the Netherlands
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I am not going to say too much about Margareta Maria Gallinat. Suffice it to say she sought employment abroad to terrorize innocent citizens. She was born in Ragnitz on 16 October 1894 in Rotsche Bach, Hamar. In April 1940, Gallinat read a newspaper ad for Aufseherin and decided to apply. Two months later, she…
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The Nazis not only imposed their will by military force, but also through the Dutch Civil Service. A typewriter could be just as deadly as a bullet. Until the end of 1944 this typewriter was used in the Scholtenhuis on the Grote Markt, the main square in Groningen, in the north east of Netherlands. In…
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I sincerely believe that some people are just born evil. If it hadn’t been for the war, their evil ways—would probably have been displayed in other ways. Dr. Ernst Knorr was born Heiligenbeil, Germany on October 13, 1899. He died in Scheveningen, the Netherlands on 7 July 1945. He was an SS officer in the…
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Maastricht is one of the oldest cities in the Netherlands and one of the first settlements. It was also the first city to be liberated in World War 2. On 13 and 14 September 1944 it was the first Dutch city to be liberated by Allied forces of the US Old Hickory Division.. These are…
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Ankie Stork was a Dutch resistance fighter during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She saved thirty-five Jewish children from the Nazis by hiding them in several locations in the town of Nijverdal during World War II. She acted as part of Utrecht’s Kindercomité (Utrecht Children Committee), a Dutch resistance group based in Utrecht. Louis…
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In the past, I had written a few posts about Kasteel (castle) Hoensbroek in the Netherlands and its young inhabitants. However, the photographs are so heartwarming that I thought it would be nice to do one more post. The photos were taken on 2 March 1945. Dutch children entertained GIs in the famous castle. The…
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The story of Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940) unfolds like a World War II drama—complete with a daring escape from the Nazis, a tragic accident, an opera singer, and the plundering of a world-class art collection. Goudstikker was one of Amsterdam’s leading Jewish art dealers, renowned for his connoisseurship and scholarly expertise, and his…
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On 3 September 1944, Anne Frank and the seven others living in hiding at the Secret Annex were put on the last transport to Auschwitz, along with over a thousand other Jewish prisoners. One of the cruellest jokes (for lack of a better word) the Nazis played was to pretend these journeys were return trips…
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All the children in the above photograph could easily still be alive. They would be in their 80s and 90s now. They were seen as an enemy of the state. I can’t say this for certain but given the fact that 75% of all Dutch Jews were murdered in the Holocaust, it is safe to…
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On the morning of August 4, 1944, Otto Frank was helping Peter van Pels with his language lessons, while Edith Frank remained in her room. That same morning, police officers arrived at Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam. They proceeded to the first-floor office, where the helpers of those in hiding were working. The officers questioned Victor…
History of Sorts 