the Netherlands
-
When I was younger, in my late teens, one of my uncles took his own life. I was devastated, not just because I was very fond of my uncle but because I never faced a situation like that. I didn’t know if there was anything I could do. Also, the fact that I had the…
-
On October 26, 1944, British soldiers from the 51st Highland Division turned onto the Boslaan in Vught. As they passed through the wooded heath, the sight of barbed wire and watchtowers came into view, marking the entrance to Konzentrationslager Herzogenbusch—better known as Camp Vught. Though the grounds were nearly deserted, the abandoned barracks, workshops, and…
-
North Holland was the only province to have a Regional Sabotage Division (GSA). This was a resistance unit within the Internal Forces (Binnenlandse Strijdkrachten), composed of experienced members of the Ordedienst (OD), the Raad van Verzet (RVV), and the Landelijke Knokploegen (LKP) under the command of Colonel Wastenecker. The GSA was involved in seizing and…
-
I cannot decide which is worse, the crimes of Auke Bert Pattist or his remorselessness. Also, the fact that some people saw him as a hero—depresses me. Auke Bert Pattist was born in 1920. In 1943 he voluntarily entered the Waffen-SS. As an officer, he would be involved in arresting and ill-treating a large number…
-
I am always amazed why so many evil men got away with murder. Especially the physicians who were supposed to, “first do no harm.” Hans Eisele was an SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer and Nazi physician in various camps, including Mauthausen and Buchenwald. There he mistreated and murdered prisoners, for example, by operating on them without anaesthesia and by…
-
One of the sources I use for my blog, concerning the Holocaust, is JoodsMonument.nl (Jewish Monument). I often see the name Tröblitz mentioned as the place of death. When I looked into it I noticed that the majority of people who died there, did so after April 23, 1945, shortly before the end of the…
-
On April 19, 1782, John Adams was received by the States-General and the Dutch Republic as they were the first country, together with Morocco and France, to recognize the United States as an independent government. John Adams then became the first U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands and the house that he had purchased at Fluwelen…
-
“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…
-
In early April 1945, as the Second World War approached its harrowing conclusion, the Nazi regime intensified its efforts to relocate concentration camp prisoners in a desperate attempt to obscure the full extent of their crimes. Among these efforts was the transportation of prisoners from Bergen-Belsen to Theresienstadt in three trains—each a grim convoy of…
-
On April 15,1945 the 63rd Anti-tank Regiment and the 11th Armoured Division of the British army liberated about 60,000 prisoners at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. One of the soldiers, 21 year old Corporal Ian Forsyth, called it “A place of darkness and death.” What the British troops encountered was described by the BBC’s Richard Dimbleby,…
History of Sorts 
You must be logged in to post a comment.