…

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  • Americans and the Holocaust is an exhibition at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, which opened on 23 April 2018. Before I go into the details of this exhibition, I want to mention one of the few Americans, Eddy Hamel, who was murdered during the Holocaust. Eddy Hamel was the first Jewish player, and…

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  • When you think of popes, you wouldn’t believe that a small country like the Netherlands would ever produce a pope, but it did. Pope Adrian VI: The Dutch Reformer of the Papacy Pope Adrian VI, born Adriaan Florensz Boeyens, holds the unique distinction of being the only Dutchman to ascend to the papacy. His brief…

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  • A single act of resistance

    The Dutch word ‘Moffen’ is a slur or derogatory term for Germans, pretty much in the same way as Krauts in the English language. Where the word ‘moffen(or mof singular)’comes from is not clear but it had been around since the 16th century. It more or less disappeared from the Dutch vocabulary for about 100…

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